In December of last year, guitarist Trey Anastasio announced his first ever extended solo acoustic tour and for many, the idea of seeing this legendary talent deliver his lyrics and stories in intimate settings warmed many a winter heart with anticipation. Detailing twenty shows originally and adding a second night due to demand in his old stomping grounds of New Jersey to close the tour, tickets for almost all the performances sold out in moments. With an average capacity of a couple thousand, the announced venues dotting the deep south, the upper Midwest, and the east coast made for a perfect tour schedule to take in these locales in March before the onset of summer heat and humidity would make these states less than desirable for the fanbase.

Last weekend, the tour reached the halfway point, rolling into The Big Easy and making Trey’s first return to the Saenger Theatre since Oysterhead’s inceptional evening nearly twenty five years ago. Originally opening in 1927, The Saenger Theatre was created for silent movies, stage productions, and orchestral performances, with often all three occurring in the same day for the patrons who could afford the sixty five cent admission fee. Since those days in the roaring twenties, hundreds of events have graced the stage annually at one of New Orleans’ longest running arts institutions.

With spring in the air, the day leading up to the performance was full of sunshine and warmth, temperatures approaching seventy with nary a cloud hanging in the sky, making for a perfect scene for fans to get out and take in the vibrance that is NOLA on any given day. Even better was that as the sun set, the climate remained mild and comfortable, keeping would be concertgoers enjoying the great outdoors up until showtime. As twilight hit and the lights of the city came to life, the sidewalks at the corner of Canal and Rampart filled early with color and smiling faces as the usual suspects gathered under the multiple marquees and entrances to the historic venue awaiting the expected music and magic.

Entering the building, the nuances of the old school charm were apparent everywhere. From marbled and carpeted pathways to vaulted ceilings hosting chandelieric illumination and art deco patterns, walking through the near century halls felt nostalgic even for those whose first time through the doors of this landmark would be this evening’s performance.

Passing through the doors of the central auditorium, the ceiling was more night sky than standard cap, spattered with the appearance of stars as small lights sparkled at random against an indigo backdrop. The room itself wide with a shallow balcony extending only midway into the space allowed for clean sight lines of not only the stage but also the ornate decor found about the room, including greek sculptures in many of the alcoves and monolithic columns outlining the perimeter. Plush seats throughout the house were well kept, clean, and inviting, drawing the trickling crowd to settle in and enjoy their historic comfort. The venue itself is as much a piece of art as the creations that have gone on within its walls for almost a hundred years.

With a door time of seven and a start time of eight, it was apparent that the man of the hour would push as, at ten past, many seats still sat empty. As being mostly a reserved seating show, patrons appeared unconcerned with finding their assignments and chose instead to mingle and imbibe cocktails and the company of others ready to sit fireside with one of their favorite tale makers. With time and conversation continuing to meander by, the lights finally dimmed about 8:40 and the vacant wooden chair and two lone acoustic guitars finally found their purpose.

Trey entered from stage right with that trademark kid-like grin that is a seemingly perfect combination of joy, appreciation, and anticipation of another evening of potential that has been this man’s life for more than forty years. Taking a moment to bow, scan the crowd, and welcome and thank everyone succinctly, the stringman settled in quickly and got to work at the best job he’s ever known.

To start the night out on a positive note, “More” found its way to the opening slot, making this the third time in ten shows it served as an opener and the fifth time performed on the tour. From the opening chords and the first lyric, it was clear that Anastasio’s voice was strong and that the sound of The Saenger was dialed in. By the end of the love and light mantra, it also seemed that the audience was willing to let him express without much interruptive accompaniment. 

Selection two held a sweet and delicate version of “Mountains In The Mist” and ended with a simple ‘thanks’ to the seated listeners. Anastasio kept things moving and upped the pace with a bouncy “Wolfman’s Brother”. This marked the sixth version of the tour and of those, this would be the third where quotes of the Phish tune “The Howling” would be interjected. Following an excited applause post pick drag down the strings, the audience, like the two other aforementioned versions, began to howl like wolves under the full moon projection lit at the back of the stage. Halfway through the tour and with taper’s in attendance, it was clear that many patrons were aware of these prior versions and were waiting for the bandleader to lead them through some “Howling” quotes of their own. Self-reporting in the past of his admiration of the Phish culture and community, he encouraged the audience to proceed with the expected, stating “Thanks everybody, Nice, Do it. Beautiful, beautiful” as many howled along. Following the second verse, the crowd continued to bay and Trey met the moment with a direct quote of “The Howling” and then laughed, giggling to everyone that “I’m just following you guys”. Moving into stanza three, Trey, grinning ear to ear, told everyone “we will get back to that (“The Howling”)”. To add to the interactive dynamic, Anastasio changed the lyric smooth atonal sound to smooth atonal woos, mimicking the “woo-ish” wolf calls being made by the audience.

Overall, “Wolfman’s Brother” got the expected extension and about four minutes into it, Trey went from bare bones bard to magic maker and started working the pedals, first employing a loop and then getting down to business with some effects and lycanthropic scat. Adding some punctuation, Trey threw in one more reference to“The Howling” at the end for good measure, smiling and laughing in the wake of the audience’s participation. In all, this version came out to about eight minutes of well appreciated fun and auditory goodness.

Taking a moment to to address the crowd, Trey spoke:

Thank you everybody. That was stunning. The pitch, the tone. If only you guys could hear what I am hearing up here…Thank you, thank you for helping me. Kind of amazing, as you were singing there I was just thinking, man, I have been playing in this amazing town, the best town in the world, for like 35 years I think at least. 35 years we’ve been playing here ‘cause I remember the first couple of times we played New Orleans would be at Tipitina’s in like 1990. It was pretty cool. I just remember so many good times back at Tip’s. 1990 was the first year we played there and like The Radiators were always playing there…and to meet all those guys…and one of the first tours that we played I remember I think it was the second time we ever played at Tipitina’s, we had Phish with ARU opening up. Oh my God, such good memories. We toured with ARU… so it would be like Oteil and Jimmy Herring and they were, you know, twelve years old at the time and I had never seen those guys before and we met them for the first time ever in Athens, Georgia and then we went on tour together. Phish and ARU did a lot of touring together in 1990 and maybe 91 with Bruce Hampton. It was so much fun. Man, they were slaying. You all know little Oteil and little Jimmy, you can picture it. So many other great memories like that in this town with all the people that I have had the opportunity to sing with… Sunpie Barnes… and of course YOU tonight, all of you. Thank you. But none of it, none of it was ever as good as THAT version of Wolfman’s Brother.

With a belly full of laughter, Trey got behind the wheel and idled back down the musical road with “Driver”. The cool slink of “Turtle In The Clouds” came up next. It appeared that Anastasio was going to bestow a story about this song at its finish, citing that “some of these songs are more documentary, that one is actually one of them weirdly…”, but suddenly someone yelled out a jarring call for “Fee”, startling the performer and seemingly caused a switching of the tracks:

Do you guys know what ‘egging the woo’ is? You ever heard of that? You don’t know? Some woman came up to me, I was walking down the street. She’s like, ‘Man, I got to talk to you about ‘egging the woo’. I’m like ‘What?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, half of my friends love it and half of them don’t.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, ‘egging the woo’?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, some people really like it and some people hate it, but they don't know what you think about it.’ I’m like, ‘I don't even know what the hell you are talking about. It sounds kinda gross to me, but… ‘eggying the woo’?’ You don’t know about that? Ok. I thought everyone knew about it…She made it sound like everybody knew…This really happened. She stopped me on the street and she says, ‘Man, we got to talk about ‘egging the woo.’ I said, ‘Alright let’s do it, let's talk about ‘egging the woo’.’ And she said, ‘I am not kidding, she’s like, ‘When you guys are in a jam’, she’s a fan I guess…she’s like, ‘If you do that thing when you stop and everyone says woo’…she’s like, ‘You know you are ‘egging the woo’’ and I’m like, ‘No man, I’m just stopping, I’m not ‘egging the woo’.’ She’s like, ‘You are, you are ‘egging the woo’. Some of my friends like it and some of them don’t. It’s like real controversial when you guys ‘egg the woo’.’ I’m like, ‘I can see why, (it’s) fucking controversial when anybody ‘eggs the damn woo’.’ Jeez, anyway. That's what made me think about it. You guys are thinking, ‘God, he’s just on the second song of the night and he’s already ‘egging the damn woo’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not ‘egging the woo’. You guys just started wooing. Don’t blame me.

Oh shit, I got to do something different here. So I got so many things to talk about New Orleans…but anyway, I am standing on this spot right here, right where I am standing, right here was a great memory in this city…um, I’m ‘egging the woo’. The thing that always happens when we ‘egg the woo’, somebody like plays in the middle of the hole, like fish will hit a drum ending the egg…so I might do that again tonight so get ready for egging the woo. The other thing about this stage right here is that..this must have been like 1999 or 2000 or something, (this) was the year MY band started. The first gig MY band ever played was right here on this spot, MY band …Oysterhead. Right here. There was some woo, there was an egg, the egg cracked and out of the egg climbed an oyster…Oysterhead.

Under the calls of a charged crowd in love with the aqueous creature known as Oysterhead, Trey moved into the Oysterhead original “Rubberneck Lions” and although it was expected that with Big Red’s return to the birthplace of the supergroup of oddity fans would be treated to some of the band’s material, it was a bit surprising that not only had this number already been performed earlier in the tour, but that it was the only tune Trey decided to share from the catalog. Keeping with the comedic, Trey did offer a couple ‘eggs of the woo’, pausing intentionally and signalling the audience to interject their woo appropriately. At the close, Trey noted, “Wow, That was the first time that anyone has ever ‘egged the woo’ during Oysterhead. There’s a first time for everything, right?”

“Theme From The Bottom” was the subsequent choice and was played sans a jam or big build up and with a simple “thank you, everybody”, Trey crooned and picked warmly through another fluid choice with “Water in the Sky” followed by an energetic “Sample in a Jar” that had many singing along.

Returning to the Land of Egg and Woo, the tune that probably has incited the most talk about the ‘woo controversy’ over the years within the Phish community came up next and everyone fell right into their bipartisan role on their decided side of the aisle. As “Twist” fired up, you could see Trey sitting in his chair laughing and smiling about the inevitable as many in the room called out the woo at whim. Giggling, Trey remarked, “I swear to God I am not ‘egging the woo’, man.” Pausing and almost unable to speak through the laughter, Trey conceded, “Ok, I am ‘egging the woo’. Fuck yeah, I’m ‘egging the fucking woo’.” With the hilarity level rising, Trey had a hard time singing the lyrics amidst all the chuckling from both sides of the stage. With the close of the lyrical content, this version contained some fluid improvisation over hypnotic looping, which in some respects further defined the controversy of the woo and its necessity.

“Lost in the Pack” from the pandemic album Lonely Trip was up next and its emotional delivery had everyone taking a deep breath. In its wake, fans got a trifecta of Phish classics in “The Wedge”, “NICU”, and the locale appropriate “Gumbo”. “Limb By Limb” had Trey asking for “more than a woo”, encouraging the audience to sing the back up portions of the tune, and with everyone joyfully complying, the maestro belted out his part with an ear to ear smile.

“Bathtub Gin” got started with an ‘egging of the woo’ before the room dove headlong into the singalong. Much of the melody that is shared by the band and audience in the Phish bowl, namely the “doo”s as it were, were changed by Trey and sang as “woo”s instead, again causing the comedy to continue. Hitting the ending, Trey threw in three more “woo” cues before stating, “Oh man, we’re really working that woo today.”

The biggest bustout per se of the night came next in the form of “Cavern”. Performed for the first time on the tour and not played acoustically by the author since 2021, this one was not invulnerable to the ‘egging of the woo’ either. Here the audience was the initiator and unable to help himself, Trey added to the shenanigans by changing lyrical moments appropriately to the rudiments of woo, if perchance an egg slimed by / I’d stuff it in my egg sack, but with handy spine of eggnog, the crowd meanwhile had taken woo, and of course finally whatever you do, take care of your woos. A solid version of “Say It To Me Santos’ had everyone singing again, but like so many other preceding moments, this one could not escape the infectious “woo” egged on by Trey.

Taking a more serious note, Trey paused to introduce the more composed section of the evening’s playlist:

My God. Thank you. Oh man, New Orleans. what a thing, what a town. Ok, I am going to switch gears here. I am going to bring up my friend Jeff Tanski to join me for some songs now. If any of you guys were watching The Beacon Jams when we did that, you may remember Jeff. Thank you.

With the onset of “Pebbles and Marbles”, the buffoonery of the woo was put into check and everyone in that room sat up a little straighter and paid closer attention. Although Tanski played with a chart, watching Trey slip into laser focus, channeling directly from the heart, making the multitude of changes, and keeping great time alongside the piano was a distinct reminder of the proficiency of this artist. At nearly eight minutes of acoustic perfection, taking in this one was well worth admission alone. 

As the longest tune of the evening, “Divided Sky” clocked in at over thirteen minutes and was a thing of beauty under the indoor night sky, dancing through the ears and hearts of all of those in attendance. The exchange between Trey and Tanski was one of equality, both listening, complementing, and supporting the other. Like “Pebbles”, in the pared down setting, every mistake is apparent as there is nowhere to hide and to pull off the complexity of “Divided Sky” to near perfection once again shows why Trey stands apart as a creator and tends to surround himself with others of his ilk.

Pulling at the heartstrings, an impassioned delivery of “Ghosts of the Forest” followed by a romantic version of “Lonely Trip” had everyone breathing a little easier in self reflection and emotion. It should be noted that the crowd remained tempered and respectful, indulging in the visceral dynamics of the Trey / Tanski duo during these songs and overcame almost all urges to woo or call out inappropriately.

“Guelah Papyrus” floated out next and received a warm welcome. The body rich, smooth, and loungy, the descending notes fell effortlessly while the compositional middle swirled. The ending was well executed as Trey and Tanski chased each other through multiple measures. This was certainly six and half minutes of goodness from start to finish. Although it is usually the audience who can’t control themselves, this time it was Trey who slid back into the shenanigans of woo, performing leg kicks and egging onlookers to woo on command, again inciting laughter from everyone including the stoic Tanski.

Sealing the deal on the nearly two hour single set, “First Tube” got the crowd revved up and had many with tickets in the back of the theater running for the front to get up close and personal with the red-headed wonder, dancing and jumping as though this was a full blown electric TAB or Phish version. The set closer even contained a sighting of Trey’s jedi side, the acoustic held high above his head and pointed towards the heavens if only for a moment as Tanski built up the discord across the keys, lighting up the room with applause and smiles from the front of the hall to the back of the balcony.

With some simple thanks, Trey returned alone for the encore and gave a concise and clear reading of the contemplative tune “6 ½ Minutes” from the 2022 album Mercy. It is reflective tunes like these that often make listeners feel like they are peering into the window of the songwriter’s soul where he juxtaposes the personal in relation to the spectrum of the infinite and reveals that he is just as human as anyone trying to figure out this path. Feeding the soul with more lightness and inspiration, a touching rendition of “A Life Beyond The Dream” followed and had everyone taking in the moment in quiet stillness as the clarity of the acoustic and Trey’s vibrato wrapped the room in warmth.

Finally moving to the last tune of the night, Trey addressed the crowd one last time:

Thanks everybody, thank you. Thank you so much for having us.  We are gonna kinda finish up with this tune and really, what a great time. The years go by and all these wonderful memories in this beautiful town. I gotta share one more that was just such a precious memory to me. I just gotta talk about this. I think there’s three Jazz Fests that I got to play at…maybe four actually..I may have played four because I played at two with TAB. In 2005, I got to play Jazz Fest and I got to play with the Neville Brothers and sit in. This is one of my most precious memories. I can’t even believe that I had that opportunity to play with what I consider to be the sickest band ever to stomp around earth. So, thank you guys for having me up and thank you New Orleans for being such a cool town. Thanks everybody for just a beautiful night. We are all here, we’re egging the woo.

With a wrap on the dialogue and a hollow rap to the guitar body, Trey closed out the encore with a lengthy take on “Harry Hood”. With Tanski riding shotgun once again, the two laid it out for more than eleven minutes. The heart of the song came with all the fixings. From soft lilting beginnings to a colorful climb and a final push that sent the room over the top with a powerful finish, the whole thing had everyone feeling good not only about Hood, but about their choice of where they spent their evening.

In the end, Trey performed twenty seven songs with half of those having been played less than three times thus far on the tour, showing that there is nothing canned about this man nor his plan. Trey’s voice and dexterity sounded fresh and well rehearsed and from his demeanor and commentary, it was clear he was having a ball doing what he loves most. With a total run time at a hair over two and half hours, it was refreshing to see that no one left early and that the previously reported unique and special dynamics held true. Certainly one of the draws to these solo acoustic dates has been hearing the stories of yesteryear and participating with Trey in these intimate settings and, although the tales from the road were light with this tour stop, what the two thousand southerners got to experience seemed a bit more old school phishiness than nostalgia. It has been said many times over the years that people either love or hate Phish and one of the characteristics that has been commented on within this debate is the goofiness of so many moments. From macaroni boxes to pizza shit, from cheesecake to flying hotdogs, to now the introduction of woos and eggs, one thing is for certain: no matter how unconventional all of this may seem, those who love to fill their time with Trey Anastasio got nothing short of a plate full of soul food and another turn at the the unexpected joy that keeps everyone coming back for more.