Phish took the stage at Madison Square Garden in NYC for their Dec. 30, 31 and Jan. 1 shows. The music soared into the cavernous atmosphere of MSG, mingling with a beautiful lights display and the ecstatically giddy faces of some 20,000 phans.
The shows were broadcast live from livephish.com. That was a fantastic idea and the show looked amazing online – that is, until the webcast service cut out for many of its customers. Twitter and other online forums exploded in anger as large portions of the NYE show and the New Year’s Day show disappeared. Often, many phans reported the show cutting out a the peak of a spectacular jam. The Telescope’s own correspondent missed the climactic second half of New Year’s Day’s “Walls of the Cave” – a dynamic tune that doesn’t get much play from the band.
A solution did come, however. The first set of the NYE show, which was missed by most of the webcast customers, was replayed immediately following the end of the show. And for Jan. 1, livephish will be replaying the entire show at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. EST Jan. 2. If you had already ordered the webcast, feel free to log back in and check out the show again.
Other than that annoying bit of the news, the shows themselves were unbelievable. The highlights are almost too numerous to name. Here’s the run-up to midnight on New Year’s Eve:
Mr. Miner, long-time phan and critic, has posted his typical exploration of the shows on his blog. Lastly, each of these shows can be purchased in a variety of format at livephish.com. Let’s all pray that they’ve got their shit together by this point. Ah, well, see you at the rebroadcast tonight!
Sandy 