Trey Anastasio Trio Welcomes Jennifer Hartswick In New Orleans – Recap, Photos & Video

Images by: Adam McCullough

On Friday night, the Trey Anastasio Trio hit the midway point of their three-night stand at The Civic Theatre in New Orleans. The shows coincide with the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, meaning there were plenty of musicians in town if the band was so inclined to have a guest join them. Last night Big Red & Co. did just that as they welcomed a familiar face to the stage during their encore along with delivering seven tour debuts.

Anastasio, bassist Tony Markellis and drummer Russ Lawton got their night going at the historic 1,200-seat theater with “Blaze On” and “Corona.” The trio continued to expand their repertoire delivering a pair of deep cut tour debuts next. “Greyhound Rising” was first out of the gate. The tune from Anastasio’s 2012 release Traveler was seeing action for just the second time since 2015. The band then reached for another rarity, dusting off “Every Story Ends in Stone” for the first time since June 2003 and for just the 16th time overall. One song later the three-piece act delivered another first-timer on this tour with “Tide Turns.” The Big Boat tune, which has been absent from Phish setlists since New Year’s Eve 2016, appeared semi-frequently in TAB setlists last year. Anastasio looked to a more familiar tune as “Alaska” closed out their first frame.

TAB workhorse “Burlap Sack & Pumps” opened up the band’s fourth set of the run. Trey then reached for “Twist” next, which prior to last night had almost exclusively been played solo acoustic outside of Phish shows. The last time the Farmhouse song got the full band TAB treatment was back in October 2006. Two songs later came the night’s fifth tour debut, as typical TAB setlist staple “Alive Again” was trotted out and given its first trio rendering. Anastasio, Markellis and Lawton closed out their night in the Big Easy with a pair of Phish classics with “Farmhouse” and “Julius.”

Anastasio returned to the stage to start the encore with an acoustic guitar but had a surprise up his sleeve as he was joined by his TAB bandmate Jennifer Hartswick. Hartswick, who was originally slated to appear on this tour prior to its reconfiguration to a trio, was in town to play shows on her own. The pair teamed up on “Waste” with Markellis and Lawton emerging afterward. The quartet then closed out the night with two more tour debuts with “Mozambique” and their frequent Gorillaz cover, “Clint Eastwood.”

Photographer Adam McCullough was at the show Friday, view his gallery of photos below:

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”752″ gal_title=”20180427 TAB McCullough”]

LivePhish.com will once again webcast tonight’s show. Watch pro-shot video of the openers of each set from Friday’s webcast:

[Blaze On]

[Burlap, Sack & Pumps]

Here’s audience-shot video via heyscottyb of portions of the encore:

[Waste (partial)]

[Clint Eastwood (partial)]