The B List: Best New Year’s Shows

2. 12/30/97 – Allow me to wax poetic on this show: In 1995 I met Chris Kuroda outside of the Wetlands, where moe. was playing. He was kind enough to indulge me in a game of 20 questions, and one song I asked about was Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley. Chris told me the band hated the vocal jam at the end of the song and therefore would probably never play it again.

I walked into Madison Square Garden a minute before the show started on December 30th, and my friends and I got to our seats when the opening chords of Sneakin’ Sally rang out. I thought about that conversation and was pleased when, instead of ending the song with a vocal jam, the boys let their instruments do the talking with a great 10-minute jam that led into Taste.

That night was the first time in more than eight years that the band played Sneakin’ Sally, and incredibly the show actually got better from that point. The second set included my favorite collaboration with Tom Marshall, when he and Trey sang The Proclaimers’ 500 Miles in the middle of Harpua. The 30th was one of the few times in which the band truly kept me guessing at every moment. It’s not every show that Harry Hood gets jammed into My Soul. I hate that fucking song, but on this night I was just psyched the band was trying something so totally different. I thought the show was gonna end at that point, but the band played on. Trey even discussed that they had blown the curfew and were just going to play an encore without the leaving the stage.

The band walked off and the high fives started flying. I organized my friends and we started to plot our way home. Just then the lights went out again and Phish returned to the stage once again. We were expecting a quick song as a thank you, but instead Phish played an unheard of four-song encore. They finished the night where they began, playing a quick reprise of Sneakin’ Sally before the closing Frankenstein. It doesn’t get much better than walking out of the Garden at 1 am, knowing a three-set extravaganza was mere hours away.

1. Big Cypress – Big Cypress ruins every “Best Phish Show” list I’ve ever made — nothing compares to the three nights I spent on Chief Jim Billie’s swamp in Florida. Bustouts? Amazing jams? Longest two sets the band ever played? Warm clear weather? Witty banter that had people saying Cheesecake for the next two years? Check. All check. Big Cypress was the peak of the Phish fan experience. I could go on for hours about Biggie Cypes, but we have plenty of time for that next year with the release of the Big Cypress DVD box set*.

* I made that up

12-29-95 The Centrum, Worcester, MA

1: My Friend My Friend, Poor Heart, Down With Disease, Fog That Surrounds, NICU, Stash, Fluffhead, Llama, Sweet Adeline

2: Makisupa Policeman, Cars Trucks Buses, Bathtub Gin-> The Real Me-> Bathtub Gin, McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters, Big Black Furry Creature From Mars, Bass Duo*-> La Grange, Bouncing Around the Room, Fire

E: Golgi Apparatus

*Mike and Jim Stinett, Mike’s bass instructor.

12-31-98 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

1: 1999* > Mike’s Song > I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove**, Ghost > Ha Ha Ha, Cavern (1:00)

2: NICU > Character Zero > Tweezer > Cities > Wading in the Velvet Sea, Run Like an Antelope^, Frankenstein (1:03)

3: Runaway Jim^^ -> Auld Lang Syne > Simple# > Harry Hood## > Tweezer Reprise, Llama (0:58)

E: While My Guitar Gently Weeps (0:07)

*First time played (Prince cover, from the album “1999”); with dancers on stage; with Trey and Mike dancing. **With “1999,” “Rock and Roll” (Velvet Underground”), and “Lion Sleeps Tonight” teases. ^With glowsticks. ^^Started started about 11:45; with “1999” and “Auld Lang Syne” teases about 5 minutes in; eruption of audience with 4:20 left on clock; five-second countdown to the New Year accompanied by on-stage pyrotechnics, a balloon drop, and about eight dancers (unicorn, bee, faerie, guy in a suit, prostitute, angel, devil, et al.) tossing thousands of glow-rings (not glowsticks) into the crowd. #With “Magilla” tease. ##With a large glow-ring/stick war (though not all of the dispensed glow-rings were tossed because large amounts of them were linked together end-to-end, forming long chains across the floor).

12-29-94 Providence Civic Center, Providence, RI

1: Runaway Jim-> Foam, If I Could, Split Open and Melt, The Horse-> Silent in the Morning, Uncle Pen, I Didn’t Know, Possum

2: Guyute, David Bowie, Halley’s Comet, Lizards, Cracklin’ Rosie, Good Times Bad Times

E: My Long Journey Home*, Sleeping Monkey

*Acoustic.

12-30-97 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

1: Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley-> Taste, Water in the Sky, Punch You in the Eye, Stash, Chalk Dust Torture, A Day in the Life

2: AC/DC Bag*-> McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters^, Harpua#-> I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)@-> Harpua-> Izabella-> Harry Hood%-> My Soul, Sleeping Monkey, Guyute$

E: Carini-> Black-Eyed Katy-> Sneakin’Sally Through the Alley-> Frankenstein&

*With “Crosseyed and Painless” jam. ^Unfinished. #Very little Jimmy/Posternutbag comment; instead, Trey’s life-changing experience in the 4th grade (1974, 10 years old): sitting, eating french toast and watching “Lost in Space” (a Saturday morning ritual) Trey realized that Will Robinson and the robot were in the same field as the one behind his school and were sending him telepathic messages, which led to him to collect food and bring it to that field, where he found a pentagram, placed the food and saw his own future, including the band and a figure in white singing (Tom Marshall) though he knew neither. @Proclaimer’s cover (from the “Benny and Joon” soundtrack); Tom Marshall on vocals. %With lights down and a glow stick war, and also unfinished. $Before “Guyute,” Trey explains that they don’t know if they have enough time for one more song, but that there’s one more he wants to play…he said they would not encore. After Guyute, the lights did not go on. Page, Mike, and Fish returned to the stage. Finally, Trey came on and the encore started. &Trey has “Toph” (Chris Kuroda) bring the lights down and re-starts the glow stick war during a delay jam which featured he and Fish in some sort of dance ritual at the front of the stage, Fish on vacuum, and then finally just Mike’s bass and Trey’s guitar loop before finishing Frankenstein.

12-30-99 Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation, FL

1: Water in the Sky, Light Up or Leave Me Alone^, Suzie Greenberg, Corrine Corrina, Limb By Limb, +Che Hun Ta Mo*, Big Alligator Song*, Possum, Farmhouse, Ghost, Ya Mar, Character Zero (1:39)

2: Wilson, The Curtain > Tweezer -> Taste, Meat, Golgi Apparatus, Wolfman’s Brother, Gotta Jiboo, Harry Hood, Good Times Bad Times (1:35)

3: Chalk Dust Torture, The Moma Dance, Run Like an Antelope, The Sloth, When The Circus Comes, Mike’s Song > Simple -> I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove++ (1:20)

E: Boogie On Reggae Woman > Tweezer Reprise (0:10)

^Traffic cover (from the album “Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys”). +Trey announces that the band will play all night, will not leave the stage to go to the bathroom, and will be surrounded by security to keep them on stage, then introduces the guests. *With Seminole Indian Chief Jim Billie on lead vocals and guitar, John McCuen on mandolin/banjo, and someone else on lead electric guitar. ++With “Auld Lang Syne” tease at midnight.

12-31-99 Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation, FL

1: Runaway Jim+, Funky Bitch, Tube, I Didn’t Know*, Punch You in the Eye, Bouncing Around the Room, Poor Heart, Roggae, Split Open and Melt** -> Catapult, Get Back on the Train, Horn, Guyute, After Midnight*** (1:46)

2: #Meatstick^ -> Auld Lang Syne, Down with Disease -> Llama, Bathtub Gin^^, Heavy Things^^^, ^^^^Twist Around > Prince Caspian > Rock and Roll, You Enjoy Myself%, Crosseyed and Painless, The Inlaw Josie Wales%%, Sand -> Quadrophonic Topplings%%%, Slave to the Traffic Light, Albuquerque, Reba, Axilla, Uncle Pen, David Bowie, My Soul, Drowned -> After Midnight reprise, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, Bittersweet Motel, Piper** -> Free, Lawn Boy, Hold Your Head Up > Love You%%%% > Hold Your Head Up, Roses are Free, Bug, $Also Sprach Zarathustra > Wading in the Velvet Sea, Meatstick$$ (7:45)

Set 2 was played from midnight to sunrise, non-stop. +With marshmallow war, lots of balloons, and aerial tortillas. *With Fish on vacuum. **Unfinished. ***First time played; J.J. Cale cover from the album “Naturally” (best known for the Eric Clapton version). #Set begins around 11:35 pm with Father Time on stage pedaling away at a stationary bike, powering a large clock, with the sound of the gears on the PA (possibly a Siket Disc track?). At approximately 11:50 pm, Father Time collapses from exhaustion and the clock stops. At this time, with appropriate sound effects, a large fan boat entered the field from halfway back, stage right. Soon the sides and top of the fan boat were blown off to reveal the band riding in the hot dog from 12-31-94. The hot dog approached the stage as the band threw leis and other goodies into the crowd. Once the hot dog reached the stage, the band disembarked carrying several meatsticks. They fed these to Father Time, reviving him to drive to clock to midnight. ^Instrumental version, with the band picking up the song from a pre-recorded version played during the hot dog ride. ^^With vocal jam, as Trey, Mike, and Page sang the notes as they played them. ^^^Recorded live for ABC’s Millennium coverage; Trey instructed the crowd to chant the word “Cheesecake” after the song (instead of applauding), in an attempt to confuse TV viewers; Trey introduced the band for the recorded footage and offered a message of peace and harmony for the world (“The right lane is for driving. The left lane is for passing. So stay in the right lane unless you’re passing.”). ^^^^Preceded by “Meatstick” tease (possibly as Central Time hit midnight). %With “Cheesecake” vocal jam. %%Trey solo acoustic. %%%With Mike holding up a voice box, repeating the phrase “Quadrophonic Toppling.” %%%%With Fish on vacuum; Fish introduced Page before the song, and Mike and Trey afterwards, and the band as “Phish 2000.” $Preceded by a tease of the “Harry Hood” intro. $$No encore; post-show music was the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.”

[Originally Published: 12/28/2006]