Performance: Phish February 23, 1995 - Rolling Stone by Paul Robicheau Boston Garden, Dec. 31, 1994 ECCENTRIC STAGE PRESENCE: AND ROCKsolid musicianship earned Phish their rabid regional following; now the cult has mushroomed beyond all proportion. Without the benefit of radio airplay, this Vermont band sold out New York's Madison Square Garden the night before New Year's Eve and then filled its New England home court for this loopy holiday bacchanal. Clad in wet suits, the scruffy quartet took the stage against an aquarium backdrop. Assisted by men in rocket-scientist lab coats, Phish climbed into a jumbo hot dog for a carnivallike ride over the audience, playing "Auld Lang Syne" and tossing confetti at midnight. They also covered the Beatles' White Album -- in its entirety. Clowning is Phish's only real concession to the mainstream. Nearly three hours long, this show comprised mostly unrecorded material (nothing at all from the recent album Hoist); cover versions spanned Frank Zappa's "Peaches En Regalia," Son Seals' "Funky Bitch" and the bluegrass standard "Old Home Place." Every Phish tune follows a similar, twisted path, branching out from Trey Anastasio's Santana-derived guitar coils into the cosmos. Apart from the venerable Grateful Dead, no arena band soars so freely about the astral blues-rock plane. The downside is the relentlessly silly lyrics and periodic spurts of off-key singing. Phish played to their frat-house fans' hormones in "Mike's Song" when Anastasio and bassist Mike Gordon jammed fiercely while pogoing on trampolines. Then the band slid into an a cappella Hebrew folk song -- Jerry Garcia can't do that. This performance was recorded for posterity in the form of a live album, and that's the right idea. Unsurprisingly, the Phish phenomenon can't be nailed down in a recording studio.