It’s that time of year again… In two short days, Phish will return to New York’s Madison Square Garden for their annual four-night New Year’s run. Each year, we like to celebrate the season in the days leading up to Phish at MSG with the 12 Days of Phishmas, a daily series that gives you your Phish fix and helps stoke your excitement in the days leading up to the run. In 2016, we took you back to 12 historic Phish performances at The Garden. In 2017, with the Baker’s Dozen barely out of sight in the rearview, we relived the magic and mystery of the band’s historic residency.

For years, we’ve been earmarking some of our favorite Phish interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and other cool content that we haven’t found the right occasion to share with you…until now. For 2018, we’ve made you a very special Phishmas Advent calendar to help spice up your countdown to showtime. As we approach the start of the run on the 28th, we’ll open up one panel a day and reveal a fun surprise inside—a little something sweet and Phishy once a day until the Garden party begins. No peeking! By the time we’re finished with the calendar, it will finally be time for the gift we’ve all been waiting for: Four nights of Phish on their home court at the World’s Most Famous Arena.


2 Days Til Phish: The “Down With Disease” Music Video (1994)

On the eleventh day of Phishmas… Phish revisits the 1993 NYE Aquarium for their first—and only—music video.

On March 29th, 1994, Phish released their fifth studio album (Hoist) via Elektra Records, which includes “Down With Disease”. Before the release of Hoist, Phish gave fans their first taste of “Down With Disease” as the soundtrack of their 1993 New Year’s Eve gag, which saw the band dive into their onstage “aquarium” for the customary countdown “Auld Lang Syne” before moving into an instrumental snippet of the new song. The song would be debuted live in full in their first show of 1994.

The band went on to use that 1993 New Year’s performance as the inspiration for a “Down With Disease” music video in 1994 that briefly made the rounds on MTV and was even featured on an episode of Beavis and Butt-Head. Directed by Mike Gordon, the “Down With Disease” music video portrays Gordon, Trey Anastasio, Jon Fishman, and Page McConnell diving into a fish tank that quickly turns into a life-sized aquarium filled with the same cast of dangling sea creatures featured on New Year’s Eve. After some underwater fun, the video culminates with snippets of footage from the actual performance, giving the MTV crowd watching at home a taste of the medium in which Phish does their best work: live onstage.

The video is admittedly on the corny side (as Beavis and Butt-Head will tell you), and the band never made an attempt at a music video again, even throughout the video-dominated mid-90s. But you’re reading the 11th installment of a holiday Phish series in 2018, so it looks like that bold strategy didn’t end up sinking their ship. Either way, we’re glad we have the “Down With Disease” music video to dive back into for a laugh decades later. Check it out below:

Phish – “Down With Disease” [Music Video]

[Video: ROCKVIDEOMONTHLY]


We’ll be back tomorrow to open the twelfth and final panel on our Phishmas 2018 Advent calendar. What other Phishmas surprises are in store? You’ll just have to wait and see…

In the meantime, you can go back through the previous Phishmas surprises:

On the first day of Phishmas… The Big Daddy Show

On the second day of Phishmas… David Byrne Interviews Phish

On the third day of Phishmas… Trey Anastasio Talks Fare The Well At The New Yorker Festival 

On the fourth day of Phishmas… A Look Inside The Hoist Sessions From Cactus Films

On the fifth day of Phishmas… Mike Gordon Fascinates A Muscle Shoals Legend

On the sixth day of Phishmas… Page McConnell Chats in the Streets of London

On the seventh day of Phishmas… The Peanuts Conjure Cartoon Phish for “YEM” Dance Party

On the eighth day of Phishmas… Trey & Mike Chat with MTV on H.O.R.D.E. Tour (Swig Beer, Cross Legs)

On the ninth day of Phishmas… How Chris Kuroda & Phish’s Lighting Team Map out a Song

On the tenth day of Phishmas… Phish Does IT

On the eleventh day of Phishmas… The “Down With Disease” Music Video