Sat, Dec 29, 2012
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Set 1: Crowd Control, Mound, AC/DC Bag > Rock and Roll, Sugar Shack, Reba, Halley’s Comet > Limb By Limb[1], Wading in the Velvet Sea, Bathtub Gin[2]
Set 2: Golden Age > Waves > Prince Caspian[3] > Boogie On Reggae Woman > Suzy Greenberg > Bug > Cavern > 46 Days
Encore: The Squirming Coil, Grind, First Tube,
[1] Follow the Yellow Brick Road tease
[2] Susie Q quote from Fishman
[3] Unfinished.
Any show that opens with Crowd Control is a winner in my book!!!
Earliest Mound Set position wise since 94’-95’ I think…Trey practiced Sugar Shack!!!
Gordo Bombs during Velvet!
Got into the show about 4 songs in, was in the rerelease line. Ended up with tickets in 115 with a sweet view. Oh yeah, and I hit pei with a glow stick 
yeah…that was me
Reba, gin, boogie, 46 days… 
Gordo was on fire the whole night - must’ve been those flame red pants he had on 
So glad I made the last minute trek thru a good 'ole fashioned Upstate NY snowstorm
Too tired to even think - drove 4 hours straight home after the show.
Only caught the first set on couch tour then had to play a gig. Loved the Bag > R&R- great energy. Feel like Trey kinda lost some steam after that but Halley’s and Gin were good. Loved Mike’s accidental phaser bomb at the beginning of Wading.
Also, I’m loving these gear breakdown features at setbreak. Really hope they do Mike tonight. I can’t even recognize any of the stuff he’s got up there.
Some pics…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSQeuK_I9iY[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwsFE3KCo1M[/youtube]
Thanks to Phish Tickets By Mail, my sister and I were riding the West GA rail, far Page-side for this one. Marianne was right behind us and grooved with us the whole show. Such fun times.
They opened with Crowd Control, the same opener as the only other time I was in the front row (MPP 6-26-10, with our very own henrietta). Crowd Control is now my ‘Riding the Rail’ opener.
I called the Gin and the Halleys. I wore my Gin shirt; dunno if they saw it and if it influenced them to play it, but I’d like to think that was the case, LOL. Got a few ‘thanks for wearing your Gin shirt’ from a few folks on the floor, so that was kewl.
We had a great time. GA is where its at!!
Love this Gin!!!
^concur, although I would have liked it to go on and on and on…
On a side note about the remodelling of MSG, I think they have ruined my favorite arena for Phish shows. They have made the seats and rows more narrow and eliminated the ability to flow between the low, mid and upper level seats.
The only redeeming thing I can say about the remodel is that I rocked the 30th with Pei-Yi and her sister at these bar stool seats directly opposite the stage in the 200 level. It was a sweet way to watch a show with a table in front of your seat and a black curtain behind you that shielded you from prying eyes if you catch my drift. Although the numbskull down a few seats left his pipe on the table and an usher spotted and confiscated it.
The first set is really good and full of fire and energy. It’s better than the second set in that aspect, which sort of took a dive in energy after Boogie On IMO. The 46 Days was sort of a redeeming factor, but the last half of the set and encore just seemed anticlimactic to me. Though, Coil in an encore is always pleasant (thanks Page). I’m also not really a first tube fan so anytime they bust that out in an encore I usually start making my way out. The Golden Age was kind of weak and aimless until Mike decided to stop fucking around and just dropped some bombs and they laid into a groove for the last few minutes.
In spite of these negative comments I didn’t think it was all that bad and the first set was smoking. I’ll take Mound any day and the AC/DC Bag was full of energy for the first time in idk how long and the energy in that carried over nicely into Rock and Roll. The Bathtub Gin to close the first set is definitely the highlight of the night…dance party.
I don’t know about you guys, but I was swimming in that Waves. I thought that was one of the better versions I’ve heard in a long time. I agree with the set taking a bit of a nosedive after Boogie On, but that was a great Boogie on…pretty tough to live up to
damn really yall? i thought the set slowed down not until after suzy… IMO that was one of the better suzy’s in a long time. They put forth extra effort and page ABSOLUTELY killed the jam. Not to mention that it had plenty of cowbell. All that said this was definitely the best 1st set of the run and IMO second best Golden Age aside from dicks. amazing interplay between the band throughout that jam. Probably my least favorite of the run but still a very good show. Couldn’t have asked for more from this run