Trey Anastasio continued his solo acoustic tour on Friday at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The Phish guitarist debuted an acoustic take on “Set Your Soul Free” during an evening that featured a number of rarities along with a handful of stories.
Trey looked to “Secret Smile” to open the night, playing the rarity solo for the first time in over a decade. Next up came the guitarist’s first-ever unplugged version of “Set Your Soul Free,” a tune that he debuted with the Trey Anastasio Band in October 2017. After a take on “Mountains In The Mist,” Trey shared his first story of the night as he talked about being fascinated by an aspect of the L.A. party scene that he hadn’t known prior to going to his first “young Hollywood party.” Trey detailed how Phish’s “D-List or L-List or M-List” celebrity status got them into the party and when they got there it was “young fabulous people and us.” He then talked about how he hadn’t known that all the photos at these types of parties were staged and that he got thrown into the “photo fun area” where Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie already were. According to Trey, Hilton wasn’t interested in sitting next to him and got up, but Ritchie didn’t mind and wound up being very nice.
“Free” came ahead of another rarity as Anastasio served up “Two Version Of Me” for the first time since March of last year and for just the third time on his own. Next came a brief story about his kids and how they grew up so fast. Anastasio told a short anecdote about his daughter Eliza who said to him and his wife Sue, “‘One day you put me down and you never picked me up again,’ think about that for a minute.” Midway through the set came another lesser played tune as “If I Could” was played for the second time solo acoustic and just the eighth time outside of Phish.
“Limb By Limb” featured the audience exchanging lyrics back and forth with Anastasio. After a particularly gorgeous take on “Prince Caspian,” Trey dedicated “Till We Meet Again” to his grandfather. Prior to playing the song that he debuted earlier this year, Anastasio talked about his grandfather who he called “Granpuni.” Trey explained that he was a big classical music fan, particularly of Sergei Rachmaninoff and that he would have been thrilled to know that his grandson was playing music at last night’s venue. Anastasio continued to dig for deeper cuts as “Mexican Cousin” got its third solo acoustic workout and “Talk” was dusted off in this format for the first time since 2011.
The last stories of the night came prior to “Wolfman’s Brother” as Trey shared a few that centered around Phish’s album Hoist. Anastasio first talked how the band was living in Los Angeles while making the record and how they lived right down the street from the Viper Room saying, “they wouldn’t let us in, but we walked past it.” Next, he went into detail about the Hoist album cover and how he hates it. The story detailed how they came up with the idea to have a horse lifted off the ground and how he was horrified once they actually shot it at Amy’s Farm. Trey also shared that he wanted to call the record Hung Like A Horse in reference to the photo on the inside cover of the four of them in carnival clothes since drummer Jon Fishman’s “private bits and pieces” seemed to be so prominently displayed. Finally, the guitarist talked about his love of Sly & The Family Stone and how he modeled TAB after them. He then shared how they got Rose Stone to sing on “Wolfman’s Brother” and described the vocal trick she shared with him.
The final stretch of the night featured “The Wedge,” “Blaze On” and “Bathtub Gin.” Anastasio closed things out with a three-song encore delivering “Waste,” “Say It To Me S.A.N.T.O.S.” from Phish’s Kasvot Växt set and “More.” Watch fan-shot video from last night below:
Set Your Soul Free Captured by Paul Giza
Everything’s Right Captured by Paul Giza
Hoist Album Cover Story Captured by Mitch Dorf
Setlist (via Phish.net)
Set Secret Smile[1], Set Your Soul Free[2], Brian and Robert[1], The Inlaw Josie Wales[1], Mountains in the Mist[1], Free[1], Two Versions of Me[1], Summer of ’89[1], Everything’s Right[1], If I Could[1], Limb By Limb[1], Prince Caspian[1], Till We Meet Again[1], Mexican Cousin[1], Mercury[1], Rise/Come Together[1], Talk[1], Wolfman’s Brother[1], The Wedge[1], Blaze On[1] > Bathtub Gin[1]
Encore: Waste[1], Say it to Me S.A.N.T.O.S.[1], More[1]
[1] Trey solo acoustic, [2] Trey solo acoustic; first acoustic performance by Trey
