Trey Day May 1, 2005 - Richmond Times Dispatch By Crystal Street Trey Anastasio and his new quintet played to a sold-out crowd at the Landmark Theater A sold-out crowd greeted Trey Anastasio at the Landmark Theater last night. Anastasio helped feed a hungry crowd of Phish heads left without a band since the jam band's final show in Vermont last summer. Anastasio just released his newest project and has assembled a talented array of musicians to hit the road for several months worth of concerts and jam band festivals. The New Deal, a progressive jam band from Canada, started the crowd spinning with methodical bass beats and explosive percussion. Opening for Anastasio during several East Coast shows, the New Deal reflects the fusion of jam bands and modern dance music. A series of long instrumentals flowed into varying rhythms and fluxuating crescendos that gave the crowd a glimpse of the evolution of today's jam bands. Anastasio's opening guitar rifts started the crowd on a journey through his newest musical creations. With a twinge of familiar Phish sounds, Trey and his band fused lyrical bridges with long instrumental jams that reflected the new directions Anastasio is taking his sound. One particular song, "Goodbye Head," which he debuted at the Landmark show, drifted into an instrumental rift that was reminiscent of the Grateful Dead's deviances into Drums and Space with intense synthesizer sounds slamming into Trey's various guitar melodies and sliding off Valdez's drums. An undercurrent of energy charged throughout this assembly of musicians, shown by the band's expressions as the music bounced among the instruments. Alternatively performing solo with his acoustic guitar and with the entire quintet backing him, Trey debuted several new songs, including "Black" and "Host Across the Potomac," and threw in some covers from Radiohead, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. Anastasio and friends are hitting several venues on this debut tour with a dabbling of festivals, including New Orleans's Jazz Fest, Bonnaroo and the 10,000 Lakes Festival. Anastasio will also team up with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals for a 28-venue tour of outdoor amphitheatres this summer. Article Copyright © 2005 Richmond.com