Phish, image via YouTube
Phish took the stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden last night to ring in 2026 with a grand finale to their New Year’s Eve residency. The groundbreaking jamband’s year-end series is unquestionably among their most beloved traditions, and the 18th annual run sustained a reputation for unpredictable and rewarding performances with three packed sets, with a twist. The group’s highly anticipated thematic gag to cap off the year was an electrifyingly nonsensical tribute to dairy, precipitated by a sweet second-set segue from “It’s Ice” to “Cream.”
After three glorious performances on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Phish’s final sold-out show at The Garden was guaranteed to bring out the best in the four-decade quartet, who started strong with an opening “Free.” After nine minutes in the blissful Billy Breathes standard, the band worked through a first frame populated only by standalone treatments, though 10 minutes in the famously meticulous and ornate “Stash,” and 16 minutes of looming, frantic jams and unexpectedly serene clearings in “My Friend, My Friend,” gave the band a chance to stretch out. Other staples like “Kill Devil Falls,” “More” and “Monsters” blazed a trail to the funky and propulsive closing anthem of “Life Saving Gun.”
Though not yet at the evening’s main event, Phish’s second set served up some of the most satisfying improvisation of their four-night MSG run, beginning with a killer medley of “Sand,” “Fuego” and “No Men in No Man’s Land” that clocked in just past 33 minutes in all. A towering take on “What’s Going Through Your Mind” quickly departed from its typical strong structure for yet another foray into type two territory, and the group did it again through 21 minutes of “You Enjoy Myself,” clearly delighting in an early acrobatic major key movement, the fan-favorite vocal jam and one last explosive instrumental section.
The tone of Phish’s New Year’s Eve performance took a turn when the band neared the end of an unconventionally placed “It’s Ice”: during the metronomic “tick-tock” breakdown, through a dense fog, a lone milkman wandered out to center stage and began rattling an oversized cowbell. While the group worked up momentum again, their unexplained guest, whose white jumpsuit was emblazoned with an “It’s Ice Cream” patch, paced back and forth before finally counting off and setting the pace for a live debut of Prince’s 1991 hit “Cream.” “It’s Ice” > “Cream.” Nice.
While speculation ran rampant during the second set break of the show, attendees were treated to a mix of intermission songs that played on the theme, including Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice,” Wu Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.,” Herb Alpert’s “Whipped Cream,” Beck’s “Peaches & Cream” and Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby.” Phish kept up the dairy allusions by returning to the stage with “Harry Hood,” during which the milkman called up few costume cows. As the band came to the chorus and the crowd at The Garden called out “Where do you go when the lights go out?,” the house lights switched off for a moment.
When the stage was illuminated again, it was lined with dancers in massive milk cartons, who swayed and shuffled around as an even larger carton descended from the ceiling to pour out a billowing white sheet. The fabric streamed across the stage from left to right, and as it passed the dancers, they cast off their containers to reveal matching flowy white garments. A fluid, dreamy scene of choreography bubbled up as the band navigated a joyful jam, then two more milkmen moved in a freezer that the dancers dove into to make their exit. From a joyful confusion of brooms and puppets, the band capped off their high-production song at 14 minutes.
After a roar of applause, the excitement continued with a shuffling, funky take on “Also Sprach Zarathustra” buoyed by Mike Gordon’s slippery basslines, which naturally platformed further antics. A progression of giant ice-creams were lifted from the freezer in time with the band’s noticeable improvisational peaks, and when Trey Anastasio moved over to the drums and Page McConnell laid sown some retro sci-fi synth tones, Jon Fishman donned a helmet and dove into the freezer. At 10 seconds to midnight, the milkmen led a launch countdown, which culminated in the ascent of a giant rocket-pop, mounted by a fake Fishman, Dr. Strangelove style. Confetti cannons shot out across the arena, and the remaining trio marked the passage of another year with a transition into “For Auld Lang Syne.”
While 2025 had come to an end, Phish’s New Year’s Eve celebration was just beginning. The inevitable “Tweezer” that came on seamlessly was alternatingly cold, cold, cold and red hot; through more than half an hour of dynamic jamming, the band was undeterred by the dancers from previous New Year’s Eve celebrations who emerged from the freezer to sing the lyrics in other languages and do the “Meatstick” dance. A quick pivot to “Piper” preceded an appropriately anthemic set closer of “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.”
One last intermission gave the quartet a chance to slip away and return for their encore in matching milkman jumpsuits and hats. The bandmates stood together at center stage to sing an a cappella debut treatment of “Sincere” from The Music Man, then snuck in another crowd pleaser with the live rarity “Spock’s Brain,” debuted back in ‘95 and dormant since July 2019 (keen-eyed fans saw some foreshadowing in a mock “missing” graphic on the side of the largest milk carton). Finally, to punctuate another year of tremendous musical achievement, Phish concluded with an exhilarating “Tweezer Reprise.”
Get an inside look at Wednesday’s show in the fan-recorded videos below, and stream an official recording at livephish.com. Read on for the complete setlist.
Phish
Madison Square Garden
12/31/25
Set I: Free, Birds of a Feather, Bouncing Around the Room, Stash, Waste, My Friend, My Friend, A Life Beyond The Dream, Kill Devil Falls, More, Monsters, Life Saving Gun
Set II: Sand > Fuego > No Men In No Man’s Land, What’s Going Through Your Mind, You Enjoy Myself, It’s Ice > Cream[1]
Set III: Harry Hood, Also Sprach Zarathustra[2] > Auld Lang Syne > Tweezer[3] > Piper > Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.
Encore: Sincere[1], Spock’s Brain > Tweezer Reprise
[1] Phish debut.
[2] Trey on drums.
[3] Lyrics sung in multiple languages.
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