Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB @ All Points West in Jersey City: Setlist and Review

Trey Anastasio’s Classic TAB delivered another solid performance this evening at the All Points West festival in Jersey City. Rain threatened all afternoon long, but the sky cleared up about an hour before Big Red took the stage.

Photo by Adam Kaufman

About 200 people were gathered at the Bullet Stage when Classic TAB started their set, but the crowd grew with each passing song. What we got was an all killer no filler affair where the band didn’t take many chances, but allowed Trey to rip some incredibly fast and melodic solos. The band finished First Tube around the scheduled end time of 8:30, so we were all happily surprised that they came back for a two-song encore. While Anastasio and Classic TAB debuted a number of songs in Williamsburg, they only played one of them in Jersey City (Alaska). No one seemed to be complaining. Each song the quartet tackled were fan favorites and allow ample dance time.

If you’re looking for complaints with Classic TAB’s performances look no farther than the background vocals. Trey’s voice sounds as good as it’s sounded in the last decade, but Ray, Russ and Tony didn’t offer much in the way of harmonies. Also, none of the jams really went anywhere outside of a few peaks and valleys. But there were plenty of tasty Trey solos thanks to Tony and Russ providing metronome like grooves and Ray challenging Trey with some wicked clavinet and organ riffs.

Here’s the setlist from tonight’s show:

Set: Sand, Drifting*, Cayman Review, Alaska, Gotta Jibboo, Mr. Completely, First Tube

Encore: Heavy Things, Tuesday

* – Dedicated to the memory of Trey’s grandfather, who came to America via Ellis Island in 1910

Trey ended his evening by sitting in with Jack Johnson on Mudfootball.

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11 Responses

  1. On a gut level, great to see him back playing the electric. But it seems like he isn’t sure where to go. Either take Russ and Tony and play endless grooves which gain momentum and serve as a platform for Trey to blow over – which is fine and welcome- OR… place Ray in the context of a rhythm section which is more song based. Certainly, Ray adds a ton to the grooves set down by the section, but when the band plays a tune with changes, something seems slightly out of synch. Halfway through Sunday’s set, the fluidity of Trey’s playing came to life a bit. The tone is on one level a bit clean, but appears to be playing with a new fangled distortion box which he seems to be having a ball with!

  2. Rupert – why was it terribly run – I thought Golden Voice did an excellent job. I’m just waiting for you to tell me it was because you could only get 5 beers….

  3. That sounds like a good set, but is it worth trading a dog for?

    And as for Golden Voice, I thought APW was decent at best. Between thr three days, the quality of the lineup was very uneven in distribution. Saturday was pretty weak and it felt like they knew Radiohead would draw in a crowd, so they didn’t bother with the other two stages. The three stages were set up in a way that gave too much bleed-over of sound from different stage, and given that they planned this thing for august, it would have made sense for at least one of the three stages to have been a tented stage like every other festival offers in some form. This was also the first festival I’ve attended where camelbaks and lawn chairs were banned. I could understand the chairs taking up room in front of the stage, but given the heat, and the above mentioned lack of shade, giving people the opportunity to fluid up at those free water stations should have been allowed for the sake of giving ticket holders as many means of staying hydrated as possible

  4. The line for the ferry stretched all the way to South Street Seaport (Saturday), cost twenty dollars for maybe a 2 mile ride, and took an hour and a half includng the wait. Then you finally get there only to be greeted with a nonmoving line for security that took another 30-45 minutes. There were no bathrooms near the main stage. The beer situation was total nonsense given that you had to stay in those overcrowded pens and miss the bands just to drink a beer and there were more huge lines there. Overall, it was just too much waiting, not enough music.

  5. also, the beer limit/pen was ridiculous. I paid my money, and took mass transit, please let me drink.

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