Archive for the 'Trey' Category

Trey Anastasio 2-13-2010

Published on February 15, 2010 in Music and Trey. 5 Comments

On Saturday, I had gone to CT to see Trey and Classic TAB at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford. Because of a new hookup from my cousin, I had great seats, about 6 rows back. I had seen bands from that close before, but never a Phish-related band. The seats were great.

Upon arrival, there wasn’t a large lot scene that I could see. We had driven by around 6 to meet my cousin at a bar in downtown Wallingford and there was no one at the Oakdale yet. When we go back to the Oakdale around 7:15, the lot was pretty full, but there wasn’t a large scene. So we headed in.

We grabbed a beer and headed to our seats. The Oakdale is a pretty nice theatre, though it was the largest venue scheduled for Trey’s tour. It wasn’t a sold out show, but the vibe inside felt as if it had been sold out. The crowd was excited and Trey was visibly happy to be there. In fact, he had mentioned it was one of his favorite rooms. I could tell why. The sound in the room was perfect. We were low below the speakers and the sound was still excellent. This is a major contrast to the last time I saw TAB at Lupo’s. The sound there tends to be too loud, making it difficult to pick out the different instruments. The Oakdale had a nice warm sound to it.

He opened the show with “Alive Again” and it was clear the show was gonna be a good one. Everyone was playing at the top of their game. The next song was “Shine”. This is a song that I had previously only heard played by 70 Volt Parade. The song was horrible then. It was just way too much of a pop song. The horns added a nice element to it and made the song really sparkle (pun intended). After the new song “All that Almost Was”, he dedicated the next song to Natalie’s (the trombonist) great-grandmother who was in the audience, and they played “Mozambique”. You could tell the band was well rehearsed and didn’t just get on stage and wing it (which was how 70 Volt Parade always sounded). They followed that with my favorite TAB song, “Push On Til The day”. They really played this one strong and jammed it out a bit. Other highlights from the first set were “Sand”, “Alaska”, and “Liquid Time”, which really sounded great with the flute. I can’t wait for Phish to play this one. They closed the set with a song he said he was playing for his friend, Steve Pollack, aka the Dude of Life. He had written the song with Trey, but had never heard it performed. The song was “Show of Life”, which was another great song and could become a great Phish tune as well. It ended a long 90 minute set.

The second set opened with “Cayman Review”, followed by “Gotta Jibboo”. The band was nailing everything. They played “The Birdwatcher”, a barbershop tune from Phish’s Party Time album. They then went to “Love is Freedom” which segued to “Simple Twist-up Dave”, keeping up the energy. After calming things down a bit for “Flock of Words” and the nice groove of “Drifting”, they closed the set with “First Tube”. We knew we’d get a great encore. They came back and Trey explained how curfews worked and why there would sometimes be a three minute encore. He then said that wasn’t going to happen this night and it didn’t. The triple encore included “At the Gazebo”, “Valentine”, and “Dragonfly”.

Trey was visibly excited to be there throughout the whole show and didn’t seem to want the night to end. But, as with all good things, the night had come to an end. It was a very strong show and reminded me why I love Trey and TAB so much. This smaller incarnation of the band is really what he needs to stick with. Things started to get out of hand with the 10 piece band. It was almost too much going on to really get it. It’s also nice that he’s able to play the smaller venues. I had seen his bigger band at Great Woods during Phish’s hiatus. While it made sense that he played a venue that big, the music and the band really weren’t fit for such a large venue. For a band that’s full of just fun music, they need a smaller venue where they can be closer to the whole audience.

Unfortunately, the scene outside after the show was pretty bad. There were nitrous tanks and balloons everywhere. We made our way to the car and headed out.

Setlist 2-13-2010

A RunawayJim Retrospective Part 5: Post-Breakup

Published on June 6, 2009 in Music, Phish and Trey. Closed

The following article is part 5 of a multi-part series on my life as a Phishhead. I would recommend starting at the beginning: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Following Coventry, I continued listening to Phish for a while, but eventually decided to branch out a bit. My concert attendance had decreased in general. I started listening to moe. a bit more and some newer music, including Ryan Adams. I kept going back to Phish every now and then, but it was few and far between. As I had a lot more time on my hands and found myself single and living in a city where I didn’t know a whole lot of people other than those I worked with or who worked for me, I started meeting some people on Craigslist. Eventually, I met the woman who would eventually become my wife. She, unfortunately, was not a fan of Phish, but that wasn’t a problem.

We had gone to a moe. show together in Worcester. We had a good time, but the sound sucked. And honestly, after listening to many recordings of moe. shows, they need a better sound guy. They sound muffled in all the recordings, and they sounded muffled at the show itself. It didn’t help that we were near a bunch of people who talked throughout the entire show, but the sound was still horrible. The Palladium is not a very large venue. It’s about the size of the current Lupo’s in Providence. I have seen bands at Lupo’s and the sound was not a problem. The was the first and only time I have seen moe. Don’t get me wrong, I love their music. I just haven’t gone to see them again (though if they come to Providence, as they should, I’ll be there).

Trey started up another band, 70 Volt Parade, with some of the members of the old 10 piece TAB. This band was more of a rock band. Susan and I went to see them in Boston one summer with Matisyahu opening for them. I really enjoyed Matisyahu, but Trey just wasn’t that good. In fact, his 10 piece band was much better. Sure, the show had its high points, but overall, it wasn’t anything special. I had gone to the show very hopeful, but left wanting more. He released his album Shine, which was full of catchy pop songs, but wasn’t musically interesting.

Phil Lesh and Friends came through Providence to play two nights at Lupo’s. I went to one of them and finally got the music that I needed. The band was solid. The show was fun and musically awesome. While they gave it a folksy/country sound, it was just what I needed. Phil Lesh and Friends was like the anti-Trey. Phil had put all his drug and alcohol problems behind him and concentrated on his family, his friends, and his music. They were just plain awesome and very tight.

I had seen Trey on two other occasions. The first was opening for Tom Petty on his 30th anniversary tour. He was with 70 Volt Parade. Again, he was good, but his set was nothing special. I love Tom Petty as well, and had seen him on another occasion (which may have been during the hiatus with Bob Dylan opening). This Petty show wasn’t as fun. It seemed to be more about the show than his music. The worst part of the show was when he brought out Stevie Nicks, whom I despise. I enjoy Fleetwood Mac, but I can’t stand her. At the previous show, Petty made it a lot of fun. This one lacked the fun. The one high point was when they “went back to their roots” and played some British blues rock. That part of the show was great.

The other time I saw Trey was opening for Phil Lesh and Friends. The only difference was that this time there were two openers. First was the Benevento Russo Duo followed by the addition of Trey and Mike. This show was interesting. Trey was pushed by the solid playing of the others, but you could tell something was still “off” about him. Phil and Friends were awesome as usual, though Susan wasn’t overly impressed (she just doesn’t like jamming).

I had also started listening to The Breakfast a bit more. I grew up with guitarist Tim Palmieri. I had a lot of fun at the shows I attended. I haven’t seen them in a few years, but they’re definitely worth checking out. I’m hoping now that the Century Lounge has re-opened in Providence they’ll come back here instead of just going to South County.

Time went on and Trey had released some more solo albums. Page and Mike both released solo albums as well, which were extremely solid and well received. In fact, those two albums are far better than anything Trey did without Phish. Everything came to a head when Trey was arrested in New York for drug possession. More hatred and rumors started flying around the message boards. I decided to just step away from it all and ignore it. I didn’t really care. It was Trey’s personal issues to deal with on his own.

Sometime after his arrest he started doing some interviews saying how he wanted nothing more than to play the old Phish tunes again. He was booked for a solo acoustic gig at the Newport Folk Festival last summer. I was lucky enough to go. Obviously, he was a highlight for me. He played a bunch of Phish tunes and some of his solo work to a crowd that stayed through the rain to watch him. People were chanting to “Wilson” and singing the lines to “Bathtub Gin”. Everyone had a great time and Trey seemed super excited to be back. He looked healthy and happy. Other worthwhile performances were the Cowboy Junkies, Willy Mason, the Black Crowes, Jakob Dylan, and the American Babies. Trey also brought back his original solo band, dubbed Classic TAB, and went on a small tour. I was lucky enough to catch him in Providence. The band was on fire from start to finish. It was very obvious that Trey was back and clean. They ripped through some solo Trey songs, some new songs, and a bunch of Phish tunes. For the encore, they were joined on stage by Scott Murawski of Max Creek, Bill Kreutzman of the Dead, and Oteil Burbridge of the Aquarian Rescue Unit and more recently the Allman Bros. They all tore it up for a packed crowd. Trey was definitely back and on top of his game once again. He was clean and sober and, more importantly, healthy and happy.

Rumblings of Phish’s return were getting louder and louder over the next couple months when they announced by video that they were reuniting for three shows at the Hampton Coliseum in Virginia. Everyone was ecstatic, though there were still many naysayers, particularly those who still held a grudge from Coventry.

The next post in this series will cover the reunion at Hampton and the summer tour. I have not decided if I should wait until the first leg of the tour has ended towards the end of the month or if I will write it after Great Woods.

A RunawayJim Retrospective Part 2: The Hiatus

Published on June 4, 2009 in Music, Phish and Trey. Closed

The following article is part 2 of a multi-part series on my life as a Phishhead. I would recommend starting at Part 1.

The hiatus brought with it a lot of time to reflect on Phish and a lot of time to seek out new bands. While the members of Phish had went about to work on their own side projects, I spread my musical roots and went on listening to new music. One of the first jambands I had gotten into while listening to Phish was the String Cheese Incident (SCI). I started listening to them around 1998 when the album ‘Round the Wheel was released. They had won some Jammy awards and I figured they were worth a listen. I really enjoyed what I heard. I bought some other albums and downloaded some shows and got into them, though nowhere near the way I was with Phish. I had also gotten into Trey’s solo work with the Trey Anastasio Band (TAB). The band had grown into a 10 piece group by that point. While these bands are quite different, they are related in my musical growth during the hiatus.

I had gone to see TAB at Great Woods in the summer of 2001 with my then girlfriend (different girl from either of those in Part 1). The scene was similar to a Phish show, but slightly different. People weren’t quite as into it as they were Phish, but it was still a whole lot of fun with all the weirdness that surrounds a Phish show. We had a blast. The Phish community was still pretty intact. Everyone was still friends. The show, while musically not as interesting as a Phish show, was good (though I think David “ZZYZX” Steinberg said it best when he said that TAB would have been better playing 6-8 minute long songs rather than 10-15 minute songs).

I had also, through this girlfriend who was seriously into music, gone to see many other bands during this time. Martin Sexton was one I saw twice. He’s got a great voice and can put on a great show, though, at the time, I felt he needed to mature a bit as a performer. There seemed to be a kind of disconnect between him and the audience.

I had also seen Crosby Stills Nash and Young and Paul McCartney. Both of those shows were really good, but they obviously weren’t the same because they were basically nostalgia acts.

When I found out SCI was coming to Radio City Music Hall in 2002, I had to go. So we went. I didn’t really know what to expect. At the time, the band seemed to be trying to fill the hole that Phish left when then went on hiatus. They were worth checking out. I was excited because I liked their music and I loved the venue. The show started off pretty strong, but went downhill pretty quickly. It had a couple other high parts, but, in general, I was not impressed. The jams all sounded the same. There was no dark/light contrast throughout the show at all. It was all “happy” music. Worst of all, Michael Kang, the lead electric guitarist, sounded as if he was trying to imitate a cross between Trey and Jerry Garcia rather than create his own sound. This bothered me quite a bit as a huge Phishhead and not-so-huge Deadhead. As I said, there were high points. Whenever they played a bluegrass tune and kept it mostly acoustic (Kang also played either fiddle and mandolin), they were spot on and they kicked ass. They also played a cover of the Talking Heads’ Burning Down the House, which could have burned down Radio City it was so good. Unfortunately, though, the majority of what they played was this electric jazzy funky stuff that went nowhere and it all sounded the same. I left extremely disappointed and have since stopped listening to SCI. Every now and then I throw in a CD and try to listen to them. When I do, I’m reminded of how amateurish they really are (again, the exception being the bluegrass). If you have something, build upon it. Don’t try to be what you’re not. That’s the moral of SCI.

In addition to branching out during the hiatus, I also really got into trading and downloading shows. I had lived on campus my last summer at UConn (summer of 2001) and setup an FTP server to allow people to download shows. I discovered Bit Torrent and how people started using that to trade shows. At the time, Bit Torrent wasn’t huge and was mainly used for legitimate purposes, such as trading taper-friendly concert recordings and distributing Linux distributions. During this time, I was more active in an online community called People for a Clearer Phish (PCP). I had discovered them before the hiatus had started. They are a group that got started to get away from trading the analog cassettes that I had mentioned in my previous post. The problem with the cassettes is that they have generational quality issues. Each time you record one, it creates a new generation as you go down the line, slowly degrading the quality. PCP was a group of pioneers who use a file format called Shorten (.shn) to compress the audio and trade it. Shorten is a lossless audio compression scheme, unlike mp3, which will loses data during the compression. The files were huge, about 1 GB per show. When I first got involved, I had no CD burner and could only do a blanks and postage (B&P) type trade. I would send someone the blank CD-R’s and a self addressed stamped envelope and they burned the discs and sent them back to me. Once I got my own burner, I was more actively trading and sending shows to people and helping people out. Once more people had broadband internet connections, this type of snail mail trading died off in favor of FTP hosting and eventually Bit Torrent. PCP became eTree, which started bt.etree.org, a Bit Torrent site full of shows from taper-friendly artists. PCP remained as an email discussion list for Phish. I had many great discussions with many awesome people, including PCP founder Patrick Marshall and ZZYZX, who happened to be a member of the group (there were others who are more well-known Phishheads as well).

Soon enough, rumors started floating around about Phish coming back and a new album. Sure enough, the band was coming back. They quickly recorded their album Round Room, which is about as raw in the studio as you can get (you can hear Trey cough during “Friday” on the album). They also announced their comeback show would be on New Year’s Eve 2002 at Madison Square Garden, followed by a short run at the Hampton Coliseum in early January 2003 and a short 12 date winter tour in February. The hiatus had ended. Phish was back with a new album of new material released before we saw them perform the songs live. This was not normal for Phish. They tended to introduce new songs live before the album was released. No one cared much. Their beloved band had returned. All was right in the world… or was it?

The next article in this series will be about my experience with what will become known as post-hiatus Phish, or later Phish 2.0.

Classic TAB – Holy Crap!

Published on October 21, 2008 in Music and Trey. Closed

My ears are still ringing.  I’m fresh out of the Trey Anastasio show at Lupo’s.  The only thing I heard from him prior to this show was his solo acoustic set at the Newport Folk Fest and the show they did in Brooklyn in August.  Both were great.  I got an email from my 2nd-cousin-in-law saying how great the CT show was a few days ago.  Then I read a review of that show, which said it was pretty mellow.

Tonight was anything but mellow.  I can’t even remember what they played, but they played for a good 3 hours.  The first set was about 90 minutes.  Highlights from that set were “Alaska,” “Sand,” “Ooh Child,” and I’m sure there were others that I can’t remember right now.

The second set was a little shorter.  He came back with a killer “Push On Til the Day,” followed by a great “Gotta Jibboo.”  He did a great “A Case of Ice and Snow,” which was slowed way down, but it gave it this great depth that the album version lacks.  During the second set, the band left and he grabbed his acoustic for “Water in the Sky,” “Brian and Robert,” and “Get Back on the Train,” which he jammed out.  The band came back and they played a few more songs, ending the second set with “Tuesday.”

The encore was pretty predictable.  I haven’t seen him play with his solo bands in quite some time without playing “First Tube.”  However, this one was special.  In the middle of the song, some dude starts playing percussion and then takes over for Russ on the drums.  Tony gets up from his bass and some other dude steps in.  Finally, as the jam is getting insane, Scott Murawski, from Max Creek, comes out with what looks like another of Trey’s guitars and they trade licks throughout the remainder of the song.

I really think Trey was happy to be in a small club.  It showed.  He was into it, the crowd was into it, and the tunes just flowed (with some minor downtime).  Trey is back at the top of his game.  You can tell he’s clean.  You can tell his heart is 100% back in this.  Not only is his guitar work a million times better, his voice sounds more in tune (even moreso than it did in the 90′s, and he’s never been known for having a great voice).  All I have to say for all of you going to Hampton, enjoy.  Assuming the 4 guys from Phish rehearse enough together, those shows will be nothing short of epic.

Disclaimer: I don’t remember the setlist exactly.  Some of those songs might be out of order.  In fact, I’m sure they are.  I also couldn’t hear Trey when he was announcing his guests.  I thought he said Jamie Masefield on drums, but he’s not a drummer.  It looked a little like Bill Kreutzman from the Dead.  I couldn’t tell at all who the other bassist was.  I’m sure a setlist will be posted overnight.  The ringing is starting to go away and I’m just about ready to pass out.  Until the next time…

Update: I’m good.  It was Bill Kreutzman on drums and my first inclination about the bassist was correct.  It was Oteil Burbridge, of Allman Bros. fame.  The setlist is now up at Phantasy Tour.

Newport Folk Festival

Published on May 15, 2008 in Music and Trey. 2 Comments

It’s official… I’m going to the Newport Folk Festival this year.  I have wanted to go in the past (basically since I moved to RI), but never really had the money.  Thanks to the economic stupidity of our president, I’ll be using my stimulus check (or part of it) to go this year.  The reasons I wanted to go this year really bad is Jimmy Buffett, Levon Helm (of The Band), Trey Anastasio (solo acoustic, supposedly), and the Black Crowes.  If they’re all acoustic, I’ll totally cream my pants.

I love Trey and I love him even more when he’s acoustic.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see him on his solo tour doing the acoustic sets.  I have some mp3′s of him on tour in 1999 playing acoustic and it’s totally amazing.  Perhaps I’ll post a couple when I get home (it’s legal, he allows taping and distributing his shows for free, and I don’t think these are soundboard).

I love Buffett, and this should be a bit more intimate than seeing him last year at Gillette Stadium with a crowd of something like 50-60,000.  If he’s playing acoustic and going back to his roots, well, even better.

I’ve always wanted to see the Black Crowes.  I don’t have their new album, but supposedly, it’s really good.  Chris Robinson’s voice is probably the greatest voice in rock ‘n’ roll.

Finally… Levon Helm… what more can I say?  He’s a legend.  The Band is probably (aside from Phish) my favorite band of all time.  Their sound is timeless.  And even though Robbie Robertson wrote most of the stuff, Levon is awesome.

These 4 don’t even include the others playing… Son Volt, Jakob Dylan (Bob’s son, of Wallflowers fame), Richie Havens, Cowboy Junkies, Stephen and Damian Marley (a different Bob’s sons), and others that I’ve never heard of, but some that one of my student employees (though I suppose she’s now a former student employee) was excited about.  Regardless, I’m excited.  This will be my first music festival ever (at least that I actually get into, unless Newport becomes a mud pit like Newport, VT did for my last attempt at a music festival).  It may not include camping, but a bunch of great bands and musicians on a couple different stages… it should be a great time.  The nice thing about this one is that they allow you to come and go as you please.  If no one interesting in playing, we’ll tour Newport.

Trey Anastasio – The Horseshoe Curve (semi-review)

Published on August 27, 2007 in Music, Phish, Review and Trey. Closed

I had purchased Trey Anastasio’s new album, The Horseshoe Curve, and took a listen (along with the 5 song EP that came with it). I was excited when I read about it being an instrumental album, much like Seis de Mayo. Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I had expected. I would really like to see Trey get more into classical-type music. While I like the funky beats of the new album, I was hoping for something a little more refined. I have only listened to the album twice now, but I will be listening more. I will admit that I do like it the more I listen to it, but I was hoping it’d be something a little different than it is. I am very happy that Trey has dumped the major record labels and started his own label. Now if only the other 3 will follow him.

I would really like to see Trey transcribe some of his instrumental Phish songs for orchestra. I loved what he did with “Guyute” and would love to hear orchestral versions of “Divided Sky,” “You Enjoy Myself,” “David Bowie,” and “Fluffhead.”

UPDATE: Interestingly, a day after posting this, I received my daily Google Notification about Phish and saw a review of this album. It didn’t give it high marks, but it’s pretty much exactly the same way I feel about the album.
Review from The Music Box