Furthur Friendship
Once the Phil and Friends shows established a relationship, both personally and musically between Phil and Trey, the Phish and Dead communities began to blend together. Led by the musical model that had wowed everyone for three nights, the two cultures- a generation apart- began to grow closer. Everything seemed cool now; there was much less ill will between the bands’ followings; the scenes began to intermingle and lines became blurred. The musicians themselves formed relationships, as members of Phish and The Dead went on to collaborate on future projects.
Later the same year, when Phish passed through Shoreline for two nights on their fall tour, they returned the invitation. Inviting Phil to sit in for much of the second set of 9.17, the two scenes fused in a more Phish-centric way. As Phil came out for “YEM,” Brad brought out a third trampoline! In the ultimate gesture of Phisy approval, Phil bounced up and down with Trey and Mike during the tramps part of the jam. To the giddy delight of all involved, this guest sit-in carried more meaning than any before. Morphing into a bass duet with Mike out of “YEM”, Phil stuck around for “Wolfman’s,” and a poignant cover of The Dead’s “Cold Rain and Snow.” For the encore, they brought Phil back and Warren Haynes and played an extensive “Viola Lee Blues.” At this point, Phish and The Dead had grown closer than ever.
In their penultimate show before their hiatus, also at Shoreline, Phish invited Bob Weir to the stage for a three-song encore of “El Paso,” “Chalk Dust,” and “West LA Fadeaway.” Though not as musically impressive as Lesh’s stint with Phish, Weir’s sit-in carried as much symbolic weight as anything.
Once Phish broke up in 2004 and Trey toured with the much-maligned 70 Volt Parade for 2005, he began popping up with Phil in 2006. Teaming up with Mike, drummer Joe Russo, and piano visionary Marco Benevento, Trey toured with the horribly-monikered GRAB as a co-bill with Phil and Friends during the summer of ’06. This tour was a legitimate merging of the Phish and the Dead scenes as each band drew from their respective fan bases, most who stayed to watch both acts. Although GRAB hit some grooves and played fun shows, the greatest parts of these evenings were when Trey came out with Phil and Friends and played Dead music. Sometimes it was for a song or two, and sometimes, like Camden (6.30), Hartford (7.3), Jones Beach (7.7), and Scranton (7.11), it was for the entire second set. These sets were the high points of the entire tour, and I’m pretty sure Phil would agree. One of the highlights of this run of sit-ins was the sublime second set at Camden, where the entire band was tapped in. (Just look at Phil’s face as Trey rips apart St. Stephen in the video below!) Trey elevated the play of Phil’s band to another level each time he took the stage, and it were these sets that I continued to listen to when the summer ended.
Trey also sat in with Phil and Friends at Halloween’s Vegoose Festival in Las Vegas in ’06, not only for the festival set, but for an entire two-set late night gig as well. Earlier in the year, before GRAB/Phil tour, Phil joined GRAB onstage at Bonnaroo for a rendition of “Casey Jones.” Gradually, it seemed like playing with Phil was Trey’s new favorite stage. He got to improvise freely over Dead classics, standing in for Jerry, while sprinkling in songs from his own catalog. He was loving it, and the fans were too- Phil didn’t have too many friends with the guitar prowess of Trey. But less than two months after Vegoose, on December 15th, Trey was arrested and sequestered to Whitehall, NY and its surroundings.
Taken out of the scene for a while, Trey’s next big appearance was actually with Phil and Friends at the nearby, hence legal, Glens Falls Civic Center on 10.20.07. At his stop in Glens Falls, Phil was actually granted the symbolic power of being mayor of Glens Falls for the day. And as his “power” was granted, Phil said, “As my first act as honorary mayor, it is my intention to pardon Trey Anastasio,” voicing his support for his friend. Trey was welcomed by Phil back to the stage that night, sitting in with Phil and Friends for two sets of Dead music, while adding “Shine” and “Plasma.” Phil had Trey’s back, as he was no stranger to addiction, and it was with his friendship and backing that Trey returned to the stage for the first show since his arrest.
Beyond Trey and Phil’s relationship, Mike also got in on the Phish / Dead collaborations. In fall 2006, Mike played a series of shows with Mickey Hart and Billy Kreutzmann’s “Rhythm Devils,” with Steve Kimock on guitar, including a slot at Vegoose. And yet another collaboration between the two bands was “Serial Pod,” a project between Mike, Trey, and Billy in 2005. Nevertheless, all of these sit-ins and hybrid projects were sparked by those three epic nights at The Warfield. Going where no one dared go before, Trey, Page, Phil, Kimock, and Molo fused past and current counter-culture; the circle was now complete.
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Trey’s solo in “St. Stephen”w/ Phil and Friends – 6.30.06, Camden, NJ (!!)
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DOWNLOAD OF THE DAY:
4.17.99 Phil & Friends @ The Warfield < LINK
4.17.99 Phil & Friends @ The Warfield < TORRENT LINK
I: Dark Star > It’s Up to You, Days Between > Dark Star (first verse) > My Favorite Things, Mississippi Half-Step, Birdsong
II: Terrapin Station > Down with Disease > Dark Star (second verse) > Friend of the Devil, Casey Jones, Morning Dew, Goin Down The Road Feelin Bad* > And We Bid You Goodnight
E: Box of Rain
* w/ Donna
Tags: 1999, Culture, Phil and Friends, Side Projects
Don’t mean to should all over you, but shouldn’t this be “phurther phriendship” 😉
or i mean :)p
The best show (from my perspective because I was there) IN ’06, (and all hiatus) was Essex Junction, the last show of the tour. By this point, everyone was tight from playing together, and trey,mike and the duo were on their home field. Page sat in with the duo set (almost a phish reunion) and phil and mike did a sick bass solo, with a silly joke to start. I love Phil and his silly jokes.
How do rhinoceros make love? Very carefully.
I have the unbroken chain on my mp3, and listen to it a lot.
I was wondering if anyone could hook me up with a Demonoid invitation code?
Danpatchk at gmail.com
Thanks a million.
I love the Trey sit-in show from 10-20-07 – Trey sings lots of poignant lines (bertha’s test me test me ; wharf rat’s I’ll get a new start) with strong passion to a thrilled crowd. In particular, the Unbroken Chain from this show, to use a bad expression, is Off the Chain.. Listen to the dark melody line Trey laces underneath the lyrics near the end of this one, it completely changes the tenor of the tune.
And Serial Pod .. Serial Pod!!!! This was a complete and total dream come true – a super group of my favorites was coming to My Town! I mean we knew Trey loved it here, and Mike had joined him onstage here, but when this was announced for the christmas jam we were all stunned. And then it came clear that they would be in town for the Pre-Jam that is hosted at a small club across town. This was before the prejam was available to the public, it was only for donors to the local public station WNCW. I used my Orange Peel connections to get in the door, after helping a little with stage setup.. and the place was only about half full, so I was basically leaning on the stage, with only 400 people in the room for this miracle. I’ve got some amazing pictures from that night
The next night at the big show, standing a chocolate or two from reality in the middle of the civic center, my heroes onstage – suddenly Ivan Neville was on stage working the keyboard corner, making it a 4 piece and then POW .. I saw it – this room would be perfect for a phish show and I was seeing it happen right there. I mentioned to my buddy this was the case, he agreed, and we moved forward, never imagining that this was the first step to the manifestation of just that! And now we stand less than 2 months away from Phish coming to my friggin house (for all intents and purposes). I’m still a little stunned!
Been listening to a lot of Dead and Phil’n’Friends these last couple days, and it’s inescapable: Molo’s basically deadweight. Hearing Trey and Medeski play with him at the Vegoose set makes me sad for Medeski, who’s used to having a demonic drummer behind him. (And Trey’s band has an anthropomorphic fish? That seems weird. But Trey’s used to it.)
It’s not ‘simple’ playing, it’s simplistic. Blah.
DR SF: I just checked Demonoid for a request code and they are not allowing regular members to give out request codes at this time.
I think if you make a donation you get extra features and you can send out a request code whenever you’d like.
Sorry Brotha
When Molo plays he creates so many textures and layers. He is like 2 drummers in one!! deadweight?? no way.
@ Wax – I must agree with the “deadweight”. Molo fills the role but is not impressive. As for the “demonic drummer” and Medeski, I’ll keep you that statement in mind tonight whilst I’m grooving to it tonight.
“anthropormorphic fish”? please describe, I haven’t been keeping up on my Websters
Trey scortches the solo in Pride of Cucamunga (sp??) from 10-20-07. Catch that ish.
Anyone know where on the net I can find crispy versions of the Phil shows with Trey discussed above? Haven’t given them a good listen since they first happened a few years ago.
Thanks again, Miner.
@Wax
Really? Molo is deadweight? I always loved his playing with Phil & Friends, but I was never a fan of Mickey & Billy at all. I thought that together they sound like one average drummer. I guess to each his own
@In flagrant – umm right here
Any know where i can cop the Serial Pod show from Asheville?
@ Flagrante, the version I have is not crispy, just run of the mill archive.org material. Not awful though.
Baxter-I agree that the Essex Junction show was great!! I was living in Burlington at the time, and there were lots of rumors (of course). I had seen Page come out with Phil a few years back at the Memorial Auditorium to play Midnight Hour, so it always remained a possibility, and when it turned out to be a reality that all three of them were up on stage ripping midnight hour i was ecstatic. He also sat in the Trey, Mike and The Duo. I capped off that show by going to higher ground where trey and marco sat in with the Dave Grippo Funk Band for some jams which was cool, but nothing compared to that Unbroken Chain you are talking about. Whew!!!! I had a lot of friends that went to the Meadows a few nights before and got to see candyman, I am still kicking myself for not making the drive down there for that.
Miner when are going to drop a Deer Creek tourstop?
@WB – the playing is ‘simplistic’. ‘blah’. (??????)
What is up with you? You have totally missed the boat, yet again.
It’s obvious, through all your writings, you just don’t understand the bigger picture and overall vibe and playing avenues the band goes on.
You are entitled to your opinion. But maybe it’s best you just stick to critiquing actually musical notes. You’re much better off there.
Either that or loosen up a little…get laid or something. Geez.
The bus came by and I got on, that’s when it all began.
MOLO IS DEAD WEIGHT????? Wax ball your comments get more absurd and unsubstantiated. We just got done raving about the phil and phriends shows for three days and your trying to put a damper on them???? If he sucked that bad I highly doubt these shows would been as good as they were. Listen to the cumberland blues from 7-9-06 sless is absolutely killing it and molo just rides it and the song goes off the chain. A few more comments like this and I will have you banned from being able to post.
I’m certainly no expert, but I have always enjoyed Molo’s drumming. He’s no Fish, but who is? In re listening to these Warfield shows I haven’t felt that there is a whole in the rhythm section or anything like that, but again, I don’t study music so what do I know… Imagine fFish was the drummer for these shows – that would have been really interesting.
Well, that was pretty painless. Was too scared to try for orchestra and too scared to try for more than one ticket but I wound up with 1 in section 7R in Stad 1 and was done with checkout at 10:01. I’ve found here and with the late summer onsales trying the 2nd best seating section first usually yields good results since everyone else is trying for orchestra in those first couple seconds. I just hope 7R (which looks to be dead center and right behind the sound) isn’t actually blocked by the sound.
Again though, there’s no way I can be by a phone or computer tomorrow morning and if anyone out there can pull an extra 2 for Fenway or has 2 extras please email me at spideyguy0@yahoo.com. I’d ask a friend to try to pull tix for me but I’d rather it was someone who has experience with these types of onsales.
You should put up that Glens Falls show for everyone. I have it but it was a great show.
Trey actually got me a two of my friends free tickets to the show. One of the best experiences of my life.
@Spider
Those seats are right behind the taper seats actually, but they should be really killer sound. Grats on the pull man!
I went for orch like an idiot and got shut out. Tuesday was going to be a hard to day to make anyway.
^ actually… tapers are in sec 9. Dunno if they cross over.
I did the idiot thing and went for orchestra seats first. That didn’t work, but I ended up pulling 2 for the Mezz sect. 26, row J. I’ve never been to Jones Beach before. Clearly from the seating chart these are relatively weak seats, but does anyone have experience with how bad (or good!) the “bad” seats at Jones Beach are?
Spiderguy, Im in 7R with ya! I ignored the ORCH as well and just went straight for Stad1… My girl went for ORCH and ended up with no tickets. I think we made the right move!