Trey Anastasio is a man with many different creative modes. With Phish, he often aims to expand boundaries, think outside the box, pass the reins back and forth with his bandmates as they percolate on an idea or pursue untraveled terrain. With his full-scale Trey Anastasio Band, he serves as the maestro of a multifaceted ensemble, leaning into Latin-tinged rhythms and finely tuned horn arrangements. Sometimes he’ll link up with an orchestra to add symphonic grandiosity to his extensive repertoire. Other times he’ll hit the road on his own for solo acoustic tours that focus on stories and sentiment over musical prowess. With Classic TAB, whose ongoing spring tour hit Brooklyn Steel on Tuesday to begin a three-night run, Trey Anastasio seems to have one simple objective: go.
Related: Trey Anastasio Sits In With Dezron Douglas Quartet At The Village Vanguard [Watch]
This wasn’t like a Phish show, where Trey will often abandon one route to move the story in a new direction or defer to one of the other guys’ ideas. This wasn’t like (regular?) TAB, where the larger outfit’s unique stage presence takes some amount of spotlight off of the guy with the guitar. This wasn’t like story-time solo Trey—other than a few simple “thank you”s and pleasantries, the only time Anastasio spoke to the audience on Tuesday was when he dedicated a particularly hot guitar solo on “Spin” to New York Rangers left wing Chris Kreider, whose hat trick last Thursday lifted the hometown squad over the Carolina Hurricanes and into the NHL‘s Eastern Conference Finals (Let’s go, Rangers).
No, this particular mode was something different—something aggressive, something a little unhinged. This was something like Band of Gypsys Trey. Fight riff Trey. Punch them in the teeth Trey. This was like Trey asked the guys, “Are you down to just absolutely wail over all the chord changes? That would be so fun.” And the guys responded with, “Whatever you say, boss.”
From the “Moma Dance” that opened set one to the sinister “Ghost” that closed out the encore, Anastasio and his Classic TAB running partners—drummer Russ Lawton, keyboardist Ray Paczkowski, and bassist Dezron Douglas—remained relentless. Each member of the band was responsible for “oh s—” moments over the course of the night, whether it was Douglas’ bounding grooves on favorites like “Steam” and jazzy updates on staples like “Wolfman’s Brother” or Lawton’s heavy-handed thump on a standout “Drifting” or Paczkowski’s subtle electric piano accents during an acoustic “When The Words Go Away” respite or the way they all followed Trey into the darkness on a sneering “The Well”.
Throughout the show, the impressive cohesion and agile musicality of those three players offered a nice, round nail for only-tool-I-have-is-a-hammer Classic TAB Trey to swing at. Even on mellower numbers like “Monsters”, Anastasio seemed notably comfortable with his backing band—comfortable enough to truly belt out the newer tune’s final refrain (Trey with the pipes!).
Look, I know I’m supposed to talk about what songs they played (lots of ’em) and which jams were hot (all of ’em) and what stuff was new (“The Kid in the Sky” made its second appearance ever) and so on, but in truth my takeaway from night one of Classic TAB at Brooklyn Steel was simpler than all that: This was Trey choosing to utilize a very particular set of skills (Liam Neeson in Taken-style) to dial the intensity up to 11. If that’s your kind of thing, I wouldn’t miss it. See you back at Brooklyn Steel tonight for round two.
Limited tickets remain here. Below, view the full setlist from the first of three Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB shows at Brooklyn Steel and check out a selection of fan-shot videos from the performance. Listen to a full audio recording of this show and the rest of the ongoing Classic TAB tour via LivePhish here. [Editor’s note: Live For Live Music is a LivePhish affiliate. Purchasing a download or ordering your LivePhish+ subscription via the links on this page helps support our work covering Trey, Phish, and the world of live music as a whole. Thanks for reading!]
Setlist [via phish.net]: Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB | Brooklyn Steel | Brooklyn, NY | 5/21/24
Set One: The Moma Dance > Back on the Train, Steam, Drifting, Spin, Pillow Jets, Wolfman’s Brother
Set Two: No Men In No Man’s Land > …And Flew Away, The Kid in the Sky, Monsters, Evolve, The Well, Everything’s Right
Encore: When the Words Go Away [1], Heavy Things[1], Ghost
Notes: [1] Trey on acoustic
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Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB – “Spin” (Partial) – 5/21/24
[Video: clang81969]
Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB – “Pillow Jets” (Partial) – 5/21/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB – “Monsters” (Partial) – 5/21/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
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