Trey Anastasio returned to Brooklyn on Thursday night for the sold-out conclusion of his three-night Brooklyn Steel run with Classic TAB.
A three-night TAB run in a single venue is something of a rarity—usually it’s one night, maybe two, then on to the next town. On Thursday, Trey, Russ Lawton (drums), Ray Paczkowski (keys), and Dezron Douglas (bass) were primed and ready to let loose as they resumed their positions in Brooklyn for the third straight night—a sentiment they signaled with a show-opening “Party Time”.
Throughout the first set, which featured deep, extended improv on nearly every song (“A Wave of Hope”, “Gotta Jibboo”, “Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan”, “Twist”, etc.), the jams felt looser, funkier, Phishier than the last two nights. That thing people like to say about Sunday shows isn’t really about the day of the week—it’s about the heights a band can reach when they set up shop, dig in, get comfy, and see how things develop over time.
By the time the band returned for its second set, the energy in the packed house was ravenous. Trey and company responded in kind. After dishing out a red-hot half-hour of head-spinning interplay on a set-opening “Blaze On”/”Plasma” pairing, Anastasio called for the fourth-ever rendition of summer 2023 debut “Machine”. While the song itself is relatively docile, in the hands of night-three, set-two Classic TAB, it still managed to bubble up to a snarling climax. Ray shined (as he has throughout the run) with his tasteful, NOLA-style piano flourishes on the sing-along “Alaska” that followed.
With the clock beginning to wind down on the Brooklyn Steel run, Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB spent the rest of the set in overdrive as they rattled off dark, ominous, smoldering renditions of proven haymakers “I Never Needed You Like This Before”, “Quantegy”, and “46 Days” to cap the set, then quickly dispensed with an encore-opening “A Life Beyond the Dream” to get to the towering “First Tube” finale that had been hanging over Kings County since Tuesday.
Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB’s May 2024 tour will wrap up with a stop at Boston Calling Music Festival on Sunday, May 25th. In late June, Anastasio will mount a pair of special orchestral performances at Vienna, VA’s Wolf Trap (6/25) and Lenox, MA’s Tanglewood, respectively. For details and a full list of upcoming Trey Anastasio tour dates, head here.
Below, read the full setlist, check out a selection of fan-shot videos, and view photo galleries via Andrew Blackstein and Maggie Miles from the last of three Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB shows at Brooklyn Steel. Listen to a full audio recording of this show and the rest of the ongoing Trey Anastasio & 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 | 5/23/24
Set One: Party Time, A Wave of Hope, All Pretending, Gotta Jibboo, Shade [1], Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, Where They’ll Find Us, Twist, About to Run
Set Two: Blaze On, Plasma, Machine, Alaska, I Never Needed You Like This Before, Quantegy > 46 Days
Encore: A Life Beyond The Dream, First Tube
Notes: [1] Trey on acoustic
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Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB – “Gotta Jibboo” (Partial) – 5/23/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB – “About to Run” (Partial) – 5/23/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB – “46 Days” (Partial) – 5/23/24
[Video: Blanks&Postage]
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