Review — The Power of Music
November 29, 2001
Bushnell Theatre
Hartford, Connecticut
Participants: Bob Weir, Trey Anastasio, and Nicholas Payton
by Allison Rosenberg
I had a wonderful time. Did you know that Bob is incredibly charming and funny? I did, and, boy, did he let it show last night. The entire panel did a great job. It started with a welcome and intro of the moderator, Bill Flanagan, who is a high up with VH1 in charge of Legends and Storytellers to name a few--he did a good job. Then he did little intros of the panel in alphabetical order where they played a little video (actually successions of still photos and information about the people) on a screen behind the stage with an audio clip of the performer. So first was Trey, and I should mention here that the place was a little over half Dead/Phish fans and the rest suit-and-tie types. During Trey’s intro which was playing Stash the audience chimed right in with the clapping that they do to punctuate it, and the part of the audience that didn't know anything about Phish just gasped all at once--it was great. Nicholas Payton came next and is a cooool guy. He definitely plays a jazzy trumpet, very New Orleans like Irvin Mayfield but his own really cool style; I guess everybody compares him to Louis Armstrong--I didn't know anything about him going in. Luckily, the only opera we heard all night was during the intro for Beverly Sills, she has not sung in public for 20 or so years. She had some good things to say, but she was really on a different side of the fence from the guys, all improvisational musicians; she related to Bob somewhat since he was the closest to her age I think. So then came Bob, and they played the album version of Sugar Magnolia during his intro, which cracked me up, since I've watched him go on about not liking that version, thinking it does not do the song any justice as far as the "balls-out thunder rock" that it is. So anyway, he came out and fidgeted the whole night. Not a sit still kind of guy in front of an audience. Neither was Trey. They were sitting on either end of the panel and really gave it a nice casual frame.
After the introductions, Trey played Inlaw Josie Wales. Then Trey went on to talk about his first Dead show, which was in Hartford. Trey said he felt like he had been "hit in the head with a baseball bat" that night it was such a mind-opening kind of experience. Everyone kind of looked at Bob when Trey said that, wondering what he thought of it; and then he all of a sudden realized what had been said and that everyone was looking at him, and he gave the greatest shrug of his shoulders, shake of his head, roll his eyes movement with a quick grin all at once and said, "Uh, sounds about right." It was classic. Then they asked him if he remembered this particular concert, and he said he did because he had a new slide that day, and they had a particularly hot soundcheck. He said that in between songs of the soundcheck he was messin’ around with the slide and started playing Yellow Bird. Then he said, "Y’all know it" and proceeded to sing a few bars for us out of the blue in this completely silent and attentive theater. It was the coolest sounding thing at the time. He went on to say that Jerry started playing it in harmony with him, and it sounded, "like a hula nightmare."
Bob talked about how scary the musical goals he sets sometimes are, the constant search for new places, the blank page, but that he could never imagine doing anything else, and he never feels more alive than when he finds a challenge he’s not up to, and then dives right in. When asked about how he sets those goals for himself when he has the option to just go out and play his 15 greatest hits every night, he simply said, very seriously, somewhat quietly, "That is not an option." (Then more forcefully.) "That is not an option." I led the applause on that one; I loved the way he delivered that.
They all talked about how there are good nights and bad, and no one knows why...Bob talked about how they had nights where everyone was "truly disgusted" with each other and everything they had done that night, and everything they were doing in general. And then the audience that night thought that they "had just seen God". So they would listen to the tapes later and they used to say, "Tapes don’t lie." So they would listen and go "I was playing THAT, and you were playing THAT, that’s not so bad." But they knew what they had played that night, so then they decided, "Tapes DO lie."...And then there were nights where it felt like you were "directly connected to heaven and you were speaking the language of the angels, and, uh, people give you sort of a sad look." (Applause) "Sort of a…nice try, you’ll get it one of these days." And then they listened to those tapes, and the audience was right! (Of course, I'm sure you can all imagine Bob's delivery of these stories; that really makes them shine.)
They talked about fame, how that was part of what led to Phish's break (yes, it would seem only a break) they are taking. Trey said his perception of himself was getting twisted and he wanted to step back from that for a little while. (By the way, I'd like to mention here that, being from Maine, I have always loved how "New England" Trey is, it echoed throughout everything he said and did, from his choice of words, to his stories about Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, to his clothes, to his hand motions while talking.) Trey actually had one of my favorite points of the night talking about how much he loves interacting with the audience energy, the community, sometimes focusing in on one person dancing and playing in response to their energy and movements. And how that takes the energy of the entire audience through the roof. I’m extremely sensitive to audience energy, so I very much enjoyed hearing Trey’s view on it.
Ooh, I love this part...after Trey was talking about taking a break from Phish, they asked all the panel about taking breaks. Bob mentioned the Dead taking a break back in '74 for similar reasons to Phish's break, but that he jumped right back out there with "another rock and roll band" (ahh, good ole’ Kingfish) anyway. He said he hadn't taken "any appreciable time off" since he was sixteen. (Oh, I definitely applauded at that one; that impresses me.) And that maybe a break would refresh his relationship with the muse and he could try other musical pursuits or non-musical pursuits. (Now, hang in there because this is where the story gets good.) He then paused, got a great smirk for a second, then with a serious, but very sarcastic look, said "Yeah, I'm gonna get right on this…" Then a great laugh. "Maybe in 5 years or so, I'll take that 6 months off." Ahhh...it’s music to my ears. He also referred to touring as what he leans on, it's what he does...
Bob talked about the Touch of Grey explosion, and how it was like, all of a sudden they "were like members of a family. A lot of other members of the family, people you meet on the street, you notice as a little uncomfortable being in that family. I’m not sure that everybody understood what it was that we were up to; they just understood that we were popular. I’m not sure that everybody was hearing the music…Not that everybody has to be able to pick up the threads, the heritage of what we’re doing, at least every single one. But, I mean, missing every single one is another story. There were people that were in awe of us, who didn’t understand dick about what we were up to. What do you say to them? You know, how do you relate?" I think he's probably met more than a few of this kind of fan--oh, and I knew he wouldn't make it through the night without using a word that would shock the hoity-toity people there (he was the only one who did I think) and it was great. On that note, they paused for intermission.
After intermission, Bob played an abbreviated Victim (no final verse) on one of Trey's acoustics I think, you could tell it wasn't picking up all the stuff his Alvarez does. As Bob got ready to play, the strap they had taken off his Modulus hollow-body and put on Trey's acoustic for him completely fell off; so Bob was going to play sitting down, but they couldn't get the microphone stand to bend correctly for sitting. Then there was feedback from Trey's amp, which Bob eventually had to fix himself. (A.J., where are you when we need you?) Then he grabbed the chair, spun it around backwards, then forwards, then backwards doing this two-step dance with the chair with the guitar in his other hand the whole time. (This whole scene was just so Bobby, it really kind of warmed your heart.) Then he swung his left leg up on the chair, rested the guitar on his knee, and gave us the greatest Victim intro, "I’m gonna regale y’all with, ahem, probably the most thoroughly despised song I have ever written." and played. Good for him, I loved every minute of it.
This somewhat struck me--when Trey went over to his guitar to play his song, the audience applauded greatly then quieted down to hear what he would play. When Bob went over to play, the yelling immediately began, "Bobby!" "Play Jack Straw" "Weather Report" "Play this, play that!" They didn't treat Trey this way when they yelled for him. People have been barking orders at Bob for 35 years, and I know it will never stop. That's why I especially loved it when he played the song people despise; you show 'em, Bob.
After Bob played, Nicholas Payton stepped up for a number called Potato Head Blues. He tore it up; the audience just loved it. Then they proceeded to address audience questions, although they didn’t get to very many due to long responses and running late from the start. Bob was asked what kind of music he was sharing with his kids, and he explained how he has this banjo that Jerry gave him that he's been learning to play because "the kids seem to like it a bunch"; after all it is "the happy instrument". He said he has these lullabies he plays for them and "they haven’t the slightest interest in those". He said Monet likes the blues. He said he was "still feeling it out".
There was a question to the whole panel about whether musicians should be involved in politics, so Bob jumps in first with, "Well, I think this is probably as good as a, as good a moment as any for me to announce my candidacy...A vote for Weir is a vote for nature and the streets." I think this is my new favorite slogan. It was so funny, delivered in his wonderful deadpan manner; the audience thought it was great.
The entire panel was asked about playing and listening to music in the aftermath of the events of Sept. 11th. Bob talked about how his fall tour was scheduled for a short time after the 11th and numerous people were asking him if he were going to go through with the tour. And he was thinking, "Am I nuts? Am I doing something wrong here? Is it too soon?" But "from the first note" of that first show of the tour (ahh, Memphis 9/21/01, what a show!), he said, "It felt so right…I needed it. My bandmates needed it. The people needed it. They needed the power of the music to fill our spirits, to make us strong, to make us, to make us feel whole." Oh, wow, is that exactly how I felt at that show! You could see it in the band’s faces; they could see it in ours. It was such a touching show and it felt so wonderful to come together through the music once again.
In response to a question about what trend in the music industry today disturbs him, Bob replied, "I’m not sure that there’s anything that disturbs me so much as…there’s a lot of stuff that’s going on that’s being marketed, well, yeah, this does disturb me. The quote ‘music industry’ is not real interested in selling music to kids. The stuff that you get, the stuff that they are marketing for kids is not real music; it’s something else. It’s entertainment, in my opinion. But as far as, you know, having musical traditions and heritage, lineage, any of that kind of stuff, it’s entirely lacking that kind of stuff. I used, earlier this afternoon we were talking, and I used the example of Britney Spears, and I’ll do it again. You know, I don’t want to, I don’t want to slam her by any means, because she’s very good at what she does, but calling that music. When you go to one of those shows, she’s not singing a note. It’s all pre-recorded because she can’t sing and dance at the same time…You’ve got all kinds of amazing theatrical effects, special effects, and all that kind of stuff. But the emphasis is not…music, the emphasis is on spectacle. And that’s fine, but I think one of the problems is that, is that the quote ‘music industry’ is trying to pass that off as music, and it’s no wonder that kids will buy that and consider it music when the fact is they have no musical instruction in their schools…They haven’t got a clue, and that, that disturbs me…We are going to lose our musical traditions, and when we do, we will be sadly poor."
The night ended with a jam from the 3 guys in the panel, with Bob on his black Modulus hollow-body. I am pretty sure it was some jazz standard that they all knew, but I’m still educating myself about jazz, and I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t know what it was called. I’ll work on figuring it out. All in all, the night was one of the strangest nights I’ve spent in a theater with Bob Weir. Such a different feeling from a concert, but it was wonderfully fun. I learned some new things; some things I knew already were strongly confirmed. I saw again how he fits into the greater picture of the music world as a whole, and as always, it made me smile.