Our latest and greatest contributor, Tom Daly, shot Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB’s tour opener last night in Charlottesville, VA.
READ ON for more of Tom Daly’s stunning TAB photos…
Trey Anastasio returns to the road on Monday with the latest iteration of his Classic TAB ensemble. This version of the band adds the three-piece horn section of Jennifer Hartswick (trumpet), Natalie Cressman (trombone) and Russell Remington (sax, flute) to the basic core of Russ Lawton (drums), Tony Markellis (bass) and Ray Paczkowski (keyboards), which most closely resembles the unit that toured with Big Red in Winter ’01. While we know the members of the band, we don’t know what they’ll be playing.
For this week’s B List, we asked five members of the Hidden Track staff to pick the two songs they would most like to see Trey and Classic TAB perform on the month-long tour. Anything was fair game from Phish songs to tunes Trey played just once to covers. Let’s see what songs everyone chose and then be sure to tell us what songs you’d like to see the unit play.
It Makes No Difference
First Time Played: 02-21-2001 – Orpheum Theater – Boston, MA
Last Time Played: 05-14-2005 – Hammerstein Ballroom – New York, NY
Number Of Times Played: 14
Just five month after Phish’s first hiatus, Trey hit the road for his first solo tour since ’99 beefing up the trio format with a three piece horn section for an 11-date East Coast Swing. Mixing Phish classics with a healthy dose of new material, Ernie also peppered the setlists with a number of of unexpected covers including Stevie Wonder’s Signed Sealed Delivered and Bob Dylan’s Rainy Day Women.
Debuting on the first night of the run, and played almost every night that tour, was a take on The Band’s It Makes No Difference. Unlike the majority of the other covers from ’01, this song, which may be about as sad as they come, has managed to pop up three more times over the years. While the lyrics may not seem as poignant as when it was debuted, It Makes No Difference would provide a great slower tempo, breather song that would also give the horn section time to shine. – Jeffrey Greenblatt
Audio: 2-22-2001 Landmark Theatre – Syracuse, NY
[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/treydifference.mp3]
Liquid Time
First Time Played: Never Played Live
Last Time Played: N/A
Number of Times Played: N/A
One of my favorite sets of 2009 was Phish’s electric soundcheck at Festival 8. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck listening to Phish jam the hell out of Undermind, Gone and a track off Party Time called Liquid Time on The Bunny. This tune, which kinda sounds like Sultans of Swing, would surely benefit from horn lines and the jam would be perfect for the unit. I’m surprised Phish never played it after that soundcheck, but perhaps Trey was saving it for this band. – Scott Bernstein
Video: 10-29-2009 Festival 8 Soundcheck – Indio, CA
READ ON for more of the HT Staff’s Trey picks…
There’s been so many fake Bonnaroo lineups circulating over the past few weeks that it’s become difficult to figure out who you should believe. For instance, late last night the
British folk-rocker duo Slow Club’s debut album Yeah, So finally gets a proper North American release on March 30 via Moshi Moshi records. The group has earned critical and commercial
Words and Images: Andrew Bender
Like many Hidden Track readers, I’ve spent thousands of dollars over my life, most of my time off from work and school, and have traveled countless miles by car and plane in pursuit of my favorite bands, their amazing music, and all the friends I’ve met along the way. For something different this past New Years Eve, I discovered for myself that one need not travel to Miami, Atlanta, New York, Chicago or San Francisco to get down to some killer sounds at year’s end – great things could be found in much smaller locales.
This year, the wife and I and two of our close friends traveled just a few short hours from our home base in Detroit, Michigan (no, you’re probably not cool enough to make it here, no I’ve never been mugged or carjacked, and yes I think the city and its inhabitants are amazing) to the western end of the great mitten of the north for New Years Eve in Kalamazoo (yes, there really is a Kalamazoo). In response to the question I can already hear people asking, “Why the hell would you spend New Years in Kalamazoo?” The answer is simple – to spend New Years Eve with hometown newgrass heroes Greensky Bluegrass.
The band, winners of the 2006 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition, were throwing down for its annual New Year’s Eve celebration at the historic, ornately decorated State Theater. The five-piece Greensky Bluegrass has spent the last few years earning a reputation across the country as an impressive group of musicians blowing many a mind with their improvisational prowess, non-traditional bluegrass covers, and perma-grin producing psychedelic jams. Although attendance was less than half the State Theater’s 1600 person capacity, it seemed that like me, most people were truly excited for a fun, homegrown party and a great night of music.
READ ON for more from Andrew on Greensky Bluegrass…
If there’s a job to be done in the live music biz, Peter Costello has probably done it at some point. Production? Check. Audio engineering? All the time. Road managing legendary musicians? He’s wrangled them all. Yet, what we love is about Pete is that he’s still a fan and hasn’t lost his passion for the music. We’re honored to welcome Peter to the Hidden Track team to share his thoughts on last Saturday night’s Some Cat From Japan show.
[All photos by Greg Aiello]
As Scotty B wrote late last week, “There are some supergroup lineups that impress and some that blow you away. The lineup for Some Cat From Japan – Will Bernard, Nigel Hall, Scott Metzger, Ron Johnson & Eric Bolivar – is one of those mind-blowing lineups.” I already allowed my own personal expectations to skyrocket & friends called it “the sleeper show of the year” – all of this before any of us heard them play a note.
Clearly the quintet had something to prove as they filed on stage at Sullivan Hall just after midnight Saturday night / Sunday morning. About 11 seconds into the opener, Them Changes, with a Nigel Hall organ swell announcing the the familiar melody, all five of them jumped into the deep end of the pool & set out to do just that. Quickly locking into a groove that felt well rehearsed, but really wasn’t, the band set the stage for Nigel’s vocals. With his familiar – to me – blend of aggressive soultastic leads, Nigel’s vocals soared over the groove, filling the relatively crowded room.
In the spirit of the project, Nigel doesn’t try to sound like Jimi – nor does the band remain completely faithful to the original arrangements – and that’s a good thing. Its more like Donny Hathaway singing Jimi tunes. Some Cat doesn’t seek to fit the mantle of a “cover band” but, rather, works to reinterpret the songs & put their own spin on things. Think of it more as a “Tribute” band than a cover band. When you combine that vibe with the talent on stage, you get what we had here last Saturday night, which is the way I want it. Well, I got it.
READ ON for more from Peter on Some Cat From Japan…
For this month’s Track x Track, welcome guitarist/singer/songwriter Giles Corey of Chicago blues meets funk act Lubriphonic who will share an anecdote or factoid about every track on their latest release, Soul Solution.
Mixin’ in the Kitchen – Wrote this in 20 minutes. I know it was that long, because at the time I was teaching guitar at a music store, and one of my students was a no show, so I wrote it in between lessons. I remember when my next kid showed up I was playing the chord riff, and he said, “Wow, that’s awesome! Who is that?” So, I decided it was worth showing to the rest of the band.
That song is a live staple for us because it’s probably the most “pop” friendly thing we do. Johnny Cotton, as he always does, wrote some of the catchiest, funkiest, hornlines around. Joewaun Scott and Rick King on drums turned the riff and melody into something really infectious. This is how all of our songs worked on that album– I came in with the skeleton, Rick and Joewaun fleshed it out, and our horn section sealed the deal.
READ ON for the lowdown on each track from Lubriphonic’s Soul Solution…
To me, Hidden Track features a staff of intelligent well spoken contributors who host the only blog on the web that cover all genres with no rules or regulations. It
All year long, we’ve noticed the writing of blogger Scott Towler for his Great Scott! blog and have really enjoyed what we’ve read. Last week, Scott wrote a great piece giving his opinion on how the year 2009 played out for jam-rockers Phish. If you missed it, here’s the article in its entirety…
[All photos by Jeremy Gordon for Glide/HT]
2009, the year that marked Phish’s return from a five-year hiatus, has come and gone. The end result? Phish is back! The band performed some 48 shows over five distinct periods: their official reunion at the Hampton Coliseum, an early summer tour, a late summer tour, Festival 8, a fall tour and the new years run in Miami just last month.
According to phish.net, this also marked Phish’s most diverse year in all of their 26 so far with over 244 unique songs played in 2009. And while the band has always prided themselves on the diversity of their set lists, it goes a little deeper in the age of Phish 3.0. Unlike years past where a die-hard fan could determine the band’s mood based on the length of their jams and how they segued from one song to the next, 2009 was completely unique. Song choice played a much larger role for the group than it ever has, and the jamming, while still prevalent, became more concise. While many could contend that this marks the end of the Phish “we all know and love,” I would argue against that. The band is communicating in a new way while still using the same language, it just may take a more active listener to appreciate it.
READ ON for more of Scott’s thoughts on Phish in the Age of 3.0…
Welcome to the first 2010 edition of Tour Diary – a column written by an artist about life on the road. Today, we’ve got Jared Rabin, guitarist for aggressive prog-rockers The Hue, to tell us about their early January tour with the incredible Zappa tribute band Project/Object.
I’m a fan of “Zappamusic.” Maybe not the biggest connoisseur freak out there, but I have always been a fan. I’ve also heard plenty of people play Zappamusic, ranging from really well to really badly. I’d seen Ray White play with Umphrey’s back in 2005 and knew his story and had read up on Ike Willis, so I had an idea that this would be cool heading into it.
Getting our dense, challenging music in front of the older prog crowd has long been an important goal for us, as their ears would hopefully be receptive to what is too much for some people to handle. With that in mind, we set out to open 3 shows for André Cholmondeley’s amazing Project/Object which this run featured Ray and Ike’s first tour together since 1984!
READ ON for more from Jared about playing with Project/Object…
