Trey Anastasio Band Conclude November Tour with Expansive Jams in Syracuse

Trey Anastasio, photo by Jake Silco

Trey Anastasio pulled into Syracuse, N.Y. last night for the final stop on his November tour with the Trey Anastasio Band. The Phish frontman’s side ensemble delivered a string of increasingly impressive performances in their first headline tour since 2023, and the instrumental mastery on display in Tuesday night’s show proved that the band was only building steam. Thankfully, the bandleader and his tried and true backing group will ride that momentum into the Beacon Jams this weekend.

Anastasio and the band took the stage at Syracuse’s Landmark Theatre with the reliable show opener of “Cayman Review,” drawn from the bandleader’s 2002 self-titled solo album and stretched out for just shy of 10 minutes. This strong introduction was followed by a 14-minute take on Phish’s The Story of the Ghost essential “The Moma Dance,” quickly establishing the evening’s theme: in both sets, Anastasio and his band of Jennifer Hartswick, Dezron Douglas, Russ Lawton, Ray Paczkowski, Natalie Cressman, Cyro Baptista and Kenneth Whalum tapped into a flow state and let the tour’s longest jams unfurl.

This trend continued after “Tuesday,” the evening’s second-shortest track at nearly seven minutes, with a 15-minute rendition of “Alive Again.” The band’s fourth performance of the new original “Real You” led into a 10-minute “Sand,” followed shortly after by a radiant first-frame finale of “Shine.”

The Trey Anastasio Band tore into their second set with an 11-minute take on “Set Your Soul Free,” which stirred an audacious improvisatory impulse realized through 21 minutes of swaggering, jangly funk on “Blaze On.” The subsequent “Last Tube” lasted for a frenetic 14 minutes, and a bawdy and focused “Spin” came in just shy of 13 minutes. The traditional set two cooldown period was dedicated to “Valentine” and “Monsters,” giving the band the chance to summon all their energy for a 15-minute set-closer of “Ghost.” TO cap off the evening, the band turned in an encore of the new cut “Simeon” – quickly emerging as a key inclusion in their setlists – and the fiery fan-favorite “Carini.”

Anastasio will return to the spotlight from Nov. 28-30 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of his unforgettable Beacon Jams with a special series at New York’s Beacon Theatre. The retrospective return will replicate the joyful spontaneity of the pandemic livestream series by setting the bandleader within a variety of formations, including TAB and the return of The Rescue Squad Strings. To recall the Beacon Jams’ charitable and community-focused purpose, proceeds from all ticket sales will support the Divided Sky Foundation, and all three sold-out shows will stream for free via LivePhish and nugs.net.

“Over the past few years, I’ve found myself regularly saying I’ve never been part of anything that was so musically and emotionally satisfying,” Anastasio said of the Beacon Jams in a new Relix interview. “It was a highlight of my musical life in ways that are hard to even describe. It was this small miracle and there were so many little unexpected things. Obviously, it was COVID, all five boroughs were shut down and there were no marquees lit. Then this idea came up that we were going to maybe find a black box theater, which would be a little studio to do some streams. From there, it started to take on a life of its own and grow.” Read more here.