One Hundred Nights at the Garden, Phish Set a New Year's Milestone
Trey Anastasio and the Vermont quartet return to Madison Square Garden for four nights, and the last one will be their hundredth
Some bands play Madison Square Garden. Phish keeps a key to it. On Wednesday the group confirmed its annual New Year's run at the arena, four nights from December 30 to January 2, and the last of them will be the band's 100th show in the building.
That number puts Trey Anastasio, Mike Gordon, Jon Fishman and Page McConnell in very small company. According to Jambands, Billy Joel is the only other rock act to have played the Garden more than 100 times. Joel is a New Yorker. Phish is from Vermont. The city has adopted them anyway.
It started on December 30, 1994, the band's first night at the Garden, as Rolling Stone recalled. More than three decades later, the late December stand in Midtown has become one of the fixed points on the city's winter calendar, as dependable as the tree at Rockefeller Center and considerably louder.
The Long Countdown
Phish has been counting toward this for a while. Over the summer, the band treated shows 92 through 96 at the Garden as a kind of time machine. Jambands reports that those nights nodded to the setlists, stage theatrics and even the clothing of 1992 through 1996. Songs that had been shelved came back. So did Anastasio's mini drum kit, which he has kept using since.
The Garden has seen the band at its most ambitious. In 2017, Phish played a thirteen-show run there, known as the Baker's Dozen. Rolling Stone notes that the band got through 237 songs across those shows without repeating a single one.
Some bands play Madison Square Garden. Phish keeps a key to it.
This winter's run has another small wrinkle. Jambands points out that it will be the first time since 2016 that the band has closed a New Year's run in January. That means the party does not end at midnight. It keeps going for two more nights, and the final one belongs to the record books.
The People Behind the Counter
The announcement came with a short film, and it is not about the band. It is about the people who work the shows. Ushers, bartenders, concession workers and merchandise staff talk about what it is like when Phish is in the house. Rolling Stone describes the ushers dancing along in the style Phish crowds are known for.
One staffer in the video says it simply. "I love the Phish." Another says the band's fans are the only ones who stop to ask how the staff are being treated.
It is a smart way to mark the moment. A hundred nights at an arena is not only a band's achievement. It is also a great many shifts for the people who pour the drinks and clean up after the encore, and the band seems to know it.
How to Get In
Tickets will not be easy. A request period is open now at the band's own ticketing site and closes at noon Eastern on Monday, October 12, as Consequence and Jambands both report. The general public sale follows at noon Eastern on Friday, October 16, through Ticketmaster. A limited number of hotel and ticket packages go on sale at noon Eastern on Thursday, October 8.
Before then, the band has a few more dates to play. Consequence lists a show in Richmond, Virginia, on October 7, then Jacksonville, Florida, and two nights in Huntsville, Alabama. After the Garden, Phish heads south for its own destination weekend, Phish: Riviera Maya, from January 27 to 30. Rolling Stone reports that the event, at Moon Palace Cancún, will feature eight Phish sets, DJ sets from James Murphy and Questlove, and comedy from Fred Armisen and others.
The Garden has had a busy autumn. Harry Styles has made the arena his house for the fall, and the city has a soft spot for any act that commits to a room and keeps coming back, from arena headliners down to the bar band on Second Avenue that has held one stage since 1997.
Phish is the arena version of that idea. Same building, same week, year after year. On January 2 the count reaches 100, and if the video is any guide, the ushers will be ready.
