While the world of Phish was mostly buzzing the prior few weeks about the overdemand and quick sellouts for their four shows at The Sphere in Las Vegas; this year’s New Year’s run at Madison Square Garden just seemed business as usual. The first three nights included standout performances of live favorites and saw some of the band’s newer material (“The Well,” “Oblivion,” “Mercy”) flex its muscles as future setlist favorites.
However all Sphere talk quickly is forgotten now as Phish performed Gamehenge in its entirety live for the first time since 7/8/1994 at the venue formerly known as Great Woods in Mansfield, MA. Based upon Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio’s college thesis, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, the Gamehendge saga chronicles the adventures of Colonel Forbin, who enters the land of Gamehendge to retrieve the Helping Friendly Book from an evil dictator named Wilson. While past renditions have featured Anastasio narrating the tale, the New Year’s performance included a full cast of actors, dozens of dancers, aerialists, enormous puppets, a custom-built rhombus stage set, and a colossal flying mockingbird that flew around the arena.
Check out fan footage of the breakout of all breakouts
