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Words: Eli Badra
Images: Adam Kaufman

Watching Phish play this year has been a treat. While the band may not be quite up to snuff compared to their mid-90s selves, it can’t be denied that what we are witnessing is a slow but steady musical renaissance. For evidence, just listen to the eons-ago Boston performance and compare it to what we heard during two nights in Albany the previous weekend.

The band is reaching plateaux with each successive bout of touring, settling in comfortably before continuing upwards. As their foray through the Northeast draws to a close, Phish is playing the best music we’ve heard in 2009. It’s no surprise, then, that a three-night stint at Madison Square Garden – the site of some of their finest performances – comes with high anticipation. While Thursday’s show didn’t contain the bust-outs that have become standard this tour, nor the farthest-reaching threads of group improvisation, what it did feature was a perfectly paced and masterfully executed second set that was simply a joy to partake in.

Trey Anastasio kicked things off with the all-too-familiar guitar chugs to set up Punch You In The Eye, a solid opener that got the audience’s blood flowing. From there, the band jumped into Backwards Down the Number Line, wherein Trey laid down a brief but pleasant solo. Phish then touched on Axilla before dropping a somewhat extended Taste, which had the guitar really leaning on those minor-key notes throughout the solo.

READ ON for more of Eli’s thoughts and Adam’s photos…

For the seventh holiday season in a row, Umphrey’s McGee guitarists Jake Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss teamed up for a special acoustic performance to benefit a local charity. This year’s

Today, VH1 Classic will celebrate The Beatles with a day of Fab Four programming. Highlights include an airing of Richard Lester’s 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night (8PM), the John Lennon

Phish returns to Madison Square Garden for the third of three shows this evening. I’ll be sharing my commentary live from The Garden @YEMblog.

READ ON for the setlist from tonight’s show [via PhishNet]

Since it’s Friday and everybody is probably a little sleepy, we’re gonna go with an easy to read quick-hitter format for our review of MSG Night 2, as opposed to the meandering narrative.

[All photos by Adam Kaufman for HT]

• To start at the beginning is to start at the end: When the band emerged for the first set, Trey tinkered around with a few discernible notes of Character Zero before launching into Punch You In The Eye. Hence, this served as a bit of foreshadowing as Character Zero bookended the show so-to-speak returning for an encore.

• Last night for the first time, it really felt like the setlist did not matter in the least. Granted, the show was packed with heavy hitters, but every single song felt like it had the potential to ascend to the outer reaches of the Red Planet.

• Furthermore, that early 3.0 feeling of standing on pins and needles during any technically challenging composed pieces for fear of a flub, is gone. At this point, the band once again feels like they are able to effortlessly cruise though the hardest of material and even start getting crafty therein. I felt like the band executed the first set near perfectly the second set came pretty close, save for one minor blip in Fluffhead.

READ ON for more on Night Two of MSG from Ryan…