Review: A 12/30 Show For The Ages

It all started on a cold winter night in Springfield, Massachusetts seventeen years ago, when Phish dusted off Timber Ho! and Ride Captain Ride to treat some of their die-hard fans to a special concert on the night before New Year's. Ever since that time, December 30th has been the Phish national holiday - a night when you can expect bust outs and jams galore, a tradition that continued in a big way at the American Airlines Arena last night in Miami where Phish blew their proverbial load multiple times on December 30.

Usually an opener gives you some sort of sense of where things are going and the first Soul Shakedown Party of 3.0 told us to fasten our seat belts. It was the first of SEVEN bust outs the band would drop in the opening stanza, an unheard of figure. The venue was more crowded on night three so the roars the band would get as they broke something out would be extremely loud, something that seemed to push the band to greater heights. After the Soul Shakedown, Runaway Jim opener we got our second cover of the night courtesy of ZZ Top - an intense Jesus Just Left Chicago that gave Trey and Page large windows of opportunity to show off their skills. Trey in particular seemed to really enjoy toying with the tempo during his solo. Mike Gordon has been going long with some of his 2009 cover selections including She Still Thinks I Care by George Jones in Hampton and When The Cactus Is In Bloom by Bill Monroe in Asheville. Tonight's random Mike cover was the rollicking Dixie Cannonball by Hank Williams Sr. and it added to the madness we were witnessing. We were only four songs into the set and we'd seen three bust outs. READ ON for more...