Conan O’Brien & Phish: Watch Past Performances, Collabs & More

On Janaury 22, 1997, months Before Phish made their Late Night With Conan O’Brien debut, master of dour deadpan Steven Wright appeared on Late Night. About 4:40 into the interview Conan remarks that Wright has an album to plug and Wright produces Phish’s current album at the time, Billy Breathes. “You’re plugging Phish’s album?” Conan asks with feigned incredulity. Wright proceeds to say, “It’s an excellent album and I think you should maybe try listening to it” ahead of a hilarious story about his manager telling him to promote an album.

A few months later on November 7, 1997, Phish would make their Late Night With Conan O’Brien debut which also featured the unofficial debut of “Farmhouse.” The appearance came just before Phish’s ‘97 Fall Tour where they would unveil “Farmhouse” for the first time at a concert on November 17 in Denver, as per Phish.net. As mentioned above, Phish was given more freedom for the Late Night slot, performing “Farmhouse” for 4 minutes 42 seconds, longer than they played on their previous Letterman appearances for instance.

On February 25, 1999, actor Fred Savage was a guest on Late Night and chatted with Conan about running into the him at Phish’s 1998 New Year’s Eve concert at MSG. Earlier in 1999, Conan spoke at length about attending the show and remarked, “it’s a scene baby.”

Phish would return to Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 2000 to record “Back On The Train” in promotion of the album Farmhouse. The band found time to film the performance during a break on their 2000 Summer Tour with the show airing on June 27.

On November 15, 2001, Trey Anastasio and Oysterhead, also featuring Les Claypool and Stewart Copeland, made their only late night TV performance to date. The trio delivered “Oz Is Ever Floating” in promotion of their one and only album, 2001’s The Grand Pecking Order.

Earlier in 2001, Trey brought a newly minted Trey Anastasio Band to Late Night With Conan O’Brien. On a recent episode of the new Alive Again podcast, Anastasio spoke about the period and noted that the TAB lineup had only played twice prior to the Late Night performance where TAB would deliver “Push On ‘Till The Day” ahead of a play at NYC’s Roseland Ballroom.

On June 7, 2010 Conan — an avid guitarist — welcomed Anastasio during a stop on the former’s Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Trey, sporting a Philadelphia Flyers jersey, led Conan and his band through the Marshall/Anastasio tune “Alaska.”

November 2, 2015 saw Trey Anastasio Band performing on the TBS iteration of Conan’s show. TAB played “The Song” from Trey’s 2015 solo album Paper Wheels on November 2 with the show airing on November 18.