2-22-01 - Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, New York

Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 16:48:32 -0600
From: Kerry [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Landmark Theatre, Syracuse New York 2-22-01 Review
 
     With a beaming smile and those ever so nimble fingers, Trey Anastasio
and his band of groovy all stars turned this beautiful 20's era silent movie
house into a funked out jazzed up hip place to melt down for a few hours last
night in chilly upstate New York.  Seeing top versatile musicians is always a
treat, but where else can you get Dixieland Jazz, classical composition, deep
groove funk, seventies soul, acoustic chestnuts, that disturbing, beautiful
groove funk, seventies soul, acoustic chestnuts, that disturbing, beautiful
phishy weirdness and the 2 Bob's(Dylan and Marley) all in one package?  The
Trey show fool, that's where.
     The overall sonic quality and volume of this show was as close to
perfection as I have seen in ages and the intimate setting without a lot of
the distractions seen these days at Phish shows (drunken fraternity clones,
super-spun kiddies) was an absolute joy to behold.  As a side note, I only
saw one really wasted frat boy with the obligatory whiffle cut muscle his way
into our section (Twelve rows back on Trey.)  As expected, he began to shout
stupid things during  delicate moments of the acoustic Guyute.  Before the
final verse came around however, he was vomiting cheap booze into his Yankees
cap and moved on after I offered him a bottle of water for $20.
     In my opinion first set highlights were the opening Dixieland swing tune
I do not know the name of, a fantastic Mozambique, super funky Jibboo with
shimmering trumpet, trombone and tenor sax fills and soloing from Jennifer
Hartswick, Andy Moroz and Dave Grippo.  The aforementioned acoustic Guyute
closed the set and wetted everyone's whistles.
     The second set opened with a racous Rainy Day Women cover with great
muted horn section.  A long crazy Sand with things i can't even write about
coming out of Tony "the Meaning of Life" Markellis's Bass.  By far the best
version of Sand i have heard and Trey played it like a crazed train conducter
all the way through.  It was all in the sand.  Little notes, big notes, no
notes at all,( we all know Trey is the master of those) with this thundering
bass line and tight snap drumming from Russ Lawton.  It scared the hell right
out of me.  Just great.  It was followed by a superb cover of the Band's "It
Makes No Difference" with Trey handling the high range like a champ.  I think
Richard Manuel would have been pleased.  Bob Marley poet-and-a-prophet showed
up next in "Mellow Mood" which sounded polished even though Trey warned the
audience it might not be.  I felt the whole place quiet down and dig it
hard.  I'll play your favorite song indeed.  A new tune i think, "the Happy
Coffee Song" was followed by an acoustic classical piece with Trey, the
horns, and Tony on Cello or stand up bass, i'm not sure which.  It's great to
see an artist you love head off in new directions, and watching Trey closely
play that piece was comforting.   YOYOMAMA.
     "At the Barbeque " and "At the Gazebo"followed, and the set closed with
a long "The Moon and Stars" which I believe we will probably be seeing a lot
of.  Pretty melody, Trey just ripping along and sounding so ......Trey.  The
encore got people back to the seventies with "Will it Go Round in Circles"  I
think everybody came to hear some innovative stuff, and that crew delivered.
Just a great show.


Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 15:01:45 -0500
From: Marcus Thunich [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Syracuse Review
 
Two words sum up last nights Syracuse Trey show for
me:BIG FUN!
 
I had been looking forward to this show a lot since
scoring a front row ticket. This was to be the second
time in a row for me seeing Trey from the front row as
as I was on the rail for most of my last Phish show
(the dreadfully lackluster 9/14/00). Needless to say, I
was pretty psyched.:-)
 
The Scene:
 
We arrived to a pretty cold, snowy and generally
gloomy afternoon in Syracuse. It had been a while since
my last show in that city (11/14/93 JGB) so I didn't know
the city at all but getting in and to the venue was as easy as
could be. Free parking a block from The Landmark taboot!
 
This was a very tough ticket as there were many many
folks wandering the streets searching for that elusive
extra.
 
Entering the beautiful old Landmark Theatre was pretty
much hassle free. The place reminded me a lot of The Warfield
in San Francisco. The exception being all the uniformed Syracuse
cops who wandered inside the hallways and even around inside
the theatre during the show. I'd never seen real cops (let alone
so many) like that so visible inside a venue before. Very strange.
 
The Show:
 
Trey and band came on around 8 O'clock. Rumor was that they
were soundchecking until around 7:15 so that would explain
the delay.
 
Set 1:
 
The first 3 songs consisted of new material (whether original
or covers I'm not sure), but they were all pretty much in
the do-wop/jazzy or funky vein. Very very cool stuff, especially
with the horn section. Free Thought followed and sailed with
the horn section each taking a run. Much more interesting
than the Phish versions I've heard of that tune. A very
funky and long Jiboo followed which was highlighed by Tony Markellis'
rock solid funkadelic bass playing. The set was capped off
with Trey doing a solo acoustic reading of Guyute. Trey
handled this long and technically complicated song with his typcial
virtuostic aplomb. Note perfect to these ears. The audience whistling
along near the end had Trey grinning from ear to ear. End of set.
 
Set Break: ~30 minutes.
 
Set 2:
 
A surprising cover of Dylan's RDW 12&35 emerged as the set
opener. This was a big crowd pleaser (obviously due to the songs
chorus) but nothing earth shattering musically. The band
then launched into what was easily the highlight of the night
for me: a 20 minutes version of Sand that was easily the best
version these ears have ever heard (Phish or Trey solo '99 versions).
Here the horn section really shone and gave a song a musical
bigness that it never had before. Also, the repititious
bass and drum lines didn't get redundant as fast as they
normally can for me. This version built and built with
Trey adding more lines until he was soloing with fury
and intensity that would make even the harshest Trey/Phish
critic's hair stand on end. Simply outstanding. The Band's
classic It Makes No Difference was note perfect with excellent
vocals from Trey. Before launching into Bob Marley's Mellow
Mood, Trey said that the band had only touched on the tune in
rehersal but wanted to try it then anyway and apoligized for
any "unrehearsedness" that might occur. None was too be found
in this most excellent choice of a Marley cover. The rest
of the set consisted of new material except The Happy Coffee
Song which is on Trey's One Mans Trash CD.
 
Encore: The one song I was hoping to hear this night was
Will It Go Round In Circles. I was *very* psyched when they
launched into it as the encore. A fine 15+ minute version
that was more jazzy and less rocked out like the '99 solo
versions were. Here the horns once again played a big role
in the overall sound of things. Very nice.
 
Overall, this was a fine and fun show. It was hard to
believe that this was only the second show this band has ever
played together. Trey is clearly having a ball as was evident by
his near perma-smile. His new material was also very interesting
to hear and seems to have a lot of potential upon first listen.
This stuff is much different than anything Mr Prolific has written before.
It seems he's currently in a jazzy/do-wop compositional phase right now.
Good for him. It's always fun and exciting to hear new material. Kudos
to Trey for having the balls to always try to break new ground. Thumbs up.
 
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