48 Fun Facts About Phish

Phish formed in 1983 in which city?

Burlington, Vermont, is where Trey Anastasio hung signs around his university dorms seeking a bass player, and the student who answered one became the band's bassist.

Which founding member left Phish in 1986?

Guitarist Jeff Holdsworth left in 1986, but his songs 'Possum' and 'Camel Walk' stayed in the setlists, and in 2003 he rejoined the band onstage in Albany after 17 years away.

How did keyboardist Page McConnell first meet Phish?

He booked their gig: McConnell was organising his school's spring concert and hired Phish, and within weeks he was sitting in with them on keyboards.

Which member of Phish plays the drums?

Jon Fishman was drumming in his dorm room in 1983 when Trey Anastasio, drawn by the sound, sought him out, and the two were soon in a band together.

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

Nectar's owner, Nectar Rorris, booked the band despite what they later called their 'lack of experience, organization, or a song list long enough to last two sets', and they named a 1992 album after him.

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

Tom Marshall, a friend from Anastasio's New Jersey school days, wrote a nonsense poem, 'McGrupp and the Watchful Hosemasters', that became the seed of the guitarist's whole Gamehendge saga.

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

Goddard College was so short of students in 1986 that it paid the band's keyboardist $50 a head for persuading Anastasio and the drummer to transfer in.

In Phish's Gamehendge saga, which character climbs a mountain to seek the god Icculus?

Colonel Forbin makes the climb, and Icculus answers by sending the Famous Mockingbird to steal the Helping Friendly Book back from the tyrant Wilson's castle.

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

Junta is named after the band's first manager, Ben 'Junta' Hunter, who opened a box of 500 freshly dubbed cassettes, saw his nickname on the cover and assumed it was a practical joke.

Which epic from Phish's first album has the band played live more often than any other song?

'You Enjoy Myself' has turned up at more Phish shows than any other song, and partway through it the guitarist and bassist bounce in tandem on trampolines while still playing.

Which major label signed Phish in 1991?

Elektra signed them after a young talent scout bought their second album, called it the strangest she had ever heard, then walked into a sold-out New York club show in late 1990 and was blown away.

Every song on Phish's 1993 album Rift appears in its cover painting except which one?

'The Horse' is the one Rift song the painter left out, so the band made amends a year later by hoisting a real horse into the air for the cover of their next album.

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

'Down with Disease' got its words while the band's lyricist was laid up in bed with mononucleosis, and the sickbed song became the first Phish track to reach a Billboard chart.

Who directed Phish's only official music video?

Mike Gordon, the bassist, directed it himself, shooting part of it at a New Year's Eve concert where the band pulled on wetsuits and 'dived' into an aquarium built on the stage.

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

'Free' reached No. 11 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart as a tidy radio single, yet a year earlier the band had stretched the same song past 30 minutes at an arena show in Maryland.

Which ice cream maker launched the flavour Phish Food in 1997?

Ben & Jerry's launched it with a sold-out one-night concert in a hometown theatre, and the recipe was one of the few the company let outsiders shape: the band wanted caramel.

Proceeds from Phish Food go to which band charity?

The WaterWheel Foundation copied Paul Newman: the drummer said the actor's food company, which gives its profits away, inspired the band to pour its ice cream royalties into cleaning up Lake Champlain.

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

An air force base suited the name: the band had spotted an airport plaque hailing the aviator Clifford Ball as 'a beacon of light in the world of flight' and thought the phrase a funny idea for a show.

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

Big Cypress Seminole land in the Everglades hosted the festival, where the band reached the stage just before midnight on a fan boat that burst apart to reveal the giant hot dog from their 1994 New Year's stunt.

As Phish's all-night millennium set ended at sunrise, which Beatles song was piped over the speakers?

'Here Comes the Sun' greeted the dawn after the band had played for more than seven hours without a break, with portable toilets beside the stage and guards hired to make sure they kept playing.

Which 2000 Phish single crossed over to mainstream pop radio?

'Heavy Things' had already aired on ABC's millennium broadcast, live from the band's New Year's festival, where the crowd was told to yell 'cheesecake' instead of cheering to baffle viewers at home.

Phish played its last show before the 2000 hiatus at which California venue?

Shoreline Amphitheatre saw the band walk off without a word about the break while 'Let It Be' played over the speakers, and the crowd stayed on to give the road crew a standing ovation.

Which muddy August 2004 festival was billed as Phish's farewell?

Coventry ended an era with a giveaway: the band handed the trampolines from their stage routine to the crowd, and fans held them overhead for the rest of the set while others jumped on top.

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

Hampton Coliseum in Virginia sold out all three nights, so the band gave away downloads of every show within a day to let the fans who were shut out hear the comeback for free.

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

'Fluffhead', an epic from the band's earliest years that fans had chanted for during the 2003-04 shows, opened the first reunion show on March 6, 2009.

Each night of Phish's 13-show 2017 Madison Square Garden run had its own flavour of what?

Donut flavours themed each night of the Baker's Dozen: a Philadelphia shop handed out that evening's variety at the door, and the band chose songs to match, such as 'Strawberry Letter 23' on strawberry night.

What rule did Phish keep across its 13-night 2017 Madison Square Garden residency?

No repeats: the band got through 237 different songs in 13 nights, and before the final encore the arena raised a banner to the rafters in their honour.

Which record did fans vote to be Phish's first Halloween 'musical costume' in 1994?

The Beatles' White Album won the fan vote, and the band ended 'Helter Skelter' by singing its 'I've got blisters on my fingers' cry in a cappella harmony.

For Halloween 1995, Phish hired a horn section to perform which rock opera in full?

Quadrophenia caught the crowd off guard: the band had teased 'Beat It' earlier and looped another Michael Jackson hit over the speakers before the set, so fans were braced for Thriller.

Kasvot Växt, the 'lost' prog band Phish invented for its Halloween 2018 set, supposedly came from where?

Scandinavia was the cover story: the band planted a fake biography and a backdated album review on real music sites, then used the 'covers' set to unveil ten brand-new songs of their own.

What household appliance does Phish's drummer play as a solo instrument on stage?

An Electrolux vacuum: he switches it on, presses the hose against his mouth and changes the gap at his lips so that the suction squeals at different pitches.

The blue dress that Phish's drummer wears on stage is printed with what pattern?

Red rings cover the dress, and when the band tried to trademark the pattern in 2015 the examiner at first refused: fans were already selling so much homemade gear with it that it no longer pointed to one maker.

Phish's drummer spoke at rallies for which 2016 presidential candidate before winning a town office himself?

Bernie Sanders inspired him to stand: after speaking at the senator's rallies through the 2016 primaries, the drummer ran for his town's governing board in 2017 and won.

Trey Anastasio was born in Texas but grew up from the age of three in which New Jersey college town?

Princeton gave the band more than its guitarist: at school there he befriended the classmate who went on to write most of Phish's lyrics, and the two were trading songs by the eighth grade.

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

Anastasio and lyricist Amanda Green were nominated for Best Original Score at the 2013 Tonys for Hands on a Hardbody, a musical about a Texas truck-endurance contest that closed within a month of opening.

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

Languedoc is Paul Languedoc, who also mixed the band's live sound from 1986 to 2004: when Phish reunited in 2009 he stayed off the road to run his own guitar company instead.

Which acoustic guitar pioneer made the albums Clone and Noon with Phish's bassist?

Leo Kottke was handed a tape by the bassist, a fan who had dubbed his own bass line over one of Kottke's 1969 solo pieces; the two became friends and have since made three albums together.

Page McConnell's physician father helped develop which household painkiller?

Tylenol made his career, but retirement left him restless: in a resort town full of retired doctors he recruited them to staff a free clinic for uninsured neighbours, a model dozens of towns have copied.

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

Vida Blue honours the Oakland A's pitcher, but an Iowa hardcore band already used the name; they renamed themselves Ten Grand, reportedly after the $10,000 McConnell paid them for it.

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

'First Tube' started out as a jam by Trey Anastasio's solo group before the band adopted it, and it lost the Grammy to Metallica's 'The Call of Ktulu', recorded with the San Francisco Symphony.

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

U2 had opened the venue with much the same show every night, whereas Phish gave each of its four nights a theme of its own, a state of matter, running from solid to liquid to gas to plasma.

Which studio album did Phish release in July 2024?

Evolve followed 2020's Sigma Oasis, and little of it was new to fans: the band picked songs it had already shaped on stage, and the title track had been in the live shows for nearly three years.

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

A cafeteria dance was the setting: short of gear, the band propped a microphone on a hockey stick, and the night fizzled out once someone put Michael Jackson's Thriller on the stereo.

The cover of Phish's 1992 major-label debut shows a bar owner's face superimposed on what?

An orange carries the silhouette of the man who gave the band its first bar gig: the record is dedicated to him, and the liner notes say those monthly three-night stands 'taught us how to play'.

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

They rented the venue themselves: the club had turned them down, so their managers hired the room for the night, fans followed them down from home in a caravan and the show sold out.

Limestone, site of the Great Went, Lemonwheel and It festivals, is in which state?

Maine briefly gained a new largest city in 1997, when the tens of thousands of fans camping at the first of the three festivals outnumbered the residents of any town in the state.

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

Curveball was scrapped after floods contaminated the local water supply: the band got the news moments before walking on for its soundcheck, with fans already camped on the site.

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

Abe Vigoda, then 92, was the punchline: a figure in a wombat suit hobbled out and burst into an athletic dance, then the mask came off to show the Barney Miller actor, swapped in for a younger double.