Phish, one of the most successful touring bands of all time, are legendary for their spectacular and vastly populated weekend festivals. In 2009, they return to the road with members Trey Anastasio (guitar), Jon Fishman (drums), Mike Gordon (bass) and Page McConnell (keyboards) for the first time in four years. In celebration, Rhino's 7-DVD boxed set THE CLIFFORD BALL presents their entire performance at the landmark 1996 concert event that was the first of seven two-day festivals they staged.

The seven disc box from Rhino/JEMP contains over nine hours of footage filmed and recorded live on August 16 and 17, 1996. It presents all three music sets and encores the band played on each night, plus bonus extras including: a sound check from August 15; the band's late-night “Flatbed Jam,” performed on the back of a truck; an interview with longtime Phish artist Jim Pollock; interviews with band members and other rarities. THE CLIFFORD BALL is a regionless DVD set including options for stereo and 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound Audio, remixed and mastered from the band's multi-track tapes.

Night one CLIFFORD BALL highlights include Phish's preview of several then-unreleased tracks that would appear later on Billy Breathes (their eighth studio album), including acoustic versions of “Waste,” “Talk” and “Train Song.” Nearly half of the songs featured in the second night's performance have never appeared on a studio album, including “Runaway Jim,” “Wilson,” “Punch You In The Eye” and “Harpua.” Special festival moments include the August 17 set break when-as the sun was setting-an orchestra played selections by Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky while a glider plane flew overhead in synch with the music.

THE CLIFFORD BALL, named for aviation pioneer Clifford Ball, took place at a decommissioned air force base in Plattsburgh, New York. In addition to two marathon concerts, Phish created a unique experience for fans by giving the base a carnival-like feel with rides, aerial shows, wandering jugglers, nighttime movie screenings for campers and other diversions. The event drew over 70,000 attendees, making it 1996's largest North American concert, and temporarily remaking tiny Plattsburgh into the ninth largest city in New York state. It set the tone for today's most popular multi-day music events, with Billboard recently noting, “Bonnaroo is a direct descendant of Phish's one-band festival extravaganzas like Clifford Ball.”

THE CLIFFORD BALL's success spurred Phish to continue to stage such festivals for almost a decade: The Great Went ('97), Lemonwheel ('98), Camp Oswego ('99), the Big Cypress millennium celebrations ('99), It ('03) and Coventry ('04).

Phish, one of the most successful touring bands of all time, are legendary for their spectacular and vastly populated weekend festivals. In 2009, they return to the road with members Trey Anastasio (guitar), Jon Fishman (drums), Mike Gordon (bass) and Page McConnell (keyboards) for the first time in four years. In celebration, Rhino's 7-DVD boxed set THE CLIFFORD BALL presents their entire performance at the landmark 1996 concert event that was the first of seven two-day festivals....+Read More...