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, concertgoers 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.