Phish began a signature 2012 concert season in June in Worcester, MA (BOOGIE), took their halftime show to Dicks in Colorado (LIGHT) and closed up shop with a successful Garden Party (CARINI) in the Big Apple. Although the band didn’t offer a new original this year, they offered new ideas, covers, Kenny Rodgers, and stellar improv. Here’s a final rewind and some interesting stats compiled from ZZYZX and Phish.net that give a better glimpse into Phish’s successful 2012 including a few year-end awards we completely made-up for your enjoyment.

2012 Stats of Metal Tangle:

Total Phish Shows: 37

Total Unique Songs: 220

State w/ Most Shows: NEW YORK (9 Shows)

State Played for First time: OKLAHOMA

Most Played Songs: Backwards Down the # Line (13), Possum (13)

Seven songs were tied for second with 12x played.

Crowd Control, AC/DC Bag and Runaway Jim each Opened 3 shows.

Down with Disease opened the 2nd set 7 times.

Golden Age opened the 2nd set 5 times.

Tweezer Reprise encored 9 shows this year. Loving Cup was 2nd place with 5 encores.

Oddities:

Makisupa Policeman was played just once all year (6/8/12).

There were ZERO Col. Forbins or Fly Famous Mockingbirds played in 2012.

All Debuts (4) were Covers:

The Gambler (6/10/12)

Garden Party (12/31/12)

Fly Like an Eagle (12/31/12)

Iron Man (full performance) (12/31/12)

And the Winner is…

LMB’s Best Of Twenty-Twelve Awards:

Opener of the Year:

Skin it Back, Jones Beach (7/3/12)

Runner Up: Buried Alive, Worcester, MA (6/7/12)

*Update* After a re-count in January (suggested by @HeyScottyB and several others) we’ve adjusted the scoring to represent the obvious winner in “Skin it Back.”

Best Use of Lightsaber:

Trey “I Am Your Father” Anastasio during “Maze” in Porstmouth, VA (6/19/12)

Best Set of the Year:

BGC3 / Set II (8/19/12)

Best Segment of the Year

Ghost -> Boogie -> If I Could from Worcester, MA (6/7/12)

Runner Up: Light -> Manteca -> Light from Atlantic City (6/16/12)

Best Animal Song w/ Type II:

Birds of a Feather in Atlantic City (6/14/12).

Jam of the Year:



Distant Runner-up: Carini (12/30/12)

Comeback of the Year:

Nellie Kane. After just a few performances combined from 09-11, It was played 5x in 2012.

Vocal Jam of the Year:

“Phish Loves Dicks” – (8/31/12)

Bustout of the Year:

Skin it Back in Jones Beach (7/3/12)

Runner Ups: Shafty at Bonnaroo (6/10/12) and Emotional Rescue at Dicks (8/31/12).



Best New Cover:

Garden Party. Phish sent a statement to everyone with this classic cover from Ricky Nelson

Unexpected Jam of the Year:

Undermind, Colorado (8/31/12)

Runner Up: Prince Caspian (9/1/12)

Phishiest Moment:

Runaway Golfcart Garden Party (12/31/12)

Runner Up: Spelling out Fuck Your Face with songs on 8/31/12

Most Consistent Song of the Year (MVS):

Tweezer

Runner Up: Sand

Most Valuable Player (MVP):

Mike “Cactus” Gordon and his footbell.

Most Underused Award (MIA):

Makisupa Policeman, Steam and 7Below all tie. Played just once in ’12.

Biggest Slump of the Year:

Page’s Theremin. After such a huge year in 2011, Where Art Thou?

Fan of the Year:

@DanKanter, for his constant teasing of different Phish songs at Justin Bieber shows.

Longest Song of the Year:

Rock and Roll from Long Beach, CA (8/15/12)

Supporting Show of the Year:

Bill Graham Night 3, San Francisco, CA (8/19/12)

Close Runner Up: 9/1/12, Colorado

Poster of the Year:

James Flames, Oak Mountain Print (8/24/12)



Runner Up: Ken Taylor’s Three-Poster-Sloth-Set from the Bill Graham Run (8/17-19).

Best Run of the Year:

Dicks in Colorado, 8/31-9/2)

Best Fishman Moment:

The Tuck (6/19/12)



Worst Fishman Moment:

Jon’s attempt at playing Trey’s ocedoc for the first verse of Weekapaug (Deer Creek, 6/28/12)

Best Encore of the Year:

Deer Creek Night 1 (6/28/12) Cavern, Sanity > First Tube.

Runner Up: Charlotte’s BBFCFM > Tweeprise encore (8/26/12).

Page’s Favorite Sandwich of the Year:

Tube -> Psycho Killer -> Tube, (SPAC, 7/5/12) – Thanks to @Sharks_Pats_365 for the suggestion!Runner Up: Wolfman’s Brother -> Little Drummer Boy -> Wolfman’s Brother (12/28/12)

Show of the Year:

Night One of Dicks in Colorado (8/31/12) aka The “F*ck Your Face” Show. This show is like Daniel Day Lewis. Duh.

As you can see the big winners were “Skin it Back” and the 8/31/12 “FYF” show. Huge thanks to @PeteLikesPhish and @AdamIcculus with the awards. With Phish entering their 30th Anniversary and a new album in the works, 2013 is looking pretty pre-tay good. The waiting game for a Summer Tour announcement (usually in late February) is upon us…



