Anastasio Hits Road Without Phish February 24, 2001 - The Associated Press by Dominic Perella NEW YORK (AP) - It's been 4 1/2 months since the last Phish concert. For the band's ultra-dedicated - some might say obsessed - fans, that's obviously 4 1/2 months too long. With the venue long since sold out and finger-waving ticket seekers roaming midtown Manhattan's streets by the hundreds, longtime Phish singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio rolled into the Roseland Ballroom on Friday night for a performance with his new backup band. It was the third show in a 10-date East Coast run for Anastasio - his first tour since Phish began an extended break from the road - and the legions who usually follow Phish around the country made it clear that they're desperate for a musical outlet. In recent days, fans were bidding $200 or more online for $27.50 tickets to the Roseland show. Outside the venue Friday night, fans swarmed an intoxicated man who was being dragged off by police, trying to get him to sell his ticket before he was pushed into a squad car. Inside, meanwhile, Anastasio was unveiling a playlist that was at times a sharp departure from his Phish r epertoire. Before deciding last fall to take a year or more off, Phish spent 17 years making a name for itself as ``the mother of all jam bands'' with long, meandering, danceable jams, many eventually emerging into an Anastasio-led fury of fast-paced instrumentation. On Friday, the pace was slower: The first set opened with ``Mozambique,'' an instrumental with a distinctive Latin jazz feel. That melted into ``The Way I Feel,'' a slow, funky number that highlighted Anastasio's horn section - trumpeter Jennifer Hartswick, trombonist Andy Moroz and saxophonist David Grippo, a longtime Anastasio friend and sometimes Phish collaborator. On those and several other new songs, Anastasio stayed in the background, resisting the urge to dominate the horns. During other pieces, though, especially ``Gotta Jibboo,'' a standard from the Phish rotation, Anastasio let loose. His combination of soaring, high-pitched solos, bell-like noodling and dissonant distortion gave the fans a taste of the Anastasio they're used to, and they responded with the most frenzied dancing of the night. Anastasio played with Markellis and Lawton once before, a brief run of small-venue shows between Phish tours in 1999. But the horn section is brand-new, and the infancy of the ensemble was obvious at times. Anastasio and the horns were at odds on several numbers, adding a discordant note to their cover of Bob Dylan's ``Rainy Day Women 12 & 35'' and detracting from two chamber-music-like instrumental compositions. In addition, Anastasio - never known for his vocal range - had trouble with the high notes throughout. On the whole, though, the band was solid for a fledgling act. The addition of horns gave new life to groove-heavy Phish standards like ``Sand,'' and covers of Bob Marley's ``Mellow Mood'' and The Band's ``It Makes No Difference'' came off well. After about 2 1/2 hours of music in the smoky venue, Anastasio brought out a special guest: Phish pianist Page McConnell. With half of Phish reunited and much hooting from the audience, the group closed out the night with three songs - among them ``First Tube,'' a Grammy nominee that Anastasio, Markellis and Lawton penned during their last tour and that later became a Phish favorite.