Happy 15th Anniversary Trey Anastasio Band
By Scott Bernstein Feb 15, 2014 • 11:50 am PST


Anastasio and his trio didn’t have too much in the way of original material for that first show, so they played a number of covers in the set and encore including takes on Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s “Come On Baby, Let’s Go Downtown,” “O-o-h Child” by The Five Stairsteps, Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now,” Earl King’s “Come On (Part One),” Clapton’s “Bell Bottom Blues,” Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos’s “Aqui Como Alla” and “Row Jimmy” by the Grateful Dead. TAB’s performance also featured “First Tube,” “Last Tube,” “Mozambique,” and “Sand,” which were each debuted on April 17, 1998 by Eight Foot Florescent Tubes. In addition, the trio debuted a pair of new originals -“Gotta Jibboo” and “Tops Off.” While “Tops Off” has subsequently disappeared, “Gotta Jibboo” went on to become a TAB (and Phish) staple.
Check out the setlist for the first TAB show via Phish.net:
Set 1: Dirt[1], Dogs Stole Things[1], Runaway Jim[1], Brian and Robert[1], Guyute[1], Driver[1], Chalk Dust Torture[1]
Set 2: Come On Baby, Let’s Go Downtown[2], Gotta Jibboo[3], O-o-h Child[2], Tops Off[3], I Can See Clearly Now[2], Come On (Part One)[2], Mozambique, Bell Bottom Blues[2], Sand > Drums[4], Possum[2] > First Tube
Encore: Aqui Como Alla[2], Row Jimmy[2], Last Tube
[1] Trey solo acoustic; TAB debut.
[2] TAB debut.
[3] Debut.
[4] Trey on second drum kit.
Notes: This gig was a benefit for Very Special Arts of Vermont and was the first ever “Trey Anastasio”-billed performance. “Gotta Jibboo” and “Tops Off” were debuts. All other songs were TAB debuts, excepting “First Tube,” “Last Tube,” “Mozambique,” and “Sand” (that debuted on 4/17/98).
Listen to the first “Gotta Jibboo” and the TAB debut of “Row Jimmy”: