Our best wishes and healing vibes go out to Hallie Crawford, the 22-month-old daughter of Avett Brothers’ stand-up bassist Bob Crawford, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor following a recent seizure and stroke. Crawford shared the news about his daughter on the Avett’s website and also mentioned he was taking a leave of absence from the band.
Let’s hope Bobby returns to the stage soon, which would mean Hallie is well on the road to recovery.
Finally, Trey Anastasio’s fall tour kicks off on Saturday at Higher Ground in South Burlington, Vermont and to help get the fanbase excited for the shows, the guitarist’s engineer, Ben Collette, has compiled seven tracks from TAB’s Winter Tour for a TAB six-pack sampler. Head over to LivePhish.com to download the compilation for free.
Trey Anastasio has added two solo shows to his forthcoming fall tour including a Vermont Flood Recovery benefit. On October 1, Trey’s seven-piece will return to the Higher Ground in South Burlington, Vermont for a show in which proceeds will go towards The Waterwheel Foundation and The Vermont Community Foundation. Also, TAB will make their Baltimore debut on October 8 at Ram’s Head Live in the Inner Harbor.
Here’s ticketing info for each show…
Higher Ground -
A limited number of tickets will be available through a real time presale beginning Tuesday, September 20th at noon (eastern time) and ending Wednesday 21st at 5:00pm (eastern time) at http://treytickets.rlc.net.
Tickets can be purchased in person at the Higher Ground box office on Saturday, September 24th at noon. Tickets will not be available online or over the phone. There is a 2 ticket limit per person.
Ram’s Head Live -
A limited number of tickets will be available through a real time presale beginning Tuesday, Septermber 20t at noon (eastern time) and ending Friday, September 23rd at 5:00pm (eastern time) at http://treytickets.rlc.net
Tickets go on sale Saturday, September 24th at 10:00am. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.tickets.ramsheadlive.com or by phone at 410.244.1131. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the venue box office (Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm). This is an all ages show.
Back in March of 2010, we debuted our Tracks of the Trade column in which HT’s Ryan Dembinsky speaks with producers and engineers within the music industry about their roles in the creative process. For the first Tracks of the Trade column, Ryan spoke with producer Peter Katis, who has collaborated on countless modern classics by the likes of the National, Frightened Rabbit, Interpol, Fanfarlo, Tokyo Police Club, Jonsi (Sigur Ros), and The Get Up Kids. One of Katis’s next projects will be working with none other than Phish front man Trey Anastasio.
We came across an article profiling Katis today in Sonicscoop that mentions the coming collaboration and describes the future project as “out of left field” for Big Red. Nothing could make us happier than to hear Trey tackle something completely unorthodox for him. How about some freestyle rapping or klezmer music? We hear dubstep is pretty popular these days as well.
Katis: Yeah, if they want that. I’m hoping the record I’m going to be doing with Trey Anastasio has some of the same potential to have some of that kind of energy. He’s the lead singer of the band Phish, and he wants to do something totally out of left-field for him. They’re the kind of band that’s always been about live performance more than anything else. But this time I think he wants to make a record that’s just about making a record, and it doesn’t have to be the kind of thing that you could re-create live. We’ll see! [via Sonicscoop]
We did a little research and came across a news story from five weeks ago on Katis’s manager’s website that mentioned Peter will head into the studio with Trey in November. We can’t wait to hear the aural fruits this collaboration should yield. As always, we’ll keep you posted on the latest.
The Trey Anastasio Band’s short fall tour just got a little bigger with the addition of a pair of shows in the Carolinas. The septet will perform at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, North Carolina on October 6 and the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on October 7. Tickets will be available through Anastasio’s ticketing website starting on Friday, August 19 at 10AM ET and ending the following Wednesday at 5PM ET.
10/6 – Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville, NC – Presale Begins Friday
10/7 – House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC – Presale Begins Friday
10/9 – Langerado Music Festival, Sunrise, FL – On Sale Now
10/12 – Wellmont Theatre, Montclair, NJ – SOLD OUT
10/13 – Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD- SOLD OUT
10/14 – Fillmore, Charlotte, NC – On Sale Now
10/15 – nTelos Wireless Pavilion, Charlottesville, VA – On Sale Now
11/11 – The Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA – On Sale Now
11/12 – Bear Creek Music & Arts Festival, Live Oak, FL – On Sale Now
As Phish gears up to hit the road early next month for the second leg of their summer tour, Trey Anastasio is looking to the fall when he will tour with his Trey Anastasio Band septet. The group will perform at a pair of festivals down in Florida (Langerado and Bear Creek) along with five shows on the East Coast that were announced this morning.
[Photo by Joe Ringus]
Here’s the list of Trey Anastasio Band tour dates…
10/9 Sunrise, FL Langerado Music Festival
10/12 Montclair, NJ Wellmont Theatre
10/13 Silver Spring, MD The Fillmore Silver Spring
10/14 Charlotte, NC The Fillmore Charlotte
10/15 Charlottesville, VA nTelos Wireless Pavilion
11/11 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle
11/12 Live Oak, FL Bear Creek Music & Arts Festival
And here’s ticketing information for these shows…
Tickets for the festivals are on sale now. Tickets for the Montclair, Silver Spring, Charlotte and Atlanta shows will be available through a real time presale beginning Friday, July 29, at 10:00 am ET and ending Wednesday, August 3, at 5:00 pm ET at http://treytickets.rlc.net. The real time presale for the Charlottesville, VA show begins Friday, July 29, at 10:00 am ET and ends Wednesday, August 10, at 5:00 pm ET at http://treytickets.rlc.net. See below for itinerary and public on sale dates or visit www.trey.com for further details.
Phish frontman Trey Anastasio is an example of how drug courts can work and today he spoke at a Drug Court Rally in Washington, D.C. Big Red spent 14 months in the Washington County, NY drug court program doing menial tasks such as scrubbing toilets after getting arrested for Driving While Intoxicated and possession in Whitehall. He graduated the program and has maintained his sobriety while getting his life and his band back together.
There haven’t been many interviews with Phish front man Trey Anastasio this year, so we are excited to see that RollingStone.com has posted a longer version of their chat with Anastasio that appears in truncated form in the magazine that hit newsstands today. Rolling Stone’s Patrick Doyle asked Trey about the group’s future plans, songs he wants to cover, next week’s Super Ball IX festival and more.
Of particular note for Phish fans is word that the band will enter the studio this winter and will tour even less in 2012…
When do you hope to record a new Phish album? Any idea what it will sound like yet?
We are talking about opening the door to some kind of new album this winter. Next year is looking like it will be a less busy touring year, mostly because of family obligations for some of the band members. We want to get together in the winter and start working on something new. What that thing is undefined, and we’re keeping it that way on purpose. We just want to get together and see where it goes.
For those hoping the lack of Phish shows in 2011 was an anomaly, this isn’t very good news. Trey also espoused his love for indie band Beach House and discussed covering Metallica’s Master of Puppets…
“I went through an obsession with Beach House recently, and I actually found myself trying to copy that gorgeous pattern picking style of guitar during one of the jams in Bethel. I’ve been listening to a record by the Grates called Teeth Lost, Hearts Won that I love. I haven’t heard a song screaming to be covered recently, though I did learn “Zebra” by Beach House on the guitar because I love the way Alex Scally picks so cleanly with a pick, as opposed to finger picking patterns. In terms of rock songs, I’ve kind been toying with this idea of covering “Master of Puppets” for quite some time.” – Trey Anastasio to Rolling Stone
Head to RollingStone.com for the full interview. What do you think about Trey’s quotes? Did you think 2012 would be a more active year for Phish?
Langerado returns to Markham Park in Sunrise, FL on October 8 and 9 boasting a lineup that includes HT faves the Trey Anastasio Band, Death Cab For Cutie, Ween, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Smith Westerns. The event will be run by a different team than the one that ran the previous Langerado’s, which started in Ft. Lauderdale back in 2003 and moved to Big Cypress for the final installment in 2008.
Here’s a look at the complete initial lineup…
Death Cab For Cutie, Trey Anastasio Band, Ben Harper, Ween, Thievery Corporation, Arctic Monkeys, G. Love & Special Sauce, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Wolfgang Gartner, The Glitch Mob, Ghostland Observatory, Das Racist, Etienne De Crecy – Live Show, Portugal. The Man Friendly Fires, Childish Gambino, Super Mash Bros. Conspirator SAVOY, Mates of State, Smith Westerns, The Whigs, Yuck Metropolis (Live), Keys N Krates, Two Fresh, RAC DJs Lance Herbstrong, HOTTUB, Bobby Lee Rodgers, The Kingston Springs
While Phish won’t be touring this fall, the band’s guitarist has confirmed his first gig of the season as Trey Anastasio and his band has been added to the lineup for this year’s Bear Creek Music & Art Festival. Set to take place in gorgeous Spirit of the Suwanee Music Park in Live Oak, FL, Bear Creek is known for its intimate atmosphere, family feel and funk-heavy lineup.
Anastasio bolts to the top of Bear Creek’s bill with Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood, The Funky Meters, KDTU, Galactic, John Scofield & Piety Street, Soulive, Lettuce and MMW among the acts scheduled to perform in Live Oak between November 11 and 13. George Porter Jr & the Runnin’ Pardners, the Russell Batiste Band are among the other additions to the lineup announced today along with artists at large Freekbass, Nikki Glaspie, Jamie McLean, Will Bernard, Johnny Vidocovich, Roosevelt Collier, Scott Messersmith, Topaz, and Michelle Sarah. Head over to the festival’s website for the full lineup and ticketing information.
We spoke with Bear Creek organizer Paul Levine about booking TAB and he mentioned how much this addition meant to him. “Personally, I am head over heels excited to have The Trey Anastasio Band at Bear Creek. Trey is obviously considered by many to be the best and most emotionally expressive guitar player in the world. We are honored to welcome TAB to Bear Creek, Levine said.” Levine went on to explain, “I am a huge Phish and Trey fan. I saw Phish for the first time at Haverford College in a cafeteria in 1990, I believe, while I was at Lehigh University. Since 2000, I have probably seen Phish 40-50 times. I was at Coventry and at Madison Square Garden for New Year’s this year. I saw the famous ‘Meatstick’ in New York and it was probably the most joyful thing I’ve ever seen a band do.” READ ON for more…
It’s no secret that Colorado fans felt a little left out when Phish’s East Coast tour dates were released. The Mountain State, though saturated with diehards, was too geographically removed to make extending the tour this way financially – or physically – feasible. So, when Trey Anastasio or any of the boys come to town, we scramble for tickets.
This tour, Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB’s Denver shows were no different. Many fans unfortunately found that neither Craigslist nor holding a finger in the air would get them into the show, and the already intimate Ogden Theater brought fans closer together than ever before as we packed in to every corner, vying for a little room to let our arms swing. But when Trey made his way on stage and picked up his acoustic guitar, space was no longer an issue.
To begin, it didn’t seem like the solo acoustic set would bring more than expected – some crowd favorites, some sing-alongs and some sweet ballads. The opening lyrics of Farmhouse welcomed us to the room before the funk of Wolfman’s Brother helped us settle in, and When the Circus Comes captured some added attention. It was beautiful and fun, though not surprisingly fantastic. But then Big Red started taking requests. On Timber, the crowd harmonized the call-and-response chorus. Theme from the Bottom was played in a higher key than normal, with a capo on the third fret, which added some interesting changes to the melody. The closing lyrics of “from the bottom, from the top” were again helped along by crowd harmonies.
Trey Anastasio Band @ Riviera Theatre, February 27
On Sunday night, Trey Anastasio and his Trey Anastasio Band rolled through Chicago for a sold out show at the legendary Riviera Theatre. The site of TAB’s Chicago debut in 1999, the Riv was an ideal setting to catch the band’s 2011 return to form. The first set was mostly Trey solo acoustic, and began with the 3.0 staple Backwards Down the Number Line before settling into a great acoustic arrangement of Theme from the Bottom. While surprisingly heavy on new Phish material, the acoustic segment also featured great takes on classics Gumbo, Halley’s Comet, Dirt and The Wedge.
[All photos by Joel Berk]
Jennifer Hartswick and Natalie Cressman came out to sing backup on a breathtaking Let Me Lie, an interesting slow arrangement of Water in the Sky and Wading in the Velvet Sea before the rest of the band came out and launched into Heavy Things. The tune, also slightly rearranged, gave keyboard player Ray Paczkowski his first moment to shine of what would be many. Liquid Time and Hey Ya! closed the full-band acoustic portion of the show, but the group wasn’t done yet and launched into a ripping electric Push On ‘Til the Day to close the opening stanza.
The electric set began with the TAB-turned-Phish tune Gotta Jibboo, which got the crowd going right off the bat before launching into a horn-driven version of Ocelot. Ocelot, with its horn parts sounding reminiscent of Allen Toussaint’s arrangements on The Band’s The Last Waltz, worked way better for me than it ever has as a Phish song.
While Trey Anastasio still has five dates to go on this winter tour, it’s fair to say that this run of shows will remain memorable for years and years to come for its acoustic sets. I’ve never considered Trey a particularly good acoustic guitar player – certainly not compared to his contemporaries who regularly strap on a wooden ax: Warren, Bobby, Jake, Chuck, Al and the like. He mostly just strums a bit and plays mellow tunes – remember his sit-down request at Phish’s Festival 8?
[Photo by Andy Hill]
Seeing him play acoustic has always been fun, but nothing too special, but this tour changed all that. He’s been out there every night playing a killer selection of songs – many of which have slight to bold changes in arrangement – singing his heart out, having the crowd sing its heart out too, and playing his guitar beautifully. It’s been magic.
With that in mind, here’s a mix of some highlights so far, a little something from every night. Especially noteworthy is the B-side here, the three-song run from early in the show at Albany. No audience has been so entirely right there with Trey and he responded in kind, just slaying the room with a glowing Number Line and the truly amazing risk of Limb By Limb on the fly – that was trust. And following that is the slick, nasty, reworked Cavern and stunning Harry Hood from Columbus. It’s a long one this week, so settle in and as always, enjoy!
The Trey Anastasio Band’s Winter Tour hit New York City tonight for a one-off show at Terminal 5. Down With Disease, Camel Walk and Meatstick saw action for the first time this tour in the acoustic set with Camel Walk the only tune of the three Anastasio had performed unplugged in the past.
[Photo by Andy Hill]
Once again, there was banter a plenty including Trey dedicating Camel Walk to Jon Fishman – who was said to be vacationing in Morocco, Big Red espousing his love for Limb By Limb and getting a few minor details wrong in his introduction of Russ Remington. All of TAB joined in for the last three tunes – Heavy Things (first acoustic version), the Trey/Tom original Peggy and another take on Outkast’s Hey Ya!
For the second set, TAB offered a wide variety of covers including In The Wee Wee Hours by Professor Longhair, It Makes No Difference by The Band, Gorillaz’s Clint Eastwood and the debut performance of the Alicia Keys’ version of Empire State of Mind. Anastasio called out to fellow Upper West Sider Amanda Green after tackling Burn That Bridge, which he co-wrote with her. Trey then explained that “if you enjoy that type of music, you’ll enjoy [the musical he's co-writing with Green] Hands On A Hard Body” before launching into the TAB debut of Problem Right There.
[1] Trey solo acoustic; TAB debut.
[2] Trey solo acoustic.
[3] Trey solo acoustic. For Fish. “Going downtown to Morocco” lyric. “Shortest version of that song ever.”
[4] Trey solo acoustic; with “bitch”/”dung” lyrics.
[5] Trey acoustic with Jen and Natalie.
[6] Trey acoustic with full TAB.
[7] “Streets of Cairo” tease from Trey.
[8] After the song Trey noted the song’s co-author, Amanda Green, and the “Hands on a Hard Body” play for which the song was written.
[9] TAB debut.
[10] TAB debut; incomplete.
TAB tour continued last night at the House of Blues in Boston, where Anastasio’s MO of performing Phish tunes he doesn’t usually play on acoustic was once again on display. It’s Ice, Carini and Lawn Boy got the treatment in Beantown, though Trey did finally throw in some of the more typical unplugged selections like Sample In A Jar, Bathtub Gin, Wilson and Chalkdust.
For TAB’s electric set, the group broke out a number of tunes that hadn’t been performed at the first two shows including Sweet Dreams Melinda, Burn That Bridge, Simple Twist Up Dave, Small Axe, Ether Sunday and First Tube. For the encore, TAB started with its version of Page McConnell’s Magilla before ending the night by featuring Jennifer Hartswick on a cover of Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog.
Notes: The first set was Trey solo acoustic excepting “Lawn Boy” (with Russ Remington and Tony); “Let Me Lie” and “Hey Ya” was full TAB with Trey on acoustic. The second set and encore was electric TAB. “Carini” and “Shine a Light” were TAB debuts.
