Wooop wooop! LA tonite, suuuuper pumped!
Good times at the Disney Concert Hall! 
Such an unbelievable room-- my shitty camera pic really does it no justice. But it’s absolutely gorgeous and the sound is outrageous. Trey said it was the best room he’s ever played in. 
And I love how there’s purple, orange and gold lighting in there to reduce the sterility often found in Philharmonic environments. Very warm vibe.
I’d say maybe about half the people there were dressed up in fancier type clothing while the rest of us were sporting jeans with our favorite Trey/Phish shirts. I think in L.A.-- where it’s acceptable to go to fancy restaurants in shorts and a t-shirt-- people get less dressed up for the symphony in general, which I think is a good thing. Crowd was fairly respectful. Not many talkers, nobody was trying to puff bowls in the theater or stub their friends down and most people seemed to be taking it fairly easy with the drugs (except the chick in the row just in front of us, who was bad tripping through the entire show. 
) I was surprised to see a lot of people leaving in the middle of songs and not coming back-- there were little pockets of empty seats all over the place by the end, which was a little odd. But the vast majority of the crowd was pretty enthusiastic and gave huge standing ovations after most of the songs.
The show itself was pleasant. At times it was masterful. There were moments of absolute greatness. There were a lot of yawner moments, too. YEM, for me, was easily the best piece of the night. It was magnificently executed by Trey and the orchestra, giving each section of the orchestra time to shine and breaking down into one of the funkiest YEM jams I’ve ever seen, with Trey spitting out sexy, powerful licks and the orchestra answering with just as much sexiness and power. The vocal “jam” was a little bizarre, with Trey singing “aaahs” like a choir boy, turning around to each section of the audience to give them their “aaah”. But, as strange as it was, it worked. Trey’s voice sounded better than ever and gave the jam a very haunting and interesting feel.
Other highlights for me were Stash, If I could, Let me Lie and Guyute. There were some especially beautiful moments in If I Could.
In general, the compositions were nice, but there were just a few too many times when Don Hart or Trey (or both) decided to go mellow instead of powerful because it’s “orchestral”. There were definitely moments of power but it seems that, overall, they chose kind of a “Snow White” orchestral feel and I’m more of a Beethoven-- or even John Williams-- fan. It was surprising that they went so light and fluffy so often when they had such a powerful tool to use in the orchestra. Even more surprising considering the fan base and what they tend to like about Trey-- which is why I think some ended up leaving. When YEM got going, a lot of people were turning to each other saying “man, this is what the whole show should have been like!” It’s not just that he was finally shredding but it was also the fact that he was finally using the massive talent of the musicians backing him, which I think everyone would have loved to have seen more of earlier on.
All in all, I’m very glad I went. It was definitely a unique experience. I don’t think I’d go to another one if it were to be in the same format, though. I respect the fact that Trey is trying to blend with the orchestras and create what sounds more like guitar symphony than symphonic rock, but for my personal taste it needed more oomph. The symphony vibe isn’t quite my thing in general. I absolutely despise sitting through a concert, but we were lucky to be in the back row with nobody behind us so we could stand and dance without being disrespectful. Had that not been the case, I could have seen myself getting super fidgety.
So, yeah… good times. Not necessarily mind blowing… but I think it could be, if it was developed further and Trey allowed a little more TREY to infiltrate the symphony, rather than trying so hard to blend.
Hope we get to listen back to these one day… there were a lot of songs that would be most excellent for a romantic evening.
And I picked up a poster-- which I dig. 
^^thanks dooj.
I’d like to see Trey perform with fewer more accomplished string players like Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, on the fiddle, and Edgar Meyer, on upright bass. These guys would have a better handle on his music’s organic nature.
Okay, I give the man lots of credit for going and doing the whole orchestra thing, really shows his talent.
BUT…
The end of that YEM with him chanting on the stage? That’s kind of weird, no?
I mean, it’s not terrible singing/whoa-ing as far as being in tune and the right pitch…but it’s just fucking weird.
Reminds me of something Will Ferrell would do in a movie or something.
^Definitely weird. But again, it worked in context, imo.
You should have heard the smug, self-important fans shushing the crowd when they giggled at Trey’s funny walk away from the mic. It’s like, jesus folks… it’s fucking Trey. We can laugh. It’s ok.
it’s even funnier knowing that this is the same guy
The L.A. crowd just doesn’t get it!
Aw, I’d say about 40% or so got it… and then 40% were typical L.A. douches… and then the other 20% spent the night going “My dear, this certainly doesn’t sound like Tchaikovsky!”
There’s only a partial of it up on etree… Not sure what’s up with that?
bt.etree.org/details.php?id=553530
Trey Anastasio w/ Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
March 10th, 2012
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles, California
** Partial Set I **
- Brian And Robert
- Goodbye Head
- Guyute
- Let Me Lie
- Stash
Notes:
- Partial Set I
- Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted By Scott Dunn
Yes…a little weird.
But I was really enjoying everything.
Man,…YEM sounds so good with strings.
at first he has this serious look then at about 3:40 he gets this huge smile on his face, like “holy shit, i have a fucking orchestra backing me up!” 
Honestly, seeing how the vocal jam is very much part of the song, I thought what he chose to do was elegant and tasteful. He did sneak in that damn Streets of Cairo tease, though.
I don’t care what anyone says… the Trey vocal at the end of a major badass YEM was amaaazing!!! I fucking love shit like that… sooo gooooddd to just get/let it out in front of a listening audience, even if all of em “don’t get it”…that was the only part I recorded. hah! The rest of the show was stellar! 
woop woop! I heard that tease and was like
BTW-Brooke has left Billy. Next time don’t propose during a song about a break up. 
+1 Trey’s singing was cool. I realllly liked it. Streets of Cairo is not cool. Watch the vid of the performance, the build up to the note, Trey has this grin that keeps getting bigger and bigger as he gets all excited for the note.