Photo Credit: Bill Kelly
Trey Anastasio continued his solo acoustic tour over the weekend with three performances in the Southeast. After reaching his southernmost stand on Friday, March 28, with a show at Clearwater, Fla.’s Ruth Eckerd Hall, the iconic Phish frontman doubled back for a trek up the East Coast that will bring the last of his celebrated intimate performances, beginning with sets in Savannah, Ga. and Charleston, S.C. on March 29 and 30. While fans following the series so far are now well familiar with this tour’s tracklist, which has brought a wealth of first-time plays and coveted rarities, Anastasio managed to bring on another surprise with his final show of the weekend by presenting his debut acoustic treatment of “Corinna.”
On Friday, Trey set off the show with “If Again,” the Ghosts of the Forest original which he busted out on his March 22 set in Birmingham, Ala. He continued through a well-honed selection of Phish classics and solo originals like “Sample in a Jar,” “Back on the Train,” “Steam,” “Farmhouse,” “More” and a masterful medley of “Backwards Down the Number Line, “Down with Disease” and “The Lizards” before being joined by pianist Jeff Tanski for the remainder of the set. The duo concluded its encore with “Wilson,” which has been a high-spirited sing-along throughout the tour.
Anastasio began Saturday’s Savannah engagement with “Theme From the Bottom,” the Billy Breathes centerpiece that he’s used as a springboard for acoustic exploration since 2011. This tried-and-true selection paved the way for more beloved cuts like “Strange Design,” “What’s Going Through Your Mind,” “Twist,” “Sample in a Jar,” “Kill Devil Falls, “Mountains in the Mist” and “Possum,” which included a surprise shout out to Jon Fishman. After holding out without accompaniment for longer than usual, the artist welcomed Tanski again for four tracks and a stacked encore of “Bathtub Gin” > “Carini,” “Slave to the Traffic Light” and a rare “Tweezer Reprise” without an initiating “Tweezer”; Anastasio’s closer was only his third acoustic treatment of the classic, arriving four years after its last staging at New York’s Beacon Theatre in June 2021.
When Sunday rolled in, Anastasio stepped into the spotlight with “Backwards Down the Number Line,” then sprinted through tracks like “Free,” “Chalk Dust Torture,” “Tube,” “NICU,” “Lifeboy,” “Lost in the Pack,” “Turtle in the Clouds,” “Water in the Sky” and “Snowflakes in the Sand” in the solo portion of his performance. Along the way, he interspersed reflections and stories and gave a particularly stirring solo acoustic debut of Taj Mahal’s blues staple “Corinna,” which has thrived in Phish’s live sets since 1987. Riding high on this curveball, Anastasio and Tanski wrapped the weekend with an encore of “A Little More Time,” “Wilson” and “Fluffhead.”
Anastasio will return to the stage tomorrow, April 1, for a performance at Knoxville, Tenn.’s Tennessee Theatre. He’ll share three further solo acoustic shows before finishing the run at Red Bank, N.J.’s Count Basie Center for the Arts on April 6. Find tickets and more info on the ongoing tour at trey.com/tour.
Find setlists from the weekend at phish.net.
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Find setlists from the weekend at phish.net.
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