{"id":785209,"date":"2026-07-26T08:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T08:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/785209\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T08:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T08:53:17","slug":"phish-revisit-1993-at-msg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/785209\/","title":{"rendered":"Phish Revisit 1993 at MSG"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phish<\/a> returned to New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden yesterday for the second show of their five-night summer residency at the World\u2019s Most Famous Arena. The concert kicked off where Wednesday night left off, focusing on material Phish would have performed in 1993. Winking to the theatricality of the run, Trey Anastasio wore a Marvin the Martian T-shirt, as he often did during that era of his career, throughout the evening.<\/p>\n

The Vermont Quartet kicked off their show with a high-energy \u201cLlama,\u201d a number that opened 12 shows in 1993 alone, before launching into an lengthy, 17-minute \u201cBathtub Gin,\u201d a likely nod to the group\u2019s famed August 13, 1993, performance of the tune at Indianapolis, IN\u2019s Murat Theatre, where they first broke through into a type of free-form jamming that would come to define their music for years to come. From there, Phish briefly reprised the running order of their 1993 album Rift, moving from the Jon Fishman oddity \u201cLengthwise\u201d into \u201cMaze,\u201d before sliding into an extended movement from \u201cGumbo\u201d into this year\u2019s first rendition of the traditional spiritual \u201cDaniel Saw the Stone,\u201d which the group originally debuted in 1993 and has only played a handful of times since that year. \u201cWeigh,\u201d another Rift track that has aged into a semi-rare number, arrived next, with Mike Gordon altering a lyric to reference the summer season, and Phish then looked back to earlier periods of their career with choice versions of \u201cGuelah Papyrus,\u201d \u201cDivided Sky\u201d and \u201cTube.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few minutes into \u201cTube,\u201d however, Phish segued into the night\u2019s biggest bust out, \u201cBig Ball Jam,\u201d an old gag from the musicians\u2019 club days where they would interact with the crowd by altering their playing based on the movements of different balls that were thrown into the audience. \u201cBig Ball Jam\u201d debuted in 1992 and was a regular part of Phish\u2019s shows in 1993, but they dropped it completely from the repertoire after December 9, 1994, as they grew into larger venues. After Anastasio and a crew member used their arms to make a basket and catch the balls on stage, Phish returned to \u201cTube,\u201d paused briefly and then closed their set with ZZ Top\u2019s \u201cLa Grange,\u201d a cover from their \u201980s setlists that they famously revived in 1993 but hadn\u2019t played since July 8, 2012, before yesterday.<\/p>\n

Like their 92nd show at the Garden this past Wednesday, Phish used their second set to both thematically time travel to an earlier period and lean into some more contemporary styles of jamming. They opened the set with their variation of \u201cAlso Sprach Zarathustra,\u201d another 1993 debut, and then segued into a modern, jammed-out 15-minute take on \u201cChalk Dust Torture,\u201d their first cover of The Who\u2019s \u201cSparks\u201d since December 30, 2016, and then \u201cSlave to the Traffic Light.\u201d (Of note, Phish, in 1993, Phish brought \u201cSlave\u201d back after an extended break and briefly revied \u201cSparks\u201d during a Tampa, FL show loaded with deep cuts.)<\/p>\n

Phish have uncoiled a number of their usually more tightly wound songs this summer and the trend continued yesterday during \u201cThe Wedge,\u201d which pushed past the 12-minute mark and moved into one of Anastasio\u2019s earliest originals, \u201cMakisupa Policeman.\u201d That reggae tune turned out to be the start of the second set\u2019s final sequence, which included their first version of the Gamehendge chant \u201cKung\u201d since November 30, 2019, up-tempo takes on \u201cSuzy Greenberg\u201d and \u201cGolgi Apparatus\u201d and a set-closing cover of Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u2018Good Times Bad Times.\u201d Their first stab at the barbershop quartet number \u201cSweet Adeline\u201d since December 29, 2016, which Phish would sometimes play without microphones in 1993, and the cherished classic \u201cFluffhead\u201d served as the night\u2019s encores.<\/p>\n

Phish will revisit their 1994 era at Madison Square Garden this evening<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at last night\u2019s setlist via Phish.net<\/p>\n

Friday, July 24, 2026, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY<\/p>\n

Set I: Llama, Bathtub Gin, Lengthwise -> Maze, Gumbo > Daniel Saw the Stone, Weigh[1], Guelah Papyrus, Divided Sky, Tube -> Big Ball Jam -> Tube, La Grange<\/p>\n

Set II: Also Sprach Zarathustra > Chalk Dust Torture > Sparks > Slave to the Traffic Light, The Wedge > Makisupa Policeman[2] -> Kung > Suzy Greenberg > Golgi Apparatus > Good Times Bad Times<\/p>\n

E: Sweet Adeline, Fluffhead<\/p>\n

[1] Lyrics changed to \u201con a summer day.\u201d<\/p>\n

[2] \u201cIced green matcha tea, policeman looking at me\u201d lyrics.<\/p>\n

This show was Phish\u2019s 93rd performance at Madison Square Garden and featured a setlist comprised entirely of songs from the 1993 era of the band, Trey wearing a Marvin the Martian T-shirt (a common occurrence in 1993), and multiple bustouts: Big Ball Jam (last played December 9, 1994, or 1,170 shows), La Grange (last played July 8, 2012, or 531 shows), Sparks (last played December 30, 2016, or 357 shows), Makisupa Policeman (last played July 11, 2023, or 149 shows), Kung (last played November 30, 2019, or 258 shows), and Sweet Adeline (last played December 29, 2016, or 358 shows). Weigh\u2019s lyrics were changed to \u201con a summer day.\u201d Makisupa included the lyrics \u201ciced green matcha tea, policeman looking at me\u201d lyrics. Kung began over the Makisupa drumbeat. Trey quoted Big Balls in the Tube prior to Big Ball Jam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phish returned to New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden yesterday for the second show of their five-night summer residency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-785209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}