Phil in New York City

Phil performed on November 1 at the theater at Madison Square Garden, as part of the 106.7 FM Birthday Bash. For those who don't know, the theater at MSG is not the same as the arena where the NY Knicks/Rangers peform; this theater only seats about 7500 people.

He started with Against All Odds, and afterwards none other than Mariah Carey came out and talked to Phil/the audience for a minute or two. She described AAO as "one of the best songs in the world, which I have had the pleasure of covering on my new album." Phil thanked her, and noted that "Maria" had done a "lovely" version of AAO on her new album.

Phil followed with You'll Be In My Heart, which was interesting in the unplugged format, and then Separate Lives. The crowd seemed to like SL a bunch (singing along, etc). I believe this is the first time that Phil has ever sang all of Separate Lives (ie. w/o a female singer or Arnold McCuller) in concert.

He did Take Me Home next, which was probably the best song of the set, but unfortunately the audience wasn't in to the echo of "Take Me Home," partially because the sound engineers decided to echo Phil's voice on the PA, drowning out whomever was singing in the audience.

After Daryl and Brad took a bow and left the stage, Phil sat at the piano and played In The Air Tonight, bringing the house down. Clearly the audience's favorite song of the night, most of the people in the audience were singing along/clapping/etc.

by Glenn