Phish Announces Clifford Ball ‘Dinner And A Movie’ Thanksgiving Weekend Broadcasts

Watch all six sets from the first major Phish festival this Thanksgiving weekend.

By Scott Bernstein Nov 22, 2021 • 5:35 pm PST

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Phish “Dinner And A Movie” returns for Thanksgiving weekend livestream broadcasts in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Clifford Ball, a two-day festival held at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in Plattsburgh, New York on August 16 and 17, 1996. The quartet’s three sets from August 16 air this Friday, November 26 starting at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT with Phish’s three sets from August 17 to begin at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT this Saturday, November 27.

Both “Dinner And A Movie” live archival video broadcasts can be viewed via webcast.livephish.com or through the band’s YouTube channel below. While the shows will air for free, those tuning in are encouraged to donate to Meals On Wheels of America. Contributions made to The WaterWheel Foundation will benefit an organization, “focused on keeping older Americans safe and nourished in communities across the country.”

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Phish’s announcement was accompanied by recipes from Betty Frost. The “Longtime Phish Staffer” shared recipes for Leftover Turkey Meatballs in a Thai Coconut Curry broth, Chocolate Dipped Coconut Balls and a Kale Caesar salad with Roasted Squash and Rosemary Focaccia. Head here for the recipes designed to utilize Thanksgiving leftovers.

Clifford Ball was the first major festival organized by Phish. The event drew approximately 70,000 fans to upstate New York and served as a prototype for many festivals that followed including Bonnaroo. “There’s no underplaying the significance that Phish had, as a band and as an organization, in the direct development of Bonnaroo,” the Manchester, Tennessee-based festival’s co-founder Rick Farman told The Tennessean in 2019 interview.

Watch both shows this weekend and check out the setlists below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lOhpm-ru6c

Set 1: Chalk Dust Torture, Bathtub Gin, Ya Mar, AC/DC Bag > Esther > Divided Sky, Halley's Comet > David Bowie

Set 2: Split Open and Melt, Sparkle > Free, The Squirming Coil, Waste [1], Talk [2], Train Song [3], Strange Design [4], Hello My Baby, Mike's Song -> Simple -> Contact > Weekapaug Groove

Set 3: Makisupa Policeman > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Down with Disease [5] -> NICU, Life on Mars? > Harry Hood -> Jam

Encore: Amazing Grace

Set 4: Flatbed Truck Jam

[1] Acoustic mini-stage.
[2] Acoustic mini-stage.
[3] Acoustic mini-stage.
[4] Acoustic mini-stage.
[5] 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.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80RVVQq0sD4

Set 1: The Old Home Place, Punch You in the Eye, Reba [1] > Cars Trucks Buses, The Lizards, Sample in a Jar, Taste, Fee [2] -> Maze, Suzy Greenberg

Set 2: The Curtain > Runaway Jim, It's Ice > Brother [3], Fluffhead, Run Like an Antelope > Golgi Apparatus > Slave to the Traffic Light

Set 3: Wilson > Frankenstein, Scent of a Mule [4], Tweezer, A Day in the Life, Possum > Tweezer Reprise

Encore: Harpua [5]

[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 (259 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.

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