Solo Anastasio: Hip, but not a hippie August 6, 2001 - The Boston Herald by Brett Milano If you've spent a decade fronting a hugely popular band, a solo tour would be the perfect place to go off on an ego trip. But that is not the case for Phish guitarist-singer Trey Anastasio, who's putting his regular band's indefinite break to good use. With new songs, new styles and a new attitude, Anastasio's nearly three-hour show proved more disciplined and more satisfying than the handful of Phish shows this writer has caught. For those of us who aren't Phish-heads, the night was a small revelation. One longstanding complaint about Phish is that they've seldom been very earthy or funky, and it seemed Anastasio was out to set that right. His current touring band, an octet including four horns, is a hard-driving and decidedly non-hippie outfit. There was no shortage of jamming, with many songs stretching 10 minutes or more, but these were heavy funk jams rather than cosmic space jams. The first surprise came with the opening number, "I Done Done It," an authentic-sounding Chicago blues tune that turned out to be one of Anastasio's own songs, and found him playing a B.B. King-style solo. He later evoked the horn-driven sound of James Brown and Fela Kuti on "Burlap Sack & Pumps," and closed the first set with a Santana-like instrumental, "First Tube" (a rare dip into the Phish catalog). The one cover was a great one: the Band's ballad "It Makes No Difference," which showed Anastasio becoming a more expressive singer. To his credit, Anastasio managed to work his own personality into the mix. The night's centerpiece was "Mister Completely," which ran nearly a half-hour, with solos by most of the band members (bassist Tony Markellis was especially valuable here). The song's psychedelic tune bore out Anastasio's roots, and mixed well with the heavy rhythms. Anastasio kept his own solos to a mimimum, preferring to drive the band with economical rhythm licks. Though he had three acoustic guitars onstage, he stayed on electric until the encore "At the Gazebo," which had the feel of a New Orleans jazz funeral. If fans see the new group with an open mind, they might find themselves less anxious for Phish to return.