On Wednesday night, Trey Anastasio continued his spring solo tour with the Trey Anastasio Trio during a performance at Grand Rapids, Michigan’s 20 Monroe Live, following up Tuesday’s tour opener in Cleveland. Fans have been eager to see Trey, drummer Russ Lawton, and bassist Tony Markellis on the road, particularly given the surprise announcement of the trio’s substitution for Trey Anastasio Band tour back in March—this announcement came on the heels of TAB keyboardist Ray Paczkowski’s emergency surgery to remove a brain tumor. The trio is a throwback to the earliest iteration of Trey’s solo band, which came together after the three musicians first played together at a Vermont performance under the moniker 8 Foot Fluorescent Tubes 20 years ago.

To kick things off, the band opened their show with “Blaze On” off 2016’s Big Boat, a number previously only performed by Trey Anastasio solo or by Phish. This was followed by another debut for Trey Anastasio Band/Trio, a take on the party anthem, “Party Time”. While the first two songs were new to Lawton and Markellis, the trio followed up “Party Time” with “Undermind”, marking a gap of over a decade since Trey Anastasio Band had performed the number, though even longer since Russ and Tony had performed the tune. The group then performed Trey Anastasio Band staple, “Gotta Jibboo”, and another older classic, “Back On The Train”, which JamBase notes “dates back to the trio’s 1999 tour yet was only performed during solo acoustic sets that run.”

“Gotta Jibboo”

 

To close out set one, the group laid out a patient take on “Alaska” before set-closing renditions of Trey Anastasio’s relatively new tune, “Soul Planet”, which was debuted at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas in the fall, and a slinky rendition of Trey Anastasio Band’s staple, “Sand”. To start set two, the group opened things up with “Corona” followed by “The Way I Feel”. With an emphasis on transitions during the second set, “Corona”, “The Way I Feel”, “Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan” (which featured teases of Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker”), “Mr. Completely”, and “Bug” were all well-segued across one another, taking up the majority of the second set. Closing things out, Trey Anastasio Trio first offered up “Set Your Soul Free”, which, like “Soul Planet”, was similarly debuted at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas last fall. Fan favorites “Ghost” and “Julius” closed out the frame before an extensive four-song encore.

“Set Your Soul Free” 

In keeping with the trend of the tour opener, Wednesday night’s performance opened with a solo acoustic portion from Trey Anastasio. While in Cleveland, Trey performed “Waste” to open the encore, in Grand Rapids, Anastasio offered up two solo acoustic numbers—”Brian and Robert” and “More”. Drummer Russ Lawton and bassist Tony Markellis returned to the stage for the show’s final songs of “Show Of Life” and “First Tube”.

Setlist: Trey Anastasio Trio | 20 Monroe Live | Grand Rapids, MI | 4/18/2018 

Set One: Blaze On, Party Time[1], Undermind, Gotta Jibboo, Back on the Train, Alaska, Soul Planet, Sand

Set Two: Corona > The Way I Feel, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan > Mr. Completely > Bug, Set Your Soul Free, Ghost, Julius

Encore: Brian and Robert[2], More[2], Show of Life, First Tube

[1] TAB debut. | [2] Trey solo acoustic