Phish: The Clifford Ball

When the sun was setting over the former Air Force base in the upstate town of Plattsburgh, New York, on August 16, 1996 guitarist Trey Anastasio signaled the band to stop playing to look at The Divided Sky they were singing about. Phish was in the midst of the first of the festivals the Vermont quartet would stage over the years. Playing six sets over two days and a Flatbed Jam in the middle of the night, it was the first time the band faced ten thousands of fans camping out. They were out in the open before the world for the very first time, after being a slowly growing word-of-mouth live act for more than a decade.

The proceedings were filmed at the time and a special called The Clifford Ball; a beacon of light in the world of flight was aired on tv, but that was it. Until now. The lavishly packaged 7DVD boxset cotnians nine hours of footage - three discs for each day and a bonus disc with behind the scenes stuff, the soundcheck and the complete, eerie Flatbed Jam.

The sound production is really good - the 5.1 surround is crisp and the stereo spread is a breeze. In later years fans of the band would spread the word about the second set of Day 2 and rightly so, but start with the intimate setup for Waste, Talk, Train Song, Strange Design, Hello My Baby of Day 1. Here they are playing completely at ease, never mind the thousands looking at them in the dark.

Pity it wasn't filmed 16:9 at the time, but you can't win 'em all. Phish have released the ultimate live DVD box set so far, with an informative booklet, postcards and stamps included.

The Clifford Ball is released on JEMPs Records/Rhino.

Disc 1 (Day 1 (8/16/1996) – Set One) Chalk Dust Torture Bathtub Gin Ya Mar AC/DC Bag Esther The Divided Sky Halley’s Comet David Bowie	Disc 2 (Day 1 (8/16/1996) – Set Two) Split Open and Melt Sparkle Free The Squirming Coil Waste Talk Train Song Strange Design Hello My Baby Mike’s Song Simple Contact Weekapaug Groove
Disc 3 (Day 1 (8/16/1996) – Set Three) Makisupa Policeman 2001 Down With Disease NICU Life on Mars Harry Hood E: Amazing Grace	Disc 4 (Day 2 (8/17/1996) – Set One) Old Home Place Punch You In The Eye Reba Cars Trucks Buses The Lizards Sample In A Jar Taste Fee Maze Suzy Greenberg
Disc 5 (Day 2 (8/17/1996) – Set Two) The Curtain Runaway Jim It’s Ice Brother Fluffhead Run Like An Antelope Golgi Apparatus Slave To The Traffic Light	Disc 6 (Day 2 (8/17/1996) – Set Three) Wilson Frankenstein Scent Of A Mule Tweezer A Day In The Life Possum Tweezer Reprise Encore Harpua
Disc 7 (Bonus) The Clifford Ball: A Beacon of Light The Flatbed Jam Soundcheck (8/15/1996) An Interview with Jim Pollock Chris Kuroda Split-Screen Phish: On Jamming Phish: The LG

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