December 31st, 2014 was my first New Years Eve in warm climes – Miami in this case – and I hope it won’t be my last. I’ve spent one Christmas in warm weather, again in Florida, and while that was a great holiday I wouldn’t want to do it that way every year. Christmas just screams silent, snowy nights with Jack Frost nipping at noses but New Years Eve? Not so much.

Of course m’lady and I were in town for Phish. We were staying at the ultra-high class Intercontinental Hotel just a short walk from the venue. We went to Versailles for lunch (though Versailles is pretty much the most famous Cuban restaurant outside of Cuba it’s still Cuban food, which just isn’t overly flavourful) and brought some treats from their adjoining bakery/sweet shop back to the hotel.

We made the rounds meeting up with friends as they landed in town and checked into their own rooms. This was a bit of an odd run, in that NYE was the first of the four-night run instead of the last but everyone was pretty much in agreement that it could only be a good thing: with the big show coming up first at least everyone would be well-rested for it.

We had arrived in Miami without tickets to any of the shows. It’s not that tickets had been hard to come by, just the opposite. There were so many signs pointing to soft ticket sales we decided to take our chances on finding cheap tickets in the lot, and we were right. In shorts and a t-shirt and with a can of beer in my hand I scored a pair of NYE Phish tickets (well, two singles) out front of the venue for $10 each in no time flat. I feel I overpaid, but was still quite pleased with my purchase.

Inside we were treated to three great sets of music. I think anyone who was in the room specifically to witness one of the band’s famous NYE gags in person might have been disappointed. Instead of Cirque du Soleil-like acrobats descending from the ceiling or driving onstage in golf carts and pelting balls into the audience we got an inflatable Fishman flying from the stage to the ceiling. The gag had the drummer playing a vacuum solo when the switch on the vacuum cleaner accidentally gets flicked from “suck” to “blow”. Though the plastic inflatable was probably forty feet tall it looked pretty underwhelming floating through the cavernous room.

As uninspired as the schtick was the music was great, and every great song that the band didn’t play just meant it was still on the table for one of the coming three shows. That’s one of the great things about seeing one of these no-repeat bands on a multi-night run. Every song is an event that won’t come again and is generally appreciated as such, and there’s no disappointment if you didn’t hear your favourite song. It’s becomes a delayed-gratification thing.

After the show it was such a great feeling to walk out of the venue in shorts and a t-shirt and continue the New Years Eve celebration outside on a lovely warm evening. That is something I could get used to in a hurry.

Take that Jack Frost.

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