Trey's Current Gig

This was a comment I left on LiveMusicBlog.com in response to an article written on Trey Anastasio’s current touring gig, 70 Volt Parade. There’s been a whole lot of debate on JamBase.com in the article’s comments about what Trey’s post-Phish experience is like, and they’re very divided between the positive and negative. Anyways, here’s my thoughts:

I’ve read that review over and over about 6 times now, and the guy seems liking he’s ripping on Trey for the sake of ripping on Trey. I’ve seen Trey seven times. The only time I’ve ever felt he was off was when he seemed hammered at Alpine. His show at NIU – which I was proud to take my 14yr old sister to as her first Jam band-type show – had all the energy I expected from Trey, a great synergy with the crowd, and a good selection of tracks. Frankly I thought Shine was a great record, and it was probably because I went into it expecting something short, sweet, and to the point; I don’t see how you could think it would be anything other than that after seeing Farmhouse, Round Room, and Undermind. If you can get a copy of his Vegoose show and listen to what he says to the crowd during the solo acoustic set I think people would really appreciate what he’s doing more, I mean the man nearly started crying on stage. Anyways, as much as I would love to see Phish again considering I never saw any of the 90′s shows, this is what the guys doing now, people need to stop and realize it’s not supposed to be the same stuff Phish did.

P.S. I will say…. I also frankly don’t see a point to Les Hall, either. I’ve seen what Trey can do with other guitarists (Vegoose with Dave & Tim Reynolds and later with Widespread) and it’s just not that great with Les.

An additional comment from the webmaster:

I think Dennis makes some great points here–he really articulated a couple thoughts that I’ve never been able to put down on paper. (including that Mars Volta/MMJ comment)

For me, I’m just not impressed and I think the review was a great way to describe that feeling. The show this summer at Northerly Island was a ghost-town and those in attendence were feeding their nostalgic itch (myself included).

If you listened to Shine off the shelf, got past the unbelievably bullshit DRM-crippler preinstalled, and had no Trey Anastasio history inside you (including the Phish side), you would NOT have gone to a two-night run at the Warfield. I’m sorry, but I just going on a serious hunch that it’s true.

I don’t know, it just seems that everything about this, especially his mini-acoustic sets–they’re all aimed and pleasing our inner Bathtub Gin singalongs and feeding our nostalgic itch. This is not new musical territory being chartered regardless of how much his guitar solos continue to rage on audiences–I mean, haven’t we all seen this before?

And my reply:

First off it seems extremely difficult to find someone picking up Trey without any phish experience and going straight to a show. Not saying I haven’t done it with tons of bands, but those bands weren’t led by Trey.

As far as the damn DRM BS with the CD’s, I won’t lie, I downloaded the CD a month early so I wouldn’t have to wait and I supported him by going to the shows. Sony be damned, they’re not getting any more of my money than I really need to spend. Not that anyone needs to spend money on Sony’s crap.

I see what you’re saying with the mini-acoustic sets. I feel like a few of the tracks are aimed at appeasing the masses so to say. They are a new take on the songs, though, doing them solo acoustic rather than having the band pump them out every night. That would feel much more nostalgic to me, like they were just there to play the classics. Also I enjoy the acoustic, but it’s really a buzzkill on my dancing.

For awhile I thought his sets were rather repetitive as well, four tracks of Shine, three of Trey Anastasio, two or three Phish tracks with the band, and a Phish solo acoustic set seems to be the standard 70Volt show. But on the other hand he’s played what? 30 shows with these guys? They just changed drummers, and how often have these Phish tracks had Horn arrangements? If they sound like they do now in a year, I’ll completely concede that the band should go the way of a fun little experiment and end, but right now as I watch the tour progress from the week of Halloween when I saw them twice, the band seems to be integrating more T.A. disc songs, more Phish songs, and getting comfortable with a lot more covers. I mention this to point out they seem to be progressing together, not just sticking in the same mold that they were in for the first 15-20 shows.

Anywho, screw it, within the next month or two I’ll be seeing Keller/Umph’s/Groovatron/Moe./Bisco and god knows what else. God I can’t wait. BTW after the Bisco/Moe. show Groovatron is playing at a club across the street from Aragon. I was talking to the band after their Canopy show, they mentioned it to me. Those February dates haven’t shown up on their site yet. That’s going to be a good Friday for sure.