For hardcore Phish fans, Madison Square Garden is sacred ground on New Year’s Eve. They’ve been ringing in the new year at the New York City arena for the better part of 30 years, and each time they find new ways to stun and delight the audience as the clock starts ticking toward midnight. Over the decades, they’ve attempted everything from a daring aerial ballet where Trey Anastasio hovered over the crowd to a “Soul Planet” routine where the stage was transformed into a pirate ship.
The theme for this year became clear near the end of the second set when the band kicked into their 1992 deep cut “It’s Ice” and brought out an old-school ice cream man onto the stage with a cowbell in his hand. This led into a cover of Prince’s 1991 classic “Cream” as the ice cream man wandered around the arena, ringing his bell. It’s the first time in Phish‘s history they’ve covered “Cream,” though they did “Purple Rain” 32 times between 1993 and 2012. They’ve also performed “1999” on four occasions.
When the band reemerged for their third set, they took the cream theme to new heights of absurdity by playing “Harry Hood” as figures in cow costumes walked down the aisles and a parade of dancing milk cartons appeared on the stage. In a bit that must have taken quite a bit of rehearsal, the milk cartons danced in unison to the song until a larger milk carton appeared above the stage that dumped a sheet of milk onto them, freeing the dancers from the containers. The dancers, clad entirely in white, then staged an incredibly elaborate routine with a white sheet at the front of the stage. Trey Anastasio couldn’t hold back a giant grin as the spectacle unfolded right in front of him.
It was nearly midnight at this point, and they rounded out the year by playing “Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30” and “Auld Lang Syne.” By this point, the ice cream men had returned to the stage. And when the new year hit, they launched a popsicle into the air like a rocket ship and shot confetti all over the audience.
For the encore, Phish came out dressed as milk men themselves. They delivered an a cappella rendition of “Sincere” from The Music Man — another live debut for the band — before breaking out “Spock’s Brain.” (They teased this earlier in the night by placing a photo of Spock on one of the giant milk cartons, and noting he was last seen on July 14, 2019, which was the last time they’d done the song in concert.) The evening closed out with an epic “Tweezer Reprise.”
Phish return to the stage on January 28 when they begin a four-night stand at Quintana Roo, Mexico at their annual Riviera Maya residency. And then in April and May, they’re playing nine nights at Sphere in Las Vegas. Their 2026 plans beyond that aren’t public yet, but odds are practically certain they’ll close out the year at Madison Square Garden. They’ll have to start planning it soon to top this one.
