new addition to Trey's rig

[Walker done done]

Hi guys,

Just got back from tour last night and....WOW.  Those last 4 shows (Camdens/MPP's) were SMOKIN' hot.  Really glad we decided to go as we were considering ditching them due to the time off & distance from Maine.  Tons of bust outs and superb playing for the most part.  I've got some "ok" pics that I'll post once I've uploaded them to my hard drive.

I also noticed an odd new piece of equipment @ MPP in front of Trey and later confirmed what I suspected it was when a tech came out in between sets to "test" it = Trey now has a lyrics monitor/screen on stage with him (directly in front of him), and it's coyly packaged in what looks like to be a regular vocal/instrument monitor, yet smaller and more box-shaped rather than the rectangle-ish monitors.  

I confirmed that it was a screen when the tech came out, unplugged it from it's wire, and plugged in a keyboard-shaped "workpad" of sorts into it and the screen lit up and shined off his face/body.  I assumed that he was patching in the lyrics to either Meatstick, I Saw It Again, or more probable, Jumpin' Jack Flash....or even possibly the entire sets worth of songs.  Either way, I'm happy that Trey's using one now as we've seen him (albeit not all that often) flub lyrics here and there.  I for one rather he have it on stage & nail the lyrics rather than screw them up, and the way he's got it set up (looking like a mini monitor) I think is a great idea, as opposed to Bob/Phil/et al who have the obvious (and sometimes view-obstructing) computerish screens on stands on the stage with them.  

As a guy in a band who does all covers, I can attest that is very hard to remember all the lyrics to songs you didn't write, no matter how many times you've sung them or heard them, so I'm all for a more accurate performance, even if it's at the dispense of having cheat sheets or the like on stage with you.  

Either way, hadn't seen this brought up yet so figured it was worth mentioning.

I also got as close up pics of the Boogie as I could but even on the rail & my zoom my camera still couldn't pick up the numbers on the dials, BUT....I think we can see the space between the 10 and the 1, so we may be able to get a better idea based on that of where he's got the settings.

[jadirusso]

Wow good work Walker.. nice find. That's very interesting.

[sour d]

That is really cool walker. Now if we can only figure out how to control it wirelessly and change the setlist at will.


(on a side note, NATEVA! I just woke up for work and there is 3 flatbeds full of portopotties in front of my house, then the dude thats running the festival just stopped by to give me the lowdown on what's going on with everything. Cool fuckin guy. If your going, I can pm you when the gates are really opening and what rules he said are completely bendable.)

[YouEnjoyMyReba]

This is good and all but does it mean that the setlist are planned?  If so, i am sad

[cactuskeeb]

my zoom my camera still couldn't pick up the numbers on the dials, BUT....I think we can see the space between the 10 and the 1, so we may be able to get a better idea based on that of where he's got the settings.

I like the way you think.  I used to have a close up picture of the deluxe from one of Trey's solo shows (recently, a hard drive crash robbed me of this one). 

I used the black space between 10 and 1 to figure out the settings for each dial.

[Walker done done]

This is good and all but does it mean that the setlist are planned?  If so, i am sad

Hate to break it to you, but I think for the most part that most of the time the setlists are planned (and have been, for quite some time).  What I mean by "planned" are they've got a list of songs they're doing, which most likely isn't "complete" per se, but say they're set to play 22 songs that night....my guess is they've got a good 15+ written down that they know they're going to do, and they leave the rest up for imagination.  Of course, being the self-described "all request band", they always leave room for spur-of-the-moment additions (within reason, of course).

There's plenty of documentation to support this, most noteably the stuff that talks about how much time Trey used to spend agonizing over the setlists before each show.  I've read recently that he's let up on this a lot, but still....especially when you consider some of the more difficult....or even more so...the lesser played tunes (any of the so-called "bust outs" that we all love to get at shows), they've gotta have somewhat of an idea of what they're going to do going into the show and certainly need to practice them before bringing them to the stage.  You don't just bust into a (Walfredo, Tela, et al) on a whim without first discussing it/rehearsing it.

[Walker done done]

That is really cool walker. Now if we can only figure out how to control it wirelessly and change the setlist at will.


(on a side note, NATEVA! I just woke up for work and there is 3 flatbeds full of portopotties in front of my house, then the dude thats running the festival just stopped by to give me the lowdown on what's going on with everything. Cool fuckin guy. If your going, I can pm you when the gates are really opening and what rules he said are completely bendable.)

LOL...controlling the setlist is DEFINITELY the next Jedi move.  Seriously, someone needs to figure out how to hack into that thing and start changing it up on them.  How hilarious would that be?

Speaking of Nateva....hell yeah PM me that shit!  I'm not sure if I'll be able to head up Thursday, though I really do want to see my friends band (Gypsy Tailwind, the opener)....just not sure I can swing getting out of work, getting up there in time, etc.  PM me your phone number too, I wouldn't mind chatting w/ you beforehand about what you've learned so far from him.  Let's try to hook up during the festival for sure.  I'll be bringing my acoustic, maybe we can have some jams!  If we don't head up Thursday then we'll be getting up there at some point Friday afternoon but not sure what time because getting out of work early may be hard to do for the both of us since we took so much time off for Phish.  Casulties of tour, I suppose.

Was the guy that stopped by your house named Mike (balding, early 40's), or was it the actual festival organizer (aka the chubby-ish dude I saw on the news a few weeks back)?

[patrickstefanski]

I remember at "IT" Trey saying that they had been trying to do completely spontaneous set lists.  I also remember a couple of moments where there LONG pauses between songs, one of which Trey said "we are trying to decide what to play"

I remember really liking that feeling of spontaneity

[sour d]

Was the guy that stopped by your house named Mike (balding, early 40's), or was it the actual festival organizer (aka the chubby-ish dude I saw on the news a few weeks back)?

Chubby dude, Frank. He's been checking in with the whole neighborhood. Cool guy. I'll pm you everything else

[Walker done done]

I remember at "IT" Trey saying that they had been trying to do completely spontaneous set lists.  I also remember a couple of moments where there LONG pauses between songs, one of which Trey said "we are trying to decide what to play"

I remember really liking that feeling of spontaneity

I also remember IT, and there were definitely some extended pauses in between, which lends credibility to that notion.  And sometimes there still are long pauses to this day, where you know that's what they're doing - discussing what to play next.  Even in Portland last fall, I know that at least the 2nd half of the 2nd set was NOT planned, as I clearly remember Trey shouting out to the rest of the band what song they were going to play next (as they were wrapping up the current song ending).  Also, when I saw them in Albany 9/9/00, I knew that set wasn't planned because of the same type of stuff.

We were sitting front row behind the stage, and they opened up the 2nd set with Jibboo followed by The Curtain.  As they were wrapping up The Curtain, Trey called out the next song (Sand) to the band, but both Mike & Fish mistakenly busted into the beat to First Tube, and not Sand.  Trey then leaned into Fishman and twice yelled "SAAAND!......SAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!!", louder each time he said it, and on cue, Fish & Mike both switched over to the correct beat of Sand.  If you listen to the tape, you can hear it clearly (them switching it up).  Pretty funny.

[patrickstefanski]

I remember at "IT" Trey saying that they had been trying to do completely spontaneous set lists.  I also remember a couple of moments where there LONG pauses between songs, one of which Trey said "we are trying to decide what to play"

I remember really liking that feeling of spontaneity

I also remember IT, and there were definitely some extended pauses in between, which lends credibility to that notion.  And sometimes there still are long pauses to this day, where you know that's what they're doing - discussing what to play next.  Even in Portland last fall, I know that at least the 2nd half of the 2nd set was NOT planned, as I clearly remember Trey shouting out to the rest of the band what song they were going to play next (as they were wrapping up the current song ending).  Also, when I saw them in Albany 9/9/00, I knew that set wasn't planned because of the same type of stuff.

We were sitting front row behind the stage, and they opened up the 2nd set with Jibboo followed by The Curtain.  As they were wrapping up The Curtain, Trey called out the next song (Sand) to the band, but both Mike & Fish mistakenly busted into the beat to First Tube, and not Sand.  Trey then leaned into Fishman and twice yelled "SAAAND!......SAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!!", louder each time he said it, and on cue, Fish & Mike both switched over to the correct beat of Sand.  If you listen to the tape, you can hear it clearly (them switching it up).  Pretty funny.

I think I remember trey flat out saying into the microphone that they were not planning setlists at it.  I'll give it a listen this week.

Also, I judt listened to the 0703 show....trey totally forgot the words to sanity, someone in the crowd had to help him out.  I wonder what was on his monitor during that song

[sour d]

I think I remember trey flat out saying into the microphone that they were not planning setlists at it. 

Yeah I remember that too. Something about that whole tour they had tried to not think about what they were going to play until they were actually playing it and that they hadn't had any problems until right then. Then he asked for requests from the audience. Can't remember what they played next. Meatstick? I have to give it a listen too

[Walker done done]

I think I remember trey flat out saying into the microphone that they were not planning setlists at it.  I'll give it a listen this week.

Also, I judt listened to the 0703 show....trey totally forgot the words to sanity, someone in the crowd had to help him out.  I wonder what was on his monitor during that song

I also heard that.  I wonder if possibly it's only for:

a.) the songs he really needs (i.e. the bust outs, random covers, etc.), or
b.) the songs that they sort of say they're going to do ahead of time (i.e. the 15 or however many songs they "agree upon" prior to the show)

And I can definitely see Sanity as a song thrown in on a whim, where he didn't have the lyrics programmed and therefore flubbed them.

Then again....maybe he's reading this board and knows we're on to him, so he purposely flubbed the lyrics to try to throw us off course.  Bastard!  You know, if I were an innocent bystander looking at this board, I may draw the conclusion that none of us have lives based on some of these topics. LOL.

[Brian27]

no signals used in Frankenstein anymore like the zombie walk

[patrickstefanski]

Then again....maybe he's reading this board and knows we're on to him, so he purposely flubbed the lyrics to try to throw us off course.  Bastard!  You know, if I were an innocent bystander looking at this board, I may draw the conclusion that none of us have lives based on some of these topics. LOL.

Yeah, nerdom is rampant on this thread, but I think Trey is used to it.  I read an article in TIMEOUT new york last year with trey, and the guy starts the interview with a VERY specific question (can't remember off-hand) then ends it with "sorry, I'm kind of a nerd with this stuff"

something akin to:  "On March 20th 1992 you changed the lyric "jumping into the tub with your brother" to "jumping into the alligator pit with your brother,"  why did you do that?  Sorry, I'm kind of a nerd with this stuff."

to which Trey replied " Yeah, join the club"

i think trey gets it