5/14/99 State Theatre, Portland, Maine
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 00:36:50 -0700
From: Janet Vivar
To: dws@gadiel.com
Subject: Trey at The State review
The show at the State Theater was everything I imagined and more... The
atmosphere was that of any "phish" production. The crowd was ready for a
great show, and a great show it was. The setlist (which I do not have)
did not differ too much from the other shows. The first set consisted of
songs like Farmhouse, When the Circus Comes to Town and a great Runaway
Jim. The second set was an effects filled jam consisting of songs like
Will it go Round' in Circles, Voodoo Child and I Can See Clearly Now.
Overall it was a great show! It was great to see Trey up there on stage
alone and you could tell he was Really enjoying himself....
P.S. My friend taped the show and it came out great....i will be getting
a copy within' the next week or so......anyone who wants to trade e-mail
me at rudyv45@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 13:23:37 -0400
From: Dan Melnick dmelnick@nya.org
To: dws@gadiel.com
Subject: 5/14/99 Trey Show Review
I got inside the State Theater, strolled my way down to the front section,
and found myself leaning against the stage, off to the right. I couldn't
have asked for a closer, or better spot to see the one and only Trey
Anastasio from. After listening to some pre-show Charlie Hunter through the
PA and waiting with anticipation, the lights finally went down. The crowd
went nuts, and Trey walked out onto stage, a grin stretching from ear to
ear. He sat down in his tattered chair after quieting the roaring cheers,
and picked up one of two acoustic guitars. As the first notes of his
beautiful instrumental were first played, the crowed hushed in awe. The
theater sounded great, and my eyes were fixed to Trey's busy hands. He
looked to be using some sort of open tuning, judging from his sound. His
notes were crisp, and the song peaked nicely before quieting to a whisper.
As his last note sustained, the crowd went insane, and Trey grinned with
pride. The next song was Get Back On The Train, another beautiful song for
Trey to play acoustic. There was some head bobbing going on during this
one, but much like the other songs from the acoustic set, it wasn't truly
dance-able. Trey seemed to be really focusing on his guitar playing during
this song, and actually throughout the entire set. He chose some
technically difficult songs to play acoustic, but pulled them off flawlessly
of course. When he started to play the chords to When the Circus Comes to
Town, the crowd went totally nuts. There was some quiet singing along
during this one, and it was a truly beautiful rendition. It was nice to
hear the songs that have been played so many times around a camp fire
acoustic be played by Trey himself. Mmmmmmmm. I initially
recognized Snowflakes in the Sand because I had seen the lyrics to it posted
on the Internet (SJ!), and it was nice to put a tune to the eloquent lyrics.
It had a beautiful melody, and it's probably the nicest love song I've ever
heard written by Trey. After that came Water In The Sky, one I was not
familiar with but was pleased to hear. It also had some nice guitar parts,
and the vocal melodies were well done by Trey. After another beautiful
light change by Mr. Kuroda, he started to play Farmhouse. This is a song
that I've loved ever since I heard it played by Phish on Saturday Night
Live, and it was a pleasure to hear acoustic. Personally, I believe that
this song was meant to play acoustic, and this rendition of it further
supported my argument. It was placed perfectly in the set, what more could
you ask for? Next came the song that the crowd responded to the most,
Wolfman's Brother. Trey was groovin hard on the acoustic changes, and this
was the only song in the set that I can say I saw some flat out dancing
going on. After Wolfman's came probably the funniest moment of the night
when Trey started chatting about the crowd. From how I remember it, Trey
said something about how he was happy to be at this venue, because it's a
little raunchy. He said that it had to do with the General Admission, and
the fact that there was the drinkers up on the balcony and the tapers and
other people on the floor. Trey then said that this was the part of the
night when drunken mayhem sets in, which elicited and enormous cheer from
the balcony, and Trey said "But that's alright." The changes to whatever
song he was planning on playing next reminded him of the classic rock song
by Bad Company, Feel Like Makin Love, which he proceeded to play to the
delight of the crowd. This was all in fun, but from what proceeded to
happen, I think it had an adverse affect. The crowd on the balcony became
more drunk, and thus became louder. Trey played another feel good song
about the last call at a bar called "You'll Know My Name," which sort of
went with that drunken mayhem. It was about going to bed with a woman, and
the last line is "The difference between you and me is in the morning you'll
know my name." Trey was laughing while he was playing this, and the crowd
went nuts when he sang the last line. But then the balcony crowd's behavior
started to get to me. Trey went over to the piano and played Billy
Breathes, a song which I really enjoy. The crowd was literally talking
over the music to the point where I, who was standing right next to the
speakers on the stage, could barely hear it over the talking. Trey was
obviously disappointed in it also, but continued to play regardless. When
he came back to his guitar he played Runaway Jim, a crowd pleaser that they
actually payed attention to. It was fun singing the runaway, runaway,
runaway part of the song along with Trey, and once again a Phish song
elicited a huge cheer from the crowd. The last song of the set was Kissed
By Mist, a song about Julia Butterfly Hill, the Earth First protester
living in an old-growth redwood tree named "Luna" for the past 18 months. I
was psyched to hear this song, but through out the entire song I could not
hear a word Trey was saying due to the people in the balcony. I looked
around at the people on the floor, and everyone basically looked like they
felt bad for Trey. At the end of the song Trey does a part where he sings
quietly and stops playing the guitar, which he did. However, the people on
the balcony were not even courteous enough to stop talking during that. Trey
got up and left the stage, obviously upset at the crowd.
Set II:
I had no idea how Trey would react coming out for the second set after the
talking going on during the first. He had very clearly left the stage upset,
and I was just hoping that he would not those feelings carry over to the
second. I don't know what Trey did backstage, but when he came back he had
a huge grin on his face and no hard feelings about what happened in the
first set. They kicked off with First Tube, a funky tune with almost a
world beat feel to it. I don't really know how to describe it, but it
sounded almost African. It was jammed out, and Trey was making eye contact
with the crowd, feeding off their energy. The next song was Will It Go
Round In Circles, a neat tune that I thought would be really cool to add to
Phish's repetoire. Trey played a ripping rock star style guitar solo, and
the song ended. Next came Gotta Jiboo, a totally kick ass song that was so
jammed out. It was one of those songs that morphed and grooved in so many
different ways that you turn to your friend to ask if it's still the same
song. Just when you're wondering if they've segued, they come back in with
the singing, and end the song. Totally mind blowing song to say the least,
and the best had yet to come. Heavy Thing was another jammed out song, but
this one doesn't stick out in my mind quite as much as Gotta Jiboo. Tops
Off was described by the bass player Tony as an ancient blues song, with
many different interpretations. It was cool to see Trey rip up his
pentatonic blues scale, enough to make any blues lover melt in their seat.
He was in the zone to say the least. Next he played Ooh Child, which is a
really cool song that I wouldn't have expected Trey to cover. I expected
this one to be the 3 minute radio version, but they jammed it out. I have
to say that hearing Ooh Child funked up and jammed out gave me renewed faith
that any music could be taken to that level. After a killer Ooh Child jam,
they started into what turned out to be one of the highlights of the night.
Sand was ripping, but I noticed the bass player had been repeating the same
10 notes or so over and over for about 10 or 15 minutes. He was obviously
fatigued, and I saw him give Trey a look and then put his bass down. I
thought to myself, "Could it be that Trey will be going over the the mini
drum set?" Well, needless to say my prayers were answered, and the drum jam
began. Let me just say that I had been really impressed with the solidity
of the drummer's playing all night; he stuck to his groove, didn't flinch,
and stayed in the pocket like there was no tomorrow. But during this jam,
he went insane. They had obviously rehearsed some parts of the jam, with
different little sections to it, but this one definitely had some
improvisation going on by both Trey and Tony. Tony looked surprised at
points when Trey began to play more complex and interwoven parts, and Trey
couldn't wipe the smile off his face. Tony went nuts on his floor tom for
what seemed like days, before they went to the break section on the high
hat. After another floor tom jam, and one more high hat break, they went
into a flat out improv groove. You really have to hear it to appreciate it,
but it was by far one of the most impressive things I have seen in a long
long time. They ended simultaneously, and then Tony came back out. I had
seen the Setlists from the previous shows, and I was particularly entranced
by the fact that they had played Hendrix covers. I being a huge Jimi fan was
rooting for any Hendrix cover, but in my heart I was achin for a Voodoo
Chile (Slight Return). When I heard Trey go into the muted wah wah guitar
part, chills ran up my spine, and a huge whoop came from my mouth,
unbeknownst to me. The whole song was just about as much as I could take,
and I felt so musically satisfied after hearing it. He went off the stage
and came back on for a fun encore, I Can See Clearly Now. It was fun, and
Trey took some nicely played solos. Next they played a short song called
Last Tube, that was played well, but also used to introduce the band, and
the crew. Trey gave the crowd the thumbs up look when they went nuts for
the crew, cause he knows just how important they are, and was glad we gave
them some recognition. As the last notes of the show came from the stage, I
knew that I would never, ever, forget the show, and the contrast between the
chatter of the first set and the raging funk explosion of the second set.
Dan Melnick
dmelnick@nya.org
Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 10:10:03 -0400
From: Andrew Rush andrush@banet.net
To: dws@gadiel.com
Subject: Trey @ State Theater
Read your review of Trey's show on 5/14/99, and while it seemed right on,
there's one thing i disagree with- you say the crowd was quieter during
Runaway Jim than during Billy Breathes. Where i was (the balcony) the crowd
was much quieter during BB than the Runway Jim- especially the Jim jam.
Seemed odd to me that people would rather talk through a song that they are
(hopefully) familiar with, but that was what i experienced. Of course
things may have been different on the floor.
have a nice day
andy
--
Andrew Rush andrush@banet.net
return me to the trey solo page