On March 18th, 1997, Ben & Jerry’s and Vermont-based jam band Phish launched Phish Food®, Chocolate Ice Cream with Gooey Marshmallow Swirls, Caramel Swirls & Fudge Fish. It’s been a well-loved, iconic flavor ever since. On this 17th anniversary, we look back at our 17 favorite Phish moments since the flavor launched.
Flynn Theater, Burlington, VT 3/18/97
The night the flavor was announced in our collective hometown of Burlington, VT, Phish played a fantastic show for the hometown crowd filled with special guests including Ben and Jerry, who kicked off the show introducing Phish Food. You can read a full review of the show with details of how the partnership between Ben & Jerry’s and Phish came to be in this essay by Phish Archivist Kevin Shapiro.
Long Island and Rhode Island, 4/2/98 – 4/5/98
This run of shows was one of our favorites from the late 1990s. Phish’s funky jams that had come to dominate the end of the decade were on full display throughout the series of shows. One of the highlights is the opener on the last night in Providence: Oh Kee Pa > You Enjoy Myself.
Higher Ground - Winooski, VT 4/17/98
In April 1998, music fans in Vermont were excited to welcome a new club to the scene. Higher Ground was about to open and little did we know how much it would change many of our lives. The second show in the club's existence featured a band of local Vermont musicians put together by Phish frontman, Trey Anastasio. On this night, the band debuted material that became part of Phish's regular rotation. The show included costumed dancers, people being hoisted above the stage by cables, a variety of props (including Mike Gordon walking out with large cardboard Cactii), and use of large fluorescent tubes as part of the stage lighting. It was a one-time only performance and truly memorable for those of us in attendance.
Virginia Beach 8/9/98
For those of us who attended this show, it remains one of the most special musical moments in our lives. Phish had not played a Grateful Dead cover since the early eighties and on this night, the third anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s passing, they encored with their epic tune, Terrapin Station. The moment the crowd realized what they were playing, the amphitheater exploded with joy. On the way back to the parking lot that night there was almost complete silence; the crowd was in awe. It still gives us goose bumps.
West Valley City, UT 11/2/98
Phish has a wonderful tradition of covering entire albums during their Halloween shows; a musical costume, if you will. In 1998, after a highly anticipated Halloween show in Las Vegas, the band showcased another one of their traditions: surprising their fans when they least expect it. To barely a half filled venue (when most of the tour was sold out), Phish covered the entire Pink Floyd album, “Dark Side of the Moon”.
Every once and a while, Phish will take a song and weave it through a whole set or show. Here are three of our favorites:
Wipe Out set, Worcester, MA 11/27/98
A second set filled with “Wipe Out” teases and great drumming from Jon Fishman.
Moby Dick set, Deer Creek, IN 7/11/00
After teasing the song earlier in the tour, Phish devoted the second set to Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick”. Fishman channeled his best John Bonham.
Guyute set, Utica, NY 10/20/10
Phish wove “Guyute” through both sets of this classic fall show.
Phish "Wilson > McGrupp And The Watchful Hosemasters" - Live in Utica DVD from Phish on Vimeo.
Worcester, MA 11/29/98
The fall tour of 1998 was a special one, but one of our favorite moments was seeing our Vermont neighbor, Seth Yacovone, just a teenager at the time, join Phish for a rousing cover of Eric Clapton’s “Layla”.
Warfield Theatre, San Francisco 4/15/99 – 4/17/99
In April of 1999, Trey Anastasio and Page McConnell from Phish played three shows with Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead (along with Steve Kimock and John Molo). These shows marked a coming together of the Grateful Dead and Phish communities in a meaningful way, and produced 3 stellar nights of music. One of our favorite moments was Trey’s take on “Row Jimmy”:
Big Cypress, FL 12/31/99
Not many bands can draw close to 100,000 fans to ring in the new millennium in the middle of Alligator Alley in Southern Florida. Phish rewarded them with a truly epic 8 hour set from midnight to sunrise on New Year’s Day. This was a magical night that took all the anxiety around Y2K and funneled it into a truly legendary concert.
Winooski, VT 4/11/04
In the spring on 2004, Higher Ground, our beloved local club, was closing down for the summer to move to South Burlington. As one of the final shows, they booked “The Easter Jam” with Dave Grippo and Friends. Grippo is a long time collaborator with Phish and member of the Trey Anastasio Band. Toward the end of the show, members of Phish joined the stage while Grippo and the others left, leaving just Phish to play two songs to the tiny club crowd.
Brooklyn, NY 6/18/04
In the summer of 2004, both Jay-Z and Phish were calling it quits. Jay-Z joined the band on stage to 2 outrageously fun songs, “99 Problems” and “Big Pimpin”.
Hampton, VA 3/6/09
Let’s just say we’re all so happy to have live Phish back in our lives, and this is the moment it began. You can barely hear the band over the crowd’s excitement in this video:
Hartford, CT 6/18/10
For the encore after a blazing show in Hartford, CT, Phish rocked out “Tweezer Reprise”. They had so much fun, they played it again.
Essex, VT 9/14/11
When tropical storm Irene ripped through the Northeast in August of 2011, it devastated many communities in Vermont including our Factory’s hometown of Waterbury. Phish stepped up to play a benefit concert a few weeks later which raised over $1,000,000 for Irene relief.
Phish - 9/14/11 "Carini" from Phish on Vimeo.
Burlington, VT 4/14/12
When Phish Food and the Waterwheel Foundation turned 15, we wanted to mark the occasion with something unique, have some fun in the community and raise some money for Irene relief. So we gathered a great band, led by Jon Fishman, to break the world’s largest cow bell ensemble record. We did it with over 2,000 people outside of our scoop shop in downtown Burlington. Over $25,000 was raised by The Waterwheel Foundation to help Vermonters still affected by Irene.
Stateline, NV 7/31/13
This “Tweezer” had many of the things we love about Phish, truly improvisational jams and spontaneous crowd participation.
Madison Square Garden 12/31/13
Phish used their New Year’s Eve show to celebrate their 30th year together as a band. Rarely in rock and roll history do original members of a band stay together this long continuing to evolve and progress as musicians. For the second of three sets, the band stripped their normal stage set down on the top of a van. They drove it into the middle of the floor of MSG where they played classic Phish songs like “Colonel Forbin’s Ascent” and “Lizards”. It was a night that made you remember what a fantastic band they are.
Ben and Jerry Singing “Brother” at The Clifford Ball
Plattsburgh, NY 8/17/96
That time Ben and Jerry joined Phish on stage to sing a line from “Brother”. This was technically before we launched Phish food, but how could we not include our co-founders joining Phish in this list?
While we believe there are a few indisputable, objective facts listed above, we realize people’s favorite moments with a band like Phish are highly subjective; these just happen to be the favorite moments of the collective Ben & Jerry’s team. What is your favorite Phish moment from the last 17 years? Tweet us at @benandjerrys.