Trey Anastasio Discusses Phish Baker’s Dozen Residency

Phish played 237 different songs over the course of their repeat less, 13 show Baker’s Dozen residency at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The quartet performed 176 originals and 61 covers as per Phish.net’s Scott Marks. Guitarist Trey Anastasio gave a debrief of the run to journalist Jesse Jarnow for a just-posted New York Times interview.

If the run was a blur for the fans it was also one for Trey. “I remember getting in the car on the way home one night and somebody said, ‘Oh, great version of ‘Possum,’ and I didn’t even remember playing ‘Possum,’” Anastasio told Jarnow. The guitarist also discussed how tight he is with the other three members of the 34-year old band. “When we’re up there just playing, it’s something that feels like I know what they’re thinking,” Trey said. “It’s crazy, and it’s so intimate.”

Jarnow asked Anastasio how he planned out the run. Trey revealed he started plotting out song lists “months ago” and added this “key part” in his response,” I try to always keep it in sort of an improv head space. So that the overriding rule, is when you cross the line at the top of the stairs up to the stage — there’s actually physically a line — if I have a paper in my hand, I throw it on the ground. And if I have stuff in my mind, I let go.” This mix of pre-planning and improv came through in the final part of his response, “If we’re doing a 13-night run, I live and breathe it for six months, and then I really get to the point where when we walk onstage, I completely forget it. I have no idea what the next song is going to be. So it’s like half and half. I had sketched out sort of a 13-night view. But as soon as Night 1 was over, we changed [our plans].”

Plenty of rehearsal went into the residency and the tour:

A month before the Baker’s Dozen, I went alone to Fish’s house. I flew up to Maine, and I sat in the room with him and played 15 songs [by the band’s side projects] that Phish doesn’t play, so that he’d know them on the drums. Eight of those we didn’t end up doing at the Baker’s Dozen. Then a week later, I went to Burlington and got all four band members together at Page’s house, and we learned all 15 of those songs. Practiced them, recorded them, forgot them.

Trey mentioned Phish’s performance of “Frost” on Saturday night was spontaneous, “What happened was we played that Boston/Cream thing, and it was so funny. We’re, like, dying. And so I’m standing there and I’m like, ‘Well, how do you follow that up?’ But what went through my mind was, ‘You don’t follow it up, let’s do something really quiet and really elegant.’ I kind of leaned over to Page and was like, ‘What about ‘Frost’?’ And he was, like, ‘Great, great.’ It would be a gross oversimplification to say that we just walk out there.”

The interview finished with Jesse asking Trey about the music played after Phish left the stage on Sunday – Billy Joel’s “New York State Of Mind.” Anastasio made it clear he has fondness for the Piano Man, “We always laugh about that; we wonder if people notice what’s playing on the way out. Absolutely no hostility at all. We love Billy.” Head to the New York Times for more of Jarnow’s chat with Anastasio including Trey’s thoughts on the covers played.

Be sure to follow Jesse on Twitter for outtakes from his chat: