Matt's Trey Tour 2001 by Matt Carlson mcarlson@world.std.com

[Note: This month, we have a guest writer with a story about a Trey Anastasio Solo Tour Roadtrip. If you are interested in contributing a Roadtrip story, please let me know before you take your trip, to give me time to get you on the schedule. Even if you just have questions about what is involved, feel free to email me at ira@jambands.com. And, I'd love any feedback on this or past Roadtrips! Thanks, Ira]

Rumors of an early 2001 Trey Anastasio solo tour were swirling around the jamband scene in late January/early February. All ten tour dates were finally confirmed, and my homebase Boston show was smack in the middle of a months-long-planned ski trip to British Columbia. I certainly was not changing my vacation plans just to catch Trey, especially on the opening date of a tour which could easily find the band a bit under-rehearsed. But the Friday-Saturday-Sunday run through Asheville, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, and the tour closing Atlanta, Georgia show was practically in bold-face type on inviting me to venture South and take a hurriedly planned second vacation.

A call from my brother Pete in Virginia prompted me to add the Richmond, Virginia show to my tour itinerary. That would have me seeing the last four shows of the ten-show tour.

A lot of folks got shut out of this tour, as many venues (Orpheum in Boston and Roseland in NYC for instance) sold out in anywhere from 8-45 minutes. Ticketmaster's inability to get the on-line "purchase tickets" window up at the on-sale start time dealt many people a frustrating punch in the stomach as their hopes of seeing Trey's new project faded.

I experienced all the same frustrations as the disappointed ticketless fans. But, with a lot of hard work (and high speed Internet connections :-) I managed to secure myself a ticket for each venue I was hoping to visit: Richmond->Asheville->Columbia->Atlanta.

In brief, a tentative pre-tour "roadtrip" itinerary would find me travelling:

Wednesday, February 28th: Boston->Providence->Baltimore->RICHMOND->Baltimore
Thursday, March 1st: Baltimore->Providence->Boston
Friday, March 2nd: Boston->Atlanta->ASHEVILLE
Saturday, March 3rd: Asheville->COLUMBIA
Sunday, March 4th: Columbia->ATLANTA
Monday, March 5th: Atlanta->Boston

I did a little pre-tour research about each of the four venues as I had not been to any of them before. My tour would be bookended by two theaters with similar histories: both the Landmark Theater in Richmond and the Fabulous Fox Theater in Atlanta were built in the late 1920's as Shriner's Mosques, each lavishly designed inside with detailed art work and outside with onion domed spires. The mid-tour venues, the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville and The Township Auditorium in Columbia were spoken of highly by friends who had seen music in those places by other artists.

After returning from my trip to British Columbia I scoured the Internet for tour setlists, show reviews and any sound samples I could find. I was surprised at the number of negative reviews I read and the degree of negative first-hand comments I heard from friends who were at the Orpheum show. There were also plenty of "best show ever" reviews, especially as the tour progressed, but when contrasted with some exceptionally harsh criticisms, I really psyched myself up to go into the Richmond show without any high expectations. My many years of seeing Phish has found me never terribly jaded or hypercritical. I frown at sour notes and flubbed lyrics but it doesn't ruin a show for me.

With that attitude I bolted out of work on Wednesday, February 28th at noon and raced down I-95 to Providence, RI's T.F. Greene Airport. Folks, sometimes you gotta give props when props are deserved: Southwest Airlines' $40 one-way ticket from Providence to BWI is a bargain! It's about an hour-long flight putting you 30 minutes outside of Washington D.C. And the bonus for that particular route is BWI: this has to be one of these easiest airports to deal with. Sign rental car contracts in the terminal, walk outside of the terminal, cross at the pedestrian crossing, enter the parking garage, and your car is right there. No shuttle busses to catch. No remote drop-off to find upon returning. And if you're just heading into D.C., forget about renting a car, hop on the shuttle over to the rail station. The train brings you quickly into Washington's Union Station.

My flight departs on time and arrives a few minutes early. It's 2:30PM by now and I have to try and beat some D.C. traffic. A rental car is provided quickly, but no CD player apparently. I speed out of the airport and quickly check into a local hotel. Out of my work clothes and into more comfortable duds, I hop back into the rental and somehow manage to set off the car alarm. This is a particularly secure system they've invested in at Dollar since neither putting the key in the ignition and starting the car nor pressing any combination of Lock/Unlock on the electronic key chain will stop the car from honking. But as I'm searching the console for anything alarm related I see a six-CD changer deep in the bottom center of the dash. Honking horn??? What honking horn??? I'm rifling though backpack searching for the three CDs I brought: "One Man's Trash", Phish 2/20/97 Set 1 Milan (?), and Phish 3/22/93 Set 2 Gamehenge (!). As the CDs are loaded the horn stops, and I'm soon heading, once again, down I-95. I had noticed a few tracks off of Trey's "One Man's Trash" on the setlists I had read of the tour so far and was excited to revisit this CD on the way to the show.

The traffic around D.C. wasn't too bad on this Wednesday afternoon and I made my way to Richmond and was parked near the venue by 5:30PM - plenty of time. Across the street from the Landmark Theater was a park, which had a small vending and party scene. A few hundred people milling about, some selling goo balls, some swilling beers, some looking for tickets.

The day before Richmond I had posted a message on the Internet advertising extra tickets for the show. Only *one* person made arrangements with me to get a single ticket. The would-be ticket recipient Brian and I played some phone tag as I traveled on Wednesday. Ironically, as we would find out when we met outside the venue, I had gotten a hotel in Baltimore, driven from Baltimore to Richmond with plans to drive back that night after the show and leave Baltimore the following morning while he drove down from Baltimore to Richmond, got a hotel in Richmond with plans to return to Baltimore the following morning. Maybe that's not ironic??? But it seemed a bit weird at the time.

My only other obligation was to meet up with my brother Pete. As I walked around the scene trying to sell the couple of extras I had on me, my brother drives up in his new car. I hop in, inform him that I still have to get rid of some extras. So after about a thirty-foot introductory ride in the new car, I hop out and bid him "good luck" in his quest for a parking spot.

With my extras sold and my brother's car parked, he and I walk off away from the show scene for something to eat. This is a neat area in Richmond with lots of small cafes and corner stores. As we walked I expressed my one desire for dinner: "Pete, I really need a beer and a sandwich." We passed up one burrito joint figuring that was a sure hot spot for hungry Trey-tour kids. Then we happened upon a small cafe. This place had maybe six tables and a couple of counter stools. We opted for the counter stools. I looked at the menu: Sandwiches. I looked across the counter: beers on tap. Perfect. This was precisely the dinner establishment I had been craving. (I wish I had noted the name of the cafe. It was a down the block from the school parking garage.) After three pints of pale ale and a hearty sandwich each it was showtime.

All venues have unique entrance policies. The Landmark security demanded "no bags, just you and your ticket" upsetting many backpack toting people.

The limited Landmark concessions offered water at a surprisingly inexpensive $2 per bottle. There were a few "no beer here" chants from the concession workers tired of continually explaining to beer-hungry patrons that their beverage-of-choice was not available tonight. With my water purchased, I headed toward my seat.

The Richmond show was the only show on the tour that I scored release tickets - tickets which are not on-sale initially, typically saved for VIPs and released when all VIPs are accounted for - and these release tickets were about 15th row, just left of center. (Aside: as I was picking up the tickets at will-call, I accidentally walked inside the theater instead of going to the outside box office and caught the band soundchecking a familiar instrumental tune I didn't place right away. "Was that 'Stash'??? No! That was 'Landlady'!" I knew they hadn't played 'Landlady' yet but I remembered it well during the Phish summer tour 1991 with the Giant Country Horns and was hoping to hear it busted out in Richmond with a horn section.)

The Landmark Theater (formerly known as the Mosque during the 90's) is spectacular inside, reminding me most of a much smaller version of Radio City Music Hall (without the concentric semi-circle arcs surrounding the stage). There is an orchestra level, two balcony levels set a bit far back, and an odd set of nose-bleed sections above the second balcony on both the left and right walls.

The interior ceiling and walls are detailed with ornamental tiling. The ceiling's oval decoration has a fantastic tapestry-like pattern. And the area over the proscenium arch of the stage is a five-panel mural with images of camels, tents and noblemen. Plush carpeting and curtains complete the very comfortable and visually spectacular setting.

02/28/2001 Landmark Theater - Richmond, Virginia
Set I: Small Axe, Mozambique, I Done Done It, Push On Till the Day > Tube Top Wobble, Sunday Morning, Burlap Sack and Pumps, Gotta Jibboo, Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown, Jam > The Landlady > Jam, It Makes No Difference, Signed Sealed Delivered I'm Yours

Set II: Drifting, Nothing But an 'E' Thing > jam, Sidewalks of San Francisco > Acting The Devil, First Tube > Sand, At the Gazebo, Strange Design, Everyday, Three Little Birds, Whatever Gets You Through The Night Encore: I Want to Take You Higher

The show opened with an instrumental version of the reggae number "Small Axe" a cool selection as my brother's primary musical interest is Reggae. Without providing a song-by-song analysis I will say any apprehension I had about this band based upon reviews I had read was long gone by the second song "Mozambique". Damn, the band sounded tight and the horns absolutely shined. "Done Done It" featured some ear piercing, high pitched rocking blues guitar riffs from Trey. So by the third song it seemed that this band could fire on all cylinders. "Push On Till the Day" had Trey finger picking many parts on guitar. "Go Downtown" rocked us in to the first surprise of the evening: "Landlady." "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" let us hear how much trumpet player Jen Hartswick's backup vocals adds to the color of their sound. The first set clocked in at a solid 90 minutes - long!

My show notes I jotted down during the break added that "save for healthy amount of Trey sour notes - all with the best of intentions - this set was rockin." Brian, the guy who came down from Baltimore seemed particularly blown away.

The second set opened with the beautiful song "Drifting" highlighting Trey and Jen harmonizing on the chorus "the storm is lifting, we got the moon and stars above" and Tony and Russ providing a simple "love, love, love" background to the verse. Yeah Trey's tour is chock full of sappy love songs but you have *got* to love this stuff. Beautiful!

This year's Grammy nominated "First Tube" was hot with horns. Jen plays that oh-so-familiar riff that Trey played throughout the summer of 1999 during so many jams. As the song builds and Trey starts jumping, he looks to the crowd to connect his excitement with theirs and at this point I had noted on my notepad "[lighting designer Chris] Kuroda [pans the lights to the crowd but then pans quickly off to the walls] almost teasing Trey by not letting him see the crowd. Trey is practically jumping out of pants!"

Toward the end of the second set came surprise number two of the evening. Trey was solo acoustic on "Strange Design" and when he was down, out strolls Dave Matthews. Dave picks up one Trey's acoustic guitars and starts up the title track of his new CD "Everyday". Another reggae nod with Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds". And then an electric, full-band plus Dave on vocals version of John Lennon's "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" to round out another long set. The band plus Dave returned for a sizzling reading of Sly Stone's "Take You Higher" featuring Jen, Dave Matthews and Trey on vocals. Whew! The encore ended past 11:30 putting the show well past the 3.5-hour mark including a 30-minute setbreak. There were a few obligatory, yet undeserved, Dave Matthews jabs from some jaded fans heard among the exiting crowd. But they were far overshadowed by a lot of beaming, happy, satisfied music lovers.

Thursday, March 2nd: An ontime 7:55AM departure from BWI arrived at T.F. Greene at 9:00AM. My arrival at work at 10:00AM did not seem out of the ordinary no matter how out of the ordinary my roadtrip so far may have seemed to any outsider. A full day's work followed by an evening of errands and a much needed night's sleep completed a far traveled and hectic Thursday.

Friday morning, March 2nd and it's COLD in Boston. 20 degrees and spitting flurries. I pick up my freshly packed backpack and drive to Logan Airport on my way to Atlanta. Logan, as is much of downtown Boston, is one giant construction site with no end in the near future. The ongoing construction of bi-level access roads causes near daily shifting of the current grand-prix style access road. It is a twisting multi-lane asphalt nightmare full of busses, shuttles, bad taxi drivers, and hopelessly confused tourists and locals any of whom at any time may make abrupt multiple lane changes or come to complete stops in the middle of moving traffic. If you miss your intended exit be it a terminal or parking garage, your best-case scenario is a repeat tour of the Logan loop; your worst-case scenario is an unwanted return trip to downtown Boston via the Ted Williams Tunnel. This lesser known tour of Boston's newest open tunnel is a hidden treasure frequented by many would-be airline passengers daily (including yours truly one day last summer on my last trip to Atlanta) as they attempt to navigate the maze at Logan.

The weather forecast Friday morning predicts flurries for Monday, my scheduled return day, so I decide to park in a garage rather than somewhat cheaper outdoor satellite parking lots. This turned out to be an especially good choice since within 24 hours that forecast changed from flurries to a nor'easter tentatively referred to as "the storm of the century." Friday morning's flurries were not quite significant enough to require deicing of the plane. So I squeeze into an incredibly tight seat in the back of a Delta 757 with my Dunkin Donuts coffee and notepad and we take off on time. The early morning flight's air is turbulent most of the way during the 2.5-hour flight to Hartsfield International Airport on the southside of Atlanta. We taxi toward the terminal and have to wait just short of the gate as our targeted jetway is apparently broken. Even in moderate 65-degree temperatures, the full 757 passenger compartment heat level rises quickly. Twenty minutes later we deplane, and I'm completely hot and uncomfortable.

It's raining in Atlanta. This is the weather that will be moving up the coast and providing the moisture component for the predicted Nor'easter. Dollar Rent-a-Car once again provides my wheels. But unlike the convenience of BWI, I take a shuttle to a remote lot to pick of my vehicle. The shuttle driver warns me that people have a very hard time finding the lot when they're returning. I'll be no exception to that time-honored tradition.

As I make my way up I-85 through Atlanta's mid-afternoon traffic jam, I do not have much time to spare as Asheville is nearly 4 hours driving time. It's 3:00PM now and traffic is stop and go. Suddenly about five cars in front of me in my lane is the first accident I witness of the weekend. It's minor but will surely make an already horrendous traffic situation that much worse. A quick jump into the HOV lane and the roadtrip continues.

This car has no CD player so for three days I scan the AM and FM stations for entertainment. Lots of "praise the Lord" radio shows down South and plenty of country stations too. Not quite my cup of tea. But I quickly tune in one of the many NPR stations I'll listen to this weekend and catch the second half of "Talk of the Nation's" "Science Friday." While "Talk of the Nation" is one of my favorite radio programs, "Science Friday" (Friday's show is dedicated to Scientific topics) is a bit hit or miss with me. This week's topic is about catastrophic events such as the extinction of the dinosaurs when a meteor struck somewhere around the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists believe this type of massive catastrophic event happens periodically and they have some evidence of similar events prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs. But ironically the events happen so rarely that the geologic evidence is often destroyed as the Earth recycles materials back into the Earth's mantle with a frequency on the order of the event frequency. But anyway.....

I navigate through Atlanta's traffic and out of Georgia into South Carolina. I-85 is now a two lane highway which seems too small for the amount of vehicles on the road. There are a few others on the highway in as much of hurry as I am and we take advantage of the 70 MPH speed limit pushing the envelope to speeds well over 80 MPH.

South Carolina, much like Georgia, is characterized by lots of red dirt. On the highway most of the cars' tires have red dirt stained sidewalls. But just as I cross the border into North Carolina, the landscape changes dramatically. The red dirt is replaced by the rising foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

On one uphill climb I downshift my Dodge Intrepid to pass a slower moving truck and the tachometer jumps quickly into redline around 7,000 RPM. What a piece of crap this car is. It handles terribly at speeds over 85 MPH and it's nearly impossible to check your blind spots, especially over the driver's left shoulder, as the sloping rear body serves to completely obstruct your view. You would think that after nearly 100 years of automobile design and construction, Detroit auto-makers would know that non-transparent elements of the car impede drivers' vision.

As I pull into Asheville, it's late, around 6:45PM. I realize that I have every piece of travel information for this roadtrip with me except my Asheville hotel reservation. D'oh! A quick check of the AAA Tour Book finds two Days Inns in Asheville. I pull out my cell phone and dial the one that seems closer to downtown as I knew my reservation was at a hotel downtown. Nope, they don't have me listed. At this point I've driven past downtown and am a hazard on the road driving while flipping through the AAA book and using a cell phone. I pull off and park. A call to the Days Inn 800 number verifies that I have a reservation in Asheville, at the Days Inn *not* listed in the AAA book. Luckily I'm 5 minutes away.

It's raining hard. I'm in my hotel by 7:15PM. The show is scheduled to start at 7:30PM. A lightening fast shower, change of clothes and a scotch on the rocks in a freshly un-cellophaned Days Inn plastic cup has me out the door and walking toward the concert at 7:26PM with my evening cocktail in hand. There is a steady stream of people walking the same route for the same event, all of us taking shelter under a continuous series of storefront awnings.

I haven't had anything to eat since some mediocre airplane food at noon so I detour into the small parking lot scene to sample the french bread pizza vendors' offerings and pick up a Guinness Pub Draught to wash it down with. Not too impressed with the pizza, I inhale half of it and chuck the rest in a dumpster. These folks would be at every other stop on the tour but this will be my one and only purchase. I quickly pound the Guinness and head inside at around 7:45 hoping the band doesn't come on until 8:00PM.

There are a lot of people looking for tickets as I make my way to the door. Outside of the Northeast, this had to be the hardest ticket of the tour to get. The security for the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium is exclusively provided by Asheville police. No bother to me as I walk right inside. But just behind me a young gentleman gets searched, something illicit is found, and he's arrested. Chances are he'll pay a fine and be done but will miss the show as well.

Ironically about 20 feet into the lobby the air hangs heavy with the smell of high potency marijuana. Sheesh, what a pungent odor. The lobby is hectic with crowds of people waiting in both cocktail lines and ID station lines. I proceed to wait in both of lines and after grabbing two beers head into the auditorium.

I'm stunned at how small the room is. A modest floor section with a tiny (5-6 rows?) U-shaped balcony. Conveniently forgetting that my ticket has me up in the back of the balcony I cut down the far left side of the orchestra and into a row about 20 rows from the stage, just under the overhang of the left side of the balcony. There were plenty of open seats. I'd stay there the rest of the night.

My comments on the Asheville crowd: very polite, at least everyone around me. Some (very important?) conversations sometimes interfered with my listening but it was infrequent enough to refrain from complaining. As in Richmond, this night would have its share of surprises.

03/02/2001 Thomas Wolfe Auditorium - Asheville, North Carolina
Set I: When the Saints Come Marching In, Mozambique, I Done Done It, Ooh Child, Nothing But an 'E' Thing, Push On Till the Day, Tube Top Wobble, Sunday Morning, At the Barbeque, Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown, Burlap Sack And Pumps, Waves, Mountains in the Mist, At the Gazebo

Set II: Drifting, First Tube, I Want to Take You Higher, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, Gotta Jibboo, The Way I Feel, Till I Met You, Windora Bug, Aqui Como Alla Encore: Hard Hearted, Possum, Yellow Submarine

The band made a grand entrance onto the right hand side of the floor and though the crowd in full marching band regalia with a rousing version of "When the Saints Go Marching In." They were a few days late for Mardi Gras but may have been saving this special breakout for the intimate setting and convenient layout of this auditorium. Trey was on bass drum, Tony on crash symbols, and Jen on tuba according to my notes. The crowd was loving it. Mozambique from the stage found the members back on the normal instruments: Trey on guitar, Tony on bass, Russ on drums, Jen on trumpet, Andy on trombone, and Dave "The Truth" Grippo on sax.

Some miscellaneous show notes I jotted down: "Burlap Sack and Pumps" - 'smoking little chicken scratch number, solos for everyone'; "Mountain In the Mist" - 'Trey solo acoustic'; followed by "At The Gazebo" Trey's beautiful quiet little chamber music composition - 'Everyone here is so polite. Horns play. Small applause. Now Trey plays. Really polite.' What a great crowd! And a general comment about the set as a whole - 'Tony's fat bass is all over - mixed high.'

The beers must have been catching up to me on this night as my second set notes have lots of blank spots with "I forget" written where songs should be. Or maybe the music was totally grabbing me. I will say this, I had forgotten how fantastic "Windora Bug" is - "we got the rules down now!" - right on! I hadn't really heard the song since hearing Phish play it live last fall. I really dig the Trey Anastasio Band's version.

The surprises this night were not limited to the first set. For the encore out walks Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon, 50% of Phish. They both pick up acoustic guitars and bust into "Hard Hearted," a bluegrass number best known off the first Old & In The Way album. How appropriate in the mountains of North Carolina with Phish's bluegrass ambassador in the house. I was beaming. They stayed on duel acoustics for a rousing, scaled back version of "Possum" complete with a small Trey lead jam. Then The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" with rest of the band joining Trey and Mike on stage, in marching band uniforms. The show closing recessional went back through the crowd and out the door on the right side of the floor with everyone singing the chorus to this odd Beatles' song. Wow!

I finished off the evening at a local Asheville watering hole listening to some local bluegrass band in an effort to satiate my appetite for bluegrass after the evening's hillbilly flavored appetizer.

Saturday, March 3rd I slept in until noon recovering from Friday's festivities, packed up my backpack, hopped in the Intrepid and got on I-26 toward Columbia.

The mountains of North Carolina were draped in heavy fog as the skies drizzled on and off. Once again, without a CD player and without any familiarity with local radio stations, I scanned the FM dial for something to listen to. I quickly hit some bluegrass programming that felt appropriate given my mindset and setting. Bluegrass is America's best kept secret musical genre in my opinion. Simple songs about simple things speaking to the heart of the human condition and the heart of America, played and sung by virtuoso musicians, many of them the best players in the world at their respective instruments.

Goddamn did I hit upon a jackpot radio station in my random selection. Asheville's NPR station, WNCW 88.7, had me entertained with the aptly named program "Goin' Across the Mountain" which features six hours of traditional and contemporary bluegrass beginning Saturdays at noon. WNCW's signal followed me until just 30 miles outside of Columbia which is a good 2.5 hours of signal strength. They had a nice assortment of selections including some local artists I had never heard but thoroughly enjoyed. And familiar ones like The Del McCoury Band singing about "the breeze blowing through the hills" as I cruised down the rolling hills in my journey "across the mountain."

Arriving at the Clarion hotel in Columbia at 4:00, I touched base with friends via cell phone, picked up a load of beers at the local grocery and got ready for tonight's show. The Clarion was walking distance to the Township Auditorium and was full of people ready to rock and groove with Trey & Co. My 6th floor hallway took on a familiar smell I now associate exclusively with this crowd - no not the overused body-odor cliche' - but that heavy, aromatic smell of high potency marijuana. That smell permeated the T. Wolfe Aud. and it permeates my hotel hallway. No worries to me as it serves to mask the ever-present body-odor fragrances .

Prior to showtime Rob, Danielle, Jennifer, Jeff & Maria (aka "The Dunhams") all from Atlanta, Marc from Durham, and I spent money at the Clarion bar and swapped stories, show comments, and sarcastic one-liners. Everyone except Rob and Danielle had been at Asheville and were all equally impressed. But showtime quickly approached and we were off to the Township.

It was raining still in the Southeast and by this time I had heard that the forecast in the Northeast was for a Nor'easter to hit on Monday, the day I was scheduled to fly back to Boston. So I had some travel-related issues to ponder for next day or so.

Before we even entered the Township I lost everyone I was with. Not a big deal as I could find a better seat easier alone. Township was the poorest of the venues I visited this tour.

The interior of the Township is odd. It is basically a floor area surrounded by a U-shaped sectioned "loge" seating area and also a U-shaped balcony directly over the "loge". What seemed odd were things like the use of high walls in the sectioned loge area separating the sections of seats. And the drop from the wall in the front row of the loge to the floor was a good 8-10 feet.

Paul's soundboard was way in the front of this small house since the board had to be forward of an ascending riser system rising from the middle to the back of the floor. Obviously the risers help you see from the back of the floor but it seemed like a lot of effort when most people are used to being on a flat floor at much larger arenas.

There were insufficient concessions which resulted in hectic mob scenes in the narrow hallways outside the seating area.

For instance, if you wanted a beer you most likely had to: (1) fight your way to the beer line down one of the narrow side hallways, (2) hopefully not wait in the beer line too long before you found out that (3) you had to return to the front of the venue to wait in a huge line to exchange money for drink tickets and before actually making the exchange hopefully (4) work your way over to the right side of the line where the one police officer checking IDs could (5) check your ID and put a stamp on your hand while you're (6) trying to keep part of you in the hectic main line so that you could (7) work your way to a small window to finally exchange money for drink tickets where you find out you needed (8) exact change and that hand stamp, exit the line and (9) fight you way down the narrow side hallway to the beer line, and once in line, (10) tell some newcomers they need to go wait for drink tickets, and you finally (11) get to the front of the line and are able to exchange tickets for beers.

Simple, no?

After purchasing my two beers I went up to the balcony and found a single seat, dead-on center in the front row on the rail. Once again, nice folks around me starting up friendly conversations. My show notes add "lots of people with cell phones." Ain't it the truth. There was rampant cell phone use on this tour, myself included.

03/03/2001 Township Auditorium - Columbia, South Carolina
Set I: Push on Till the Day, Tube Top Wobble, It Makes No Difference, Mozambique, In the Wee Wee Hours, Nothing But An 'E' Thing, I Done Done It, Mellow Mood, The Way I Feel, First Tube, Signed Sealed Delivered I'm Yours

Set II: Burlap Sack and Pumps, Will It Go Round in Circles, Drifting, Battle Axe, Noodle Rave Daddio, Sunday Morning, Sand, Quadraphonic Topplings Encore: Strawberry Fields Forever, Back on the Train, Waves, At the Gazebo

"Push On Till The Day" opened and included a particularly nice Trey jam; "Tube Top Wobble" followed once again. Not too many notes or particular standouts on this set. In general though, this show had the most rock-n-roll, smokin blues guitar that I had seen Trey deliver so far. Not that the other shows didn't have some, but this show had lots. Especially on tunes like the second set's "Circles." Blistering Trey if my memory is correct. And the "Sand" this night was stunning. My notes indicate a 'start and stop jam for about 5 minutes' on the instrumental after "Small Axe." And the set wound down with Trey by himself using the Boomerang (an effects device allowing looping of multiple sound samples) to loop different sounds and feedback creating an interesting jam.

The encore featured Trey's first solo version of John Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever" and a heartfelt comment on Lennon being "totally underrated" which was funny as hell. The remainder of the four song encore was acoustic, I took a seat, sipped scotch, and took in every note feeling very lucky to be in that auditorium.

Sunday, March 4th and I'm off to Atlanta. An uneventful drive over I-20 got me to my hotel midafternoon. I had been calling friends in the Northeast to get a more local report of how bad the Nor'easter forecast was. It truly was a "storm of the century" forecast with 20-30 inches of snow predicted for the Boston area starting Monday early. A quick call to Delta confirms that all Monday flights from Atlanta to Boston are already cancelled including my 6:40AM scheduled return flight. So I'm re-booked on Tuesday's earliest non-cancelled flight at 10:40AM. Now the forecast at this point puts the peak of the storm early on Tuesday so there's no doubt that this flight will also be cancelled.

A call back to Delta a bit later in the day confirms that now all flights from Atlanta to Boston for Tuesday are cancelled. So in a desperate act of stupidity I book the latest flight for tonight, Sunday night which leaves at 10:20PM. The first set of the Fox Theater show will end at around 9:30PM. If I want to make it back to Boston before Wednesday, I'll have to miss at least the second set. Hmmm, I came down here in part to see Trey at the Fabulous Fox Theater. Can I possibly feel good about the trip if I abruptly leave before the plan is complete?

Additionally, there was word in Columbia that Trey was adding a second show for Monday night at the Fox with tickets going onsale, at the box office only, directly after Sunday's show ended.

Hmmm, decisions.....

I decide I'm not leaving a day early, in fact, I'm staying a few days longer. I call a cab to take me from the hotel to the Fox; I wanted to be able to have some drinks at this show and not worry about driving. I arrive at the Fox and check out the scene.

The Fox Theater has a brightly lit, flashing marquee announcing tonight's entertainment. The onion domed spires were similar to the Landmark's in Richmond. The parking lot across the street was full of the familiar scene on this tour: the french bread pizza truck was there, goo ball sellers, paraphernalia sellers, and plenty of people looking for tickets. I cracked a couple of beers as I took in the local and imported Atlanta hippie scene.

Showtime approached, I crossed the street back to the Fox side and quickly met up with friends Rob, Jennifer and Marc on the street corner hanging among some of Atlanta's professional ticket scalpers in their trademark puffy down coats. It is a hectic scene entering the Fox but even the giant vestibule outside the main doors is elaborately decorated so there is cool details to look at while we wait. We saw one gentleman get tossed from the initial ticket validity checkpoint for using a counterfeit ticket. Separate male and female security checks caused a confusing criss-cross of traffic as ladies fought their way to the left side of the vestibule and men fought their way to the right.

But once past the final ticket rip and in through the doors it's relatively calm compared to the mayhem outside. The theater lobby is carpeted. Directly on your right as you enter is 'The Spanish Room,' a large banquet room off the main lobby which houses some 4 or 5 individual service bars as well as a few restrooms and 5 or 6 throne-like decorative chairs. There weren't enough thrones for everyone so most people stood or sat on the floor.

The bars featured an excellent selection of domestic and imported beers including Bass, Guinness, Heineken, and Bud as well a near top shelf assortment of liquor. An excellent venue for a night of drinking. I stuck to Bass Ale myself.

Heading up the grand stairs toward the balcony I went to find a seat. Entering the balcony for the first time ever I was shocked. This could easily be the most spectacular theater I've been in, at least to see a rock concert. I quickly found myself a few seats in the third row of the balcony, right of center and sat down sipping my beer and taking in the spectacular setting.

The Landmark in Richmond was beautiful inside but modest in comparison to the Fox. At the Fox, the proscenium arch over the stage, especially when viewed from the balcony, forms a European style arched stone bridge complete with lit lampposts lining it's arched stone walls. There are also lamppost-like chandeliers which mirror the top lampposts hanging on the underside of the bridge. Each end of the bridge meets the wall and forms a castle-like building facade which flows from the bridge away from the stage along the left and right walls. The facade has many details such as lighted windows which add to the effect.

Looking above the facade and bridge brings the eyes to the ceiling which is painted cobalt blue with a few puffy white clouds. And there are lighted stars in the ceiling many of which twinkle at random. Each component is spectacular and when taken in as a whole it is just stunning. Look at the theater's Web site (http://www.foxtheatre.org) for an artist's rendition of the interior although without the hanging chandeliers. What a treasure Atlanta has in the Fox Theater.

03/04/2001 Fox Theatre - Atlanta, Georgia
Set I: Strawberry Fields Forever, Mozambique, Will It Go Round in Circles, Burlap Sack and Pumps, Tops Off, Sunday Morning, Mellow Mood, Aqui Como Alla

Set II: First Tube, Push on Till the Day, Tube Top Wobble, Drifting, Windora Bug, Sand, I Want to Take You Higher, Last Tube Encore: At the Gazebo

The band surprises us again, opening with a full-band electric version of John Lennon's "Strawberry Fields Forever", surely worked up during soundcheck earlier in the day. Of special note was that trombone player Andy Moroz had a keyboard set up at his position on the horn section riser and played the familiar pipe-organ intro. I thought the version was great considering the probable lack of practice time. With Andy's keyboard duties over, roadies quickly removed it from the stage.

The first set had special guest Joseph Somerville on trumpet appearing for "Burlap Sack and Pumps" and remaining for the rest of the set. The stand-out moment of his first solo was a rapid-fire finger technique on the trumpet valve key to produce a very staccato effect. Kind of cool.

The second set highlights featured a solid one-two punch of "Windora Bug" and "Sand" rounded out with a set closing "Take You Higher." A short yet elegant encore "At The Gazebo" sent us off into the night.

My night's quest not complete I hopped in my friend Rob's car along with Jeff Dunham and hurried over to the Cotton Club to meet up with Jeff's wife Maria for "The Dunhams" weekly radio show on Z93. This Sunday's broadcast, from the Cotton Club rather than the usual Brandyhouse, was a post-Trey one hour live broadcast with the New York City based band ulu. The Dunhams hospitality, spirit, and contributions to the music community are proof that there is a continuing good thing happening in Atlanta and hopefully all around the country. They make the point so clear that commonalties among people don't die with the demise of bands like the Grateful Dead or the hiatus of Phish, the commonalties that bring us together as a community endure.

ulu put on a fat set for the radio listeners and the Cotton Club attendees. Their driving rhythm section of bass and drums supported interesting solo adventures from the sax and the keyboard sounds.

The sax player used a Boomerang to great effect capturing sounds and vocals and creating loops and varied the winds with flute as well. The keyboard player was a monster using both a Fender Rhodes and Clavinet to create some fantastic, fat, funky sounds. Check these guys out if you have the chance.

By the time ulu ended their one-plus hour radio broadcast we already received word that a friend had successfully scored tickets at the box office for the additional show on Monday.

Monday, March 5th is windy in Atlanta with winds gusting to over 40 MPH. The scene around the Fox Theater has a similar cast of characters as Sunday (local Trey fans, on-tour travelers, scalpers) but a completely different vibe regarding tickets. Sunday tickets were near impossible to buy if you came to the show without one whereas Monday tickets were near impossible to sell if you happened to be holding any extras. Many people got in for free. It was a fitting end to a tour that was so tough to attend due to demand for tickets - if you were in Atlanta on Monday and wanted to see Trey you needed to do nothing more than get yourself over to the Fox Theater.

I met up with some of the usual suspects, Rob and Jennifer. Rob and I opted to find seats on the orchestra level for the first set and found ourselves with plenty of room somewhere in the 20-25th row area, dead on center.

03/05/2001 Fox Theatre - Atlanta, Georgia
Set I: Gotta Jibboo, Acting the Devil, Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown, Burlap Sack and Pumps, It Makes No Difference, Drifting, Nothing But an 'E' Thing, I Done Done It, Ooh Child

Set II: Happy Coffee Song, In the Wee Wee Hours, Push On Till The Day > Tube Top Wobble, The Way I Feel, Sidewalks of San Francisco, Sand Encore: Back On the Train, Bathtub Gin, Signed Sealed Delivered

My show notes are sparse by the final, fifth show. My memory reminds me that Trey had some friends in the orchestra pit and he made eye contact with them throughout the first set and dedicated "Go Downtown" to them in particular. "Done Done It" had Trey smiling repeatedly towards his friends as if the chorus were the punchline of some inside joke.

The setbreak came and we moved upstairs where Jennifer and Co. had a bunch of seats in the 2nd row of the balcony just left of center. I "held the fort" by anchoring the aisle seat and serving as barrier between our group and the fans who chose to stand in the aisle. My occasionally precarious seat choice provided somewhat frequent elbows in the back and one cigarette burn to my right arm.

The quirky "One's Mans Trash" track "Happy Coffee Song" opened the second set and "Sand" closed down the last set of the tour. The audience provided background vocals on the solo Trey version of "Back On The Train" and the melody section in "Bathtub Gin" where Trey would normally solo the melody and accompany it with a falsetto vocal when performing this with Phish. "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" gave us one last taste of the full band, that is until they tour again.

Tuesday, March 6th and I'm still stranded in Atlanta. The weather forecast for Boston is still bad even for Wednesday. I call Delta and confirm that flights will be flying into LaGuardia on Tuesday evening. I decide to get as far north as possible while I can and get on the 7:30PM flight to New York City. As it turns out, Logan airport is open on Wednesday morning and the Delta shuttle gets me home by 8:30AM.

All in all, a great roadtrip. The band was fantastic and so were the fans. Hopefully for their next tour they'll expand their repertoire, allowing for a more varied setlist from night to night. But out of the five shows I saw, only the final show in Atlanta offered no real surprises, just a band that had totally gelled and found its groove.