Trey Anastasio helped celebrate the 60th birthday of his longtime friend and lyricist Tom Marshall at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ on Saturday.

Trey performed at the famous Jersey Shore club as a duo with Marshall as well as with Trey Anastasio Band members Ray Paczkowski, Russ Lawton, and Dezron Douglas plus special guests. He also reflected on the pair’s special partnership, which stretches back to when they were in elementary school.

“Tom and I have been writing songs since fifth grade,” he said. “It’s one of the great joys of my life, being Tom’s friend and writing songs with him. Tom, I love you.”

Trey went on to introduce “Waste” by telling the story of how the song came together during one of the duo’s writing retreats where they may have given the impression that they were more than just songwriting partners.

The way we wrote songs for many, many years was that we would take off together … and we would disappear. It was like our thing. Many times, [we would] rent a house in Vermont, a farmhouse or something, and we would lock ourselves in. It would just be me and Tom and a lot of food, a lot of junk food, and [we would] stay up all night for like four days in a row. It was always like the first day, a lot of the songs would be sort of mental, you know? Like lyrics that were planned beforehand or chord progressions that were planned beforehand. And then as the thing started to unfold, at least the way I think of it, it would become more and more organic because we would stay up all night together, and everything, like, the boundaries would start to melt away.

So, this trip that we wrote this song on, we decided we would start expanding our songwriting vacations to more exotic locations. And, uh, we went to the Cayman Islands. We stayed in a room together.

Tom interrupted to preface the rest of the story by explaining that Trey had left the majority of his clothes at home and arrived at the resort with “a cut-off AC/DC shirt, and that’s it.”

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“I also had incredibly short, super short shorts, and that’s all we had,” Trey added. “Tom also had incredibly short shorts. And it’s just funny because … we were having all these tropical drinks and stuff, and all the waiters were being really friendly. I think everybody thought we were a gay couple. They told us later on that we were vacationing together, which is probably pretty close to it.

“Anyway, we wrote for like three days. This was one of my favorite songwriting trips. I remember we wrote ‘Character Zero’, and we were driving around and just screaming in a pickup, whatever that thing was, that Suzuki thing. And this was one of the end ones. Anyway, the last day when we just weren’t really thinking anymore and just writing together and just, I don’t know, it felt organic.”

Before starting the song, Trey reiterated, “It’s been one of the great joys of my life having this relationship. I know there’s a lot of people in here that feel the same.”

In addition to joining Trey for acoustic duo versions of songs including “Waste” and “Strange Design”, Tom Marshall sat in with the TAB quartet on a cover of “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba, which he previously sang with Phish the last time the band played the song in 1998, per Phish.net. The cover also included Tony Perusso on trumpet.

Check out videos from Trey Anastasio’s performance at Tom Marshall’s 60th birthday celebration at the Stone Pony, produced by Nectar’s Presents, below. Scroll down to view photos of the event via Chris Spiegel (Blur Revision Media Design).

Trey Anastasio & Tom Marshall – “Waste” – 11/11/23

[Video: Mark Rechler]

Trey Anastasio & Tom Marshall – “Tubthumping” (Chumbawamba)  – 11/11/23

[Video: Leif Eriksen]

Setlist: Trey Anastasio Band | The Stone Pony | Asbury Park, NJ | 11/11/23

SET 1: Back on the Train, Sand, Tubthumping [1] > Happy Birthday to You [2], Outside the Lines, Wolfman’s Brother, The Moma Dance > No Men In No Man’s Land, Steam, Blaze On > Ghost

[1] TAB debut; Tom Marshall on vocals and Tony Perusso on trumpet.
[2] Tony Perusso on trumpet.

This unannounced set was part of an evening celebrating Tom Marshall’s 60th birthday and featured the TAB debut of Tubthumping with Tom on vocals and Tony Perusso on trumpet. Tubthumping had last been performed by a member of Phish on November 21, 1998 when Phish themselves performed it (also with Tom on vocals). Happy Birthday to You also featured Tony Perusso on trumpet.