I grew up and still live in the Pacific Northwest. My first Phish show was 10/17/2014 Eugene. Basically my entire conscious life, I've been intrigued by the idea of going to see Phish at the Garden for a New Year's Run. But it has always seemed so far away, both in regards to distance and practicality. The cost of finding hotels, transportation, flights, and tickets on the post-market made it seem far out of reach. But that all changed once my twin sister began living in Brooklyn - I could save lots of money for the lodging and would be able to commute easily in for the shows. After flying solo to Dicks and meeting up with friends and Phishcord users there, it made me think that I could start to pull off an MSG trip if I could get it done for relatively cheap. A friend at Dicks suggested, why not put in for the lottery and see what happens - you could always sell if it didn't work out. Somehow, I got a 4-day pass in the lottery. The "holy shit" moment begun. Soon, I was able to weave together travel plans, flights, and it was a go! I was sitting on MSG NYE Phish tickets!

So I flew out from PDX to JFK early in the morning of 12/28, just full of anticipation. Part of the reason why I was so willing to get this done and do it *now* is because Phish is playing so well lately - Mexico, Summer Tour, the Dicks run being easily the best shows I've seen (and one of the best weekends of my life), with N2 in particular my best of around 15 shows. So while I tempered my expectations, I knew the potential was there for a killer run. And boy, did they deliver.

I was able to meet up with my sister, drop my bags, and soon headed into the city for the shows. I was so pumped! Stopped at a liquor store and was taking swigs on the subway. Just getting into the Garden was magical - the weather was cool, crisp, but most importantly clear - it was honestly warmer than expected for the entire week in NYC. Stepping into the Garden was an ethereal experience. I've heard so much, I've read so much, and it was just otherworldly. I really leaned into the history of it all, soaked in all the vibes, and had some pre-show meetups with Phishcord and Phish.net users prior to things really getting good. Made friends with my rowmates in Section 211 and had great seats given the situation - they felt like right on top of the action, it wasn't obstructed, and the vibes were immaculate.

The lights went down and I was beside myself. I knew it was going to be a good run after the crowd erupted during the "We've got skyscrapers" line in Simple.. great opening jam and you could tell Trey was rearing with energy. Trey was very animated all throughout this evening, moreso than the next two nights. He was ready to rock this place down. While I don't know enough about crowds to speak on different noise/energy levels of different arenas, I could tell that the MSG crowd throughout this run was very plugged in and "on top" of the action.. we were all ready to express our joy in any way possible. I love getting Free in the first set of a show (or at any point in the show, honestly) and the Simple > Free was a great way to start off the entire run. Farmhouse next, actually a pretty good placement for it - that's another thing that Trey and the band have been really good at lately is song placement - compare to early 3.0 or really even late 1.0/2.0. Poor Heart was a nice treat - I will always take Phishgrass at a show and this is a song that needs to hit the rotation for it. Perfect spot for the energy it brings, and same with Tube. The KDF got out a bit and I recall really enjoying it. Driver was an absolute treat - I absolutely fucking love this song and it was the first song of the run that I had not caught live before. Such a cute ballad. Reba was very welcome and was played well, the jam was vibrant and felt right. Oblivion next - the Evolve album is one of Phish's late-stage best and I was so happy this has turned into a jam vehicle - lucky enough to catch one at Dicks this year. While it didn't jam much this time, I got to loudly belt out the lyrics and spread the new-era Phish love to my surrounding row-folks. Antelope was a perfect choice to close and I feel like this was an above-average 4.0 version on relisten.

Set 2 I was again, so excited for anything that was about to happen. MSG was just so magical I am starting to see why people buy bot accounts to vote down every show outside of its confines! This is a very good version of BOTT to start the second. It's worth a relisten and I enjoyed it very much. Axilla wasn't anything new for me, and neither was Wave of Hope, but I really enjoy Wave of Hope and it was nice to get. The jam was solid and then all of a sudden comes a familiar riff... My first thought was, is this a Mock Song? But then it sort of had the repeating circular sound and I immediately yelled out for Round Room! Wow, what a treat. I never expected to get a Driver but damn did I really never expect to get a Round Room.. They have played MSG so much and it's never come out so I just didn't even mentally have it on the radar. Not many people around me knew what it was which was surprising. Solid treat, and then they went into IAWITW.. which absolutely slaps. Had only gotten one of these prior, at the Gorge 2021. Looking back on the NYE gag, it is possible that this could have been an early indication, or a practice run for some of the more EDM-styled jams to come? We will never know. I think the IAWITW > Twist are the best musical pieces of the night - there was this moment in Twist where Trey was really animated, dancing, and just sitting on the groove. It was special. After the end of Twist, it sort of petered out, and then the opening notes to Mango Song dropped... One of the best crowd moments of the first show was when the realization for that hit. Always special to get one of those live, and then I thought Blaze On was pretty juicy. Cavern and Bowie were fairly standard but always nice. It was actually somehow my first David Bowie live, so that was nice. Loud ovation for the band after it closed.

Was excited again for the encore. Mountains of the Mist is beautiful and I think Trey has sort of settled into a sometimes-pattern for encores, where the slower tune goes first, and then a rocker to close. Nothing new I suppose but this was a solid rendition. Fuck Your Face was out of left field. That was incredible.. I again also never thought I would get one of those live but it was perfect. Mike was fucking jacked for this song, he was hyped up (as much as he shows) and he was loud on the vocals. 46 Days in the show-closer spot was special. They were definitely trying out some new stuff there, and it's one of the best jams of the show. Tons of energy in the building.

Also, it's somewhat unrelated but this was the first show in the second post-Trump era. For that reason, I wasn't surprised at the Mango Song being played. Also, earlier in the day, El*n Musk was on a coke rant on Twitter and one of his replies to someone even more racist than him was that they should "Go fuck yourself in your face".. this was making the rounds, I saw some Phish folks on Bluesky referencing it prior to the show, and for that reason I wasn't exactly surprised that it came. I think both of those songs were oblique references as Phish loves to do...

For me, that was a special show. I was enthralled from the first note to the last. My first Garden show was so incredible. I would do anything to get back there.. Maybe it's not out of the cards to return. Musical highlights: Simple > Free, Antelope, BOTT, IAWITW > Twist, 46 Days. This left us absolutely wired for the next couple shows as they were almost guaranteed to bring the hype...