Trey Anastasio & Mike Gordon
w/ the Benevento/Russo Duo
Charter One Pavillion
July 20, 2006
Chicago, IL
I'll be honest -- I really tried to silence and supress all expectations going into Thursday night's Trey Anastasio & Mike Gordon show. In the end, though, I wasn't blown away as much as I would have hoped. If that's the worst thing I can say about it, I guess I still saw a pretty good concert. It just really felt like Phish, Jr. to me -- the nostalgia trip is something I've had very little tolerance for musically lately -- and the moments of greatness were easily attributable to Cactus Gordon and The Duo. The new stuff.
I didn't end up getting down to the venue until about 7:30pm or so, which unfortunately meant that I missed a pretty big portion of The Duo's opening set. I did get in time to hear "9x9" and "Soba" to close the set -- the end to "Soba" is just fantastic -- and we quickly found one of the better spots in the venue.
There wasn't any challenge to finding a seat, though. The venue wasn't even close to sold-out, which always sorta depresses me, and it definitely reminded me of the Trey & 70VP show I saw there last year.
The house music drops, GRAB comes out, and a minute or two of feedback later finally reveals the first notes of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" -- cleverly referencing the afternoon's Cubs game that Trey through out the first pitch at -- into "Host Across the Potomac."
Right from the get-go it was clear that it was a Trey-lead show -- he usually leads any band he lends his hand to -- and it just didn't sit well with me. The musical moments I enjoyed were the Gordon tunes, The Duo tunes -- the moments where Trey had to take a backseat -- and it seemed to envoke a similar reaction to the crowd in my direct proximity. Trey's confidence was through the friggin' roof and it just seems way too false to me right now. Wailing on a guitar solo during "Drifting" is just not covering new ground -- this is not Trey in "classic" form -- and it was in these moments where I felt the incredible urge to yawn and pack it up to head home.
Granted, with some new covers under their belt and some setlist switch-ups, they're keeping the crowd guessing and that's always good to see.
Maybe I'm on Trey burnout right now, but this is exactly what I did not want to happen when I saw that Trey, Mike and the Duo would be doing shows together. I wanted it to be the Benevento/Russo Duo with Mike Gordon & Trey -- not the other way around. Maybe I just like the Duo a lot right now (read: I do). I dunno -- it just didn't do it for me on that night.
I'll post some tracks once I can get them ripped down (download the torrent here) -- the "Suskind Hotel" morphed into a fantastic jam, "Hap-Nappy" was more than fun, "Becky" (with Trey accenting perfectly) was beyond fantastic -- but in the meantime you can sample some tracks from a recent GRAB show below. Again, these would be my highlights but you can easily grab the show from the PT forums or bt.etree.org.
I know some of you agree with me and some of you will not, but I just have a pessimistic feeling that this band will not bring back Phish nor that feeling that they gave me. I think I'm just a little "over it."
Photo 7.20.06 © Trey.com
Setlist (link):
* Take Me Out To The Ballgame*
* Host Across The Potomac
* Hap-Nappy
* Coming Up Roses
* Drifting**
* Suskind Hotel
* Trouble
* Tuesday
* Becky
* Let Me Lie
* Goodbye Head
* You've Got Me Floating** >
* More Pretty Girls Than One >
* Poor Heart
* My Sweet One**
* On The Road Again
* Something For Rockets
* Who Are You
*{Encore]*
* Mud City**
Key:
* *performed instrumental with crowd singing along.
* **with "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" teases.
this guy is a putz
...
Yeah, "this guy" can be a little putzy sometimes. Who cares.
ill agree, when i saw grab i was hoping it wouldn't be too trey heavy. and it was. but again, just like the second incarnation of 70 volt parade, the potential is there. it had its moments. yeah, the jams are a little too similar to another band (i won't point fingers), but thats not too surprising. they only played together for 20 years. if nothing else, these little glimpses give me some hope of things to come. good things come to those who wait...
I am sorry if you got an off show. I haven't heard it yet. Apparently you didn't "silence and supress all expectations" if you felt that Mike and the Italians (I hate the acronym GRAB) sounded like Phish Jr. One song of them all "Goodbye Head" sounded like old Phish (to me), because Trey wrote it just after the break-up (or 2nd hiatus). In fact he was writing songs that were more composed like "David Bowie" "Reba" and "YEM" at the time, before he shelved those songs to make "Shine". Personally I love "Goodbye Head", which is a bit nostalgic, but then again hasn't Trey always been nostalgic??? Phish started as a cover band! They developed into a retro rock band with more of a jazz spin- a fusion band highly influenced and emulating many older styles, then adding their own personal touches.
Many of the new songs like "Trouble" are more straight forward rock songs. Of course I saw the 7-12 Vermont show, so I saw and heard more of the new songs, and I quite enjoyed them. I also thought the band was very tight for just getting together, a testament to the skill and work effort of the collaboration. The Trey solo and Duo songs mixed in quite nicely with the new songs and of course there were covers (yes nostalgic). You were lucky to get the phish acoustic song at your show, I would have loved a "Poor Heart", but I'm not gonna bitch about what I didn't get. Call it being seasoned, but I'm not gonna be a "Fuckerpants". I hope you got that one. I just enjoyed four very talented musicians mixing it up and enjoying themselves, throwing some chops around, even without the tramps or "Big Ball Jam". This tour (to me) was not about comparing it to old Phish- it simply wasn't. If I was to, I would say they were better than most of the Phish shows I saw in 2004, and the solo Trey shows I saw in 2001, 2005-6. To me this tour was all about having fun watching Trey and Mike onstage again, reviving some wonderful old memories, and ushering in some new ones. Thanks Trey, Mike, John, and Marco, and Page. Thanks for moving on...
P.S. The whole 7-12 show was greatThe Duo were very good, Phil and Friends were great! A bit nostalgic- mind you, but great! Trey sang, and soared on his guitar solos, mixing it up back and forth with Phil's top-notch band. Instant classic Trey!
I saw GRAB in Atlanta and Nashville. I have to say that I was dissapointed after the Atl show, but I really thought Nashville kicked ass, (especially the Goodbye Head -> Who Are You). As a matter of fact, I considered just going back home (to Birmingham) after the Atl show. I have never listened to much of the Duo, but I did buy their new album after really digging both opening sets. All in all I enjoyed this more than any Trey (solo) show I have seen, and it was better than most post-haitus Phish shows I saw (with a couple of exceptions).
Poor Heart> My Sweet One, was very very sweet indeed.
great show!
1. jones beach rocked
2. some trey > no trey
"this band will not bring back Phish nor that feeling that they gave me."
Welcome to the party captain obvious.
I often find myself listening to '97-'98 Phish and enjoying how great they sounded when Trey would either lay out with with some rhythmic ideas or just float over the top of the groove. After the hiatus, it seemed like he would "go off" (to quote Mike from Bittersweet Motel) nearly all the time and almost leave the other guys to hold it together.
I remember Page even saying something about happily giving Trey the reins after leading his own group, Vida Blue. To me, that destroys one of the central themes of Phish: musical democracy. Four guys, equal in the mix, right in the pocket, grooving the shit out of the music.
I saw the Scranton, PA show nearly a month ago, and although I was happy to see Trey not going off nearly as much as he has in the past, I can definitely sympathize with those who still think it's a wank-fest. The band doesn't feel like Phish Jr. to me, but I can see how it would to others - even their stage set-up recalls '99-'00 Phish.
What I really enjoyed about Scranton was Trey playing with Phil - he adds so much to that ensemble, it's amazing. Maybe it's because there he's _forced_ to float over the top of the ensemble, i.e. Phil's got the reins. It seemed to me that Trey listens a lot more when he's not trying to direct the show, because there was a lot of interplay between him and just about everybody in Phil's band.
On the other hand, I can understand him being very sensitive to the nostalgiaf actor...although whether his work with GRAB also falls under that category is (at least) up for debate.
Will we ever see "classic Trey"? I don't think so. Part of what makes Trey great is that he's always doing new stuff, playing in new styles. It's why he's creative and always writing new music. _If_ Phish ever reforms, I would be very surprised if it recalls anything before the turn of the millenium. On the other hand, songs like Goodbye Head do have similarities with the old compositions like Fluffhead and Reba, so maybe there's something there.
For my money, I'd be happy with material like Dragonfly and Mud City, because at least they've got energy. It's when Trey gets sappy with songs like Trouble and nearly all of the songs on Shine that I lose interest - if I want to hear adult contemporary done right, I'll go to artists who can write lyrics and sing better than Trey, because every time a jam gets faded out, my hearts breaks...just a little.
Eh? Are you kidding?
I wholeheartedly agree with Tom's post above. Surely you have heard each participant in this "band" perform live with a different set of players...Phish, TAB, 70 volt, Duo, Duo w/ Mike. Doesn't their playing change at least a little with each collaboration? My only opportunity to hear GRAB was at AllGood (7/14) and my first reaction was astonishment because they sounded like they have been playing with each other for years. More than any other collaboration i've seen in recent years they sounded like A BAND and a very tight one at that. Maybe its the fact that they opened with Who Are You and the high energy set the tone for the rest of the set. Some of the other setlists I glanced at didn't seem to have the same flow that the one I saw did. Regardless, the notion that the group is "Trey led" is absolutely 100% dead wrong. 70 Volt Parade was a Trey led band and, in my opinion, it sucked in comparison.
Marco and Joe are PROS and I don't feel that their playing lends itself to Trey dominated wanking at all. Yes, they were lacking a broader base of material to work with, and that means you're going to hear a couple of Trey tunes you're probably not in love with. (Drifting and Sweet Dreams Melinda even sound like the same song.) But even those songs translated fairly well because the level of musicianship on stage was so strong. It didn't feel to me like anyone was taking a back seat role.
I think Trey's playing with these guys is heavily influenced by Joe Russo. Trey's onstage energy with Phish was always influenced by Fishman and I don't think it is any different here. Russo's playing with these guys was over the top amazing and had a major influence on the music. It almost seemed to me like The Duo were enjoying the opportunity to play with two guys whose music they are fans of while Trey and Mike were loving the opportunity to play arena style rock with two seriously heavy hitters. It makes all the difference in the world when all the musicians onstage are capable of great playing.
The point is that they were visibly having a great time. It didn't sound like the music was suffering from any sort of pressure at all.
I honestly never thought I would hear a song like "Goodbye Head" come out of Trey ever again and I am thrilled that he was able to find a vehicle for it. It simply would not have been possible to play that song with any of his other bands. At the same time, an amazing song like "Something for Rockets" really benefited from the addition of Bass and Guitar lines.
If I was offered the opportunity to see these guys again I wouldn't even think twice about it. Give me more please.
Seriously, I'm super glad that you've got good feedback on GRAB and what the music meant for you.
And that's the issue that I had -- to me, Trey's confidence was ridiculous. You saw it as a good thing, I saw it as fake.
Maybe I'll check out the All Good set.
Well, no one will probably ever read this as the last post was 19 days ago..But, here's what I thought and felt:
First of all, I already feel a difference in my reaction to the music on CD vs when I was there. Probably 'cuz I can skip a couple tunes, Coming Up Roses was pushing up daisies on arrival, and Let Me Lie had me thinking Let Me Die.
I thought the vocals were so sub-professional that I was embarrased for the whole band. At least with TAB/70V "" you had backup singers and maybe some horn backup to bolster the vocal melody lines. Here you have Mike and Trey harmonizing and each of them being off-key and out of breath. If you have vocals in your band, they have to bring something. I've never thought these guys were great singers, but in the past they were skilled enough to have chemistry and it worked, plus their pitches used to be dead on. Now it's not so good, at least not on the 20th of July. I've heard some other stuff from the tour that was much better, so maybe they were just tired that way. I think the whole band should have waited longer until they had more tunes that they wrote together and really utilized all 4 musicians more. Suskind Hotel was the perfect song from them on this night. The breakdown and jamming on Dragonfly is really cool, and Goodbye Head is good for letting this band have its identity. Also the jamming on Drifting was starting to have a prescence of its own different than TAB or 70V Parade. I liked Host on the Potomac less in the moment than I do now, because after a few listens I can pick out more lyrics and get a better feel for all the fucking parts in it, but starting off the show with a seemingly convoluted and confusing arrangement was kind of annoying, though the jam at the end of this was decent too and indicated that Trey was going to have a good night on the Languedoc.
Hapnappy is a brutal piece of crap and only a Camel Walk rip off jam made it worthwhile. This had to be the nadir of the vocals for the night.
I loved the Duo's opening set and I liked hearing GRAB play a couple of the Duo tunes, especially when Trey soloed at the end. I'm very impressed how he can learn so many chord progressions well enough to solo over them the way he does. From my guitar-playing experience, this is NOT easy.
The acoustic breakdown as so cathartic for me. Hearing the two of them play Poor Heart and part of My Sweet One was awesome, though they left out my favorite part "I'll buy you a ewe"
Trey and Mike have so much sonic chemistry, and hearing them play together really made me realize, IMO, that those two were the main sonic identity of Phish. Noone that Trey has played with since sounds ANYTHING like Mike, because those guys jamming together are Phish, and in a way, shouldn't play together unless Phish comes back, or they take on more of the identity of the other musicians they would play with.
My one bone to pick with Trey is that he keeps changing bands and sounds before any one of them ever gets completely developed. Starting in spring '05, No horns and no backup vocals. That would have been OK if they had written more material to fit the project, but they were still playing old TAB tunes that sounded naked. So they added a little for the summer shows. Jenny and Christine. Then they started playing more Shine songs and some TAB songs and they had no sonic identity to speak of. No cohesive vibe from start to finish. What is this band? Then in the fall they added some horns and were playing the whole catalog and at least had the flexibility to do a lot of stuff well. Trey and Les were playing really well together at this point and everything up through NYE was kicking ass ( I should say that late NOV and DEC stuff was very enjoyable.
Then they play two shows in April and it's not 70V Parade any more, and everything sounds naked again and those shows were fucking boring. Unless I'm mistaken, I don't believe the shows for Petty tour had horns, so that shit has to be naked. The Aspen show on 6-25-06 was boring as hell, and they're playing tunes from the sessions with Mike and the Duo. No sonic idenity. Then there's Oysterhead with no new tunes and a very uninspired, rehashed-for-no-good-reason performance.
Trey needs to pick a sound and stay with it for A WHILE!! TAB had that and the shit was pretty damn good by summer '03
I miss Les Hall on guitar a lot now, as I really liked the winter '05 stuff, and I think the songs from Bar 17 that they played back then really utilized a two guitar format really well. Two axes jamming the same riff sometimes is not a bad thing. That rocks! Night Speaks, Money Love...,Low, almost all the songs on Shine, Dark and Down, 18 Steps...all these tunes could rock live and if it's just Trey, I will not pay to see it.
That's about it. I liked downloading and listening to the Duo era for Trey, but pick a band, God-Damnit and stay with it!!
I'm out
Comments are now closed for this entry. Carry on.
RECENT ENTRIES:
Umphrey's McGee's Holiday Spectacular
Medeski, Scofield Martin & Wood | The Vic, Chicago, 12/9/06
My Morning Jacket | Avalon, Boston, MA 12/2/06
filed under: 
tags: 
posted by: 
