Last night in Essex Junction, Vermont marked the final show of the Phil Lesh & Friends/GRAB tour. Once again Trey Anastasio made an extended appearance with Phil Lesh & Friends, sitting in for the entire second set, while Mike Gordon joined Lesh on bass during a jam out of Viola Lee Blues. However it was the guest who appeared during both group’s encores that may have most excited the fans in attendance. Anastasio and Gordons longtime bandmate in Phish, Page McConnell, joined Phil & Friends, Anastasio and Gordon for the Friends’ Midnight Hour encore and later appeared with Anastasio, Gordon, Benevento and Russo for the version of ‘Who Are You’ that closed out their performance.
Also of note were the guest appearances that took place later in the night. Anastasio, Gordon and Benevento all made it out to Higher Ground after the show where they sat in with the Dave Grippo Funk Band (which also features longtime Trey Anastasio associate Jennifer Hartswick). GRAB will continue its summer tour tomorrow at All Good. As for those concertgoers lamenting the absence of Jon Fishman during the evenings activities, youll always have moe.down.