12/31/12 New York City, NY
The Garden Party!!!!
Ok, to start, NYE shows usually are not that amazing musically, and
just eyeballing the setlist and times, this one looks like it will be
along those lines. But NYE is always more about the FUN than the music,
kinda, so it's the one night you let it slide. 
Set 1 -
Garden Party - Considering the Golf/Miami Retirement Home/Lawn
and gardening theme, you couldn't pick a much better themed opener,
haha. Baker's Dozen worthy on that front! The 1972 Ricky Nelson tune as sung by Mike. Good stuff.
Possum - The real opener. Nothing you haven't heard 100 times before, but good lord is it HOT!!!! Hot hot hot hot hot!!!!! 
Very good but nothing that special.
Roses are Free - Not my favorite song but nice as always. Possibly intentional (roses>garden, etc). 
Fine version though!
Rift - See Possum! Great version and pretty darn hot! Absolutely BONKERS Page solo!
Sample In a Jar - Great Type I rager. See Possum. Nothing special.
Alaska - See Sample and Possum
Mike's Song - Finally something noteworthy!!! You know it's ON
when the first jam starts around 2 minutes with Page and Mike just
pounding the hell out of their instruments and the crowd starts roaring
their approval. Trey doing nice melodic leads for a bit until Page
starts multitasking piano and organ to solo along!! Great stuff! And we
are only at the 4 minute mark!! This jam is totally led by Page and Trey
- the two of them are basically playing in sync the whole time,
soloing off of/with each other and it's AWESOME!!!!!! FREAKING FANTASTIC
LITTLE MIKE'S SONG!!!! HOLY CRAP THAT WAS SICK!!!!
>Walk Away - Trey slightly forces the guys into Walk Away.
Great call, just that the transition was a little less than smooth,
haha. Terrific choice to keep us rocking and welcome as always!!! And this one SMOKES!
>Weekapaug Groove - Mike get's it ripping with some killer
bass soloing for a bit, and then Page jumps on the Clav for some sick
70s funk-style riffing. Trey doing octave-chord vamping, again with Page
following along. The crowd goes nuts when Mike kicks in his Planet Killer Distortion
effect and starts tearing it up even more. For the next few minutes
they all just lock in and deliver a terrific, A+ Paug. Great stuff!
Character Zero - See Alaska, Sample, Possum, etc....Killer version, just
total guitar annihilation. Again, nothing you haven't heard before, but
still great stuff!!
All in all, set 1 was enjoyable but bland (the theme of many
recent 2012 first sets, it seems). Skip right to Mike's Song and let 'er
rip from there on out.
Set 2
Birds of a Feather - Type I rager ala set 1. Another in the pantheon of "nothing you haven't heard before", but it's still just so dang good at the same time! Short, sweet, to the point and gets us going immediately. Terrific.
Ghost - Takes it's sweet time getting going in the best way.
Straddles that Type 1.5 line for a lot of the jam. You can clearly tell
we are still in Ghost but they are pushing those boundaries. The usual
funky, shreddy goodness ensues! I'd say we go proper Type II right
around the 7 minute mark. Page introduces some uplifting piano and this
spooky Ghost starts becoming a beacon of positivity and light instead!!!
Everyone is in sync, playing together. Trey isn't doing too much -
tastefully picking spots to toss in a lead or two. Fishman is tossing in
tom-tom fills getting us a bit more rhythmic, and Page is just sticking
to the piano. They decide to stick to this and just ride the "Type I
Bliss Jam" out to it's natural conclusion around 12 minutes. I'm
gonna call this the Mini Ghost. They didn't "do that much", but what
they did do they did REALLY nicely!!!! A really excellent little
fast-food slice of Ghost, ya dig?
>Piper - And as per 2012's unwritten rules, we can't leave one
song with first drifting into ambience, lol. However, out of a Ghost to
lead us into a Piper is EXACTLY where you want that ambience to
pop up!!!! Nothing like a proper slow-build Piper. Unfortunately there
is not too much build up, haha. Trey is Mr. Eager McBeaver over here
tonight and just immediately starts the lick with no pretense of
subtlety. That's ok, though. And the crowd goes BONKERS once the guys commit and actually begin the "song" (Piper is barely a song and you know it!). As for the jam, it's pretty enjoyable!!! The guys take it real nice and easy on this one, giving us a chill-yet-hot jam that is all kinds of SMOOTH.
Think Birds of a Feather, but nicer!!!! This goes on for several
awesome minutes until around 6:00 they all start increasing the heat
more and more, until we are headed for a raging, fiery explosion!!! But
instead they keep it dynamic and measured - THIS IS COOL AS HELL!!!
They are increasing the "strength" of the playing while keeping things
"chill". It's very hard to explain!!!! I've never heard another jam
quite like this. Props to Trey's perfectly timed feedback squeal at 7:12 that leads them into another section of the jam!!!! Jesus, this jam is fantastic. THIS IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF FULL-BAND PLAYING!!!! NO SOLOING HERE!!!! Seriously, this is terrific. I
feel like the guys have learned to cram as much into 10 minutes as some
other years of the band would take 20 to do. I'm all about the journey,
but there is something to be said for cutting to the point at
times!!!!!! RAGER HOSE PEAK FINALE!!!! KILLER!!! A+ PIPER! THIS PIPER HAS NO BUSINESS BEING THIS FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!!
>Light - Great Type I "bliss" jamming as expected. I swear Trey inserts a Simpsons tease at one point. Around
5 minutes or so is when the jam starts to veer sideways. Page in
particular is leading us out of bounds bit by bit, doing interesting
"out of key" modulations (or something like that). But then
somehow at 5:45 we stumble into a full blown Auld Lang Syne led by Trey
for like 10 seconds. And the crowd erupts. And it's awesome! By
6:30 things are teetering on that fine line, the guys unsure whether to
leap off or keep riding that Light jam. They decide to stick with Light
for a bit, Trey reintroducing the riff at 6:50. But then they
immediately go for the Type II funkiness at last with only a little bit
of time left in the jam. I don't want to call this jam bad - what
they are playing is highly enjoyable. But they are so unsure of what
direction to head in and it's kinda jarring. One second it's this, five
seconds later it's that, etc. And the usual 2012 ambient outro is the
icing on the cake. I'm gonna call this an enjoyable-yet-highly-flawed
experiment.
>2001 - Terrific segue!!! Thank you Fishman for not dropping the ball on that!!! This
version is a million times better than other recent "perfunctory"
versions of 2001!!! The guys ACTUALLY jam it properly!!!! It's nowhere
near long enough, but what's here is prime rib 2001!!!!
>The Horse/Silent in the Morning - Next!
You Enjoy Myself - Not
much to say, in the best way. A terrific YEM that delivers exactly what
you want out of it. Nothing more, nothing less! Hell, I even enjoyed
the vocal jam tonight!!!
All
in all, set 2 was damn strong on the whole. The Piper is the must-hear
take away though. The Light was odd - good but unsure of itself or
something. On the whole, a highly enjoyable set and musically no slouch
either! It may not be one of the absolute best of the year, but it was
far, far, FAR from being poor in any way! GREAT SET!!!
12/31/12 New York City
Set 3
Pre-music, the guys all come on stage via golf cart. Page, Mike and Trey, dressed normal, proceed to lineup and hit golf balls into the crowd. Eventually, a third, donut-themed cart arrives on the stage delivering Fishman decked out in argyle suit, hat, the works, etc.
Mr. Classy Golfer himself
A few more swings and a ball-toss from Mike and they head for their instruments.
God - the FUN is half the reason I love this band as much as I do. Yes, this is stupid, but it's just ridiculous and fun!!
Party Time - Literally couldn't think of a better place for this song to appear!!!! For such a simple "nothing" of a song, it always delivers at a base level to being the fun and set the tone!!! I'll never forget in Charleston 2019, it was definitely not on my list of wanted-to-hear songs, but by golly did I end up having an absolute blast with it anyways!!!
The
fun-meter is peaking such tonight that even Mike is caught grinning!!!
It must be said, WATCHING the video as opposed to just listening really
can alter one's view of a performance. SEEING the guys interacting
transcends what, aurally, sounds like "nothing special". But seeing Page
and Trey goofing off, etc. definitely adds to the enjoyment factor!!! All
in all, a great little Party Time that sets the mood, has some nice
soloing from Trey, and kicks off the third set absolutely perfectly!!!Aside - Mike is just smiling up a storm! I don't think I've ever seen so much "continuous" emotion on his face in a while!
>Kung - KUNG! KUNG! KUNG! KUNG! KUNG!!!!!! Holy hell this is so dumb, haha. Golf carts riding around the dry-ice-laden stage, Trey chanting while waving a golf club around.
>Chalkdust Torture - RUNAWAY GOLF CART MARATHON!!! Oh my goodness, Phish. Please. Never change!!! Really nice bass fills on this one from Mike!!! Musically, this CDT is fine, but as with Party Time, obviously the draw of this is watching Trey barely hold it together the whole time while a million golf carts just fly across the stage.
I
swear, watching Trey try not to laugh is one of the best ways to get me
to smile! That man always just RADIATES the best joy when he's onstage!
So then eventually the golf carts stop and a bunch of actors join the band on stage (including one very nice lady with long legs and a SHORT skirt! ), proceeding
to dance around in their golf gear and hit golf balls, etc etc.
Considering all the distractions, it's pretty amazing this CDT manages
to not be a complete failure even though Trey botches the hell outta the
outro "lick" because he's distracted, haha. FUN TIMES!!! *Cue Auld Lang Syne and Happy New Years!!!*
>Tweeprise - Perfectly timed. +10 fun points. Literally the perfect musical choice to follow ALS!!!!! Trey is so distracted (perhaps by those skirts, eh?) and the stage is just a friggin' sea of dancers and golfers and backup singers and pole wavers and balloons and....pretty much everything you can think of. A definite visual sight to behold!!!
>Sand - Musically, it's your standard early 3.0 Type I Sand. Highly enjoyable as always, Trey is leaning HARD on the wah on this version. Very nice peaking!!! Near the end, the jam reaches a "takeoff" point, but alas it's not to be and they bring it to a 2012 Ambient Close instead. Great version on the whole! Better than I'm describing it!
>The Wedge - The Wedge. WEDGE. GOLF. GET IT?! HARDY HAR HAR!
Musically, this is definitely the best performed track of the set so
far, and that's just because the distractions have finally subsided.
Sand was damn excellent, but you could tell they were still shifting out
of "Gag Time" mode. Funnily enough, this Wedge is actually Jam
Charted!!!! It features an unusual and dark Type II jam! Not 12/30
Carini darkness, but they absolutely leave The Wedge behind. Cactus is GROOVING, bringin' the head bobs! Eventually The Wedge dissolves into ambience (can anyone point to another Wedge that goes into space?!). Of all the friggin' songs....I mean, this isn't the most incredible jam or anything like that, it's just so unexpected!!!>Fly Like An Eagle - SICK!!! I never knew I needed Phish to cover Steve Miller. Now I NEED to hear Trey doing Take The Money and Run!!!! Musically it's a bit rough as we'd expect from a one-off cover for a theme set, but it has definite promise if they were to add it to rotation. Also, funny to see Trey having a hard time with his soloing, voicing his dissatisfaction with his playing with a painful grimace
>Wilson - Is Wilson. Rocks.
The video screens show a Wilson-brand golf ball crack into the screen. Trey more than makes up for Fly Like An Eagle with some VERY tasty lead work throughout! Great stuff!!Lawn Boy - Inevitable! AND ITS A FRIGGIN A-CAPELLA ARRANGEMENT!!! WTF!!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!
That was fantastic. If you don't have a stupid grin on your face after that, something is wrong with you!!!Driver - Points for theme and rarity. Not my favorite song and probably half the crowd forgot about it before they played it, haha. Even the band forgot it and had to restart it, bwahaha!
Very, very nice when all is said and done. It turns out I like this song more than I remembered!Iron Man - BECAUSE OF COURSE!
And we can't forget Page doing his Bob Hope impression! "Does anybody know who I am? I AM IRON MAN!" Page McConnell, in a Bob Hope getup, singing Black Sabbath's "Iron Man". I did not know I needed this in my life until this moment. GUYS, THIS IS SO STUPID AND FUN I CAN'T BREATHE, I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING! THIS IS AWESOME! And with that, New Years 2012, and the 2012 touring year itself, draw to a hysterical and triumphant close!!!
All in all, this show won't win any awards on the musical front (DON'T FORGET THE PIPER THOUGH!!!), but set 3 was one of the most enjoyable, pure-fun hour and 10 minutes I've ever witnessed.
For such a "nothing" of a theme for a gag, they committed and committed HARD. To quote The Boss, "From Small Things, Big Things One Day Come". That's what this awesome set felt like. "How the hell can they pull off a GOLF set?!". Yea, somehow they did it by a wing and a prayer.
If you dabble at all in WATCHING Phish, this is absolutely must-view material. SO. MUCH. FUN!!!!
Definitely one of the gags I've enjoyed the most!!! Took me by surprise just how good it actually was!!!!
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