Say what thou will about Phish, one of the all-time love-'em-or-hate-'em prospects in rock, but never accuse them of lacking a sense of humor. The jam band with the largest cult in possibly all of music unless we count the BTS fandom always pulls out some unexpected stops for their annual tradition of New Year's Eve shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and this time they weren't for the lactose-intolerant.

While the band has performed "Purple Rain" 32 times according to Rolling Stone, this was their first time attempting Prince's "Cream", and it was accompanied by someone dressed as an ice cream man on cowbell. During one of the set breaks, "Cold as Ice", "C.R.E.A.M.", "Whipped Cream", and "Ice Ice Baby" were some of the songs played over the venue system. For the evening's third set, they performed "Harry Hood", a tribute to the H.P. Hood dairy company's mascot, and suddenly the aisles were full of patrons in cow costumes and dancers dressed as milk cartons appeared on stage, eventually revealing they were sporting all-white outfits beneath the cartons. The band also returned dressed as ice cream men themselves to perform The Music Man's "Sincere" a cappella.

The band's only previous experience with this much dairy was their Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor, Phish Food, a pretty great one with the little fudgy fishes and all. Feel free to experience all this silliness below.

Brandon (@ernestanastacio.bsky.social)

Phish NYE gag very all in on It’s Ice, cream, hood(milk), tweezer (cold) and broadway like last year. Very puppies, puppies, kitties kitties, the right way!

Bluesky SocialBrandon