Trey Anastasio Discusses ‘The Beacon Jams’ In Pollstar Interview

Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio discussed “The Beacon Jams” livestream concerts in a new interview with Pollstar. Anastasio held the eight-week, Friday night residency at The Beacon Theatre in New York City between Friday, October 9, 2020 and Friday, November 27, 2020.

Anastasio spoke to Pollstar’s Eric Renner Brown about the eight performances that generated more than $1.2 million for the Divided Sky Fund, which Anastasio established to build an addiction rehabilitation center in Vermont.

“Everybody came together in the community, and it was beyond our wildest dreams that we would raise $1.2 million in donations,” Anastasio told Pollstar. “It shifted our whole concept of how we were going to open this place … It’s sort of readjusted our goals, based on the amount raised. Now the goal has become to raise enough money to own the space outright.”

The piece begins with Trey revealing that fellow Phish member, drummer Jon Fishman, who participated in the fifth week’s Ghost Of The Forest performance, was also slated to appear at the subsequent installment of “The Beacon Jams,” but was forced to bail at the last minute.

“He was like, ‘I gotta go home, brother,’” Anastasio stated. “I said, ‘I love you. Go home. I’ll figure it out.’ Then I woke up the next morning, Saturday morning, and I was like, ‘I have nothing for week six. Nothing.’”

Anastasio went on to discuss working with collaborators like Don Hart, Carmel Dean, Rob Stevenson and Jeff Tanski on preparing new arrangements for classic Phish songs like “You Enjoy Myself,” and others.

“With each passing week, we got more comfortable, all of us,” Anastasio said. “Everyone was making discoveries … My head was blowing up every week! In terms of my future, think what that means. I’m jumping for joy about it. If COVID hadn’t happened, this never would have happened.”

While “The Beacon Jams” was a fruitful experience for Anastasio, who is said to be “emphatic” about staging more livestream concerts, he gave little hope of similar performances by the four members of Phish. According to Anastasio, his collaboration at The Beacon Theatre with Fish and his December album recorded with keyboardist Page McConnell at The Barn recording studio in Vermont that came out last month, might be the only Phish fans get for the time being. Apparently, the four members of Phish opted against trying to perform together when it was determined lengthy quarantine times from crossing state lines, was not worth what would have been a single day of recording during the pandemic.

“I traditionally am a little bit more restless than the other guys,” Anastasio said. “My role in Phish has always been the cheerleader … I get excited and call everybody up. I’ve tried that throughout the pandemic … As soon as it’s feasible, we’ll be back. Just tell me where to be. I’m there. I’ll ride my bike with an amp on my back, if you let me.”

The Pollstar article gives insight into planning “The Beacon Jams” from Phish/Anastasio manager Patrick Jordan, as well as Darren Pfeffer of MSG Live, promoter Peter Shapiro, nugs.net CEO Brad Serling and others. They reveal the genesis of “The Beacon Jams” (Trey was inspired by DJ D-Nice’s “Club Quarantine” livestreams and Phish’s “Dinner And A Movie” archival series), how Twitch (which Trey had not heard of before) was selected as livestream host and many other behind-the-scenes aspects that went into safely holding the concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Head here to read Pollstar’s article on Trey Anstasio’s “The Beacon Jams.”