Hello Phans of the Phish!
We’re gonna switch gears a little bit this week and instead of sharing another Phish jam, I want to provide an example of the theatrics that you may encounter at a Phish show. This show and song choice are motivated by two events: within the past week, Phish announced that they will do another 4-year run in Madison Square Garden for New Years. If you don’t know what it means for Phish to be playing MSG, think of them as a sports team. MSG would be their home field (or court). The NYE shows in MSG are Phish’s big thing and securing tickets to those shows are notoriously difficult. Secondly, last week I mentioned the attempt to set the world record for most people doing the same dance to the song “Meatstick” at the Camp Oswego festival, so I’ve decided to share the video from Meatstick on NYE 2011 (in MSG).
Phish usually does something big for the NYE show. For starters, they usually play 3 sets instead of the usual 2, with the 3rd set starting shortly before midnight and playing up to the ball drop, then they play Auld Lang Syne and continue to play a full set. Usually some theatrics are involved. In 1995 they did the Gamehendge Time Phactory (which you might see a clip of in the future!), in 2013 they did the JEMP truck set (for which they drove a truck into the middle of MSG and played a set on top of that truck), another year they covered the stage in artificial turf and drove golf carts around it.
This video I’m sharing is from 2011 when they brought out 40 or so broadway performers to sing and dance to the song “Meatstick.” In the original song, after singing the last chorus in English, they sing it again in Japanese (I think?). For this performance, they have the broadway dancers dressed as people from different countries sing the chorus in that country’s native language. Then there is some choreographed dance they do while the band leaves and re-emerges in a flying hot dog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkgwhc3cSh0
Hope you all enjoy this one!
Dan's Phish Blog 