The Clifford Ball is a Grammy nominated seven-DVD box set released on March 3, 2009 by the rock band Phish

Phish

Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...

. It was performed on August 16 and August 17, 1996 at Plattsburgh Air Force Base

Plattsburgh Air Force Base

Plattsburgh Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force Strategic Air Command base covering 3,447 acres in the extreme northeast corner of New York, 20 miles south of the Canadian border...

 in Plattsburgh, NY, chronicling the first of nine Phish festivals

Phish festivals

Starting in 1996, American jam band Phish has hosted a series of festivals.-The Clifford Ball:The Clifford Ball was the first of nine weekend-long festivals hosted by Phish throughout their career. The event took place on August 16 and 17, 1996, on the site of a former Air Force base in...

.

Additional footage in this set includes documentaries, the soundcheck from August 15, and footage of the early morning performance of "The Flatbed Jam".

Disc one (August 16, 1996 - Set one)

1. "Chalk Dust Torture" (Anastasio
   Trey Anastasio
   Trey Anastasio is an American guitarist, composer, and vocalist most noted for his work with the rock band Phish...
   
   , Marshall
   Tom Marshall (singer)
   Tom Marshall is a lyricist, keyboardist and singer/songwriter best known for his association with Trey Anastasio and the rock band Phish...
   
   ) - 7:05
2. "Bathtub Gin" (Anastasio, Goodman) - 10:30
3. "Ya Mar" (Ferguson) - 8:51
4. "AC/DC Bag" (Anastasio) - 9:11
5. "Esther" (Anastasio) - 9:07
6. "The Divided Sky" (Anastasio) - 16:35
7. "Halley's Comet" (Wright) - 7:01
8. "David Bowie" (Anastasio) - 14:52

Disc two (August 16th, 1996 - Set two)

1. "Split Open and Melt" (Anastasio) - 13:46
2. "Sparkle" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 3:48
3. "Free" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 8:48
4. "The Squirming Coil" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 10:30
5. "Waste" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 4:59
6. "Talk" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 3:41
7. "Train Song" (Gordon
   Mike Gordon
   Mike Gordon is a bass guitar player and vocalist most noted for his work with the rock band Phish. Gordon is also an accomplished banjo player, and is proficient at piano, guitar, harmonica and percussion...
   
   , Linitz
   Joseph Linitz
   Joseph Linitz is a lyricist whose songs, co-written with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, include the title track from Phish's Round Room and Train Song from Billy Breathes....
   
   ) - 3:14
8. "Strange Design" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 3:47
9. "Hello My Baby
   Hello! Ma Baby
   "Hello! Ma Baby" is a Tin Pan Alley song written in 1899 by the team of Joseph E. Howard and Ida Emerson . Its subject is a man who has a girlfriend he knows only through the telephone...
   
   " (Emerson, Howard, Singer) - 1:48
10. "Mike's Song
    Mike's Song
    Mike's Song is a song by the jam band Phish. Originally written in 1985, and debuting that year on October 17, bass player Mike Gordon's song has been played a total of 378 times , the second most played song in Phish history ..-"Mike's Groove":Mike's Song is the first song in a series of three...
    
    " (Gordon) - 16:00
11. "Simple" (Gordon) - 6:03
12. "Contact" (Gordon) - 6:09
13. "Weekapaug Groove" (Anastasio, Fishman
    Jon Fishman
    Jon Fishman is an American drummer best known for his work with the band Phish. He is credited with co-writing 19 Phish originals, 8 of them as a solo credit....
    
    , Gordon, McConnell
    Page McConnell
    Page Samuel McConnell is an American multi-instrumentalist most noted for his work as a songwriter and keyboardist with the American rock band Phish....
    
    ) - 10:02

Disc three (August 16, 1996 - Set three)

1. "Makisupa Policeman" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 8:17
2. "2001
   Also sprach Zarathustra (Richard Strauss)
   Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical treatise of the same name. The composer conducted its first performance on 27 November 1896 in Frankfurt...
   
   " (Deodato
   Eumir Deodato
   Eumir Deodato is a Brazilian pianist, composer, record producer and arranger, primarily based in the jazz realm but who historically has been known for eclectic melding of big band and combo jazz with varied elements of rock/pop, R&B/funk, Brazilian/Latin, and symphonic or orchestral music.Mainly,...
   
   ) - 6:13
3. "Down with Disease
   Down With Disease
   "Down with Disease" is a song by the band Phish that appeared on their 1994 album Hoist. The song was written by Phish lead singer Trey Anastasio and the band's frequent songwriter, Tom Marshall; its lyrics were based on a bout with infectious mononucleosis suffered by Marshall."Down with Disease"...
   
   " (Anastasio, Marshall) - 15:34
4. "NICU" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 5:17
5. "Life on Mars?
   Life on Mars?
   "Life on Mars?" is a song by David Bowie first released in 1971 on the album Hunky Dory. The song—which BBC Radio 2 later called "a cross between a Broadway musical and a Salvador Dalí painting"—featured guest piano work by keyboardist Rick Wakeman. When released as a single in 1973,...
   
   " (Bowie
   David Bowie
   David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
   
   ) - 3:23
6. "Harry Hood" (Anastasio, Fishman, Gordon, Long, McConnell) - 19:58
7. "Amazing Grace
   Amazing Grace
   "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn with words written by the English poet and clergyman John Newton , published in 1779. With a message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of God,...
   
   " (Traditional) - 2:34

Disc four (August 17, 1996 - Set one)

1. "The Old Home Place" (Jayne, Webb) - 3:37
2. "Punch You in the Eye" (Anastasio) - 8:11
3. "Reba" (Anastasio) - 16:19
4. "Cars Trucks Buses" (McConnell) - 3:41
5. "The Lizards" (Anastasio) - 10:35
6. "Sample in a Jar" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 4:59
7. "Taste" (Anastasio, Fishman, Gordon, Marshall, McConnell) - 7:02
8. "Fee" (Anastasio) - 5:52
9. "Maze" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 12:50
10. "Suzy Greenberg" (Pollak
    The Dude of Life
    Steve Pollak, best known by his stage name The Dude of Life, is a musician and lyricist, who has co-written numerous Phish songs, including "Suzy Greenberg", "Fluffhead", "Slave to the Traffic Light", "Run like an Antelope", "Sanity", "Crimes of the Mind", "Dinner and a Movie", and most recently,...
    
    ) - 7:06

Disc five (August 17, 1996 - Set two)

1. "The Curtain" (Anastasio, Daubert
   Marc Daubert
   Marc Daubert was the percussionist for the rock band Phish for a brief time in their early history, joining the band in September 1984 and leaving the band in February 1985....
   
   ) - 7:39
2. "Runaway Jim" (Abrahams, Anastasio) - 12:26
3. "It's Ice" (Anastasio, Marshall) - 9:03
4. "Brother" (Anastasio, Fishman, Gordon, McConnell) - 6:19
5. "Fluffhead" (Anastasio, Pollak) - 14:42
6. "Run Like an Antelope" (Anastasio, Pollak) - 10:09
7. "Golgi Apparatus" (Anastasio, Marshall, Szuter, Woolf) - 4:44
8. "Slave to the Traffic Light" (Abrahams, Anastasio, Pollak) - 13:03

Disc six (August 17, 1996 - Set three)

1. "Wilson" - (Anastasio, Marshall, Woolf) - 6:14
2. "Frankenstein
   Frankenstein (song)
   "Frankenstein" is a rock instrumental by The Edgar Winter Group from their album They Only Come Out at Night.In live performances of the song, Edgar Winter further pioneered the advancement of the synthesizer as a lead instrument by becoming the first person ever to strap a keyboard instrument...
   
   " (Winter
   Edgar Winter
   Edgar Holland Winter is an American musician. He is famous for being a multi-instrumentalist. He is a highly skilled keyboardist, saxophonist and percussionist. He often plays an instrument while singing. He was most successful in the 1970s with his band, The Edgar Winter Group, notably with their...
   
   ) - 4:49
3. "Scent of a Mule" (Gordon) - 15:22
4. "Tweezer" (Anastasio, Fishman, Gordon, McConnell) - 11:56
5. "A Day in the Life
   A Day in the Life
   "A Day in the Life" is a song by The Beatles, the final track on the group's 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song comprises distinct segments written independently by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with orchestral additions...
   
   " (Lennon
   John Lennon
   John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
   
   , McCartney
   Paul McCartney
   Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
   
   ) - 5:35
6. "Possum" (Holdsworth
   Jeff Holdsworth
   Jeff Holdsworth was a founding member of the rock band Phish. He was their first leader, singing lead vocals and playing guitar. He co-founded the band in the fall of 1983 with Trey Anastasio while living in the Redstone campus dormitories of the University of Vermont...
   
   ) - 13:23
7. "Tweezer Reprise" (Anastasio, Fishman, Gordon, McConnell) - 4:46
8. "Harpua
   Harpua
   "Harpua" is a Phish song that was a staple of their live concerts, but has now become a rarity and has only been performed live. Though it always follows the same basic structure , Trey Anastasio always narrated a different story at every concert in the middle of the...
   
   " (Anastasio, Fishman) - 8:53

Disc seven

1. "The Clifford Ball: A Beacon of Light"
2. "The Flatbed Jam" (Anastasio, Fishman, Gordon, McConnell) - 39:22
3. "Soundcheck" (Anastasio, Fishman, Gordon, McConnell) - 52:56
4. "An Interview with Jim Pollock"
5. "Chris Kuroda
   Chris Kuroda
   Chris Kuroda is the lighting designer/operator for Phish. His lighting experiments were so unusual and diverse that a group of Phish fans lobbied to have Kuroda recognized as an official band member, which led to his nickname of 'CK5'...
   
    Split-Screen"
6. "Phish: On Jamming"
7. "Phish: The LG"

Personnel

Phish

Phish

Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...

Trey Anastasio

Trey Anastasio

Trey Anastasio is an American guitarist, composer, and vocalist most noted for his work with the rock band Phish...

 - guitars, vocals

Page McConnell

Page McConnell

Page Samuel McConnell is an American multi-instrumentalist most noted for his work as a songwriter and keyboardist with the American rock band Phish....

 - keyboards, vocals

Mike Gordon

Mike Gordon

Mike Gordon is a bass guitar player and vocalist most noted for his work with the rock band Phish. Gordon is also an accomplished banjo player, and is proficient at piano, guitar, harmonica and percussion...

 - bass, vocals

Jon Fishman

Jon Fishman

Jon Fishman is an American drummer best known for his work with the band Phish. He is credited with co-writing 19 Phish originals, 8 of them as a solo credit....

 - drums, vocals

Special guests

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield

Jerry Greenfield

Jerry Greenfield is a co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc.Throughout his childhood, Greenfield lived in New York, on Long Island. In 1969, he enrolled at Oberlin College, where he followed a pre-med curriculum before graduating in 1973...

 of Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry's is an American ice cream company, a division of the British-Dutch Unilever conglomerate, that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and ice cream novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, United...

 - vocals on "Brother"

Video Director

Martin Pitts