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

review submisions to me at dws@netspace.org or dws@gadiel.com

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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