In On Tour With Eggy: Waiting Game, Live For Live Music‘s new long-form profile on rising quartet Eggy, members of the band run into Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the original home of Woodstock, during the inaugural Catbird Music Festival in August 2023. When drummer/vocalist Alex Bailey introduces himself to the jam scene dignitary, he is surprised to find out that Trey is already familiar with his band. Anastasio even has a story to share about Eggy… and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Read excerpts from On Tour With Eggy: Waiting Game featuring the Trey Anastasio encounter and his King Gizzard/Eggy story below.
When Bailey rolls back into the green room with his girlfriend, Juliette, and the band’s tour manager, CJ, in tow, his face is frozen in a stunned smirk. “Alex just met Trey,” CJ deadpans.
Adrenaline still pumping from the interaction moments earlier, Alex sets the scene: Artist catering was wrapping up service, but he and Juliette had gone to see what scraps were left. When they arrived, they found Trey Anastasio eating with [TAB trombonist] Natalie Cressman and a member of the band’s crew.
As they quietly settled in a few tables away in the nearly empty dining area, Alex and Juliette were at odds. Bailey admits that he was starstruck, intent on not drawing attention to himself. Juliette, on the other hand, wasn’t content to let him miss this moment.
“She’s looking over at [him]. I’m like, ‘Stop it! Stop looking at him!’” Alex recalls, recreating his sheepish reaction through spurts of laughter. “But then, I see that they’re wrapping up. She’s nudging me, like, ‘Get up!’ And I’m like, ‘No! No!’”
Juliette wasn’t having it. “I intercepted him,” she says, laughing. “I said, ‘Hi, I’m Juliette, I just wanted to make the introduction.’”
With no way to back out now, Alex continues, he did his best to keep his composure as he introduced himself to a man who has surely been approached in similar fashion by young musicians for decades: “I’m like, ‘Uh, hey, Trey, great to meet you. I played in the band Eggy, um… earlier.”
Alex had expected a friendly response from Anastasio, but the jam icon’s reaction to the introduction took him by surprise: Trey’s eyes widened in recognition when he heard the band’s name. “I’ve got a story for you,” the Phish guitarist told him. “It’s a good one.”
“You know that King Gizzard [& The Lizard Wizard] song that you guys play, ‘Interior People?’” Trey asked Alex. In 2022, he explained, Phish learned how to play the song in order to cover it during the band’s year-end run at Madison Square Garden.
Phish had started practicing “Interior People” in July, Trey told Alex, and had gotten it down by mid-December. “He played me a voice memo of it from December 18th, 2022, right before the New Year’s run.” Alex says. “Him and Page [McConnell, Phish’s keyboardist] sitting and playing through the whole thing.”
Then, they found out about Eggy. “[Trey] was like, ‘When we were preparing for it, one of my friends called me and was like, hey, just letting you know, this band Eggy has been playing this song. Alright, well, I gotta check it out. … I checked it out, watched the whole video. After that, I pulled the plug on it.’”
Bailey’s smile widens as he repeats Trey’s words out loud for the first time: “It was hints of being like, ‘F— you guys,’” he estimates, “but in a very, very playful way. … He was like, ‘All of the people at the Garden that would’ve been psyched to hear that, they have you to blame. … When you see the rest of the Eggy guys, tell them that.’”
“So, you’re on the radar,” CJ musters.
“On the radar!” Alex grins, still dazed by the series of events that turned him from “shy Phish fan” into “unwitting Phish disruptor” in an instant.
Eggy – “Interior People” (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard) – “Interior People” [Pro-Shot] – 7/15/21
Later in the day, after meeting Trey and hearing his “Interior People” story, Bailey introduces Eggy keyboardist Dani Battat to Anastasio backstage:
“Alex got to introduce me all casually,” Dani later tells me of the exchange. “[Trey] was like, ‘So, you heard about the Gizzard story?’
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I thought it was hilarious. It’s hard to believe that we were able to ripple space-time in that way that you guys would choose not to play the song.’ He was like, ‘You know, we were trying to do the jam band-courteous thing. … If anything, you guys kind of gave us permission not to do it.’ … Like it was almost relieving, in a way, ‘cus it’s a tough song, although I feel like Phish would nail it.”
“And then he had to walk away,” Dani continues, “and we were saying goodbye, and I was like, ‘I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to let you know how important what you do is and what Phish means to me… Countless times going to see Phish and then after the show talking with my bandmates about our hopes and dreams as a band… Just, there is no Eggy without you and Phish, so thank you.’
“He just looked me right in the eye and was like, ‘Thank you so much for telling me that. It’s really only our hope that we can continue to pass this down the stream.’ He was, like, congratulating us on our success,” Dani says, the words landing with a note of disbelief. “I was just like, ‘To be able to play a small role in the stream is an honor.’ And he’s like, ‘It’s not small. You guys are doing it.’”
Read On Tour With Eggy: Waiting Game in full here. Watch a teaser reel for the long-form feature below.
View this post on Instagram
The post Phish Was Going To Cover King Gizzard At MSG. Then, Trey Anastasio Found Out About Eggy. appeared first on L4LM.
