I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 25, 2016] Trey Anastasio

I saw Phish for the first time last summer.  The show was a lot of fun and I understood why people wanted to go to every one of their shows.  I haven’t really listened to as much of Trey Anastasio’s solo music, although I do like his new album Paper Wheels.  But I thought it would be a great opportunity to see the front man in a small place–getting up close in a way I’d never be able to at a Phish show.

The ticket said the show would start at 7:30, I wanted to get there early to get in front.  I arrived later than I wanted to, but the show didn’t go on until 8, so I was a little annoyed.  And yet it also meant that I got to get up pretty close (right behind the front section which appeared to be the dance section of the floor).

I was really surprised at how little pot there was at the show.  I smelled a little, but for the most part it was more drinking than smoking (and there was much drunkenness at the end).I was off to the right, right in front of maniac keyboardist Ray Paczkowski.  He was a lot of fun to watch, and yet his large keyboard setup meant that I couldn’t see much else of the band.  Occasionally Cyro Baptista popped up playing some wild percussion–he was mostly invisible but every once in a while I’d see him throw some kind of tambourine in the air or whirl a plastic tube or, in this picture, play a Jew’s harp.

But the important thing was that Trey was right up front.  And in that first set, he walked over to our side (and the other side) a bunch of times, getting crazy close to us.  It was also cool to see how much he smiled throughout the show–great to see someone really enjoying himself playing.

And of course, there was a lot of jamming and soloing.

During the intermission, I moved to the middle (I tried to get to the far left, but actually couldn’t get through the crowd).  The position in the center was great although there were a bunch of really tall people in the middle (of course). But it provided a great view of the horn section: James Casey on saxophones, Jennifer Hartswick on trumpet (and incredible lead vocals) and Natalie Cressman playing some tremendous trombone and also taking lead vocals on a song.

I could barely see Tony Markellis way in the back–but his bass was a real presence throughout the show (Trey called him the heart and soul of the band).  And Russ Lawton played some great drums–including two duets between him and Baptiste.

I figured Trey would play some Phish songs, which I was looking forward to.  But I was actually pretty surprised at how many songs I didn’t know.  But the best part was it didn’t matter all that much.  The band sounded great and everyone was having so much fun, that I didn’t care if the songs were new to me.  And yes the sound was tremendous–you could hear everything perfectly…except Trey’s vocals.  They were mixed really quietly.  I assumed it was one of those situations where I was standing in a bad place and couldn’t hear the voice, but listening to the soundboard recording, it’s clear that Trey was just quieter than everyone else.

They opened with Phish’ “Sand” which was a treat.  It was really fun hearing the Phish songs with horns.  Obviously it sounded like Phish, and yet with all the band members different–and not playing the Phish version exactly, the songs sounded really different.  I particularly enjoyed the “Magilla”/”Gotta Jibboo” segue (“Jibboo” was tremendous with horns).  I was tickled to hear “Ocelot” and an encore of “Heavy Things” was pretty great (the guy next to me predicted it would be “Maze” which would have been phenomenal, but Heavy Things was pretty great too. (Sand, Things and Jibboo are all from Farmhouse).

And yes, more jamming and soloing.

They only played two songs from Paper Wheels: (it was the paper Wheels Tour, after all) “Sometime After Sunset,” and “The Song” (“The Song” is one of his prettier songs and it sounded fantastic).  I was surprised to discover that five of the songs were from his 2002 debut album: “Cayman Review,” “Drifting,” “Night Speaks to a Woman,” “Last Tube” and the encore “Push on Til the Day.”  “Last Tube” by the way was a ton of fun with crazy lights and a great funky groove.  It also had a really great keyboard solo from Paczkowski (he had such a great funky keyboard sound going on).

There were some songs from his 2012 album Traveler: “Pigtail,” “Architect,” and “Valentine” and then a couple of other songs.   Twenty-five songs in all.

Amid the Trey songs were a smattering of covers.  Normally I don’t love covers at shows, but since I didn’t know all that many TAB songs, it was really fun hearing these other songs mixed in–and they all came in the second half: Leon Russell’s “Delta Lady” and CSN’s “49 Bye-Byes.”

And then there were some truly outstanding covers.  Portugal, the Man’s “Feel It Still” sung by Natalie “Chainsaw” Cressman was utterly fantastic.  I recognized the song from the radio but wasn’t sure what song it was, and man did it sound great.  It was also fun to watch Trey when the spotlight was taken off of him.

More surprising (although I see it is fairly common) was the cover of Gorillaz’ “Clint Eastwood.”  Trey sang the chorus but the normally rapped verses were sung in a great soulful way by Jennifer Hartswick–it sounded so different and yet still perfect.  Hartwick’s parents were in the crowd (which raised a huge roar for them) and so she followed up “Clint Eastwood” with an absolutely stunning vocal on Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog.”  Holy crap, she was great.  She even did really fun Plant/Page interaction with Trey at the end of the song–her singing notes and him playing them on the guitar.  It was a great way to end the set.

Before the end, Trey played “Architect.”  He wasn’t exactly solo, but it was very quiet.  All the lights went down and a spotlight was trained on his guitar.  The spotlight reflected out into the audience and Trey slowly passed it over everyone.  It was pretty cool.

The encore opened with an a capella rendition of “The Parting Glass.”  I have heard many Phish shows where the band sings an a capella song and some people have to whoop through it and other people have to shush them.  And it was like this here too.  But people were mostly respectful and their voices sounded terrific.

During the Intermission I heard these guys complaining about U2, how their show cost over $200 and that they played for like 90 minutes.  For a small fraction of that cost, Trey played for nearly 3 hours.  It was spectacular.

The last couple of shows at the Fillmore I’ve been a little down on the venue.  I think because it has felt over booked and really crowded.  This show felt less crowded (it was sold out), and I got to really appreciate the great sound.

SET ONE

• Sand (11:18)
• Sometime After Sunset (5:39)
• Mozambique (3:43)
• Magilla (2:59)
• Gotta Jibboo (10:25)
• Pigtail (6:29)
• Curlew’s Call (9:38)
• Cayman Review (7:30)
• Ocelot (9:12)
• Valentine (6:06)
• Tuesday (5:50)

SET TWO

• Drifting (7:39)
• Night Speaks to a Woman (10:21)
• Delta Lady (4:29)
• Simple Twist Up Dave (9:30)
• The Song (5:06)
• Feel It Still (3:11)
• 49 Bye-Byes (4:42)
• Last Tube (10:40)
• Architect (7:18)
• Clint Eastwood (7:43)
• Black Dog (8:35)

ENCORE

• The Parting Glass (3:02)
• Heavy Things (5:08)
• Push On ‘Til The Day (10:23)