The New Year is a time for reflecting. I’m writing this as a fan of the band for 10 years now. The band and their music has given me so much in life and all I can express in this moment is an incredible amount of gratitude. I’m gonna break this review down into 3 sections: a quick review of the run, a summary about the show itself, and the NYE gag.

The run
As someone who’s seen 20 shows in 2022, I think we saw a very good year in the band’s history. It’s hard not to think after NYE that that was intentional of making 40 years of being a band have some extra meaning to it. You had awesome runs all over the place, good and rough memorable moments (rough = Pine Knob + Dick’s storms but… I’ll come back to Dick’s), and those historically special venues and evenings continuing to hold up in the pantheon. Blossom to me was the show of the year and I didn’t waver on that, until 12/29 or 12/30 threw their hats into the ring and said hold on there’s still time.

12/28 may be the overlooked one but definitely don’t skip the Wave of Hope giving us one more great version in a banner year for the song.

12/29? Just press play.

12/30? Set 2 is the finest set of the year.

You can choose 12/29 or 12/30 as your favorite show of the year, and you’re not gonna hear an argument from anyone. The MSG shows always hold a little more weight to them.

And 12/31…

The NYE Show
After the first three nights, and especially after the 5-song set of 12/30, we went into the show thinking that there were so many songs on the table. And that there were! The last time this happened for me was 12/8/19 or Charleston N3 at the end of that no repeats tour. For that show, you may recall the “Play whatever you want” sign. Tonight was exactly that but a lot better, maybe close to 1/2/16 in that there was a rush to fit in the big songs (that night it was Tweezer, Hood and YEM). The band came out ready to play with all of the energy that a NYE show deserves.

Yes, there was a lack of jams. We get a show opening Tweezer that hits a couple of nice peaks and gets us thinking that we’re in for yet another great first set of this run, but that was not to be. A mini Tweezerfest a la Charlotte 6/21/19 commences having us wondering if it’s gonna be one of those nights. What we get is a pretty straightforward greatest hits show with a late 3rd set Piper being the jam of the night.

Of course, you probably didn’t buy an NYE ticket expecting it to be dark and deep. You came to see a spectacle. And…

The 40 years gag
If you’re a new fan, this gag may not have made any sense to you but don’t worry. You’ll get there.

Part of being a Phish fan is the FOMO from a show you aren’t/weren’t at, or going back in history and wondering what it would’ve been like to be at that show. And on this evening, they jogged our memories and experiences to celebrate and give it all back to us one more time.

In the lead up to the NYE set, the setbreak music alluded to the past. Stuff like Umbrella by Rihanna connecting to the Petrichor ‘16 gag, Cannonball by The Breeders to multiple gags/shows… we weren’t sure how this would all go down.

Then the lights go down, and Trey says when the singing telegram asks the band to make a wish, “I wish I had a Time Machine so we could do it all again.”

And off we went into a journey down memory lane, reliving the happiest of moments of our lives. Literally every gag and ghosts of years past came out on that stage. For a band that always pushes forward with subtle winks and acknowledgements towards the nostalgia, this was a treat. It was fun to see the Meatstick gags from Big Cypress (Father Time) + NYE 2010 (Broadway), Bohemian Rhapsody (NYE ‘96), the marching band walking down the sides for Jungle Boogie (NYE ‘03) was like the cherry on top until… I am still shocked how the Trey clone on the platform got up there without anyone noticing. When he came down (“Tom Hanks”), it was like what the fuck how long has been up there!? And of course, we could only ring in 2023 with Carini thanks to the naked dude at Dick’s dancing on the empty floor during the storm. Except this time there were all the naked dudes lmao.

The rest of the set (in my opinion) continues down great moments in Phish’s history with New York, New York (NYE ‘97) and the third Tweezer of the show > Prince Caspian (Magnaball reference, yeah?). Show of Life was absolutely the correct call in the first encore slot, and then Tweeprise sends us home.

Plain and simple, you need to watch this gag and you probably will multiple times over your lifetime. And if you’re a new fan, you’ll come back to it years later, marveling at the self-awareness and gratitude of this band pulling THAT off. When you think about how much it takes to even pull off one of those gags each year (the choreography, the music/practicing, the tech and lights, the timing with the NYE countdown, etc. and nailing ALL of it), they did every fucking one of them at once!!! Oh right and Trey was doing all sorts of things like touring with TAB + Goose this year?? Where does this man find the fucking time in the day?!

The only thing it was possible to do as a witness in that moment was have the biggest smile on your face standing in awe and marveling at the spectacle.

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What a special evening, run and year. There’s no other band or act on the planet that does this, and for them to share it with us in this way on NYE in NYC at the Garden… yeah, I love Phish. Thank you for all the happiness and making it all worth it Trey, Page, Mike and Fish.