The Clifford Ball was the first of seven weekend-long festivals hosted by Phish in August of 1996. It took place on a former air force base in Plattsburgh, New York and added $20 million to the local economy. Now if we could just get Phish to play a festival on Wall Street!
Here is my very basic log of how I viewed the seven discs that make up JEMP/Rhino’s Clifford Ball DVD box set:
• Day 1: Received overwhelming package
• Day 2: Disc 1, Day 1, Set 1 in the late afternoon. The guys come out rockin’ with a “Chalkdust Torture” opener, which was my first choice for what they would play for the opener at their first reunion show in Hampton in March. The look and sound of the footage is great! There are beautiful shots as the sun goes down during “Haley’s Comet”. What other hugely successful band has the audacity to play songs as oddball and fun as “Haley’s Comet”, by the way? The “Divided Sky” is absolutely breathtaking. Again, what other band can get away with pausing for more than a minute in the middle of one of their songs? Then to close out the set, we get an insane “David Bowie” as the light show starts ramping up and a menacing fog pours onto the stage.
• Day 3: Disc 2 (First night, set 2). I’m trying to catch most of this while I make and eat lunch before heading to work. When reviewing something this large, I’m learning that you just have to fit it in when you can. “Split Open and Melt” starts the disc off strong and jammy! Oh yeah, these were the days when Trey had a tiny percussion kit next to him on stage so he’d never be bored, or for whatever other reason. It really didn’t add much to the band’s sound.
There’s a cool transition from Page playing solo piano at the end of “Squirming Coil” into a hopefully short acoustic set. I’m not a big fan of the acoustic set by any band, really. But these guys do have a lot of time to fill over the weekend! The set turns out to be pretty damn good though, highlighted by a great Page-sung “Strange Design” before doing an a-cappella “Hello My Baby”.
• Day 4: Disc 3 (First night, Set 3). I’ve invited a friend and a few beers over to do some viewing with me. We are treated to an early super-trippy, dank and dubby “Makisupa Policeman”. After 40 minutes straight of intense playing ("Makisupa, " "2001," "Down With Disease," "NICU"), the boys break between songs and jump right back in with David Bowie’s “Life On Mars”.
Article comments
1 - Scott
Just watched it this weekend. And you are correct...it's ALL there. It's a perfect specimen of the band in it's prime.
I was lucky enough to be at The Great Went, Oswego, Big Cypress, It, and Coventry...and after watching this, I think I'd trade them all to have been at The Clifford Ball.