Phish – New Years Eve 2014/2015 – Miami, FL (SHOW RECAP)

Live and direct from Miami, Florida, Happy New Year Everyone! To ring in 2015, Phish played their final performance of 2014 last evening; their ninth ever show at American Airlines Arena. The band played three full sets of music last night, including a New Years gag that found the group starting their third set with the debut of “Dem Bones”. The song started acapella, while drummer Jon Fishman moved over to the vacuum for what appeared to be a solo. Fish proceeded to get his face “stuck” in the vacuum, before lead vocalist/guitarist Trey Anastasio began apologizing to the crowd for the mishap. Eventually Fishman was helped backstage to fix the problem after the whole band, including two crewmembers, tried to “help”. As bassist Mike Gordon shared with the crowd to perhaps change the vacuum button from suck to blow, out of nowhere a loud explosion erupted through the venue. Low and behold, just before midnight, a giant inflatable Jon Fishman emerged, while a countdown started, balloons dropped, and the band offered the customary “Auld Land Syne”. Overall, last nights show featured some incredible moments of flow, especially in set two. However, with set two holding it down as the meat of the evening, the bread of set one and the second half of set three left many fans scratching their heads, wondering how such a blissful flow morphed into something so pedestrian.

Highlights

1.     Set Two. This is easily a top tier set for Phish in 2014. From start to finish there was barely a moment that wasn’t locked into full groove mode, with some incredibly new, edgy improvisation layered between the six songs that were offered. The highlights of the night are listed in numbers 2-4 below, but overall it was the flow of the set that seemed to resonate the most. There was a brief, odd feeling break after “Chalk Dust Torture” when the band didn’t go anywhere after so effortlessly jamming throughout the majority of the set. But the “Martian Monster” that came out of the only really stop in the music during this set was well received, got the Arena up a dancing again, and finished off a truly impressive set to cap off a memorable 2014 for Phish.
2.    “Ghost”. Funky at first, boasting two distinct peaks, “Ghost” could’ve been a fraction of what it was last night. Instead, the patience employed by Trey Anastasio keep the band going when it seemed other band members were veering the group towards another tune. The result was the first real jam of the evening that helped set up the rest of the set for success.
3.    “Theme from the Bottom”. The segue out of “Ghost” into “Theme from the Bottom” was as smooth as a glassy ocean. It felt like an appropriate landing zone after the interesting second peak in “Ghost”. However, many fans in attendance might offer the jam out of “Theme from the Bottom” as the highlight of the show rather than the jam into it. Once again lead by Trey Anastasio, this atypical slice of dark improvisation picked up from the ground that started being covered in “Ghost”, and brought the vibration that a host of longtime Phish fans hope for on any given evening.
4.      “Cities”. It’s never easy to pinpoint a definitive highlight to most Phish shows, but the move from “Theme from the Bottom” into “Cities” might end up being the most relistened to section of music from 12/31/14.  Segues like this are why a grip of Phish fans keep going to shows night after night, tour after tour, year after year. The actual lyrics and song arrangement of “Cities” came out a bit rough, but it felt right in the moment because it was all about the jam the preceded the funky rhythms of “Cities”, before another incredibly interesting jam moved right into a ferocious “Chalk Dust Torture”.
5. “The Dogs”>”Tweezer”>”Simple”. Taking a look at the show as a whole, the band seemed to come alive from “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing” until “Simple”. After a masterful set two, the juice continued to flow right into set three. The New Years gag was random, yes, but Phishy nonetheless. The impending drop into “The Dogs” resulted in an instantaneous dance party as show goers from the floor to the rafters adorned smiles. To say “Tweezer” was welcome in its placement is a dramatic understatement. Accentuated by hundreds of balloons bouncing around the room, “Tweezer” ramped up the dance party started in “The Dogs” and offered another blast of quality improvisation before segueing into “Simple.”

Lowlights

1.     Set One. It’s been said before and it’ll keep being said time after time Phish offers largely flat, uninspired first sets. The songs were crispy from a Type I perspective, “Wolfman’s Brother” had a nice few minutes of funky jamming to its credit, and “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing” was arguably the beginning of what would be the best music of the night. But overall, it will continue to not feel right when Phish plays lackluster sets. Unfortunately, in the modern Phish era set one’s have taken on this identity in a strong way. At some point this is bound to change, the question on so many fans minds is when?
2.      Aborted “Simple”. All signs were pointed toward brilliance after a brief, albeit strong end to set one, a groove fest in set two, and very strong start to set three. While “Tweezer” could’ve kept exploring, it bleed into “Simple”, which at the time felt fluid enough that the current trajectory would keep growing in a positive way. Then along came “Limb By Limb” out of nowhere and the rest of the show went from a fresh Pliny the Elder, to a flat Bud Light in no time.
3.     “Limb By Limb” through “Julius” in set three. From the moment “Simple” was over until the end of the third set Phish got generic. The encore was fine enough, and once again, there were some fabulous moments to last night. That said, things weren’t too far gone just yet with “Limb By Limb” until Trey looked over at Fishman, then Page, and dropped into “Bug”. The feeling of deflation in the venue was contagious. From there on listing the songs makes little sense as the overall feeling went from utter joy to “WTF?!” in a cumulative sense. Collectively show goers left American Airlines Arena happy, enjoying yet another fun night of music from a band that’s beyond description, but let’s just say in a supportive way, there’s a lot of potential ground to cover looking ahead to the next three nights in Miami.