Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 23:35:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: yancy davis 
Subject: 12/30/94

Phish's first show at Madison Square Garden, sold out in four hours, was 
a definite sign of the ever-growing crowd of phans.  The ushers seemed a 
little harsh at times, but they left me alone, and it was New York after 
all.  Wilson started things off with Trey motioning wildly with his hands 
to get the audience going (and succeeding).  The pace set, the band 
wasted no time, flowing right into a quick Rift (aren't they all) from  
Wilson.  AC/DC came next and could've been a little longer, though the 
power was all there.  I wasn't expecting another Simple, yet, since they 
just played one the 28th, but then again they encored with it the 
following night in Boston, so what do I know?  Stash was one of the 
highlights of first set for me, but I rarely find fault with it.  There's 
just a lot of room to jam with it and they used the room very well this 
night.  Fee.  After Fee came an incredible Scent of a Mule.  I just 
didn't expect this much from the song, but Page was HOT.  The rhythm got 
a kind of Russian beat after that and Mike and Trey danced the Russian 
kick dance (?) while jamming, the pace increasing and increasing 'til you 
could hardly keep up, until finally they flowed back into Mule.  Cavern 
ended the set on an average note, but that was OK after that scent.

Sample In a Jar kicked off the second set.  It seems as if it could be a 
good jam, yet it never really does much for me, this night included, and 
Poor Heart was, well...Poor Heart.  I was glad to get them over with 
early in the set.  Poor Heart went right into Tweezer, and a fine Tweezer 
it was.  Somewhere around 25 min, they managed to explore several 
different interesting themes, while never getting boring as they can do 
occasionally in long Tweezers.  I don't think I once felt the urge to sit 
down, which is how I rate some of the longer tunes.  I highly recommend 
it.  An acoustic Blue and Lonesome came after a long applause, and they 
harmonized beautifully throughout it.  Someone had told me that they'd 
played a YEM the night before at Providence(though they didn't), so I was 
completely surprised to hear those jazzy opening notes.  It was a nice 
surprise, though, and Mike was getting pretty funky there towards the 
end.  I think this one was also around 20-25 min.  Trey and Fish switched 
places for a soft relaxing Purple Rain, with a short but sweet vac solo.  
The opening drum beats for Harry Hood slid in ride after HYHU and I 
jumped to my feet in joy.  It had been a while since I'd felt good about 
the Hood, and I was more than ready to.  The end section had so much 
energy I felt like my feet weren't even touching the ground.  It was bliss!
Tweezer reprise slid into place perfectly here, adding its energy to the 
leftover power from HH.  A good set.

Playing reprise already had me wondering what the encore would be, but 
Frankenstein was the furtherst thing from my mind.  The song doesn't 
leave too much room for variation, but it's just such a great piece of 
rock that it doesn't matter.  A phine ending to this show.  Overall, the 
show seemed shorter than usual, though I didn't think about timing it.


Yance Davis