Tonight is the first of 13 concerts that Phish will play at NYC’s Madison Square Garden between now and August 6th. Over the next 17 days, Phish fans from all over the world will descend upon the Greatest Arena on Earth (MSG) for a historic run of concerts. Unfortunately, I will only be able to attend 5 of the 13 concerts myself. I’d hit all 13 if I still lived in the City, but that’s just not feasible for me on this run. I wanted to put together a quick list about why you should hit up one of the ‘Baker’s Dozen’ concerts for you bros out there who are on the fence about seeing your first Phish concerts, and for you seasoned veterans alike.
The idea to do some Phish blogging on this fine afternoon came to me when I was perusing ‘CashorTrade‘. If you bros aren’t familiar with CashorTade, it’s basically the answer to the shittiness of StubHub and other 3rd party/after market ticket vendors. As the name ‘CashorTrade’ implies, you’ve got two options paying cash for the FACE VALUE of tickets, or you can trade your concert tickets for someone else’s tickets on another night or in another location. If you are thinking of going to any of the 13 Phish concerts at MSG, you should 100% use CashorTrade to ensure you won’t pay over face value…After all, the CashorTrade motto is ‘Embrace the Face’.
Before I start ranting too much, let’s check out 13 reasons you should go to at least one of the 13 ‘Baker’s Dozen’ Phish concerts at MSG:
1.) Madison Square Garden will be bouncing, literally. This isn’t just a ‘Bouncing ‘Round The Room’ reference. When Phish gets rocking, all 21,000 fans in Madison Square Garden start dancing like there’s no tomorrow. This literally causes the arena to bounce up and down. If you’ve never experience MSG rocking to a 2nd set ‘Carini’ or ‘Crosseyed and Painless’ opener then you need to get your ass in the arena and prepare to be amazed.
2.) The potential of ‘No Repeats’. Over the years, Phish has played thousands of different songs and teases. There are some songs they haven’t played in over 1,000 concerts. This band has the musical repertoire to play 13 concerts in a row at Madison Square Garden without playing any song twice. We’ll know in just a few short days if they plan on doing this. I’ve seen them play 285 songs over my past 65 shows and I’ve only seen a fraction of what the boys from Vermont have busted out. Seeing the band go 13 nights without playing any repeats would be unprecedented, and if it happens on this run it’s almost assuredly never going to happen again.
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3.) Billy Joel is 100% making a guest appearance… Over the past few years, a lot has been made over Billy Joel allegedly calling Phish a ‘second rate cover band’. Billy was supposedly angry that Phish had booked the Madison Square venue for New Year’s Eve before he had the chance. After those comments, Phish came out for 4-nights at MSG and didn’t play any cover songs. A lot of fans still talk about the Billy Joel-Phish beef, and this almost assuredly means that Billy’s going to make a guest appearance one of the nights and perform a ‘Piano Man’ encore with Phish. The only way you’re going to see this historical guest appearance is to go see one of the concerts.
4.) There’s a limited-edition ‘Baker’s Dozen’ flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream just for this run of 13 concerts: ‘Freezer Reprise’. The name is a nod to one of Phis’s best songs, ‘Tweezer Reprise’, and all proceeds from this limited-edition flavor will benefit the Waterwheel Foundation, Phish’s charity that takes care of Lake Champlain in Vermont:
Ben & Jerry’s makes the best ice cream on the planet. The Waterhweel Foundation is out there keeping Vermont’s biggest lake pristine. Everything about this is awesome.
5.) You can find some pretty heady gear at the shows. The bros over at Pesca Muerta are releasing some special edition Phish patterns for the ‘Baker’s Dozen’ run:
You can also track down these donut suits from The Doughnut Project:
6.) There’s a different donut flavor for every night. Tonight’s donut flavor is Coconut. If you’re a donut addict then this is a dream come true:
Unrelated: Phish really shit the bed and chose a donut theme instead of iconic NYC bagels. Sure, Jon Fishman has the iconic donut pattern on his getup but they could’ve easily made bagels of the same shape. NYC is famous for bagels, not donuts. BAGELS.
7.) This will be the biggest party in America for the next two weeks. With 21,000 fans packing into MSG every night for 13 concerts that’s 273,000 people attending the concerts. A conservative estimate would say the average Phish fan is going to drink 4 beers at each concert (that number is probably A LOT higher). That means over 1 million beers will be drunk inside of MSG. No party in America, or anywhere else in the world, can compete with that.
8.) You will see the greatest lights show on planet earth. People love to jerk it over how great the lights are at EDM concerts but they have nothing on CK5. Chris Kuroda is the best lights man in the music industry. He’s going to pull out all the stops for this run and it’s going to literally fry hippie’s minds. Need a little taste of what’s to come? Check it:
9.) There’s a decent chance you’ll hear Phish play a song from your favorite artists. Over the years Phish has sampled/covered countless other musicians. The vault of songs is going to be swung wide open. We’ll hear Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Beatles, and a shit ton of other artists covered on this run.
10.) Air Conditioned Phish concerts are the BEST Phish concerts… It’s hotter than balls all across America right now. I haven’t even been outside today because I’ll lose 5-pounds in sweat by the time I make it to the end of my driveway. Typically, Phish Summer Tour involves large, outdoor amphitheaters that are hotter than hell. These 13 concerts will take place within the comfort of the most famous arena on the planet, Madison Square Garden. If you want to see Phish in comfort, this is your chance.
11.) It’s really not expensive to get into these concerts. Sure, if you try and attend all 13 concerts you’ll end up spending a tiny fortune. But if you want to pay face value at CashorTrade for one night of tickets you won’t spend a lot of money at all…And that’s good, you want to save money to spend on beers once you’re in the venue.
12.) You’ll learn more about wooks in one night than you have in your entire life. Spend the night talking to ‘wooks‘ and you’ll learn the names of drugs you didn’t even know existed. Ingratiate yourself with this brand of hippies and you’ll find yourself picking up hippie lingo that would impress Shakespeare.
13.) Phish is playing as good as they ever have in over 30 years of making music. Older wooks love to talk about 1997 as the best year of Phish’s career, but the best year of Phish’s career is any year and every year. The best Phish concert you’ve ever been to is your next one. They always keep you coming back for more because, like a fine wine, the band has only gotten better with age.
Need some proof that Phish is just as good today as they’ve ever been? Check it:
Ready to pick up some tickets and surrender to the flow? We’re right back where this all started, with me telling you bros about ‘CashorTrade‘. Just follow that link and scoop up your tickets without getting screwed over on the secondary market.