5-29-02, Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA

Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 21:18:34 EDT
From: CGSkywlkr@aol.com
To: dws@archive.phish.net
Subject: Greek Theatre, Hollywood

Within the Hollywood Hills once again, one of the most amazing second sets .  Soul touching
vibrations.   The SAND felt like the earth was erupting, Tony on Bass is out of this world......
the entire band is out of this world, oh yeah and then there's Trey......  Masterfully poised,
unbelievable music...  get on tour, feel the power....  
 
Vegas & Red Rocks in the horizon, uh ohh.......   Trey & Band rocks...  Peace

   ..... oh yeah and the light show... pheeeewwwwww   :-)

Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 10:55:01 -0700
From: Justin T Reid jtr210@nyu.edu
Subject: REVIEW 5-29-02 Trey at Greek Theater

The Trey show at the Greek Theater last night was slammin^Ò. First off, 
the Greek is dope. The parking lots are surrounded by woods and there 
are beautiful lawns and it^Òs all nestled in a hill filled with trees 
that^Òs just past a rich ass neighborhood. It^Òs pretty much in 
Hollywood. At the top of the hill you get a great view of L.A. Anyway, 
the show was not too crowded. The sections on the sides were only about 
a third to a half full, the back was not full either. 

Set 1 opened with Simple Twist Up Dave. It was a hot opener, the improv 
got going pretty nice. The band is really hot and really tight. Solid 
opener. Then Tube Top Flop. It^Òs a nice mellow groove with some cool 
stops and starts. Then we get Push On Til The Day. I really like this 
song but it^Òs gotten very predictable for me after listening to it a 
lot on disc. The jam at the end got real ragin^Ò though. Then we got a 
new tune, Sweet Dreams Melinda, sort of a standard good rock tune, no 
real intense jamming. Good shit though. Sidewalks of San Francisco is a 
hot little groovy number. The lights were real cool here and I remember 
it getting kind psychedelic. It was phat. Money Love and Change. I 
loved this song last summer but I HATE the album version. They play it 
like the album, but without all the studio tinkering it sounds much 
cleaner and I like it better. The jam on that was huge. Very raging. 
Then we got a nice Mozambique. I think there was some boogying by the 
band, but not the choreographed dance like last summer. Trey did put 
down his guitar and dance around a bit. Cute. Flock of Words was very 
nice. Alive Again was cool. When the time has come for you to be alive 
again Kuroda shines the lights on the crowd and the energy got huge. 
Those lyrics are a bit forced and slightly cheesy, but I dig the 
unashamed positivity of it all.

The second set opened with Sand, which was dope as always. Great 
jamming in there. Mr. Completely also had some drawn out, intense 
jamming. Trey does a lot of conducting with this band. He^Òll turn 
around and give signals for certain people to stop and for certain 
people to play. It^Òs really great, superphat, I love it and all, but it 
takes some of the spontaneity out of the music knowing someone is 
calling pretty much how the music is gonna go. One of the main sources 
of Phish^Òs magic in my opinion is their ability to improvise on the 
fly, to nail major improvisational changes TOGETHER. This band does 
that in a sense, but it^Òs Trey^Òs mind deciding the changes, not 4 
collective minds uncannily connected. Anyway, then came Noodle Rave 
Daddio. I thought it sucked. Trey and the horns kept on this sour note 
for what seemed like a minute or two. Crappy. Then Caymen Review was 
nice. I love Trey^Òs guitar work on that tune. It^Òs a fun one. It had 
some nice fun jamming. Then the monster Last Tube. The way they get the 
energy ripping on that tune is amazing, if I were on a hallucinogen I 
would have been transported someplace. Word. That is a true jam vehicle 
and it really allows Trey to rip. I love it when they^Òre rockin^Ò so 
hard you don^Òt think they can rock any harder but then they just rock 
harder, then they rock harder, then harder. That shit is so real. Last 
Tube was a fantastic rager. Then they played Moesha (for the first time 
this summer) as a request from a girl in the front row. Trey and Jen 
flubbed the lyrics at the end pretty bad. They couldn^Òt remember all 
the things Moesha does. The Pebbles and Marbles encore was very solid. 
I think that song was previously called Nothing But An E Thing. The 
lyrics are nice and well timed and the tune went from being kind of a 
soft mellow groove to being a real groovy rocker. 

It was a great show. At times it was incredible and at times it was
good but not great. Noodle Rave Daddio sucked. The venue was fantastic. 
I had 11th row center seats. Good shit. I hope they take it up a few 
levels at Vegas and Red Rocks. I think they will. And by the time they 
hit the east coast they will be even more on fire. Also, the band just 
has so much fun on stage. Cyro is all wild, playing all sorts of crazy 
homemade instruments and such, running around, being goofy. The horns 
are constantly talking to each other and moving around, walking all 
over the stage. Sometimes they^Òll all leave then come back a few 
minutes later. And sometimes Jen had this effect on her trumpet that 
was sounding so sweet. Real funky. This band is doing some great shit 
and they^Òll only get better. They need to add in at least 2 covers 
every night to mix it up though. I think everyone except maybe Trey 
agrees with me on that. And the crowd was real nice. Super mellow, no 
schwilly tour rats. It was a bit older, not too many kids. People were 
diggin^Ò it, groovin^Ò and what not. It was a Wednesday too. Anyway, I^Òve 
written enough. Great show, great crowd. It will inevitably get better 
with time. Need more variety though. I think they^Òll get there.


Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 12:54:52 -0700
From: Chris Stebbins chris_stebbins@hotmail.com
To: dws@netspace.org
Subject: Trey at the LA Greek - 5/29/02

Trey Anastasio at the Greek Theater, LA - 5/29/02

Last night was, by far, the best live Trey music I've ever heard.  The 
energy they created, the spacey, afro-beat grooves they locked in to were 
incredible.  I think they earned a bunch of new fans in LA on this warm 
night.

I also went to the Salem Armory show a week earlier, and the LA Greek was 
completely different.  The sound was much, much better at the Greek.  I 
could hear each member of the band individually and clearly.  The band was 
much more in-sync as compared to the Salem show.  I noticed Ray's 
keyboarding more last night because I could hear him better and more clearly 
than ever before.  Cyro the percussionist truly added to the rhythm and 
energy.  I didn't know what to think about this guy at Salem, but now I like 
him.  The entire band was having so much fun, especially Trey.  He was 
bouncing around like a happy kid.  The whole band was on fire and having 
fun!  Of course, Tony and Russ are the groove foundation on which this Trey 
house is built, and they never faultered.

Overall, it seems they lengthened-out the jam segments for every song, and 
it seemed each jam segment had an orchestrated purpose.  Each song seemed 
long with periods of exploration.  Sand, starting out the second set, was 
easily one of the longest and most unique I've ever heard.  Last Tube was 
incredible.  The Moesha closer was shouted from a fan to Trey, where Trey 
said, "this one's for the screamer in the front".  They haven't played 
Moesha all tour, and probably not in awhile, and Jen and Trey were having 
fun pushing through the lyrics.  The rework of "Nothing but an E Thing" for 
the encore was very interesting.  The new name is "Pebbles and Marbles", and 
it added a new chorus to the favorite instrumental of mine.

I think Trey achieved his objective to bring groovey, colorful, and 
energetic music to everyone's ears--and to bring everyone a great time in LA 
last night.  I was glad to share it with our crew of friends from Santa 
Barbara.  Both nights in Vegas will be incredible, I'm looking to hearing 
about the night with Antibalas.  Unfortunately, I won't be making Vegas 
myself, but it's going to be "The Shows" of his tour, I think.

Peace,
Chris Stebbins


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