Charismatic start with plenty more in the bag! Bodes well.... Lots of microjams & fun pockets of looseness. Going out early & often, the band is loving their sound right now. A strong song selection deems a solid 4/5

Highlights include all of first set can't ask for much more. S2 wave of hope and all 2nd set segues. Simple getting deep is fun

I'm just a big fan of the sport

S1 Highlights: Wolfman’s Brother, Steam, Stash, SOAM.

S2 Highlights: A Wave of Hope > It’s Ice, Simple.

This was a strong opener for four nights at The Garden. Set 1 was about as good as it gets. Powerful jamming right from the start, and really solid song selection. The Wolfman’s jam kicked things off with a bang. Tela being sprinkled for a cooldown was the extra mustard needed. Then Stash and SOAM close out with beefy and trippy jams (respectively).

Set 2 struggled to find its footing with song selection much like has happened in Summer ‘22. But the Wave of Hope jam is nothing to gloss over, and the segue into It’s Ice was perfect. Simple got super weird which I loved, and how can you not like a Hood closer?

Overall, uncharacteristically strong start to the 4 night run. I’m sure there won’t be so many tickets on the ground for the remainder of the run with the way they’re playing.

SET 1: Buried Alive: Intro is sloppy. It’s fine after that. Love this to open the run. Clear intent.

Wolfman's Brother: Thick funk followed by a major key jam. To bad they didn’t continue down the funk path and taken it down a dark path.

Maze: Not a big fan of the talk singing implemented by Trey. Standard version and well played.

Sigma Oasis: Blissy jam until the late 7’s when things finally get interesting and intense. Nice, hard edge developed in the mid 8’s. This peters out in the early 9’s and a spacy jam laden with effects is explored. Solid jam, would relisten. >

NICU: Bit of clunky transition into NICU. Standard version.

Steam: Standard.

Tela: Struggle city for Trey at the end.

Stash: The composed section just seems tentative and too slow. Things start to get interesting in a dark way around 7:24. Nice! Really nice picking from Trey through most of the 9’s. But by the late 9’s, this is unfortunately getting into bliss territory. The 3.0 crutch rears it’s ugly head. Huge major key peaks ensue for the next 4 minutes and then Trey very awkwardly forces everyone into the ending.

Split Open and Melt: Trey and that vibrato stuff in the pre-jam vocal section. LOL. 8 minutes in and I just want to end this. So bad. Trey trying to transition the band back into the proper ending at 11:05 is just horrendous.

SET 2: Free: Trey, stop with the vibrato singing. It’s not good, buddy. And a botched lyric. The slow Your Pet Cat teases were cool. >

A Wave of Hope: Pretty solid jam, has some length to it for sure. I like Mike’s meatballs in the last few minutes. Great segue into… ->

It's Ice: The composed section leading into the jam is slow and tentative, sloppy in parts. The ‘jam’ is 20 seconds? A couple of samples, couple of loops and then back into the song proper ending. >

Leaves: Standard, was hoping for another version like Jones Beach but it was not to be. >

Simple: All effects, no substance. ->

Plasma: One of the shortest renditions of this tune you will ever hear. Cool segue into… ->

Twist: Late in the 5’s sounds odd, someone is in the wrong key. Like Plasma, this is a throw away version. Like they didn’t have a plan and were winging it. >

Harry Hood: Standard and very short.

ENCORE: Esther: In the 132 times it has been played, it has only been in the encore slot twice and both times were in the 3.0 era. Trey doing the vibrato thing here is just too funny. SleeeeEEEEEEeeeeeEEEEEPPPPppppPPPPP. Technically speaking, this version is mostly flub free and Trey nails the outro. >

46 Days: Standard.

Replay value/Summary: Sigma Oasis, A Wave of Hope. Show is mostly a paper tiger. I would rate it as a 3.6 out of 5.

2022 NYE run is my first couch tour so I figured I would write a review after every show for the funnies. Last night’s show was a great start to kick off the run.

Set 1: Maze was an absolute highlight. Gave me dead and co vibes with the tempo lmao but trey was doing some really cool comping during page’s solo and he blasted off during his solo. NICU was great. Steam great. Stash went into some weird major thing before peaking and coming back down to familiar Stash territory. Melt had a cool evil robot jam to close things out.

Set 2: I wasn’t as big a fan of set 2 as set 1 but there were still highlights, specifically in the second half. The transitions in the Plasma -> Twist > Harry Hood were really strong in a night with some mildly rough ripcords and song switches. They were having some fun with the Twist ending which picked the energy back up going into a smooth Harry Hood. It’s Ice was also a nice touch.

Esther was an unexpected and cool encore and they honestly could’ve ended there but they said F the curfew and played a ripping 46 Days which was sick. Overall, the show was great with a few inconsistencies which is to be expected the first night of any run. Love this band and can’t wait to see what they come up with tonight.

3.5/5

Great show, and a fantastic start to the New Years Run. Set 1 is highlighted by another awesome Sigma, and the first ever Stash/Melt pairing, which paid off in spades. Stash flys into major key bliss, climaxing in jubilation. The Melt on the other hand is a rampaging beast from hell - another abstract/noise/chaos version that gets 2 thumbs up from me.

Set 2 starts with a solid Free. The following WOH>Ice>Leaves>Simple>Plasma>Twist>Hood flows like a fever dream. Risky/knotty/trust fall improv - while not super deep, it’s all of a piece. Great, great start to this run.

A rather strong start. Set 1 was well played and well constructed. Melt, as has been the case with most recent versions, is MUST HEAR stuff. Set 2 is solid. A Wave of Hope was phenomenal, Leaves was placed perfectly, and Simple is also not to be missed. Unfortunately, as has been the case with multiple great 2022 shows people seem to be tanking show ratings. I could be totally wrong. Regardless, great show, excited for tomorrow.

Charismatic start with plenty more in the bag! Bodes well.... Lots of microjams & fun pockets of looseness. Going out early & often, the band is loving their sound right now. A strong song selection deems a solid 4/5

Highlights include all of first set can't ask for much more. S2 wave of hope and all 2nd set segues. Simple getting deep is fun

I'm just a big fan of the sport

Night 1 of MSG started the run off well. First set highlights were sigma, stash and soam. The latter of which was downright evil. The "evil" phish folks had to have enjoyed this show.

2nd set even better. A wave of hope had a great jam and also had the best transition of the night into its ice - for me the highlight of the entire show. Simple got dark and tasty too. Plasma was played pretty perfectly.

Overall super solid show that probably deserves 4 stars.

I placed headphones on as set one began and drifted off into the hypnagagic realm. I awoke as a shrunken version of myself and was being buried alive by a giant creature that looked like a close relative of the wolf. With gargantuan paws and sinister laughs, the behemoth was pouring earth over me trying to kill me. Thanks to my shrunken state and relative lightness, I was able to float my way out. I scurried through the darkness and found myself wound up in a giant maze. Its walls were hundreds of feet tall, climbing with ivy over the concrete monstrosities. I fumbled through the shifting corridors, chasing a faint signaling and lucked upon the center where I encountered a beautiful oasis. At the center of the center of the oasis, a slight rocky tower appeared and atop it was a button inscribed with markings. As I climbed the tower and drew closer, I saw that the button read "And I See You!" I looked around and upon yonder precipice I saw a women. But curiosity overcame me and I pressed the button which caused Steam to rise from the ground. I was engulfed and could not find my way. As the steam shifted around, I saw the women standing above, screaming to me that she had to tell me something. I assumed it was not to press the button. I watched as she reached her hand into a carry all bag wrapped around her and grabbed from her stash 7 large lindt lindor truffles the size of basketballs. With all her might she threw them down to me. But as they flew through the air, the wrapping became undone and they split open and melted before they could reach me. I was doused with their chocolatey center.

Draped in chocolate, I waited for the steam to clear, noticing that the women was gone. The walls of the maze shook violently and began to crash down around me. At last I was free thanks to a giant wave of hope that thundered through. This wave gave way to supersonic energy and mixing with the lingering steam, froze everything around me. "Its Ice!" I exclaimed and began to skate across the pond, stuck with frozen ivy leaves; those that had settled from the crashing walls of the maze. As I drifted across the frozen tundra, a simple crack in the ice gave way to sonic brilliance and then to molten plasma rising through the twisting ice. As the plasma reacted with the ice, it formed into a milky color. I was struggling with the ice, but I threw up my hood to warm my ears. I could feel good about the hood.

Through the churning of plasma across the ice, the milk became cream and then butter, and solidified. At last, I was back on solid ground when I felt a tiny tugging at my leg, and it was the Armenian man's doll, back from the abyss. Clutching to my leg, it wriggled up to my ear, whispering that all would be right again in 4 to 6 days. My Soul was Grateful!