New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Phish made history last night at New York City's Madison
Square Garden with a very special three-set concert culminating their sold-out New Year's Eve run at the World's Most Famous Arena. This year, fans were treated to a spectacular theatrical presentation of Gamehendge for the first time in nearly 30 years, a near-mythical song cycle rarely played in its entirety over the band's four-decade career.
Based upon
Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio's college thesis, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, the epic Gamehendge saga chronicles the adventures of Colonel Forbin, a retired colonel from Long Island, NY, who enters the land of Gamehendge to rescue a tome called the Helping Friendly Book from an evil dictator named Wilson. Gamehendge hasn't been performed in its entirety since July 1994.
While past renditions have featured
Anastasio narrating the tale, last night's once-in-a-lifetime production 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. Gamehendge includes a number of beloved
Phish favorites, including "The Lizards," "Wilson," "AC/DC Bag," "The Divided Sky" and more.
Phish's New Year's spectacles have transcended mere performances, evolving into a beloved tradition that traces its roots back to 1992, when the band playfully elevated a crew member donned in a chicken suit above the stage during the rendition of their song "Fly Famous Mockingbird." Since then, these playful antics have transformed into grandiose extravaganzas, each year surpassing the last in creativity and splendor.
From the audacious act of soaring through the arena astride an oversized hot dog in 1994 (an iconic prop now enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) to the mesmerizing performance of their expansive multi-part opus "Petrichor," during which dancers unfurled umbrellas and ushered in a cascade of joyfully descending cat and dog-shaped balloons, to the transformative experience on Earth Day 2022 (the date of Phish's postponed 2021 New Year's show) when the Garden was metamorphosed into a magical underwater universe.
Last year's celebration of Phish's 40-year musical journey took the revelry to new heights. A luminous time machine suspended overhead transported the audience through four decades of Phish's iconic gags, characters, and musical highlights. The celebration unfolded with a gospel choir, a spirited marching band, aerialists, and the surprising emergence of over 30 "naked guys" emerging from a towering 10-foot birthday cake. Each New Year's spectacle not only cements Phish's musical prowess but also showcases their unparalleled ability to craft immersive, unforgettable experiences for their fans.
Yesterday's performance (Phish's 15th New Year's Eve show at Madison
Square Garden, as well as their 83rd overall date at MSG) wrapped up a busy 2023 for the band while also lighting the fuse on what already looks to be a momentous 2024, highlighted by a sold-out run at Sphere in Las
Vegas this April. Each show at Sphere will feature a completely different setlist and visuals, making each one a truly unique audio-visual experience.
Phish will also host its first festival in nearly a decade from August 15-18 at The Woodlands in Dover, DE. More information, including ticket on-sale dates, will be announced soon.
PHISH - LIVE 2024:
FEBRUARY
21 - Riviera Maya, Cancún, MX - Moon Palace Cancún (SOLD OUT)
22 - Riviera Maya, Cancún, MX - Moon Palace Cancún (SOLD OUT)
23 - Riviera Maya, Cancún, MX - Moon Palace Cancún (SOLD OUT)
24 - Riviera Maya, Cancún, MX - Moon Palace Cancún (SOLD OUT)
APRIL
18 - Las Vegas, NV - The Sphere (SOLD OUT)
19 - Las Vegas, NV - The Sphere (SOLD OUT)
20 - Las Vegas, NV - The Sphere (SOLD OUT)
21 - Las Vegas, NV - The Sphere (SOLD OUT)
AUGUST
15 - Dover, DE - The Woodlands*
16 - Dover, DE - The Woodlands*
17 - Dover, DE - The Woodlands*
18 - Dover, DE - The Woodlands*
* Festival
Phish - Trey
Anastasio (guitar, vocals), Jon Fishman (drums, vocals), Mike
Gordon (bass, vocals), and Page McConnell (keyboards, vocals) - has earned one of music's most dedicated fan communities for its blend of idiosyncratic songcraft, extended improvisation, and immersive live performances, all fusing a variety of genres into their own freewheeling sound and vision.
Formed in 1983 in Burlington, VT,
Phish has released 15 studio albums, beginning with 1989's Junta and continuing through 2020's
Sigma Oasis, released on the band's own JEMP Records. In 2002, the band launched LivePhish, which offers high-quality soundboard recordings of every show, regular releases from Phish's substantial archive, and 4k live webcasts. LivePhish+, the band's streaming service, is the most successful artist-driven service of its kind, offering unlimited on-demand access to the entire LivePhish catalog.
Widely recognized among live music's most beloved and inventive artists,
Phish has played over 2,000 shows since their formation, regularly selling out multiple nights at arenas, amphitheaters, and stadiums across North
America including such annual traditions as sold-out Labor Day weekend runs at Dick's Sporting Goods Park soccer stadium outside of Denver, Halloween extravaganzas, and four-night New Year's Eve celebrations at NYC's world-famous Madison
Square Garden.
To date,
Phish have performed 83 sold-out shows at The Garden since their debut performance there in 1994. In 2017,
Phish performed The Bakers' Dozen, a 13-night concert series that saw the band play 237 unique songs, repeating none during the entire run. The 13 shows concluded with
Phish being presented with a banner commemorating the unprecedented series, which hangs in The Garden's rafters.
In 1996,
Phish presented The Clifford Ball, the first of 10 self-produced festivals, held on the decommissioned Plattsburgh Air Force Base in upstate New York, and influenced a new generation of American rock festivals including Bonnaroo among others.
Phish marked the turn of the millennium with a New Year's Eve festival at Florida's Big Cypress Indian Reservation, drawing a record-setting attendance of 80,000 people, playing an historic seven-hour set, culminating at dawn on New Year's Day.
In 1997,
Phish founded The WaterWheel Foundation to oversee the band's various charitable activities, harnessing the kindness of the
Phish fan community to create positive change. WaterWheel fulfills this mission by collecting donations for local nonprofit organizations in association with
Phish tour dates via WaterWheel's Touring Division. WaterWheel also supports non-profits based in Phish's home state of Vermont, especially those focused on cleaning up the Lake Champlain watershed.
WaterWheel chooses beneficiaries from a wide sphere of causes including those working to protect the environment, promote social justice, fight food insecurity, provide music education, register voters, and those that help women and children, the homeless, and others in need.
Phish recently performed two benefit concerts at
Saratoga Springs, NY's Broadview Stage at SPAC, raising over $3.5M for flood recovery efforts in Vermont and Upstate New York. For more information or to donate, please see www.waterwheelfoundation.org.
