photo by David Nussbaum

On Thursday night, Soule Monde, the duo of keyboardist Ray Paczkowski and drummer Russ Lawton, played a show at New York’s Symphony Space, and the group welcomed a few of their Trey Anastasio Band friends to help out throughout the performance, including Anastasio for the full show. New York-area percussionist Cyro Baptista, who has toured periodically as a member of Trey Anastasio Band, and current TAB saxophonist James Casey also emerged for select songs.

The setlist featured a number of Soule Monde tunes, including selections from their 2017 album Must Be Nice like “Rocket,” “Take My Hand” and last night’s encore, “Influence,” plus other Soule Monde cuts like “Miss Miriam,” “Whassat,” “Bernard,” “Elsie’s River,” and “Tango,” and their covers of Ali Farka Touré’s “Allah Uya” and Abdullah Ibrahim’s “Elsie’s River.”

Baptista took the stage for “Miss Miriam” and remained onstage for the rest of the night, while Casey sat in on “Bernard” and the “Influence” encore. The performance marks for the first time that Anastasio, who has lived just a few blocks away for 14 years, has performed at the intimate Upper West Side space.

See last night’s setlist below, along with some fan-shot video courtesy of YouTube user LazyLightning.

Soule Monde
Symphony Space, New York, NY

Slide, Miss Miriam, Rocket, Mimi, Whassat, Story, Bernard, Take My Hand, Elsie’s River, Allah Uya, Tango

Enc: Influence