Review: Phish MSG NYE (webcast)

Motivated by the teeth-grinding frustration of missing Phish's stand at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium this summer due to a work-related scheduling snafu (I had the tickets in my hand and everything), I had originally intended to just blow a bunch of the money I've managed to save over the last few years and go see the band at Madison Square Garden over New Year's to make myself feel better. It's long been a dream of mine to see the band in New York, playing their signature NYE run, and this year I was finally in a position to (maybe) realize that dream. Unfortunately, tickets were much harder to come by than I had imagined, and I couldn't actually afford to buy a plane ticket, reserve a hotel for four days, and pay StubHub prices for four nights' worth of shows. My backup-backup plan, then, was to watch all four shows at my house through the LivePhish webcast. However, Lindsey and I had much more fun in Montana over Christmas than we imagined we would, and as a result we didn't get back to Pullman (or anywhere with internet for that matter) until late on the 30th. Therefore, my backup-backup-backup plan became to download the first three nights of the run after the fact and watch only the NYE show through the webcast. It was the next best thing to being there even though it very obviously wasn't being there.

I've watched a few Phish webcasts before, and this one was of even higher audio/video quality than the ones I'd seen before. Streaming it over my computer while running the video through my 36-inch TV and running the audio through my fancy turntable-sound-setup was pretty much analogous to watching a concert DVD. Plus, it was oddly weird and fun to be able to pick up my guitar and jam along with Trey as he played in real time on the other side of the country. Weird. The only thing that really bugged me about the webcast was the price. For $20, I feel like I should get to keep the stream after I've watched it. Hell, that's well over the cost of most DVDs today, and yet you watch the show and then that's it...poof, it's gone. I feel like they should either drop the webcast price a bit ($10 or $15) dollars in the future, or keep it where it is or raise it slightly ($20-$25) and let you download an .mp4 version afterward or maybe at least give you a complimentary version of the show's .mp3 recording or something. I paid way less than $20 to see The Hobbit in 3D on an Imax screen in a huge theater (and the two experiences were nearly equal in length, if you're considering the price point from a quantitative rather than qualitative angle). $20 just seems like a lot. On the other hand, had I purchased all four shows (for the marked-down bulk price of $58) it wouldn't have seemed like a rip-off...after all, that's about the price of a ticket for one show, to be able to watch four shows in the comfort of your home. It was nice to be able to get up whenever I wanted to go to a bathroom with no line, to be able to go make a sandwich during setbreak and not worry about paying $10 for a cookie and losing my place at the rail in the process...

Anyway, the show.

The show itself was, it seemed to me, a fitting close to 2012, the best year thus far of 3.0 (and, of course, the only year of 3.0 in which I failed to see a single show). I was hoping to see some monster jams, especially after what I'd heard of 12/28 and 12/30,  but I wasn't really surprised that they didn't materialize. NYE is a three-set monster every year, but it's always more a celebration, a party, than a deconstruction of song or an abstract ambient meltdown. It's the one Phish show of the year that's entirely about fun, and not much else. And in that regard, it lived up to its own hype. It was a very fun show from front to back, featuring a lot of good song selections, some great antics, a few genuinely touching moments, and, yes, a few solid jams (though those who demand that their jams have to run over 20+ minutes to be worth anything will disagree, I'm sure).

The show opened with a cover of Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party," a song I wasn't familiar with, but fit so well with the Phish sound that as it started I thought maybe it was a new original. The lyrics were appropriate, referencing the (Madison Square) Garden party and featuring some unsubtle digs at the band's desire to keep playing what they want to play regardless of what overanalyzing bloggers might think of 3.0. It was the semi-playful "fuck you" to their detractors that Phish has always excelled at, and it was a good song to boot.

The first set was, predictably, largely song-based, and though I was happy to hear "Roses Are Free," nothing interesting happened for the first bit aside from some extra-clever Trey soloing in "Sample." Then the "Mike's" hit and things started to get good-weird. "Mike's" proper stayed within the usual boundaries, though Trey brought a little extra to the guitar-heavy jam, but it was the unexpected segue into "Walk Away" that really got things going. It's one of my favorite currently-popular Phish covers and it was neat to have it pop up in such an unexpected place.

I was a bit disappointed when, just as things seemed to be taking off, "Walk Away" fizzled out, leaving Mike's Groove incomplete (at least momentarily). Fortunately, the "Weekapaug" that came out of this rare mid-Mike's break in the action was quite possibly the highlight of the night, and more evidence that we don't necessarily need 20+ minute versions of songs to get some fascinating improvisation.

This version goes places in eight minutes that a lot of versions don't in three times that much time.

A messy "Character Zero" followed to end the first set, and then we were on to the second set, where the only real spaciness of the night would occur. Things started off excitedly (for me) with "Birds of a Feather" and the hope that its being placed in the first slot of the second set meant we might see a monster version. The band ended up settling on a pretty rote reading of the song, though, and then launched, unceremoniously, into "Ghost," their go-to NYE jam.

This "Ghost" was nothing stratospheric by any means (see the '10 NYE "Ghost" for an example of what I'm talking about), and on its own, it's just an average-good jam, but paired with the "Piper" that followed, it works as a single piece of music that's right up there with some of the band's better work this year.

I like the "Weekapaug" better because it's a little weirder; nothing really happens in the "Ghost" > "Piper" that hasn't been done before, but it hangs together really well and the minute or two of blissed-out ambiance that bridges the two pieces are easily the best part of the night, taken alone.

"Piper" ran right into "Light" which continued into "2001." Really, it's easy to imagine a "Ghost" > "Piper" > "Light" > "2001" set that runs for 90 minutes all by itself, isn't it? That isn't what happened here, but a guy can dream. Anyway, that second half of this segue-fest was a great time, even if "Light" was a much more straightforward reading than most of its other '12 takes.

The segue into "The Horse" was pretty unexpected and well-done, and it's always a treat to hear a decently-played "Silent in the Morning."

The third set was big on antics, of course, featuring "Kung" and then an actual "runaway golf cart marathon" that took place during "Chalkdust Torture" and "Tweezer Reprise." As usual (for me at least), it was hard to really understand what the point of the NYE gag was until after the fact; at the time it just looked like a lot of people on stage dancing and being goofy while the band desperately tried to play their instruments as ping pong balls rained down on them from the ceiling (Fishman was especially hilarious in this regard). There were no real musical high points in the third set, but again, that's sort of to be expected. The antics highlights for me were (for sure) the covers of "Fly Like an Eagle" and "Iron Man," and the acapella version of "Lawn Boy" was a unique (and thematically appropriate) way to end the third set.

Anyway, as I said, this was a fun show. Likely more fun to watch than it will be to relisten to a few months or years from now. There are a few legit musical highlights, but mostly it was just a fitting send off to 2012 featuring a lot of goofiness and solidly played, fun, danceable songs.

While I wait for my next chance to catch up with the band (likely in June, I hope), I'll be listening to and doing short reviews of as many of 3.0's shows as possible. I already gave 3/6/09 a relisten the other day and will have my (much briefer) thoughts on it up shortly. I've never really listened to much of '09 and '10 except for the shows I attended, so I'm excited to dig up the gems that I'm sure exist inside these often-maligned touring years (really, the 3/6/09 "Tweezer" is the fucking shit, and should probably be recognized as such).