The Clifford Ball

These were my first Phish shows, and they had a much bigger impact on my life than I ever expected.

This weekend was magical, and we knew it while we were there. Some of the magic had to do with the transition from the Dead to Phish. I wasn’t in the anti-Phish camp back when both toured, but I always chose to see the Dead every summer (or spring, or fall). After catching many shows with Jerry and watching the scene decline, the Clifford Ball hit me like a ton of bricks … the energy, freedom, and performance were unlike anything I’d experienced at a concert before. And all of it with 70,000 people on an old Air Force base, to boot.

Most importantly, I went to the show with college friends, some I knew well, some not so well. But since then, these guys (and others who joined us at the Went and the Wheel) have become the best of friends.

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Phish
August 16, 1996
The Clifford Ball — Plattsburgh Air Force Base — Plattsburgh, NY
I: Chalkdust Torture, Bathtub Gin, Ya Mar, AC/DC Bag > Esther > Divided Sky, Halley’s Comet > Bowie
II: Split Open & Melt, Sparkle > Free, The Squirming Coil, Waste[1], Talk[1], Train Song[1], Strange Design[1], Hello My Baby, Mike’s Song → Simple → Contact → Weekapaug Groove
III: Makisupa Policeman > 2001 > Down with Disease[2] → NICU, Life on Mars? > Harry Hood → Jam
E: Amazing Grace
IV: Flatbed Truck Jam

Footnotes:
[1] Acoustic mini-stage.
[2] Unfinished.

This was the first show of The Clifford Ball festival. Bathtub Gin contained a brief DEG tease from Trey. Waste through Strange Design were performed on the acoustic mini-stage. Disease was unfinished. The second set was preceded by a Mary Had a Little Lamb tease. The jam at the end of Harry Hood accompanied a fireworks display. The band took to the back of a flatbed truck at around 3:30 in the morning and drove through the crowd. The performance was one long open-ended jam.

Phish
August 17, 1996
The Clifford Ball — Plattsburgh Air Force Base — Plattsburgh, NY
I: The Old Home Place, PYITE, Reba[1] > Cars Trucks Buses, Lizards, Sample, Taste, Fee[2] → Maze, Suzy Greenberg
II: The Curtain > Runaway Jim, It’s Ice > Brother[3], Fluffhead, Run Like an Antelope > Golgi Apparatus > Slave to the Traffic Light
III: Wilson > Frankenstein, Scent of a Mule[4], Tweezer, A Day In The Life, Possum > Tweezer Reprise
E: Harpua[5]

Footnotes:
[1] No whistling.
[2] Trey sang verses through megaphone.
[3] Ben and Jerry on vocals.
[4] Page/Fish Mule Duel.
[5] Unfinished.

This was the second show of The Clifford Ball festival. Reba did not have the whistling ending. Trey sang the verses of Fee through a megaphone. Before the second set, Trey paid tribute to Aaron Stein of Syracuse, who was front row center for every show of the tour. The first Brother since August 2, 1993 (258 shows) featured Ben and Jerry on guest vocals. Wilson included a Heartbreaker tease. Antelope featured a female acrobat twirling in the rigging, suspended above the stage in a circus-like fashion. Scent of a Mule featured a Page/Fish duel instead of the typical Page/Trey duel. Tweezer had big trampolines on each side of the stage and more circus shenanigans. A stunt plane circled overhead during Tweezer Reprise and Harpua. Harpua was unfinished; it was completed on August 16, 1997 at The Great Went.

Listen below

Setlists and setlist notes via phish.net.

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📅 August 1996

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