Following a Thursday night one show that was anything but a warm-up welcome party, Phish returned to Madison Square Garden on Friday in mid-run stride for night two of the band’s 2023 New Year’s Eve stand. The band’s ninth show of the year at the World’s Most Famous Arena and 81st overall, Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, Page McConnell, and Mike Gordon‘s comfort at MSG has never been a question.
Opening with a soaring “Free”, Phish caught a nautical wind to float along the funky “The Moma Dance” that could have vamped into infinity if not for the band’s swift movements through this ten-song first set. A “Maze” followed which saw Page McConnell dial up his more deep-space effects which would prove a recurring theme throughout the night, preceding Trey’s jovial quarantine singalong “Evolve” which rode out through a short-but-sweet bliss jam for some quality feel-good Phish.
Phish – “Free”, “The Moma Dance” [Pro-Shot] – 12/29/23
Is the “Stash” audiences see today a husk of its former ’90s improvisational springboard self? Maybe so, maybe not, but this modest near-13-minute telling launched the band into its deepest off-script interplay of the evening thus far as Trey and Fishman engaged in an arms race of continually pushing the intensity as far as it could go before finally reaching critical mass and pulling back to avert nuclear disaster.
Quick-hitter “Back on the Train” kept the locomotive moving ahead of a “Theme From the Botton” that took another delightful linger through #blissPhish, Trey’s elastic leads lofting atop Page’s fluttering grand piano phrasings. “Mountains in the Mist” provided one last breather before an efficient “46 Days” got the place rocking again and the touchy-feely portion of the show came to a climax with the set-closing “Drift While You’re Sleeping”. Phish, friendship, all that good stuff encapsulated in the richly composed Ghosts of the Forest number which remains one of the more ambitious additions to the band’s catalog in recent years. It is and it always will be love, always has been.
Those tuning in for the first-song freebie got their money’s worth on the second set-starting 22-minute “Chalk Dust Torture”. The song’s sonic freeway soon left roads behind by way of Doc Brown‘s DeLorean aka Page McConnell’s army of gadgets and gizmos which sent the jam floating through space and time. Trey gave his feet a good workout as well, kicking on a variety of pedals ranging from undulating delays to shrieking phasers. At one point the mad scientist launched the jam into near-cacophony, assisted by henchman Jon Fishman before building to one final glorious peak and breaking into “Oblivion”.
Phish – “Chalk Dust Torture” [Pro-Shot] – 12/29/23
While “Chalk Dust Torture” certainly represented the deep end of the evening’s improvisation, the ensuing “Oblivion” is not to be overlooked either. The same intensity that energized the preceding “Chalk Dust” was alive and thriving in this “Oblivion”, Fishman pushing the intensity with constantly evolving rhythmic patterns that kept his bandmates on their toes and ensured the freshness of the jam through the song’s 16-minute mark.
Phish – “Oblivion” – 12/29/23 – Partial
[Video: Gregory M]
After nearly 40 minutes of non-stop play, a brief pause gave way to the euphoric cool-down of “What’s the Use?” followed by the foreboding “My Friend, My Friend”; a dark, crashing jam that served as a welcome foil to the more open-ended elements of the first two bouts of improvisation. A slight and ever-so-smooth downshift in gears brought on “Sand”, with the band sliding back into the groove pocket in which it had become so comfortable throughout the second set. The tension-and-release masterclasses continued, with the potent ten-minute telling ultimately giving way to the straight-ahead rocker “About to Run”. Finally to finish off the second set was the senior thesis in tension-and-release jamming “Harry Hood” which brought a cathartic climax to the seven-song second set.
With the pretty encore opener “Lonely Trip”, it was clear that Phish was setting up a yin-yang wrap-up mixing the soft with the hard, but when the riff of “Carini” came crashing through the speakers it came as a shock considering the band was already living on borrowed time starting the song at 11:45 p.m. While not one of the monstrous “Carini”s that audiences have been spoiled by as of late, this telling fit all of that same intensity into a compact eight minutes, opting for all-out rock n’ roll fury instead of far-out improv to put a cap on night two of Phish’s 2023 Madison Square Garden New Year’s Eve run.
Fans who can’t make it to the Phish 2023 New Year’s run at MSG can stream audio and video of the full run via LivePhish. Single-show webcasts and discounted four-night packages are available here. LivePhish+ subscribers can save an additional $20 on the four-night run. If you are an existing subscriber, check your email to find your discount code.
Setlist [via phish.net]: Phish | Madison Square Garden | New York, NY | 12/29/23
SET 1: Free > The Moma Dance, Maze, Evolve, Stash, Back on the Train, Theme From the Bottom > Mountains in the Mist, 46 Days, Drift While You’re Sleeping
SET 2: Chalk Dust Torture > Oblivion, What’s the Use? -> My Friend, My Friend -> Sand, About to Run, Harry Hood
ENCORE: Lonely Trip, Carini
My Friend, My Friend did not contain the “Myfe” ending.
The post Phish Unfurls 22-Minute “Chalk Dust Torture” On Night Two Of 2023 New Year’s Run [Videos] appeared first on L4LM.
