Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio finished the West Coast portion of his solo acoustic tour on Tuesday night at the historic Cascade Theatre in Redding, California. Anastasio used the opportunity to unveil an unplugged arrangement of two songs off Phish’s 1996 album Billy Breathes and to tell more stories from his past.
Trey opened with “Rise/Come Together” and noted how happy he was to play the beautiful venue. He also talked about the recent wild fires in the area and how the community rallied around each other. Anastasio then dusted off “Sleep Again” for the first time since a March 11, 2017 acoustic performance in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Next came “Farmhouse” along with Kasvot Växt track “Turtle In The Clouds” and Phish classic “Brian & Robert.” The guitarist followed “Mountains In The Mist” by discussing the beautiful ride to Redding from Eugene and recalled a scary incident in which he flipped a kayak on Lake Champlain.
The New Jersey native kept the mix of material heavy on Phish songs. After “Miss You,” he warned the crowd it had been a long time since he played the next number. With that, he performed the “Swept Away”/”Steep” suite from Billy Breathes in the solo acoustic format for the first time. “Carini” came soon after and was followed by an explanation of some of the lyrics. He noted the “Lucy had a lumpy head. Lucy took a walk, now Lucy’s dead,” lines were about a friend’s dog named Lucy who developed a cancerous tumor in her head. Said friend spared Lucy from her pain by taking her for a walk and killing her.
Anastasio dipped back to his Oysterhead days for “Rubberneck Lions” and exclaimed that “maybe one day I’ll get the band back together” in regards to the project with Les Claypool and Stewart Copeland. He then performed Jon Fishman’s “Dog Faced Boy.” Soon after, Trey told a story from his days living with Fishman. The guitarist noticed their rug was moving and soon figured out it was filled with maggots. Fishman used the same vacuum he played on stage to pick up the fly larvae. The tour debut of “Architect” came before Anastasio closed out the set with “Prince Caspian,” “Sample In A Jar” and a version of “Chalk Dust Torture” featuring “The Wedge” within. Last night’s encore consisted of “Waste,” “Joy,” “Bathtub Gin” and “Wilson.” The tour now moves on to its final stop of Boulder for shows on Friday and Saturday.
Setlist
Set: Rise/Come Together, Sleep Again, Farmhouse, Turtle In The Clouds, Brian & Robert, Mountains In The Mist, Limb By Limb, Shade, The Inlaw Josie Wales, Water In The Sky, Theme From The Bottom, Blaze On, Till We Meet Again, Miss You, Swept Away > Steep, Heavy Things, Carini, Rubberneck Lions, Dog Faced Boy, Sleep, Architect, Prince Caspian, Sample In A Jar, Chalk Dust Torture > The Wedge > Chalk Dust Torture
Encore: Waste, Joy, Bathtub Gin, Wilson
