Nine years ago, Trey Anastasio Band, about as close to the way we see it today played it’s second show of a winter 2001 tour at the Landmark Theater in Syracuse, NY. Reflecting on these past shows of a rejuvenated TAB, replete with horns and female vocals that are better than ever, I gave a listen to this show from 2/22/01 and found the same band, 9 years younger and full of the same talent and jam potential as we have today.

Set 1: In the Wee Wee hours, Push on Till the Day->Tube Top Wobble, Sunday Morning, Mozambique, Gotta Jibboo, Burlap Sack and Pumps, Guyute*

Set 2: Rainy Day Woman #12 & #35, Sand**, It Makes no Difference, Mellow Mood, Happy Coffee Song^, Nothin but an E Thing^^, At the Gazebo, Drifting

Encore: Will it Go Round in Circles?

* acoustic, performed seated on edge of stage

** with Trey on keys (20 minutes)

^ dedicated to Paul Languedoc

^^ Known now as the intro to  ‘Pebbles and Marbles’,

Shortly after listening to this, I remembered that I very strangely wrote a review of this and sent it off to a few friends that night, a supreme rarity since I never wrote a music review until that night. Since I’m great at cataloging and saving everything (see PhanArt: The Art of the Fans of Phish for solid evidence of this OCD), my email review fo 2/22/01, written a few hours after the show ended.

Hello all. if you didnt get a chance to catch the trey and his band tour this time around, you missed an unbelievable show. it was well worth it, and even though the landmark is an amazing place to see a show, it is not run too well, ie, they ran out of water. but enough of that, on with the show.

After having some beers at the blue tusk, myself and some friends from faegans hit off the show.  i wound up having seats right i front of the sound board, about 16th row. the show began with what may be an old cover, called ‘wee wee hours’, (i think). they then played a very funky song ‘push on till the day’, which went on for close to 15 minutes. then an amazing new song, ‘its true’, which sounded like ‘fast enough for you’/’waste’.  ‘mozambique’ was next, and that is a very funky salsa tune, which had trey dancing a bit. then the band busts out into the one song i knew i would hear, ‘gotta jiboo’. i hear this song every place i go, and every venue in the last 2 years. after a long jam which made t seem like  jiboo as done, they went right back into it, then hit off a new one, burlap sack and pumps. the set ended with a rendition of guyute which cannot be compared to. acoustic, front and center of the stage, with trey teasing the crowd before going right back into the lyrics at the end.

after a 50 minute set break, the band returned and played, amazingly, ‘rainy day woman’ by dylan, which was key with the horns. then a long funky version of ‘sand’, (with trey on keys), followed by ‘it makes no difference’. trey then tells the audience that they want to play this next song that they have only rehearsed once, called out ‘mellow mood’, got ‘mellow mood’, great marley tune.  then as a dedication to paul, he plays the ‘happy coffee song’. after that, while i rememberit clearly, i have no idea the names of the songs. but everything was great, including a 15 minute encore of ‘will it go round in circles’

ed note: It seems that I left out a good deal of the show, but it was a clearly a blast going there, being nine years younger and being at my first Trey show. One of my favorite Trey shows ever, as well as being my first of a (personally) epic 2001