photo by Jake Silco (via Trey Anastasio on Instagram)


On Tuesday evening, Trey Anastasio opened up string of fall solo acoustic dates with a performance at the Smith Opera House in Geneva, NY, and the Phish frontman offered an array of selections from his solo and Phish catalogs, including the acoustic debuts of a couple Ghosts of the Forest cuts, plus some of his signature storytelling that included behind-the-scenes information from Phish’s infamously canceled Curveball festival in 2018.

After opening the night with “Back on the Train” and fitting in staples like “Sample in a Jar” and “Heavy Things,” along with the acoustic debut of the GOTF song “About to Run” and the Kasvot Växt number “Turtle in the Clouds,” Anastasio followed up a rendition of “Wolfman’s Brother” by digging into some details about Curveball that fans were not privy to, including some of the alternative names that the band came up with—highlighted by Mike Gordon’s “Rock Donkey Dunkel” and Anastasio’s own “Exactly-As-Planned Ball,” plus a favorite of the frontman’s, Gordon’s “not-G-rated” idea, “Big Cocksucking Dupefest.”

Anastasio also revealed the idea for “Mom Ball,” in which Phish would figure out the mothers of all festival attendees and invite them to join their children for the weekend, along with the apparently completely true fact that Curveball was meant to have a “Mime Field.” The guitarist describes the field as an alternative way to get from the stage to the camping site, where fans would have to navigate a short but treacherous field of mimes that would block their path with various silent movements. “Dude, I am not making this up,” Anastasio assures the audience.

“So we hired 50 mimes,” he continues through laughter. “I kid you not. And this is the best part of it: They were there, onsite, when it got canceled. I left, [drummer Jon] Fishman stayed and ended up just getting plastered with all these mimes. And he kept sending me all these pictures [of]…sad, unemployed mimes.”

“Our festival was so much cooler than the other festival that didn’t happen there,” Anastasio adds, referring to the doomed Woodstock 50 event that was originally supposed to take place on the same site as Curveball in Watkins Glen, NY.

Last night’s show continued with fan favorites like “Chalk Dust Torture,” “Harry Hood” and set closer “Bathtub Gin,” among others, and Anastasio wrapped up the performance with a four-song encore of “Waste,” “Lifeboy,” the solo acoustic debut of “Ghosts of the Forest” and a final Kasvot Växt tune, “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.”

Check out the full setlist below, along with fan-shot video of Anastasio’s Curveball stories and some music from the night. The guitarist continues his solo acoustic run tonight at the Victoria Theatre in Dayton, OH.


Trey Anastasio
Smith Opera House – Geneva, NY

Back on the Train, Sample in a Jar, Snowflakes in the Sand, About to Run*, Heavy Things, Turtle in the Clouds, Wolfman’s Brother, Mountains in the Mist, Strange Design, Driver, Sleep, Water in the Sky, Brian and Robert, Theme From the Bottom, Shade, We Are Come to Outlive Our Brains, Sand> The Inlaw Josie Wales, Limb By Limb> Chalk Dust Torture> Harry Hood> Chalk Dust Torture> The Wedge> Bathtub Gin

Enc: Waste, Lifeboy, Ghosts of the Forest*, Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.

Notes: * first acoustic performance by Trey

Source: phish.net