12/31/15 - Madison Square Garden - New York, New York

[WhatstheUse?]

I thought last night was was just incredible.  The band sounds amazing, IMO. Flubs here and there per usual but there's just not the apprehensiveness with the jamming that there used to be. Trey is sounding good.

The KDF>Piper>Twist was fantastic, probably my musical highlight of the night. The jams were fresh too. It seemed like they were exploring new territory and developing a new sound, like they always do.

Loved every second of the "gag" as well. Honestly, probably my all time favorite  'gag'.Super glad I moved from behind the stage for the countdown segment to see what was really going on with the hour glass.  That shit was so trippy! And they were just JAMMING! It was so beautiful and so creative.

The band has really been blowing me away with their creativity lately, where do they come up with all this stuff? Last year's Halloween... Magnaball Drive In.... Last night.... They are all such unique ideas that make phish PHISH!

Also agree that CK5 was absolutely killing it last night. Driving that spaceship.

[PIE-GUY]

Pretty good review.


http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/phish-pull-disappearing-act-at-jam-heavy-nyc-new-years-show-20160101

[rowjimmy]

Pretty good review.


http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/phish-pull-disappearing-act-at-jam-heavy-nyc-new-years-show-20160101

Looks like Jarnow isn't trying to break up the band these days.

[Caravan2001]

Had a blast. Tons of room on the floor. Feel like crap today. Made it home by 5:30 though...watching tonight's show in bed with my kids even though the show is only 35 miles away.

[zimbra]

I loved that twist.  Also, being in between the hour glass and the stage on the floor was awesome.  They had to use the same company who did the production on the drive in jam.

[susep]

Solid Run w/ NYE leading the way.  31Dec. > 30Dec. > tie between 1 and 2Jan.  Nice job  !

[emay]

KDF had a rocky start but pretty decent jam, piper was decent, twist is good this jam sounds familiar maybe from a jam this past summer cant quite ID it. Its like that hyperspace jam and then trey starts shredding the fuck outta that peak part, ending is good too. 

[susep]

KDF had a rocky start but pretty decent jam, piper was decent, twist is good this jam sounds familiar maybe from a jam this past summer cant quite ID it. Its like that hyperspace jam and then trey starts shredding the fuck outta that peak part, ending is good too.

upon second listen last night, it sounded like he was quoting/playing No Men in the Twist outro jam. 

[emay]

No Mans land - jam is good, nothing mind blowing, the spot lights with the hourglass would have been pretty psychedelic for this song, sweet idea for a gag. I still like the kung/golf cart > tweeprise balloon drop gag better, the gag relates to a phish song, most got a phish stressball, and tweeprise as a post countdown is fucking rawk but thats just me and then they capped it off with iron man which i mean is rawk.

Blaze on - I like this chill jam, just sorta oozes outta the song, I think they have jammed blaze on the best out of all the new songs. Dicks, the shoreline one, magna, now this one. All great jams. This jam strums the exultation chords of my brain. I enjoy these bliss jams their sound has started to evolve into for some deep jams. Evolves into some nice funk too after that. Thought they could have taken that a little further out but good transition back into the ending of blaze on

carini - rawk  :rawk: jam starts out nice, I like the space they have been making in these jams, trey seems patient, rest of the band plays with confidence and keeps the jam going. seems like they could have taken this one out further as well but is cut short for bowie

bowie - i was just listening to 12/29/97 on the plane ride back to CO and love the placement of that bowie in the beg/mid of the set. This one is a cool placement as well. nice bowie, very well played.

The Horse > silent - standard.

BDTNL - mmkay

It seems like for every 3rd set they slow down to like an almost halt by the end oft he set. 12/31/14 and most NYE 3rd sets, except for 2012 really, halfway through the third set you think its just gonna be a breather but then the sets just fall flat.

Encore is tasty though!
Tube > cavern is the groove I want to go out on.

[sophist]

I did the Twist, No man's -> ALS -> Blaze on for this show

Good stuff.  They hit some interesting territory in the no man's.  I'll have to watch it too.  I'm sure it was super psychedelic.   

[VDB]

Heard the festival decoration/set crew has been dispatched to the venue for reconnaissance/pre-plan.  Does not bode well for the NYE gag, but I am hoping they dump the dough into Mexico. Sounds like they are 

Pulling this into this thread because my question is about the NYE gag. Interested to hear how people would rate it on the scale of gag elaborateness. I'll give a two-part answer:
1. This was surely no mailed-in "gag" (the word itself kinda belittles what they did for this particular show), given that we're talking about a second stage, on a lift, with its own PA and light rigging, plus attendant monitor/control/SBD implications, as well as hourglass rig and animations at the very other side of the arena -- in other words, had to have been a serious effort for a seemingly simple concept.
2. I was so enthralled by the whole thing that whether it seemed "cheap"/"easy" or not was totally irrelevant. As it happened, we were dead center in section 102(?) straight back from the stage, so by the time third set rolled around we found ourselves, in seats, right smack in front of the daggum centerpiece of the show. So very cool and unexpected.

Also, I gotta feel like there's still plenty left, budget- and creativity-wise, for some cool shit down in Mexico. But if they just wanna do some shows on the beach, I'm cool with that too.

[rowjimmy]

Any activity that involves the band playing together in closer quarters than their traditional arena stage setup produces good shit. That, if nothing else, makes this Midnight 'gag' completely worthy. Add to it the kick-ass lights & hourglass which conveyed quite well to those of us at home and then the Houdini move to get back on the main stage... Success!

[mattstick]

I can't see them doing much other than playing multiple sets in Mexico, I don't picture them flying in on a hot dog.

[rowjimmy]

I can't see them doing much other than playing multiple sets in Mexico, I don't picture them flying in on a hot dog.

Can you imagine bringing a flying hot dog through customs?

[mattstick]

"Anything to declare?"

1 Giant flying hotdog.