5/3/99 Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Date:    Thu, 6 May 1999 03:49:07 -0400
From:    brereto2 [email protected]
Subject: Trey 5/3/99 Show Review: Because YOU Demanded It!!!

Hey folks, I was at the Ann Arbor show so here's my review of it. Hope
you enjoy

I came to Ann Arbor from MSU in East Lansing so it took me about an hour
to get there. I left at about five o clock and got there around six. I
met up with some folks who were sitting out front of one of the
restaurants in the area. After they got their pizza I headed out to the
show. We stopped to smoke at this cool little stone bench in the middle
of a little park area between buildings then we went to the show.

Outside there was a large group of folks just hanging around. They were
a Phish crowd, no doubt. We stuffed our way in and there were these cool
folks playing bongo drums by one of the stores. You see, The Michigan
Theatre was just like one of the buildings in Ann Arbor so we were all
just hanging on the side of the street. Surprisingly, I was offered a
ticket from this guy trying to sell his extra. That gave me hope for the
next time I end up at a show without one. Anyway, police officers came
but they didn't really harass anyone, they just asked us all to get onto
the curb since many people were just standing out on the street waiting.
I couldn't see why though, there wasn't any cars going by that I
noticed. Luckily it didn't become too squished since they opened the
theater doors then. We first had to pass by these officers who did
nothing but check to make sure that you had a ticket. All we did was
hold up our ticket and we walked past. Going past the metal detectors,
we went by the ticket-rippers or whatever they're called. I looked down
the line and I saw that they had the black-light checkers and were
scanning some tickets with them which was cool, I had never seen those
used before. The guy who checked my ticket didn't have one or didn't use
it on my ticket as he just ripped it and I was through.

In the place it was cool, very elegant looking. Once into the actual
theatre I parted ways with my buddies since I had different seats than
them. My mouth was dry so I bought a water for a quarter. It was funny,
they had popcorn and other such concessions like we were going to a
movie. I know they usually sell popcorn at these shows but the stand
just looked weird, especially for a Phish show. To the left of the
lobby, across from the concession stand was the tee-shirt stand. They
only had two tee-shirts. One with some cute cartoon spaceman on it
(that's the one I got) and another with a dog jumping at a cat with a
thought bubble from the dog's head saying "I'm a Mar Mar." You can make
your own conclusions on that one... Anyway, I walked into the main area
and there were four different doors for each of the four aisles down
into the floor. Surprisingly I couldn't find a bathroom and I had to ask
someone before I found out that I had to go upstairs to find it. They
had these two curving staircase in opposite directions going up the
second level where they had the bathrooms and the doors to the balcony
seats. Anyway, I went to the arena and my seat was in the second to last
row on the floor on the very left side. Looking at the stage, I saw that
it was no bigger than the stage at the local high school. They barely
could fit all the stuff on there. Half of the floor seats were under the
balcony while the rest were in the open. The soundboard was located
right where the balcony ended and the tapers were right behind them. The
seats in the tapers section weren't removed either, they just had to set
up their stuff in the spaces in between seats. I couldn't find where
Chris or the light board was. Anyway, I went to my seat and waited. It
wasn't that long before Trey came out. The crowd at the front saw him
and cheered as he unceremoniously walked out with a big grin at the
ovation. He was wearing the regular balck shirt and had a black, light
indoor flannel jacket on too. He sat down and started the show:

FARMHOUSE: This was pretty typical for a Farmhouse, I kinda wasn't
paying attention since I had moved from my seat down to the open area
floor seats and I was just standing in someone else's seat listening.
The guy came to his seat in the middle of the song but when I started to
leave he said it was okay for me to stand there. Cool guy. Anyway,
Farmhouse soon ended and everyone went nutty. Trey then went into

SNOWFLAKES IN THE SAND: This was a beatiful, slow, acoustic song, with
nice flitty lyrics. No chorus that I could pick out, it was kinda like
"Sleep" lyric-wise. Everyone started sitting down for this one and I
looked real awkward just standing in the row with no seat so I left the
row seat and just stood in the aisle, listening. Eventually some guy
asking to see my ticket came by and I was forced to move back some more.
I was still standing in the aisle though, by the soundboard now, when
this song ended. Trey talked about how that was one of a series of new
songs that he would play (he mentioned that the next song was a new one
too) and said that not all of them have names yet and said that it would
mess up all the folks on the internet (he did a little keyboard-typing
gesture as he said that) and everyone laughed. Then he said that the
song he just did HAD a name. He said it was "Snowflakes in the Sand."
Then he went into

BAKE AND BOIL: Again it was slow, tune with no real chorus. I paid more
attention to this song than the first tunes since I wasn't moving around
so much. Still I was asked for my ticket from a guy (the same one
actually) and I moved all the way back to my row. it was already filled
with people including folks in my seat so I just stood on the outside,
happily in the aisle, but then THE SAME!! guy approached me again and I
told him that my aisle was full but he told me to push my way in. So I
did and I was back where I started. I regret moving down now since I
should've just stayed where I was and listened to the songs more
thoroughly. Anyway B&B was good! A LOT better than Snowflakes and it
soon ended, it was real short. Both B&B and Snowflakes were short, about
two minutes. Anyway, Trey said that the song was one of the new ones who
didn't have a name so he said that he would be really screwing up the
internet set lists with that one. Then he looked like he was gonna go on
the next song but he stopped and said that he just remember that the
name was called "Bake and Boil." I thought that it was joke since it was
a strange name and the song wasn't about boiling or baking at all. (And
I think he actually was since, judging by the 5/4 set list, it's now
called Mountains in the Mist, Another joke? I wonder if he'll change
that song's name every show.) Anyway, me now in my seat, he went into
the next song:

BOUNCIN: Huge Shocker! The crowd went nutty when he started playing the
opening licks to this one. He sang it as usual and the crowd chimed in
the usual "..Awoke" and "Crystal Haze" parts. Then when the regular part
was done, Trey started singing Fish's low "That time then..." part. He
sang about one rotation of that than sang his own part in the song, the
"that time then..." part which is at different timing than Fish's. Then
after a rotation of that, he sang Page's "And I awoke..." part. He sang
that part longer than the other two. Then he stopped singing and did a
little jamming, different sounding than the electric version, but still
cool. He finished up to a huge ovation. He then went into the unnamed:

ACOUSTIC JAM: This was amazing! Who cares what it was called, it was
amazing. Trey's playing had me transfixed to every note he played. I was
straining my neck to see his fingers playing those notes. About half-way
through Chris put this dark blue light on Trey and it looked like some
light from the heavens on Trey. I was like, "Holy Shit, There's God!" Or
at least that's what it looked like. The jam was long for an acoustic
tune, about five or six minutes but it was awesome. Then Trey said that
it was another new song without a name. It was then that I bent over to
look for the water I had bought but it was gone and I missed some of the
other stuff he said but judging what the internet folks said this was
where he said that we should name it on the internet. Whatever he said,
everyone laughed after he said it. I thought that he had said that we
should call the song "New Song No Name" but that's what I heard while
crouched down under my seat looking for a drink, I'm probably off there.
Trey then paused as he got ready for the next song. I was thinking,
"Guyute" and I was right.

GUYUTE: Not much I can say about this one. If you have Higher Ground
then that's basically it. Still, you have to see this live. Just looking
at those fingers move on that guitar playing all that stuff was really
amazing. I would've sold my soul for a front row seat to see that (Damn
DMB ticket sale!!). There was one point where in one of the quick pauses
of the song, Trey flipped his hand up and brushed his hair out of his
eyes then went right back to the guitar without missing a beat, those
around me who saw that, thought it was really cool. Besides it wouldn't
be Trey if he wasn't messing with his hair. Anyway, he ended that one to
an insane ovation and started to tell about a show review of "the last
time I did an acoustic Guyute." he tried to remember the web page and he
said that it was geo-something (I think) and he said that whatever page
it was,  on the review it mentioned that he done at nice acoustic Guyute
as well as a great electric version of Voodoo Chile when in fact he
hadn't done Voodoo Chile at all. This got a laugh and Trey said
something about how it seemed like over 50% of the stuff on the internet
was wrong. Then he paused and said because of that he was going to do an
acoustic Voodoo Chile. The crowd went insane but as it died down you
could hear Trey already playing the opening of:

BRIAN AND ROBERT: A big hush of disappointment came from the crowd
seeing that this one wasn't Voodoo Chile but most people laughed at the
little trick that Trey had played on us. It was nicely done, again much
like the HG version. This was "piss-time" for some as some folks left
their seats but most stayed and swayed to the song (although some sat
down). Trey finished up and started playing the opening licks to what I
thought was "Chalkdust" (don't ask me how I got it confused) but then I
saw that it was obviously:

POSSUM: I thought that was cool how at the last acoustic show, he had
done it electric and now he was doing it acoustic. Anyway, when the
chorus came, Trey sang the first "Possuuuuuuummmmm..." and the people in
the front sang the second "Posssuuuuuuumm..." and then everyone in the
arena caught on and sang the last Posssuuummm" and we all held it til
Trey gave the sign where we'd yell "Possum!!!" Then after that everyone
sang the "Your End is the Road" part all together as well. It went like
that the rest of the song where Trey sang the first, the whole crowd
sang the second and those who could get a high enough octave sang the
third. Trey did this cool jam in the middle, much longer than I'd
thought it'd be and then finished it up. When we did the extra long
"Possssuuuummm's" Trey tried to play the guitar a little longer just to
see how long we could hold the note. He was smiling after each time we
did it. Anyway, Trey stood up after this one ended and was smiling from
ear to ear. He gave a bow and left. It was a short set, yes, but much
like Higher Ground we figured he'd make it up. By the way, Trey switched
acoustic guitars for almost every song he did. He was looking like
Fogerty, he did it so much. Overall, the crowd was kinda loud. I mean
there was the usual cheering but there were various yells during the
songs that were stupid. Just various comments and stuff which wasn't
needed. And ahead of me to the left there was this guy who kept yelling
"Go Leafs" after every song. It was funny the first time but the other
times he did it, it got real annoying. Sure the yelling is cool for a
regular show but an acoustic show is way too quiet for that stuff. The
lights didn't do much. Just changed colors for the songs or flash around
a bit for faster songs like Guyute. Imagine the lights at a Dylan show
and you've got the first set here. Anyway, then came

SETBREAK: Of course, we all went out and since I was super close to the
door I was able to get out pretty fast though I didn't jet out
immediately. I went up and of course we had the long line in the
bathroom. Surprisingly it was much longer than the women's line and
everyone was complaining about that although it was just that the men
had bigger numbers basically. Anyway, I went out of the background and
as I was coming down the stairs I stopped to look at the floor which was
FILLED with people. It was kinda cool to just stop at the top and look
down at all the people shuffling in the TINY lobby trying to get
wherever they were going. Going down there was useless anyway. Still I
got bored and walked down the stairs and through the crowd. I bought
another water to replace the one I had and just looked around. The doors
were open and people were outside getting air or smoking or whatever.
There was this one guy standing by the entrance to the lobby with a huge
pile of videotape bootlegs trying to sell them. Judging by the labels he
had Floyd, Dylan, and DMB and some other stuff too. Anyway, I headed
back into the show floor. I walked down and checked out the tapers.

It was here that I was standing by the soundboard and I was lucky enough
to see Languedoc talking to some other guy. I stood by and listened in.
The guy asked him how he liked the crowd in relation to the noise and he
said "I hate the crowd." He looked like he was little pissed and said
that "it's a fuckng acoustic show!" and that the least the crowd could
do was shut up and listen to the songs. He said that on the soundboard,
Trey was just barely registering at all while the crowd was getting high
readings. He was asked about the tapes and he said that the tapes will
sound pretty terrible. The guy tallking to him mentioned filrering out
the sound and Languedoc agreed that the tapes MIGHT not sound bad but
that they might want to faze out the crowd. Then he mentioned that it
would much better if they had put the tapers on the balcony on the upper
level rather than under the balcony like they were. Languedoc then said
that he wanted to talk to someone, (I forgot the name he said) and he
went over and talked to one of the security dudes, (the Trey security,
not the venue security). I wanted to follow him some more and listen
some more but I was sure that he saw me listening in and might have
gotten bothered if I continued to follow him. I went back to my seat
where some lady was talking to these 50 year old guys in the row in row
in front of mine. She said something about this was her second show. She
looked like she worked there or was working on the tour or something,
who knows? Anyway, she left and I just sat there checking everyone out.
I managed to find that the time was 9:00 and about five to ten minutes
later Tony walked out and grabbed his bass as everyone went nuts. Then
Russ came out followed by Trey. Tony was on the left with Trey on the
right and of course, Russ in the middle on drums. There was a small mini
drum set to the left of Tony. They seemed to take forever to start the
first song. Then they went into the start of:

OOH CHILD: I couldn't make out the song until the singing started but
then I knew it was Ooh Child. It made me glad that I had Higher Ground
since it helped me identify a lot of the songs in the second set.
Anyway, this was done beautifully but was a LOT longer than the HG
version. Lots of jamming and the first delay loops of the night came in
to play with this tune. It's hard to explain the jams in the second set,
you just have to hear them. Anyway, Trey did some funky stuff (no
straight guitar here) for what was forever. He was really trying some
different techniques here. Anyway, the jam went forever but eventually
the song came full circle and they went into the chorus and finished up
the song. After a jam like that we all had a feeling of what we were
store for. The paused for a while and went into:

MOZAMBIQUE: I instantly recognized this one as it was definitely my
favorite song off of Higher Ground so it stood out in my mind. Really
great drum beat by Russ to keep this one going. I noticed the crowd had
trouble dancing around to this one due to the fast beat but I loved it.
This song was much like Higher Ground's as well and was about the same
length. Great funking, Santana-ish jam from Trey throughout. I loved it
the whole way through. This one ended to big applause. I think that it
was at this time that Tony said that it was great to be here and we all
cheered for him. They then went into:

COME ON BABY, LET'S GO DOWNTOWN: I looked forward to this one too. The
crowd was really into it and they even sang along with the "Downtown"
part as well. Short, just like the original, with a quick 30 second jam
from Trey. Nothing new, but it was really well done.

(GOTTA) JIBOO: It couldn't immediately recognize this song but once the
singing started I knew what it was much to my enjoyment. After hearing
this one on Higher Ground it had been in my head forever afterward. It
was great to hear it live. Awesome, a LOT like the HG jam, complete with
delay loops. They even had the part were the rest of the band stopped
playing for bit and Trey solo jammed before they jumped in to the song
again. Great jam, and LONG too. I gotta jibooed all over the place. The
song ended and then there was a pause and Trey went over to his little
keyboard thing which was behind him.

"KEYBOARD" SOLO: It's listed as keyboard solo but it wasn't a keyboard
at all. I couldn't see what it was exactly but it was some sort of
synthesizer board. Trey couldn't seem to get it to work or something and
he was over by the board, pushing a key and then getting no noise and
kinda looking a little confused. Then a few weird sounds came out and
Trey played what I can only describe as a very 80's solo that seemed to
come from one of those bad 100% synthesizer bands of the 80's. It was
just a bunch of strange noises really although I heard he teased some
sort of 80s theme with it, I didn't notice. Anyway, Trey couldn't seem
to do much with it and stopped it and the solo ended as being only about
a minute long. Trey stopped playing and got applause at least for the
attempt and went back to the mic stand.

THEN CAME YOU: I'd never heard this one but I'd have to say that this
was the worst song of the night. The opening guitar riffs were decent
but Trey and Russ's combined singing sounded real bad. The chorus
sounded worse that the actual verses which is usually a bad sign. Trey
did start a solo by first going over the synthesizer he had just played
and set off this siren sound which stayed with the whole solo as he
jammed away. It was a short jam and wasn't that bad but then they went
back into the song much to my dismay. I just wanted it to end and
eventually it did. I hope the original sounds better but Trey and Russ
just sounded really weird together on this song. Anyway, the fast drum
beat started and they went into

LAST TUBE: This was NOT First Tube as the set lists say. It was Last
Tube. I have Higher Ground and I went back to listen to it. The guitar
part is unmistakable. Anyway, I knew that this was from Higher Ground
but at the time I couldn't remember the name. Anyway, it was nice and
fast and it woke up the audience after the last song. Trey really went
crazy on this song with some cool guitar throughout. The fast drumbeat
really got lots of dancing too. Then they stopped the song for a split
second and without missing a beat went into:

FIRST TUBE: The set lists say this was right after "Then Came You" but
it wasn't. Anyway, I thought that the Last Tube jam was part of this
song but having listened to HG later I knew that they were separate
songs (the small pause confirms that). Besides, Pistol, as it's listed
doesn't have lyrics, while this song did. Anyway, Trey sang the lyrics
well but like HG the whole focus was the jam. It was long and strange
and amazing. Trey was just trying all sorts of stuff in this song. There
were points where he would just pause and let the bass and drums play
while he thought of stuff too. What was cool was that just the bass and
drums were enough to keep everyone into it. Trey really did lots of
stuff in this jam which I couldn't really explain and then eventually
went back into the original jam and sang some more lyrics before ending
it. The crowd went insane in thanks of such a long and amazing journey.
Then Russ started that familiar drum beat which I knew from HG:

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW: I knew this song instantly and I was kinda
disappointed that they were doing so many HG songs and no new stuff but
heck, this song was great! No one seemed to know it until Trey started
singing to which we all erupted. Pretty typical but the solo in the
middle was much longer than HG. Trey noodled some cool guitar that
sounded like it fit right into the original. I was surprised at the jam
here since it didn't seem like a jamable song. Anyway, it was great,
typical for the type of song it was. I believe that it was here in the
show where Tony again said that it was great to be in Ann Arbor. He said
that he had been hear "long before most of you were born" and was
surprised at how so much had changed. He said it had changed yet it was
still a great city. He mentioned the landmarks too and that got a
response from Ann Arbor locals (probably students) to yell out other
landmarks too. And he heard one of the landmarks and said that he
remembered when it was just a small idea by the students at the time to
build one. He said it was good to be here. The whole time Trey just
stood back, smiling. Anyway, they soon busted into:

WILL IT GO ROUND IN CIRCLES: Yet another song that I had never heard of,
this one started with the typical singing and chorus. I could make out
the word "Circle" from the chorus to so that's why I'm not surprised
that it was called that on the set lists right after the show before
anyone knew what it was really called. They did the singing part quite
well in fact and Trey busted into this cool jam for a while, then they
did another verse and another solo. Trey then went into the main jam of
the song and it seemed to last forever. he played much of the same type
of PYITE jam but it was much slower throughout the whole jam. The whole
time, Chris was putting Circle designs on the wall to match the song
name, I guess. Anyway, Trey kept playing and I was pretty entranced with
it until they abruptedly stopped and the crowd cheered, thinking it was
over. Then they started singing "Circles" (or something like that) over
and over, going faster and faster until it was an insanely fast beat
with the three still yelling "Circles". This really got the crowd going
as we jumped around to the fast beat which had Trey's rocking guitar
playing along with it for a while before the song finally winded down
lower and lower until the crowd started cheering as it seemed it was
over. Then Trey took his guitar off and I thought that the set was over
except that fact that Russ was still on drums playing a slow beat. Then
we all went nuts when he saw Trey walk across the stage over to his
dinky drum set to the left of where Tony had been standing. (Tony left
at this time)

DRUM DUEL: It wasn't really a "duel" at all but both men were
contributing. Don't get me wrong though, this solo was Russ's not
Trey's. Trey basically played back up drums while Russ was busting out
all sorts of stuff with the various drums and bongos that he had back
there. They both played for a while, changing the beat at various
intervals and trying new stuff. Near the end, it was Trey who started
taking the lead and he was doing some cool drum rolls and such. I could
see his hands and they were lightning fast! Then Trey hit his cymbol and
then Russ hit his cymbal, then Trey, then Russ, and went onto til the
did it faster and faster and finished up in a grand finale. Really cool.
It was just a drum solo but it sounded like more bongo and african
oriented and not just some rock drum solo. Anyway, Trey went back over
to his guitar and Tony came out from where he gone off stage and they
went into:

SILICON FAIRY: No one really knew this song but it was a great song to
end the set with. The song singin itself was really done well and
everyone could obviously get the song's title from the chorus. I found
myself singing along with catchy tune once I got the jist of how it
went. They rocked the house with this but it wasn't until Trey busted
into his solo when we all went crazy. No ambient jams or noodling like
before on this one, just a good old fashioned rock and roll solo. Trey
ripped this one to shreads with beautiful jamming. Not too long but it
was more than enough. They went back into the chorus and finished it up.
A great song to end the set. Trey then just put away the guitar and the
three left the stage. Not too long a wait, most people stayed right
where they were. I got myself a drink from my water which hadn't
disappeared in this set for which I was grateful. Dancing for two
straight hours is tiring, but I'm sure you all know that. Anyway, about
five minutes later the crowd went nutty again and the band strutted out
for our encore.

AQUI COMO ALLA: I instantly recognized this tune from HG. Very cool with
a beat kinda like Mozambique but not quite as drum oriented. They had a
cool backup beat goin while Trey threw out all sorts of guitar riffs
with fit with the song perfect. Nothing really outstanding, it was a lot
like the HG version. It ended and Trey paused for a while. Then he did
what I could swear is the EXACT intro jam to The Moma Dance. Everyone
went nuts thinking the exact same but above the crowd sound we all heard
him go from The Moma jam into that oh so familiar guitar opener as the
crowd erupted:

VOODOO CHILE: Keep in mind that I'm not sure the difference between
Chile and Child so, I couldn't tell you which one he played. It was like
the one from Woodstock, that's all I can say. After the teases that he
had made in the acoustic set, everyone was extremely excited to hear
this one. The guitar of the main part of the song was picture perfect
and surprising Trey was able to get that low-pitched voice like Jimmy's
out when he sang it. Everyone was yelling out "I'm a Voodoo Child" along
with him too. He did the first solo picture perfect then busted out into
the third verse before going into a jam again. The man played like Jimmy
as he blew the roof off with a heavy rock and roll jam even better than
the "Fairy" jam. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Anyway, he
jammed for at least ten minutes and they finished as the crowd went
insane. Trey said something into the mic but the noise was too loud but
we knew that the show was over. Russ and Tony left and then I got to see
the "4" on the back of Trey's shirt as he left last to go backstage.
Over all the set was much better noise-wise then the last. Obviously, it
being electric, the crowd didn't have that much of an effect. The lights
were much more responsive and Phish-like than the first set. Chris even
projected these cool bubble or circle images on the wall during many of
the long jams. Nothing too spectacular but Chris did his job.

I grabbed my drink and jumped over to the shirt stand so I could beat
the crowd. I got my spaceman shirt and headed over to the exit. There
was no tourdates on the spaceman shirt like on the Mar Mar shirt as I
soon found out but I didn't really care. Anyway I headed to the exit and
I saw this guy yelling at everyone to leave their drinks as they headed
through the metal detectors to leave. I wanted to keep the drink so I
wouldn't have to get a drink when I went to McDonald's but I handed it
to him. No big deal. Out on the street was the same guy who I saw at the
set break still selling his video tape bootlegs. He was even yelling
about one of his tapes had "Voodoo Chile" on it which I thought was
funny. Anyway, I went back outside and looked back at the theatre as I
walked down the the street. They had already changed the big yellow sign
on the front which had said "Trey Anastasio Acoustic and Electric show"
before the show. Anyway, I headed over to my car which was parked a few
blocks down. Pushed in my Halloween 86 tape in and listened to "Peaches
en Regalia" as I drove off. Definitely a rewarding experience. I looked
at the clock and it was around 11:40 which meant that Trey had give a
two and a half hour second set. Satisfied I drove off. Trey is the damn
man and I can't wait for Summer Tour...

Date:    Wed, 5 May 1999 14:55:07 CDT
From:    Mark Hutchison [email protected]
Subject: Trey in May! - 1st two shows

Wow.  These two shows have been awesome.  Honestly, I did not expect these Trey
solo shows to rock as hard as they did.  Granted, it's not Phish, but I was
suprised by how well Trey led this new ensemble.

Jeff Hill told me he's never seen the Michigan Theater rock as hard as it did
Monday night, and that was before the second set even began.  Both acoustic
sets were pretty chill, with the majority of the audience (or at least those in
front of me) sitting through the entire thing.  Even though seated, though, the
place was gettin' down!

5/3/99 - Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor
I:
Farmhouse, Snowflakes In The Sand, Mountains in the Mist (aka Bake & Boil),
Bouncing Around the Room, Purple Hugh, Guyute, Brian & Robert, Possum

Obviously, some new songs here, Snowflakes has a great little hook and is an
uptempo, happy ditty.  Bake & Boil is really called Mountains in the Mist, B&B
was the name Trey said "came to him" during it's debut performance tonight, but
on 5/4 he announced it's new "final title - it's not gonna change..." Purple
Hugh is a really cool instrumental with harmonics (that's how I recognise it).
Possum was fun with the whole audience singing the other vocals in the chorus.
Acoustic Guyute has to be heard - the place went nuts!

Set II:
Ooh Child, Mozambique, Come On Baby, Jiboo, Mini Moog Solo, Then Came You, Last
Tube, First Tube, I Can See Clearly Now, Round In Circles, Drums, Silicon Fairy
Encore: Aqui Como Alla, Voodoo Child (slight return)

Lots of covers here...the highlight of which was of course Voodoo Child. Trey
had remarked in the first set how they had _not) played Voodoo Child at Higher
Ground, remarking how we've got "all this information out there [on the
internet] and half of it is wrong."  Ooh Child was a great opener, extended and
jammed beyond all realms of belief.  This was when I realized what we were in
for.  Mozambique, as Dave Schall pointed out is what Trey was playing (the
progression anyway) in the 4/3/98 Nassau Weekepaug (what I originally labelled
Weekapaug->New Song(?)->Weekapaug).  Neil Young's Come on Baby (Let's go
Downtown) was quite nice, and Jiboo was another one that wowed me.  Trey did a
mini moog solo, although really the moog did most of the work.  He must've had
samples pre-programmed in, because all he really did was hit a few keys
throughout the song.

Now, to clarify...I have not heard the 8' Tubes tapes, but the two different
setlists I got from people at the show who had heard them listed "First Tube,
Last Tube" not "First Tube, Pistol" Take that as you will.  They were both
cool, with what I'm calling "First Tube" being really funky.

Round in Circles is a cover, but I was certain it sounded like a Trey
tune....the lyrics go somthing like "Going 'round in circles, fly high like a
bird up in the sky...my tune has no melody, my dance has no moves, just let the
music move me, it goes round in circles"

Trey sat down on a drum kit off to the side to do a (pretty much) written drum
accompany just fine.

Silicon Fairy also rocks!

In the encore, I figured the first tune was A Love Supreme, having that chorus.
Aqui como Allah works, too, I guess.  Vood Child of course kicked ass!!!

- Mark

Date:    Tue, 4 May 1999 20:05:54 -0700
From:    "|>|-| | S |-| |V| a ||" [email protected]
Subject: Trey stuff...

Hey all.

Last nights show at the Michigan Theatre was great.  I dug the acoustic
set a little more than the electric, but overall, quite a show.
Bouncing, Guyute and Possum where great to hear done solo, would have
loved to have heard Trey play Chalkdust.  Intresting side note to the
show, though.  My roommate and a friend got handed backstage passes
during the second set, and ended up hanging with Trey and the guys in
their bus.  They asked him where he was getting his inspiration from
recently, and he mentioned Professor Longhair.  Anyone heard anything
from this guy?

Date:    Tue, 4 May 1999 07:16:42 -0400
From:    Christian David Hoard [email protected]
Subject: TREY in A2

Hi there.

Short review: First set was solid; second set was good overall but
dragged in a few places.

Longer review:

The Michigan Theater is great. I've never been to a show where the
general scent was better than it was last night. Yes, kids, something
was in the air, and it wasn't just stale pathchouli and hemp: on a
terrific May night, Trey Anastasio was visiting the not-so-humble U of M
Campus. Mmmmm. Anyway...

ACOUSTIC SET:

I won't do a song-by-song analysis or anything, save to say that this
set was quite nice. All of acoustic Phish songs went over without a
hitch, and the new tunes sounded 'well-crafted' on first hearing. The
tune labeled 'untitled instrumental' is not the one Trey invited us to
name; that one is "Bake and Boil," the title of which Trey remembered
just after he played it. The later instrumental tune was also good,
displaying a bit of Trey's acoustic virtuosity.

Trey seemed in good spirits for this set. He was very chatty. The Voodoo
Chile story about Sonic.net was a nice way of setting up the encore. It
was also fun to do the backing vocals on Possum; since no one around me
took the third (highest) "possum...", I did, with apologies to my
neighbors. Anyway...

ELECTRIC SET:

Despite that Trey played nearly every song he played at Higher Ground
(which was a bit dissapointing), which meant I knew all of the songs,
the set is still a bit of a haze in a few spots.

The OOH CHILD and subsequent jam may have been the best thing to come
out of the electric set. Trey was firing some dark licks, and it felt
like the whole band was really interacting. Actually, it may have just
been Trey going off, but it was a superb quasi-funk jam.

I really like MOZAMBIQUE as a song, but I didn't dig Trey's playing
here, at least on first listen. It was sort of wanky, didn't seem to fit
the idiom.

[running out of time here...]

The synthesizer jam was interesting; Trey wasn't 'playing' the keyboard
per se; it seemed like a lot of programmed loops. Did anyone else catch
the "Beverly Hills Cop Theme" tease to end it? I know both Reily and
Mmmmitchum missed it, so there really is no "tease war" between theme in
my book.

A lot of the songs in the second set featured Russ and Tony holding down
rock-solid Grooves over which Trey soloed. At one point (First Tube, was
it?) Trey was making some noise at the high-end of his guitar, which was
really cool. Actually, he did stuff like that many times during the set:
the creative use of noise, which is something he's done much more
starting last year.

The DRUMS JAM was cool enough. Two very nerdy-looking guys banging away.
Nice.

Silicon(e) Fairy rocked pretty hard, fulling the crowd's LAMR (Loud-Ass
Music Requirement).

The encore song, since Rob Johnson asked, was the Ribot tune Aqui Como
Alla, I think. Same as a Higher Ground.

Anyway, I have to leave soon, or else I'd say more. In general, Russ and
Tony are very tight as a rhythm section, though I'd have liked them to
change it up a bit more; I did actually get a little tired of Trey's
endless noodling. Still, overall, there were some great stripped-down
jams in this set, a lot of nice guitar noodle-funk. Check these guys out
if you have a ticket ;-).

Adios,
CDH
ps - AJP: I just wanted to tell you that -- [lights down]

Date:    Tue, 4 May 1999 02:49:24 -0400
From:    brereto2 [email protected]
Subject: I WAS AT ANN ARBOR. REAL SET LIST PLUS STORIES, NO B.S.

I was at the kick ass show by Trey no more than 3 hours ago and here is
the set list as I can remember it. keep in mind that it might be in the
wrong order.

SET I
-Farmhouse
-Snowflakes in the Sand (I think) [Trey said that this was one of the
new songs that he was trying out. He made jokes about the Internet
folks.
-Bake and Boil?? [Another new song. Trey said that he hadn't made a new
name for this song yet and then joked on how it would screw up the
internet set lists. Then when he was about to play the next song he said
that it was called "Bake and Boil" although this might have been a joke]
-Bouncing Around the Room [Trey sang the three parts separately]
-Acoustic Jam [Trey played this awesome jam and said that it was yet
another new song without a name. He said call it "New Song No Name"]
-Guyute [After playing this he told a story about how he read an
internet article about the first show that he played an acoustic Guyute.
He said that the article had said that he had played an acoustic Guyute
and a great electric version of Voodoo Chile when in fact he hadn't
played Voodoo Chile at all. He then said something about half the stuff
on the internet not being true. Then he said that therefore he will play
an acoustic Voodoo Chile. The crowd went nuts but Trey didn't play it.
He instead went into...]
-Brian and Robert
-Possum [for the chorus Trey would sing the first "Posuuuummmm" and the
crowd would sing the other two "Possuuummmmm"s, it was really a cool
singalong. Great jam]

SET II
-Ooh Child [An amazing jam!!]
-Mozambique
-Come on Baby let's Go Downtown
-Jiboo!!!
-Strange synthesizer jam [I was far away so I couldn't see exactly what
Trey was playing but it was some weird effects board. It only lasted
about a minute]
-Unknown Song [I don't know the name of this one. It was kind of bad
though, a low point in the show. Not too long]
-Last Tube or Pistol [I remember this one being played at Higher Ground
but I couldn't remember what the name is]
-First Tube [amazing!!]
-I Can See Clearly Now [he jammed on it!!]
-Rock Song [another tune that I don't know the name of. It started out
somewhat slow and then got super fast]
-Circles? [The chorus was about Circles so that's why I put that on
there. Awesome jam]
-Drums [Russ played most of the lead while Trey played back-up drums.
Near the end, Trey took over]
-Silicone Fairy? [Again, this was what the chorus said so this is my
guess at the song's name. Awesome Rock and Roll jam!]

NOTE: Once during the start of the set Tony said that it was great to be
in Ann Arbor. Then near the end of the set he said it again and talked
about how he had been in the Michigan Theatre "before most of you were
born" and talked about how everything had changed but how it saw still a
great town. Then he mentioned a few of the landsites in Ann Arbor and
how he remembered them when they were just small ideas (kinda cool)

Enc:
-Aqui Como Alla
-Voodoo Chile [sounded like The Moma Dance from the start but then he
went right into Voodoo. Not a Jimmyish jam really, just Trey kicking
ass]


Like I said, sorry about the lack of names for a few songs and at any
messed up order or forgotten songs but this is the CORRECT set list as I
remember it (Set I is correct, I know that, set II might be a little
confused) Anyway, it was awesome show. In the second set it seemed like
every song was 10+ minutes. Long jams were Ooh Child, Mozambique, Jiboo,
First Tubes, and Aqui Como Alla. A great experience.




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