Dear Forum,

I have sat back for the past 3 days reading .net and PT forum comments on the NYE run, as well as Miners recollection of the events. I attended the 28th, 30th, and 31st and what I can tell you is that it was the most unprofessional performances of any live act I have ever seen. Don’t get my wrong as a phish aficionado there was no other place in the world I would have preferred to be on 12/31 than in MSG and I had a wonderful time with my girl and the great people around me, but fact of the matter is I felt extremely disrespected by the whole series of events.

Phish at MSG is supposed to be one of the greatest spectacles in live music, and I left the build with a forced smile and a head full of confusing thoughts….not the ideal way to start the New Year. The Phish “gag” I thought was very original and funny, and to be honest I thought the set list wasn’t bad. What dismayed me was the playing and the bands overall attitude. I though the 28th was slammin, but the rest of the shows (sans the 29th) was an utter mess. I found it strange when trey added shows to his solo run, then the unexpected 4 symphony shows had me thinking “when is the band going to make time to practice?” However, with technology like it is, I figured they could dial on to skype and practice that way….that apparently did not happen. A lot of people have been talking about flubs and this and that. What I heard from this run was not just flubs, but four musicians that seemed to not have practiced together in four months, and it showed.

When I bought my tickets for the summer the end of the details noted that phish did not expect to play again for the rest of the year. This holiday run took everyone by surprise and I suspect it was to gain money lost from superball. I read somewhere that they expected 70,000 to 80,000 thousand people and got somewhere around 35,000. Whatever the reason why there was a holiday run only Phish knows, but from what I can tell the only people who wanted to be there was the fans.

What shocks me even more is that fans are not only accepting the performances but defending Phish, and Trey in general. As a die hard fan I was left very disenchanted. And I know that they are not passed it because I went to Superball and it was 4 days of ambient bliss. What occurred this past weekend was laziness and unprofessional. A Phish run is expensive, not only cost of tickets but travel, food and lodging, especially in NYC around NYE, and I feel that Phish has screwed over its loyal fans once again. (see Coventry and Vegas 04).

For those who read this is, it is not whether or not I had a good time, but we as the fans, who spend our hard earned money and go through the high stress of trying to procure these highly sought after tickets deserve better than what we got. It was like going to the ballet and watching the performers walk around.

-A broken Phish fan

p.s. The only shinning point all week was Page who is in the form of his life..

Well, I guess this just means one less person to fight over for tickets when the lottery goes up in a few months. Works for me.

A very honest and ballsy comment and I feel there is alot if truth to what you are saying but this is a fan based forum and some .netters don't get the music fully. But I like how more and more members are coming out to say this. I don't see this becoming an issue they all have alot going in and they will find a way to make there quite golden age work. I have the most faith in the band. The biggest this I agree with is the ticket price and stage that was set (nye at MSG) I would love to see phish more but seeing a run is hard esp trying to get face value.

Edit- your story is just a bit over the top dramatic. Slightly

You should have gone to the Miner book signing!

I don't think any of the shows were as bad as fans are making them and I still had a blast. Forget about all the flubs, miscues, poor song placement, "short" versions, etc. I said in another thread the only issue was the band seemed to have spent little or no time practicing. This by itself caused the issues. I will still go to shows and still have a great time. I encourage everyone to relisten to these shows. They are better than many think.

If you can heal the symptoms but not affect the cause.....

Hey, this isnt worth neg voting. Dude/chick is entitled to his/her opinion. I'd like to see the thread stay open to see if s/he will defend some of those statements.

themomadance03 clearly didn't see the Dead in the '90s.

In order to think you could practice say Fluff or Guyute over skype pretty much shows you're not that on top of what it takes to play as well as they did. You don't just nail that shit without serious work. YEM too.

Would like to know what your concert experience is to make a statement like "most unprofessional performance".

::also feels trolled while hitting add comment button::

Is this the review for the biscuits run?

The most unprofessional live show you've ever seen? Really? You need to see more shows by other bands. I once saw Ryan Adams so drunk he forgot what song he was playing so he just aborted it and left stage.

@joyjoy said:

@hova1 said:

Not sure OP should get voted down for expressing an unpopular opinion.

Definitely not, but calling them unprofessional money-grubbers is trollish and fair game for a -1.

Unless OP believes they are unprofessional money grubbers. That's an (unpopular) opinion. It would be trolling if OP was just trying to get a reaction---and maybe he/she is, but I'm willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt.

@johnnyd said:

I don't care what you're old man thinks, tell him to get out there and try draggin Walton's ass up and down the court for 48 minutes every night.

Do you ever watch gladiator movies?

I thought everything was fine. You know what they say: See a broad to get dat booty yak'em...leg'er down and smack 'em yak'em...Shiiiiit.

@themomadance03 said:

-A broken Phish fan

I find this to be the funniest part of OP's post.

Attended all four shows. I think the band accomplished exactly what they set out to do: throw a four night rock party. All of their non-slow songs took on a heavy heavy rock concert feel - much more so than normal. The band seemed to say that, for these four nights, forget spacy jams and taking our music to new places and lets the rock the crap out of the place. They did that.

Now, I think the run ranks low overall to other holiday runs. I agree that they could have easily been any shows from the middle of a tour. But, I know what I saw in that room....18,000+ bobbing at once. I know that I felt that ground shaking in virtually every NYE song....I think the band accomplished what they wanted to....its just not what some people on here wanted it to be. Went back and listened to the four night run and I really feel many are being to hard on it.

Hey, this isnt worth neg voting. Dude/chick is entitled to his/her opinion. I'd like to see the thread stay open to see if s/he will defend some of those statements.

Agree'd, if it is s/he's truth then so be it. Let's not confuse opinion for fact, something I've heard A LOT over the past few days. Sorry you were so disappointed OP, I'm sure you'll give them another chance to impress you.

I think the bummer was that Phish usually caters to all types of fans. I.e. a number of hard shorter rockers, and then some (usually second set) longer improvisational/creative sets. I think this run had very little of the later. This created an imbalance for a lot of fans, who ended up disappointed. The rockers rocked really hard, and that was good. They should rock really hard. But the improvisational numbers should be given as much attention for what they are. A chance to sit back and see what develops. This just didn't happen. It didn't take away from the rockers, it just left a big gap (IMO). I've never been more disappointed to hear Theme. It just felt so aborted so many times. Maybe so of us will simply need to change our expectations. Once again, that's a bummer. But such is mango I suppose....

@morning_dew said:

themomadance03 clearly didn't see the Dead in the '90s.

Just hope @MJZ1974 doesn't read this ... I smell a '90s WMW tomorrow!

Trey was busy working with the National...

@Sprachtor said:

Trey was busy working with the National...

Exactly. What was he thinking, he had a New Year's Run to prepare for.

You seem to be missing the idea of Phish all together. An orchastra plays exact notes and versions of things with precise planning and can duplicate everything, everytime. The opposite of that would be Phish, who doesn't know how they are getting from one song to another until it starts happening but Treys really sorry about missing those notes. So very unprofessional of him.

Somebody please post a picture of Trey flipping this guy/girl off. I don't know how to do pictures.

::embarrassed over internet inabilities::

I'm sorry to quibble, but orchestras absolutely do not play duplicate performances. Of course I get your point: orchestras don't spontaneously jam but play music that is written down. But each performance is unique and to a trained classical ear performances--of the same piece by the same orchestra--can be radically different at different times. (And, though I don't want to get into it here, one of the complaints about this NYE run is that Phish neither jammed spontaneously nor appeared to be particularly well rehearsed.)

I do get your point! Personally, i don't mind the so-called 'flubs' at all. Maybe it was years of watching the Dead, when people would mostly laugh them off, at least until the last few years when they became painful. I'd much rather have Phish try and fail than play it safe.

The only reason I was feeling a little let down on the 30th was my own fault...I drove up to see one show and it was going to be my first time in MSG....a place where they boys could almost do no wrong. What got me most was just song selection and set building, and these are things that are all matter of personal preference. The first set and therefore the whole vibe of thow just never got off to a solid footing to me that night..some days I just don't feel like hearing another Golgi or a BDTNL....but other days in the right place in the set and in my own mind I will rage it the f*** out. the flubs.... Flubs happen... ..I still walked out of the show with a grin from ear to ear.... They did set the bar high for all of us in a way with an amazing summer of music....and some of that beauty was in the garden those nights.... Piper was gorgeous....simple lifeboy...ditto....Julius was fantastic...CDT Hydro..unexpected and wonderful.Some days you win some when everything fits your mood..song selection, beautiful mind bending jams, the crowd around you, party favors in your head....they all tie in together. Then there are the other days where you don't win, but i think that we all can agree that we never really loose at phish.

@bostonron said:

this just means one less person to fight over for tickets

Absolutely! Not tryin to be a jerk, I just thought these were 4 really solid shows (of course I enjoyed some nights/sets/songs more than others) and can't wait to see more.

::crosses fingers & hopes more people hated the run so bad they don't try for tix::