Shows, setlists, jams and stories from Phish in 1996. Here are 30 of our 68 1996 questions. Tap an answer to play right here, or jump into a 10-question set. Every answer links to the source it was checked against.
The radio hit "Free" was released as a single from which album?
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Billy Breathes. "Free" came out in 1996 from Billy Breathes and reached No. 11 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, one of the band's biggest radio moments.
The arena-rocker "Character Zero" first appeared on which Phish studio album?
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Billy Breathes. "Character Zero" is the second track on Billy Breathes, the 1996 album produced by Steve Lillywhite. It went on to become a staple set closer.
Which 1996 Phish album peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200?
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Billy Breathes. Fuego hit No. 7 again in 2014, and it was Phish's highest-charting album since Billy Breathes. The Story of the Ghost came close in 1998 at No. 8.
Which producer worked on both Billy Breathes (1996) and Joy (2009)?
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Steve Lillywhite. Steve Lillywhite joined the Billy Breathes sessions at Bearsville in 1996 and returned 13 years later to produce the reunion album Joy in New York City.
Phish's first weekend-long festival, The Clifford Ball in August 1996, was held at which former military site?
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Plattsburgh Air Force Base. About 70,000 fans showed up in Plattsburgh, New York. Loring Air Force Base in Maine later hosted festivals like The Great Went.
On the Baker's Dozen "Holes" night (August 2, 2017), a 22-minute "Mike's Song" segued into the Phish debut of which holiday song?
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O Holy Night. The jam chart calls that "Mike's" the longest version since 1996. It had a true second jam after the closing chords before landing on a Christmas carol in midsummer.
At the 2022 New Year's Eve show, which Queen song returned for the first time since 12/31/1996, a gap of 852 shows?
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Bohemian Rhapsody. It came during the time-machine gag, with the Late Show Gospel Choir singing from risers and some lyrics swapped for "Ghost" quotes.
During the second-set-closing "Character Zero" at Boston's FleetCenter on New Year's Eve 1996, what was launched inside the arena?
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A hot-air balloon. "Character Zero" debuted live in June 1996 and then appeared on Billy Breathes that fall. It has mostly been used to close sets or as an encore. On NYE 1996 a hot-air balloon went up inside the arena while it played.
Which animated series used Phish's "Free" in a fall 1996 episode?
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King of the Hill. "Free," the first single from Billy Breathes, peaked at No. 11 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, the band's highest showing there.
In "Harry Hood," after the band sings "Harry," what does the crowd shout back?
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"Hood!". The call-and-response started at Red Rocks on August 6, 1996. Fliers listing crowd activities for certain songs helped spread it, and it has been a fixture ever since.
Roughly how many fans attended The Clifford Ball, Phish's first festival, in 1996?
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70,000. The Clifford Ball also had carnival rides, aerial flyovers and an afternoon set by the Clifford Ball Orchestra, and MTV aired a documentary about it.
Unlike the first two Halloween costume albums, how was Phish's 1996 Halloween album chosen?
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By the band itself. After two years of letting fans vote, the band made the 1996 pick on its own and brought in horns and extra percussion to pull it off.
Phish's New Year's Eve 1996 show in Boston set a record at the time for what?
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Largest indoor balloon drop. Phish.net counts 79,627 balloons in that famous Auld Lang Syne drop at the FleetCenter, a record for an indoor balloon drop at the time.
In July 1996, Phish played its first-ever concert in London. At which venue?
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Shepherd's Bush Empire. The July 11, 1996 London show was also Phish's first full-length concert in Europe, coming in the middle of a European tour that also included several opening slots for Santana.
Phish's only live performance in spring 1996, while it was recording Billy Breathes, was a set at which festival?
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New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The band played an overflow afternoon crowd at Jazz Fest on April 26, 1996, with trumpeter Michael Ray sitting in. The show was later released as 'New Orleans Relief' after Hurricane Katrina.
In December 1996, Phish closed its fall tour with its first-ever Las Vegas show. Where was it?
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The Aladdin Theatre. Las Vegas went on to host several Phish Halloween runs, but the band's first show in the city was at the original Aladdin Theatre.