It took 13 consecutive shows for Phish to perform 237 songs at Madison Square Garden, with not a single repeat among them. It will take far longer than this Baker’s Dozen of shows to fully grasp the historic nature of this run of shows by Vermont’s famous quartet.
On the final night of Phish’s Baker’s Dozen of shows at The Garden, a Pink Glazed donut was the flavor du jour, tickets were nearly impossible to acquire and fans flocked inside early to get ready for the last night of bustouts, first time covers and extended jams that have been the hallmark of Phish’s residency. While the donut flavor did not directly correlate to anything performed during the show, the audience and band were both glazed with joy, reaching the end of this unprecedented run of shows.
The first set of the evening featured songs phans chase, including “Dogs Stole Things,” “Ha Ha Ha,” “Camel Walk,” and “Sanity,” among others. Vida Blue’s “Most Events Aren’t Planned” was a surprise cover, one of a handful that Phish learned in advance of the run. The long awaited bustout of Hendrix’s “Izabella” left many flat-footed with the original intro preceding the stand alone set closer, but once Trey kicked into familiar riff, the crowd cheers began to arise while some stood in disbelief and others with jaws dropped, as the cover shelved for 19 years finally made an appearance in the 25th set of the run.
Set 2 began with “Simple” which wandered past the 25 minute mark, nearly matching the Northerly Island jam from July 14, kicking off a five song set. The new tune “Rise/Come Together” had a powerful, unifying message tied within the ascending rocker, and was greeted by fans with cheers as the “Rise up…. Come Together” lyrics were matched with Chris Kuroda’s growing light show. Bowie’s “Starman” followed, only the second version since The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was covered in full last fall in Las Vegas.
“You Enjoy Myself” finally arrived, with all the pent up energy you would expect after nearly 2000 minutes of music, and the release on the lyric “Boy” was as powerful as it’s ever been. Prior to the vocal jam, Mike began to tease the “Izabella” bass line and instead of the usual vocal jam, Trey put his guitar back on and, began to jam back into “Izabella” on more time, one of those ‘Holy shit’ moments that kept happening night after night. The set was capped with The Rolling Stones’ “Loving Cup,” a perfect ending to the high energy, jam filled set.
For the encore, Trey choked back tears as he began Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again,” which was followed by Page leaving his key rig while the band kicked back into a jam on “Lawn Boy” that was last heard on July 25, jam-filled donut night. Page told the crowd “A lot of people have been asking me if this is still ‘Lawn Boy’…. It is,” referencing a fan made shirt that appeared only days after the half hour version of the typically standard three minute lounge singer tune.
The laughs that erupted from the audience were due in part to the band being in on the joke and the audience/band interaction solidified as the run came to a close. Page sang a few bars of “Lawn Boy” and while he retreated to his rig, Mike and Fishman laid down the opening bass and drums to “Weekapaug Groove” to fake out the audience (there would be NO repeats this run) before the final release of “Tweezer Reprise” was finally laid out for the fans.
Phish had done it – 13 consecutive shows, no repeats, over 200,000 tickets sold over the course of the run, and a gleeful crowd embracing the joy of the final night of a piece of music history. But most importantly, it was still ”Lawnboy.”
Setlist from Phish.net
Set 1: Dogs Stole Things, Rift, Ha Ha Ha, Camel Walk, Crazy Sometimes > Saw It Again > Sanity > Bouncing Around the Room,Most Events Aren’t Planned[1], Bug, I Been Around, Izabella
Set 2: Simple > Rise/Come Together > Starman, You Enjoy Myself, Loving Cup
Encore: On the Road Again > Lawn Boy Reprise > Tweezer Reprise
[1] Phish debut
The 
Other musical highlights included DJ Taz Rashid, DJ Drez, Breakneck Boys, Hayley Jane & the Primates, and the Garcia Project, all who had crossover sets / sit-ins with yoga classes (except for HJ&tP). Overall, I’m going to say the line-up was well balanced. I arrived fearing it would not be able to compete with last year’s combination of Pink Talking Fish, the Sensory Collective, and Turkuaz, but the variety mixed well, and my opinion changed by Monday morning. What also had changed by Monday morning was the name of the festival, which will be known as Ascend moving forward.
Without hesitation, I will attest to having heard this show many times. I own the box set and collected the bootlegs. But for a few hours last night, I hung on every note with anticipation of what was to come next. And that is the large part of the appeal, to what is, the expansive catalog of the Grateful Dead. Even after all these years and incarnations and cover bands and the like, there just might be something new around the corner when you least expect it.
The band only has a