From: Kung15@aol.com
Subject: Review

New Years '95   Madison Square Garden NYC

New Years in New York can't be beat when Phish is in town.  Boy was this a
sick show man.  It was packed in Penn Station over the loud speaker you could
haer the paging of Harry Hood ans Suzy Greenberg.  

The first set was right on: Opening with --->

Punch you in the Eye:  Ver y good a little uneventful.  Kinda strange for an
opener.  Still it got me in the groove for whay was going to be a sick show.
 The landlady Jam couldn't be beat.

Sloth:  Also very good Trey had just begun to zone in his own little world at
this point 

Reba:  Flawless I really got into this one The jam was very nice but a little
drawn out.

Squirming coil:  Absolutely bueatiful.  Page was amazing on his solo.  After
this they jumped into

Maze: Regular Maze Uneventful but still uplifting.

Col. Forbins Ascent:  This is where the concert really began to take off.
 Forbins was sick I really got into this one.  Joints began to get passed
around like there was no tomorrow.  Also this little kid kept trying to take
my setlist. However Forbins was sick.  It went into a little Trey narration
about what goes on when they are not touring.  They work in the Gamehendge
time lab.  They had discovered the recipe for time and we were not going into
96 but back to 94 and to the song that was always on the radio.  They played
a verse of Collectives Souls.  "Shine"  Whoa Heaven let your light shine
down.  I couldn't belive it.  After Trey says that the song still sucks He
then went into Forbins narration with Icculus  This went into---->

Famous Mockingbird:   Great song one of my all time favs flawless couldn't be
beat.

Sparkle:  This was great not much to say just the usual Converse with Ed

Chalkdust:  This got the crowd on there feet To keep us excited through the
break

** Between the 1st and 2nd set Fish comes out on stage and gets a shave from
his Mom, Very Cool Move Fish!!!***

SetII Opened with the chess game, We win Due to a brillant move the band
resided leving it Band 1 audience 1  First Song was Drowned for Quad only the
second Quad song since Halloween.  Amazing I love this song It put Pete
Townshend and Roger Daltrey to sjame All I can Sat Is WOW!!!

Lizards:  This was unbelivable!!  Crowd was very pysched about this one!  You
could baerly hear the band right before The Chorus "I said I come from the
land of Darkness" I can still see the audience bouncing around everywhere it
was spiritualy uplifting.

Axilla:  As if the Audience wasn't pumped up enough.  After these last few
tunes I could barely dance I was so tired This song was great though. As if
that wasn't enough

Runaway Jim:  What did they want to kill me!! I was so tired I didn't n what
to do But I continued to dance.  It was a sick Jim I was extremely excited.

Strange Design:  Finally they decide to calm down a little bit, Thank God.
 Design is one of my favs of the new stuff I love this song.  It was flawless
Page was perfect.

Ragtime Gal:  I wasn't very excited about this.  I was hoping for a Freebird
or I Didn't Know Still It was good they were all in tune.

Mikes Song:  Yahoo This was good  It went into a long Trey Solo to finish the
set 12:00 was near.  And they didn't play I'm Hydorgen or Weekapaugh it sure
as hell left me in suspense. 

Third set HAPPY NEW YEARS.  They did a father time bit with The band members
as Mad Scientists.  Fish was father time they Hoisted him above the audience
as the rest of the band played with a Frankenstein(Foreshadow) type machine.
 You could hear them count down to New Years.  At tweleve all hell broke
loss.  Huge balls fell out of the ceiling I could hear the tapers screaming
"Aw Shit" they were scrambling to save their Mic's from a sure death.  Trey
Played Auld Lang Syne it was bueatiful.  I was so Happy I thought i would
cry.  They played Auld Lang Syne Into Weekapaugh  Yes!! I was pysched.  The
crowd was so alive it was scary.  

Sea + Sand:  Another Whos Quad. It calmed they crowd down a little it was
bueatiful. Page's voice.  I don't know how to describe it.  WOW!!

You Enjoy Myself:  A normal YEM Nothing special Only about 20 mins not like
Halloween with the 45 mins.  Voices were done right scary.

Sanity: I love this song.  It was very good and the crowd really sang along.
 I DON'T CARE IF THE WORLD EXPLODES!!!!!!!

Frankenstein:  Crowd was on their Feet for this one alright.  Edgar would of
been proud.  I was.

The Encore:

 I have a pretyy cool story about this.  Me and a friend of mine were on the
phone earlier that day and we were dicussing th 30th we were also discussing
possible tunes for this night.  We made a nice list remenbering that they
were going to play no repeats for the whole New Years Run.  I said to my
friend, "Dude they are goig to play Johnny B. Goode"  He basically called me
a f**king Idoit.  Sure Enough when the first note poured out of treys guitar
and I heard "Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans!!" I ost it it was
the perfect ending to a perfect night.  My Friend elt like a bloody idiot he
is still apoloigising.  All I can say is "Job well Done boys"

Christian Pforr
kung15@aol.com

From: MR DARREN FITZPATRICK 
Subject: Re: Review of 12-31-95

12-31-95 Madison Square Garden

I:PYITE, Sloth, Reba, Squirming Coil, Maze, Col. Forbin->Dialogue 
(about how the band works in the Gamehenge Time Lab when they're not 
on tour to help keep time moving using a special recipe from the HPB)-
>Mockingbird, Sparkle, Chalkdust

Very good first set, PYITE was a great opening choice...Sloth was 
very unexpected and equally awesome to hear...Reba was a little 
sloppy, not to much jamming..Squirming Coil had very nice solo work 
by Page and Trey. Maze was cool, but it wasn't really jammed on...
done well nonetheless. Col. Forbin was awesome...Trey's dialogue 
spoke of what I mentioned above except in greater detail, he also 
mentioned how time goes by so fast and if time stopped you'd have to 
hear the same shitty songs on the radio, then Tom Marshall comes out 
a sings the words to that Collective Soul tune "Light Shine Down" 
with the band on back-up--HYSTERICAL! Great job by Trey on 
Mockingbird, Sparkle was more or less Sparkle, Chalkdust smoked...
done real well. Fishman got a shave on stage during the set break. At 
the beginning of the second set the band announced that they resigned 
from the chess match because of a brilliant audience move that took 
their queen, at the end of 1995, band 1-audience 1

II:Drowned, Lizards, Axilla II, Runaway Jim, Strange Design, Hello My 
Baby, Mike's Song (with Trey solo jam)

Drowned..."huh?" I recognized it was a Who tune but didn't know which 
one, great job on the jams...nice and concise. Lizards was great to 
hear, nothing specifically special. Axilla II was done great, gave 
the band a chance to loosen up and kinda rock out. Runaway Jim 
sizzled...jamming concise and quick paced...about midway through the 
jams Trey took to his little percussion set-up..great job by all on 
that tune, one of the better versions I've heard...one of the 
highlights of the night...Strange Design, great tune but it needs a 
little more backbone and improvisation, gave the audience a chance to 
relax and listen to Page's sweet voice. Hello My Baby was GREAT...
they were miced but the audience SHUT-UP anyway which made it that 
much better...Mike's Song, done real well, nice jams throughout, I 
knew they wouldn't get to Weekapaug so at the time I was a little 
disappointed, Trey stayed on the stage a little longer, playing with 
the tone pedals and feedback with his speaker. 

III:Auld Lang Syne->Weekapaug, Sea and Sand, You Enjoy Myself, Sanity,
 Frankenstein 
E: Johnny B. Goode

The lights went out and on the stage appeared some type of laboratory,
 then everything clicked with the dialogue from the first set...the 
time factory...Page, Trey, and Mike were dressed in lab coats, 
playing with stuff...then lightning bolts shot from the rods above, 
making a loud popping noise, sorta like a electricity show that you'd 
see at a museum...Then Fishman rose over the crowd in some type of 
contraption, dressed as Baby New Year, throwing confetti into the 
crowd, while Fishman threw confetti Trey starts ripping on Auld Lang 
Syne while HUGE balloons fall from the ceiling of MSG. Fishman was 
lowered down and then Weekapaug began...I was real surprised, great 
jams throughout...done quite well. Sea and Sand was next, another Who 
cover, Page went totally solo...another "huh?" by me, kinda cool but 
it was like Strange Design without backbone from the band...almost 
redundant...wished they played something else Ahhh...and then You 
Enjoy Myself, looking at the Worcester set lists I was convinced 
they'd save this one for NYE and they did...great version, 
particularly good job by Mike...great vocal jam with cool lighting 
effects-black stage with white lights flashing all over MSG getting 
more intense as the singing got louder--GREAT JOB ON THIS ONE 
FELLAS!!!! Then Sanity, what a great tune to play..everyone was going 
nuts, I'm so glad they broke it out for NYE...Frankenstein was the 
set closer...very nice jams...haven't played that one in awhile if I 
recall...another AWESOME JOB!!...Then the encore: Johnny B Goods..YES.
.Trey went nuts, very intense...he kept holding up his fingers and 
lunging towards Fishman...you could tell they didn't want the night 
to end either...but alas it did..the lights came up and the magic was 
gone...

I heard there isn't going to be a spring or summer tour....so I'll 
see you all in the fall!!

Fitz
LRUU71A@prodigy.com  

-----------------------------------
12/31/95 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (Charlie Dirksen)
	The Punch You in the Eye/Sloth opener was the first in history,
and was better than any dream opener I could have imagined.  Reba was
fiery with non-stop action from Trey; a great version, up there with my
favorites (Lowell, Ween 94, Deer Creek..).  Coil & Mockingbird had some
glaring mistakes from Trey (if they played this more often he wouldn't
have as much trouble .. ;^), but I was still psyched to hear them (Shine
was very amusing, but I think I would rather have heard Icculus... w/ Tom
Marshal! ;-).  Sparkle Chalk was average, and a frighteningly simple close
to an otherwise **SICK** set list.
	The Drowned-> Jam-> Lizards to open the second set was
AWE-INSPIRING, and must be heard at all costs.  We were hosed, frankly,
throughout sets two and three of this show.  There were/are Fire on the
Mountain teases in the JAM preceding Lizards (listen to the tapes, you
can't miss them.. one is more subtle than the other, but the second tease
is strong as hell and occurs roughly 20 seconds or so before Trey starts
playing' Lizards, and right when Fish drops the groove into a Fire-esque
beat).  Drowned was for me a dream come true, since it was the song I most
wanted to hear brought back from Quadrophenia... and it was jammed out
severely!!  Runaway Jim was actually a Runaway JAM... it was about 16
minutes long, and is without question my favorite version ever.  I was at
Walnut Creek last summer, and this Jim is just more exciting and rockin'
than that somewhat spacey 6/16 version.  The Mike's Song has some truly
great grooves in it (no bullshit tramps dissonant jam), incl. a Dave's
Energy Guide-like groove (briefly), and it was topped with a mellowing
digital delay loop JAM from Trey, reminiscent of Bomb Factory, the Bozeman
Tweezer, the Providence Bowie, and the opening of Maze at NYE last year
(you know, the digital delay loop jam...).  Very gentle close to an insane
set of Phish.
	The third and final set also witnessed some ferocious jamming,
particularly in Weekapaug, You Enjoy Myself & JBG.  Weekapaug was
magnificent -- just sick, non-stop jams... no spacey or dissonant
experimentation.  It was also twice as long as the average Weekapaug
(well, maybe not twice as long as the average 1994-95 Weekapaug), at about
13 minutes, and it segued beautifully into Sea and Sand.  You Enjoy Myself
was very good, with some serious Oye Como Va jamming at times from Page
and Trey especially (this is not uncommon, of course, but doesn't usually
occur with the same degree of intensity as it did in this version).  I can
think of many You Enjoy Myselfs that are comparable to this version in
their gloriousness... it was still an excellent, above average You Enjoy
Myself.  Sanity was the first since the Murat in June 94, and was quite a
treat.  It was a remarkably fun version, though, and you could tell that
the band enjoyed playing it.  Frankenstein was typical, albeit a killer
closer.  The JBG encore was the best version Phish has played.  I've been
lucky to have heard *live* all of the JBGs that Phish has done, and this
version certainly cleaned up.
	12/31 was the best Phish show, next to 10/31/94, that I've ever
seen live, and certainly one of the best Phish shows that I've heard.  I
cannot recommend it enough -- but get the whole show, for Icculus' sake,
and don't pick and choose sets like a tyro.  The show as a whole needs to
be listened to and admired.  For those of you who didn't make it, I am
sorry, but you'll get it on tape (and you were thought of).  The band was
playing for its die-hards on 12/31, wherever they may have been at the
time.  Anyone afraid of improvisation and jamming should stay the hell
away from this show!