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49 free Phish trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
44 free Phish trivia questions with answers. Phish have played thousands of shows without repeating a setlist, and their fans keep track of every one. This quiz is for those fans: forty-four questions on the band's start at the University of Vermont and Nectar's bar, the Gamehendge saga, Junta and You Enjoy Myself, the Elektra years and Down with Disease, the Clifford Ball and Big Cypress, the hiatus, Coventry, the Hampton reunion, the Baker's Dozen and the 2024 run at Sphere. Easy questions ask where the band formed and which ice cream carries their name; the hard ones want the year Page joined, the album that first charted, the fictional Scandinavian band from Halloween 2018 and how many songs were played across thirteen nights at Madison Square Garden. No lyrics quoted, just the history. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the band and its members, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Phish formed in 1983 in which city?
Burlington, Vermont
Phish formed in Burlington, Vermont, in late 1983 when the founders met at the University of Vermont; the city remained the band's home base.
Q 02Which founding member left Phish in 1986?
Guitarist Jeff Holdsworth
Jeff Holdsworth, a founding guitarist, left in 1986 after graduating and becoming a born-again Christian, leaving the quartet that then stayed intact for decades.
Q 03In what year did keyboardist Page McConnell officially become a full-time member?
1985
Page McConnell became a full-time member in 1985 after booking the band for a spring show at his college that year; Anastasio and the drummer soon transferred there too.
Q 04Which member of Phish plays the drums?
Jon Fishman
Jon Fishman is Phish's drummer, a founding member from 1983 who also takes occasional lead vocals from behind the kit.
Q 05Which Burlington bar became Phish's regular venue from late 1984?
Nectar's
Nectar's on Main Street hosted Phish regularly from December 1984; the 1992 album A Picture of Nectar honours its owner, Nectar Rorris.
Q 06Who co-writes most of Phish's songs with Trey Anastasio?
Tom Marshall
Tom Marshall, Anastasio's friend from their school days in Princeton, New Jersey, wrote the lyrics to most Phish songs, from 'Wilson' to 'Farmhouse'.
Q 07The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday began as Trey Anastasio's senior project at which school?
Goddard College
Anastasio submitted The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday as his senior study at Goddard College in Plainfield in 1988, creating the Gamehendge saga.
Q 08Through 2023, on how many occasions had the band performed the full Gamehendge suite?
Six
Six full performances: 1988, 1991, 1993, twice in 1994, and then the 2023 New Year's Eve show after a 29-year wait.
Q 09What was Phish's self-released debut studio album, sold on cassette at shows?
Junta
Junta, self-released on cassette in 1989, was the band's first studio album; its multi-part epics became concert staples for decades.
Q 10Which epic from the first album is considered the band's signature song?
'You Enjoy Myself'
'You Enjoy Myself', from the debut album, is Phish's signature song; its multi-part structure, trampoline segment and vocal jam made it a set centrepiece for decades.
Q 11Which major label signed Phish in 1991?
Elektra
Elektra Records signed Phish in 1991; A Picture of Nectar (1992) was their first album for the label, which also reissued Lawn Boy.
Q 12The 1993 album Rift featured a cover painted by whom?
David Welker
David Welker painted the Rift cover, a surreal dreamscape of a sleeping man whose dream holds images drawn from the album's songs.
Q 13Which song, from 1994's Hoist, was Phish's first to appear on a Billboard chart?
'Down with Disease'
'Down with Disease' reached No. 33 on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart in 1994, the first Phish song to chart.
Q 21The New Year's Eve 1999 set that fans call 'The Show' started at 11:35 p.m. and ran roughly how long?
Eight hours
The set ran nearly eight hours, from 11:35 p.m. until about 7:15 a.m., as the band played straight through to sunrise on 1 January 2000.
Q 22Which 2000 Phish single crossed over to mainstream pop radio?
'Heavy Things'
'Heavy Things', the lead single from Farmhouse (May 2000), crossed over to mainstream pop radio, a rarity for a jam band, and became a live staple.
Q 23Where did Anastasio announce the band's first hiatus to fans, during a September 2000 concert?
The Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas
Q 14Which band member directed Phish's only official music video?
Mike Gordon
Mike Gordon, the bassist, directed the band's lone 1994 video and went on to make the films Outside Out (2000) and Rising Low (2002).
Q 15Which single from Billy Breathes was the band's most successful on the Billboard rock charts?
'Free'
'Free' reached No. 11 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart and No. 24 on Modern Rock Tracks in 1996, the band's best rock-radio showing.
Q 16Which company from the band's home state launched the ice cream flavour Phish Food?
Ben & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's launched Phish Food in 1997: chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and caramel swirls and fudge fish, named for the band from its home state.
Q 17Proceeds from Phish Food go to which band charity?
The WaterWheel Foundation
Phish's own charity, the WaterWheel Foundation, founded in 1997, receives the band's Phish Food royalties and makes grants in the communities the tour visits; the Mockingbird Foundation is a separate fan-run charity.
Q 18Phish's first festival, The Clifford Ball in 1996, was held at a decommissioned what?
Air force base
The Clifford Ball took over the decommissioned Plattsburgh Air Force Base in upstate New York in August 1996, complete with a surprise set played from a flatbed truck rolling through the campground.
Q 19The Clifford Ball drew how many people, making it the largest single concert in the US in 1996?
70,000
About 70,000 fans attended the Clifford Ball in August 1996, the largest crowd at any single US concert that year and the biggest Phish had drawn.
Q 20Phish's millennium festival was held on which reservation in Florida?
Big Cypress Seminole
Big Cypress, the Seminole Tribe's reservation in the Everglades, hosted about 75,000 fans on December 30-31, 1999 for the band's millennium festival.
Anastasio told the crowd at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on September 30, 2000 that the band was taking an 'extended time-out'; it lasted until New Year's Eve 2002.
Q 24Which muddy August 2004 festival was billed as Phish's farewell?
Coventry
Coventry, held on August 14-15, 2004 in the band's home state, was billed as the final shows; rain turned the site to mud and thousands abandoned their cars to walk in.
Q 25Phish's 2009 reunion shows were held at which venue?
Hampton Coliseum
Hampton Coliseum in Virginia, nicknamed 'the Mothership' by fans, hosted the three reunion shows on March 6-8, 2009.
Q 26What was the first song Phish played at the 2009 reunion?
'Fluffhead'
'Fluffhead', an epic from the band's earliest years that fans had chanted for during the 2003-04 shows, opened the first reunion show on March 6, 2009.
Q 27Phish's summer 2017 residency at Madison Square Garden ran for how many nights?
Thirteen
Thirteen nights, from July 21 to August 6, 2017, billed as the Baker's Dozen; each show had a donut theme and no song was repeated across the run.
Q 28How many different songs did Phish play across the Baker's Dozen without a single repeat?
237
Phish played 237 different songs across the Baker's Dozen without repeating one, cementing its reputation for never playing the same show twice.
Q 29For Halloween 1994, Phish's first 'musical costume' was which record, chosen by a mail-in fan poll?
The Beatles' White Album
Fans voted by mail for The Beatles' White Album, which Phish played in full as the second of three sets at the Glens Falls Civic Center on October 31, 1994.
Q 30For Halloween 1995 the band hired a full horn section to perform which rock opera?
Quadrophenia
Quadrophenia, The Who's 1973 double album, was the second annual musical costume, played at the Rosemont Horizon near Chicago with a hired horn section.