New Year's Eve 1993, Live At Worcester Centrum

Phish's first show at Worcester Centrum, a 14,800-capacity hockey arena, was their fifth annual New Year’s Eve show. They played at the World Trade Center Exhibition Hall in Boston in 1989 and 1990, the Worcester New Aud in 1991, and Matthews Arena at Northeastern University in Boston in 1992. At nearly double the size of Matthews Arena, this was the band’s biggest headline gig, with the other three shows on the ’93 holiday tour ranging between 6,000 and 11,500 capacity. Phish added new sounds to their sonic palette that year and spent the fall recording their fifth studio album, ‘Hoist’, so they were armed with a fresh batch of sounds and material. Tickets cost $22.50 and the show was sold out. Mail-order Tapers’ tickets (the only mail-order tickets at this time) had been added for the 1993 holiday tour, formalizing the fan recording and sharing of live performances that had long been a part of Phish shows. The stage set for the entire 4-show 1993 holiday tour was an aquarium, complete with seaweed, rocks, swimming fish and a giant clam built by Chris McGregor and J.W. Nickel of Rocket Science. The New Year’s Eve show was recorded multi-track on 2” reels in a GBH Mobile remote truck and was broadcast live (and rebroadcast the following day) on WBCN 104.1 FM Boston. Peaches en Regalia showed up throughout the holiday tour, and as a show-long theme song on New Year's Eve in memory of Frank Zappa, who had passed on December 4th. Worcester set I highlights included a Llama opener and a hot Stash. Ginseng Sullivan was performed in an acoustic configuration with Trey on acoustic guitar, Mike on upright bass, Page on piano and Fish on Madonna washboard. A soaring Reba led to the tour’s third Peaches en Regalia – a Zappa cover that had disappeared from the repertoire until Frank’s passing. Run Like An Antelope saw Tom Marshall on guest vocals delivering the first line he ever wrote for a Phish song, "Rye Rye Rocco, Marco Esquandolas, Been you to have any spike, Mon?". Set II opened with Tweezer > Halley’s Comet and continued with It's Ice, which had an extended Peaches en Regalia tease. Fee began with another Peaches tease and transitioned into Possum, with more Peaches teases. At the end of You Enjoy Myself (after the vocal jam), the band donned wetsuits and announced a “little excursion” before launching a Phish Aquarium soundscape that spanned the setbreak in their first elaborate New Year’s Eve gag. Underwater sound effects and band dialog signaled the start of Set III, beginning with the band "diving" into the onstage aquarium and climbing into the giant clam, which snapped shut on them. As midnight approached, the clam rose off the stage and began to shake during the countdown to 1994 before erupting into a sea of confetti, light and sound at midnight. The band reappeared playing Auld Lang Syne, leading to the first Down With Disease Jam during which Fish's old friend Peter Becker (who resembled Frank Zappa) paraded across the stage to usher in the New Year before a fiery Split Open And Melt. Suzy Greenberg contained more Peaches en Regalia teases and led to a Fishman Cracklin’ Rosie segment before a superlative Harry Hood with Auld Lang Syne teases, and finally Tweezer Reprise to close. As the band returned for an encore, Trey thanked the crowd for ten years of Phish and wished for ten more to come. The ‘New Year’s Eve 1993” box set captures Phish at a crossroads of their career in their biggest New Year’s Eve show at the time. It was recorded by Paul Languedoc to multitrack, mixed by Jon Altschiller, and mastered by Fred Kevorkian for CD/Digital and Chris Bellman for vinyl. This collection is the first time a live Phish show has been released on both digital and vinyl simultaneously and is an ideal way to relive the peak celebration of seeing Phish on New Year’s Eve.