My Morning Jacket Welcomes Trey Anastasio At One Big Holiday 2022 Opener In Mexico

My Morning Jacket kicked off the 2022 installment of their One Big Holiday destination event last night at Moon Palace in Cancún, Mexico. The quintet dug deep into their repertoire to load the main set with rarities and then, as reported, Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio joined the band for their three-song encore on Wednesday.

One Big Holiday was first staged by My Morning Jacket in 2015. This year’s event marks the band’s first One Big Holiday since 2018. My Morning Jacket devoted the 2018 shows to complete performances of their studio albums.

MMJ opened last night’s concert with “Welcome Home,” a song featured on The Waterfall II previously performed live on January 26, 2014 as per Setlist.FM. Another bust out followed the ensuing “Golden,” as the band dusted off obscurity “Sooner” for its first play since November 28, 2015.

Last night’s main set rolled on with a career-spanning collection of songs including “Old Sept. Blues” from 1999’s The Tennessee Fire, Z classics “Anytime, “Gideon” and “Lay Low” as well as “Love Love Love,” “Never In The Real World” and “Penny For Your Thoughts” off the band’s self-titled 2021 studio album.

A pair of bust outs came in the middle of My Morning Jacket’s 23-song performance. Evil Urges standout “Aluminum Park” saw action for the first time since March 5, 2018 before the band took on the title track from guitarist Carl Broemel‘s 2010 studio album, Carried Away. The latter was last played on December 29, 2017. MMJ capped the frame with “Strangulation!” off 2001’s At Dawn along with the end of “Run Thru” and the aforementioned “Gideon.” The five-piece hadn’t performed “Strangulation!” since March 2, 2018.

Trey Anastasio, fresh off Phish’s own destination event at Moon Palace, emerged with My Morning Jacket for the evening’s encore. Anastasio has spent a few weeks in Mexico, as he joined Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds at the final night of their Riviera Maya run on February 20. My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James addressed the crowd at the start of the encore. “It feels so good to be here with all of you right now … alive … and [we] just feel so grateful,” James said.

The collaborative encore began with a cover of Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” James and Anastasio traded off lead vocals on a song Phish played once and My Morning Jacket has covered 19 times over the past 22 years. Jim went acoustic for “Rocket Man” and then strapped on an electric for the band’s first “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” cover. The frontman sang The Rolling Stones classic which ended with Anastasio and James engaging in fretboard fireworks while Broemel played sax. Last night’s concert came to a close with “Magheetah.” The lengthy version saw Trey sing a verse and add backing vocals. “Magheetah” featured impressive improvisation as a giddy Trey hopped around the stage throughout.

One Big Holiday continues today with MMJ’s second of three performances as well as sets from Washed Out, Steel Pulse, Brittany Howard and a DJ set featuring Patrick Hallahan and DJ Givan. Watch fan-shot video from last night’s encore below: