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In many ways the band Phish has represented a cultural phenomenon that has only become evident in retrospect: In their earliest days in the mid- and late-‘80s they mostly were spoken about in terms of their cultural "similarity" to the still-functioning Grateful Dead. Both bands consisted of excellent musicians pursing music for the sake of music, rather than commerce, and both developed long-term relationships with a continually growing fanbase.

But it was really in the early ‘90s, when the band played some shows on the first H.O.R.D.E. tour, that their status as post-Dead pioneers became evident. They were one of the first batch of popular artists to openly embrace tape-trading among their fans, they played extended performances with an aggressively shifting repertoire, and in short they helped create what we now refer to as the "Jam Band" phenomenon, a catchphrase used to describe such divergent artists as Blues Traveler, Widespread Panic, the String Cheese Incident, Gov't Mule, Umphrey's McGee, the Disco Biscuits, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Leftover Salmon and even the Dave Matthews Band.

Anyone looking to get a good summation of Phish's artistic breadth--to get a sense of what their music was all about--is hereby advised to check out The Clifford Ball, a new 7-DVD boxed set issued by Rhino next week. The extensive set documents the so-called Clifford Ball--a famous Phish two-day festival that took place at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in New York in August 1996 and drew more than 70,000 fans.

Here's a taste of two performances to get an idea of the quality of the music involved here:

You can read more about this new collection here, but the bottom line for Phish fans: This set contains over nine hours of Phish footage and captures the band at the peak of the career. Events like this one help set the stage for Bonnaroo and other festivals that are now integral to our present-day music business, and once again show how far ahead of the curve Phish were during every phase of their career.

Check it out.