Phish Trivia
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48 free Phish trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
44 free Phish trivia questions with answers. Phish have played thousands of shows without repeating a setlist, and their fans keep track of every one. This quiz is for those fans: forty-four questions on the band's start at the University of Vermont and Nectar's bar, the Gamehendge saga, Junta and You Enjoy Myself, the Elektra years and Down with Disease, the Clifford Ball and Big Cypress, the hiatus, Coventry, the Hampton reunion, the Baker's Dozen and the 2024 run at Sphere. Easy questions ask where the band formed and which ice cream carries their name; the hard ones want the year Page joined, the album that first charted, the fictional Scandinavian band from Halloween 2018 and how many songs were played across thirteen nights at Madison Square Garden. No lyrics quoted, just the history. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the band and its members, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Phish formed in 1983 in which city?
Burlington, Vermont
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.
Q 02Which founding member left Phish in 1986?
Guitarist Jeff Holdsworth
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.
Q 03How did keyboardist Page McConnell first meet Phish?
Booked their gig
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.
Q 04Which member of Phish plays the drums?
Jon Fishman
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.
Q 05Which bar became Phish's regular hometown venue from late 1984?
Nectar's
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.
Q 06Who co-writes most of Phish's songs with Trey Anastasio?
Tom Marshall
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.
Q 07The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday began as Trey Anastasio's senior project at which school?
Goddard College
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.
Q 08In Phish's Gamehendge saga, which character climbs a mountain to seek the god Icculus?
Colonel Forbin
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.
Q 09What was Phish's self-released debut studio album, sold on cassette at shows?
Junta
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.
Q 10Which epic from Phish's first album has the band played live more often than any other song?
'You Enjoy Myself'
'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.
Q 11Which major label signed Phish in 1991?
Elektra
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.
Q 12Every song on Phish's 1993 album Rift appears in its cover painting except which one?
'The Horse'
'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.
Q 13Which song, from 1994's Hoist, was Phish's first to appear on a Billboard chart?
'Down with Disease'
'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.
Q 21Which 2000 Phish single crossed over to mainstream pop radio?
'Heavy Things'
'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.
Q 22Phish played its last show before the 2000 hiatus at which California venue?
Shoreline Amphitheatre
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.
Q 23Which muddy August 2004 festival was billed as Phish's farewell?
Coventry
Q 14Who directed Phish's only official music video?
Mike Gordon
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.
Q 15Which single from Billy Breathes was the band's most successful on the Billboard rock charts?
'Free'
'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.
Q 16Which ice cream maker launched the flavour Phish Food in 1997?
Ben & Jerry's
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.
Q 17Proceeds from Phish Food go to which band charity?
The WaterWheel Foundation
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.
Q 18Phish's first festival, The Clifford Ball in 1996, was held at a decommissioned what?
Air force base
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.
Q 19Phish's millennium festival was held on which reservation in Florida?
Big Cypress Seminole
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.
Q 20As Phish's all-night millennium set ended at sunrise, which Beatles song was piped over the speakers?
'Here Comes the Sun'
'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.
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.
Q 24Phish's 2009 reunion shows were held at which venue?
Hampton Coliseum
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.
Q 25What was the first song Phish played at the 2009 reunion?
'Fluffhead'
'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.
Q 26Each night of Phish's 13-show 2017 Madison Square Garden run had its own flavour of what?
Donut
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.
Q 27What rule did Phish keep across its 13-night 2017 Madison Square Garden residency?
No repeats
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.
Q 28Which record did fans vote to be Phish's first Halloween 'musical costume' in 1994?
The Beatles' White Album
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.
Q 29For Halloween 1995, Phish hired a horn section to perform which rock opera in full?
Quadrophenia
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.
Q 30Kasvot Växt, the 'lost' prog band Phish invented for its Halloween 2018 set, supposedly came from where?
Scandinavia
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.