Following Monday night’s outing at Pittsburgh’s Byham TheaterTrey Anastasio acoustic tour continued last night with a performance at Wilmington, DE’s Grand Opera House. The performance once again saw an easy-going Trey allow his thoughts to flow freely as he conversed with the audience, reminisced about times when audiences weren’t so gracious, and shouted-out some of the top slots on his “Coolest Women On Earth” list.

After opening with “Gumbo” and “Cayman Review”, Anastasio thanked the crowd for their “warm response.” As he mused, “It’s not always that way.” He then told a story about a Phish gig in France back when they were touring with Santana and got booed offstage because the concert was running late and the restless crowd wanted to see the headliner.

Trey explained:

“I had a bad feeling, man…I couldn’t shake it all night. I didn’t know what to play. We walked out there onstage and went to play the first note and, um, we got booed offstage. And let me tell you something…The way they boo over there is that they whistle. And they whistle loud. The really know how to whistle. We kinda started the first song…and ‘oh my God,’ deafening whistle, because they wanted to see Santana.

The funny part about this story was that me, Fish [Jon Fishman], and Page [McConnell] kinda looked at each other like ‘ahh, no, what’s going on?’ But Mike [Gordon] didn’t know that whistling meant boo [laughs]…

Anastasio continued the set with a “Brian and Robert”, followed by the tour debut of “Mountains in the Mist”. What came next was one of the more musically interesting segments of the show–and perhaps the tour. First, Trey introduced Phish fan-favorite “Mercury” [00:18:00 in the video below] for the first time as an acoustic track. “Mercury” saw Anastasio use looping, reverb, and textural vocal vamps to create a wind-swept sonic atmosphere. Before starting the next song, rare TAB tune “Black” [00:29:20], Trey explained why he doesn’t often break it out: “I haven’t played this next song in years, partially because…it’s ostensibly a breakup song, actually, from a friend…I’d like to report that everything went back to normal for this person, but it didn’t…”

Before the next song [00:33:00], “Cavern”, Trey joked that it has similar chords to “Black”, so it would be easy to remember. He also decided, “I should dedicate this one to two of the coolest women on Earth [points to someone in the audience], you know who I’m talking about…Do you? You know Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer? I put ’em in like 5th and 6th [coolest], which is pretty good, because my wife Sue [Anastasio] is number 1, and my daughters are two and three…”

Jacobson and Glazer, the ladies behind Comedy Central hit show Broad City, have never been shy about documenting their Phish fandom, finding numerous occasions to sneak references to Trey and “The Boys” into their show. Before the show had even finished, word had made it to Jacobson via Twitter that “Big Daddy Trey” gave her a shout-out:

The pair immediately took to social media to reciprocate the shout-out via Ilana’s Instagram stories. You can watch the clip of Abbi and Ilana’s reactions to Trey mentioning them onstage below (and here’s hoping that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between three of our favorite people):

Abbi & Ilana Freak Out About The Trey Shout-Out On Instagram:

[Video: Ilana Glazer]

Trey continued to think up the other “coolest women” to fill out his list. As he mused in a stream of consciousness, “Cher? I think Cher’s one. Michelle Obama?” followed by a prolonged shrug that screamed, “opinion alert, please don’t hate me.” After a cheeky smile, he joked, “Politics and Phish, it doesn’t work. We love everyone, everyone’s welcome. I still think Michelle Obama is cool. I can think she’s cool without getting political.” He proceeded to bump Michelle off the “list” anyway when he remembered he forgot to include his mom.

As he later joked [00:39:45], “I’ve gotta say this ‘cus it’s on my mind: Even one drop of politics in this world just made me sick to my stomach. But I really couldn’t give a fuck, seriously. Just sayin’. … Our drummer [Fishman] tried to get me and Page in on that and I was just like ‘no, no, no, no….no, no, no.’ I love him to death, he’s my favorite guy, but…” Trey laughed, trailing off.

He also mused about another very funny lady, Kristen Schaal, and her character, Mel, on Flight of the Conchords, “the greatest groupie of all time…she’s cool. I want a groupie like that…If any of you can rise to the occasion of groupie-dom like Mel, just meet me by the bus after the show, it’s on, man!” The joke was unsurprisingly met with a chorus of “poor Sue”s from the audience. Schaal also took to Twitter today to acknowledge her mention on Trey’s “cool list.”:

“The Inlaw Josie Wales” followed “Cavern”. Next up was “Winterqueen” [00:43:30], which Trey took through some choral-tinged improv before moving into a quick “Light” [00:51:00] without skipping a beat. “The Wedge” [00:54:17]. was next up, followed by a haunting rendition of new tune “Till We Meet Again”, written for Anastasio’s recently departed friend Chris Cottrell.

After telling yet another tale [01:05:00] of young Trey (age 15, this time) getting into shenanigans (on a moped, this time), h opted for Billy Breathes ballad “Waste”. “Farmhouse” [01:15:00] came next, followed by “Theme From The Bottom” [01:18:15].

“Fuego” [01:23:00] kept things rolling from there, and eventually made a full segue into “The Horse” > “Silent In The Morning” before Trey closed out the set with “Backwards Down The Number Line”. A two-song encore of “Strange Design” and “The Lizards” sent the Delaware crowd home singing, another fantastic Trey Anastasio solo acoustic show now in the books.

Watch full audience video of Trey’s Grand Opera House show here. [Timestamps within the text above are based on the video below]

Trey Anastasio (Solo Acoustic) – Full Set – Wilmington, DE – 2/13/18:

[Video: noochnooch]


SETLIST: Trey Anastasio (Solo Acoustic) | Grand Opera House | Wilmington, DE | 2/13/18

SET 1: Gumbo > Cayman Review, Brian and Robert, Mountains in the Mist, Mercury*, Black, Cavern, The Inlaw Josie Wales, Winterqueen > Light, The Wedge, Till We Meet Again, Waste, Farmhouse, Theme From the Bottom, Fuego -> The Horse > Silent in the Morning > Backwards Down the Number Line

ENCORE: Strange Design, The Lizards

*Trey solo acoustic debut.


Trey Anastasio solo acoustic tour continues tonight with a Valentine’s Day performance in Washington, D.C. For more information on the tour, head here. See below for a list of upcoming shows.

Trey Anastasio Upcoming Solo Acoustic Dates
Feb. 14 – Washington, DC – Sixth and I
Feb. 16 – Durham, NC – Carolina Theatre
Feb. 17 – Charlotte, NC – Knight Theatre
Feb. 18 – Athens, GA – Classic Center