50 Fun Facts About Phish

Phish formed in 1983 in which city?

The founders met at the University of Vermont, and the city has stayed home base ever since.

Which original member left in 1986, leaving the lineup unchanged ever since?

He was one of the four founders alongside Anastasio, Gordon and Fishman.

In what year did keyboardist Page McConnell officially become a full-time member?

He met the band by booking them for a spring concert at Goddard College earlier that year.

The band's name is a play on the nickname of which member?

The drummer is known simply as Fish; Anastasio drew the logo with the name inside a stylized fish.

Which Burlington bar became Phish's regular venue from late 1984?

The 1992 album A Picture of Nectar honours the owner, Nectar Rorris.

Who co-writes most of Phish's songs with Trey Anastasio?

The lyricist has been Anastasio's writing partner since their school days.

The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday began as Trey Anastasio's senior project at which school?

The nine-song concept album eventually grew by another eight songs.

On how many occasions has the band performed the full Gamehendge suite in concert?

The performances came in 1988, 1991, 1993, twice in 1994, and then a long wait until 2023.

What was Phish's self-released debut studio album, sold on cassette at shows?

It contains the studio version of You Enjoy Myself, generally considered the band's signature song.

Which epic from the first album is considered the band's signature song?

Its multi-part structure and trampoline segment have made it a set centrepiece for decades.

Which major label signed Phish in 1991?

A Picture of Nectar in 1992 was the first release for the label.

The 1993 album Rift featured a cover painted by whom?

It was a concept album, the band's fourth.

Which song, from 1994's Hoist, was Phish's first to appear on a Billboard chart?

It peaked at No. 33 on rock radio, and Mike Gordon directed the band's only official music video for it.

Which band member directed Phish's only official music video?

The bassist is also a filmmaker, with the documentaries Rising Low and Outside Out to his name.

Which single from Billy Breathes was the band's most successful on the Billboard rock charts?

It reached No. 24 on Modern Rock Tracks and No. 11 on Mainstream Rock.

Which company from the band's home state launched the ice cream flavour Phish Food?

It is the only time the band has licensed its name to a third party, and the proceeds go to their WaterWheel Foundation.

Proceeds from Phish Food go to which band charity?

The Mockingbird Foundation is a separate fan-run charity for music education.

Phish's first festival, The Clifford Ball in 1996, was held at a decommissioned what?

The former Plattsburgh Air Force Base drew 70,000, the largest single US concert crowd of that year.

The Clifford Ball drew how many people, making it the largest single concert in the US in 1996?

It was also the biggest crowd Phish had ever played to at that point.

Phish's millennium festival was held on which reservation in Florida?

The two-day event in December 1999 sold out with 75,000 people.

The New Year's Eve 1999 set that fans call 'The Show' started at 11:35 p.m. and ran roughly how long?

The band played straight through to sunrise on 1 January 2000.

Which 2000 single became the band's only song to be played on a mainstream pop radio format?

It came from Farmhouse, released in May 2000 after Big Cypress.

Where did Anastasio announce the band's first hiatus to fans, during a September 2000 concert?

The 'extended time-out' lasted until the band returned at the end of 2002.

The 2004 farewell festival Coventry was named for a town in which state?

The muddy August weekend was billed as the band's final performances.

Phish's 2009 reunion shows were held at which venue?

The three March concerts opened with 'Fluffhead', the first song back on stage.

What was the first song Phish played at the 2009 reunion?

The choice delighted fans who had chanted for the song for years.

The 2017 'Baker's Dozen' residency at Madison Square Garden ran for how many nights?

Each night had a donut theme, and no song was repeated across the whole run.

How many different songs did Phish play across the Baker's Dozen without a single repeat?

The feat cemented the band's reputation for never playing the same show twice.

In 2023 Phish passed which artist for the second-most concerts at Madison Square Garden?

Only Billy Joel, with his monthly residency, has played the Garden more.

For Halloween 1994, Phish's first 'musical costume' was which record, chosen by a mail-in fan poll?

They played it as the second of three sets at the Glens Falls Civic Center, and the tradition stuck.

For Halloween 1995 the band hired a full horn section to perform which rock opera?

The Who's double album was the second annual 'costume'.

On Halloween 2018 in Las Vegas, Phish 'covered' í rokk by Kasvot Växt. What was Kasvot Växt?

The set was all-new original material dressed up as a lost 1980s Scandinavian prog album.

The drummer's trademark onstage 'instrument' during cover songs is what?

The baby-blue vacuum has been in the repertoire since around 1989.

The drummer performs in a blue muumuu printed with what pattern?

The band tried to trademark the pattern in 2015 but the request was tentatively denied.

In 2017 the drummer was elected a selectman of which Maine town?

He was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Syracuse before settling in Maine.

Trey Anastasio was born in which Texas city before moving to Princeton, New Jersey, at age three?

His full name is Ernest Joseph Anastasio III.

Anastasio's Broadway musical Hands on a Hardbody earned him a 2013 Tony nomination in which category?

The show, about a truck-endurance contest, closed quickly but won him the Dramatists Guild's Frederick Loewe Award.

Anastasio's custom hollow-body electric guitars are built by which maker?

The instruments have set maple necks and 24-fret ebony fretboards.

The bassist has recorded three studio albums with which acoustic guitar pioneer?

Mike Gordon's father founded the New England convenience chain Store 24.

Page McConnell's father, Dr. Jack McConnell, helped develop which painkiller?

He also worked on the MRI; his son is nicknamed 'The Chairman of the Boards'.

Page McConnell founded which electronic jazz-fusion side project in 2001?

The trio was named after the Oakland A's pitcher.

Phish's 2001 Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Rock Performance was for which Farmhouse track?

The other nod was Best Boxed Recording Package for Hampton Comes Alive.

In April 2024 Phish became the second act, after which band, to perform at Sphere in Las Vegas?

The four-night run featured all-new visuals each night.

Evolve, released in July 2024, was Phish's how-manyeth studio album?

Sigma Oasis, its predecessor, arrived in April 2020 during lockdown.

Phish's first concert on December 2, 1983 was held in what kind of campus venue?

At Harris Millis Cafeteria at the University of Vermont they played classic rock covers, including two Grateful Dead songs.

The 1992 album A Picture of Nectar shows bar owner Nectar Rorris's face superimposed on what?

The album honoured the owner of the Burlington bar where Phish played dozens of residency shows from 1984 to 1989.

In 1989, what did Phish do when Boston's Paradise Rock Club refused to book them?

The show sold out thanks to the caravan of fans who travelled to see them.

The Great Went, Lemonwheel and It were all held at Loring Air Force Base in which state?

The base at Limestone sits near the Canada-US border; It in 2003 was the last Phish festival held there.

Which 2018 Phish festival was cancelled by health officials one day before it was due to begin?

Flooding had compromised the water supply at Watkins Glen, New York.

Which actor, name-checked in the song 'Wombat', joined Phish onstage in a wombat costume in 2013?

It happened at the Atlantic City Halloween show where the band debuted twelve songs from the album that became Fuego.