Musician Trey Anastasio ushers in SPAC season
It’s a pleasant mid-june evening at Saratoga Performing
Arts Center. In front of an ecstatic audience, Trey Anastasio is offering up a dexterous solo on the Phish track “Stash.” The 24 oz. Miller Lite in my hand cost $15. If not for the face mask hanging from my neck and the special pod seating to limit attendance, you could easily forget that the last 15 months happened.
But of course, they did happen and that’s what made the evening special for the 5,000 or so people in attendance for the opening of SPAC’S popular music concert season, a three-night solo stand by Anastasio, frontman of beloved jam band Phish. When these shows were first announced this past May with tickets being sold until SPAC hit 30 percent capacity, it seemed like the tentative start of a return to large-scale concerts. But with the recent changes to CDC guidelines and the easing of restrictions by Gov. Cuomo, it felt more like a celebration.
The celebratory mood was
palpable throughout the evening. The crowd roared its approval for nearly every track choice and sang along like it was a huge rock ‘n’ roll show, despite the fact that Anastasio was seated all night, playing a two-anda-half hour acoustic set rooted in softer hues and musical nuance.
But even though the combination of limited seating and social distancing — lawn seats were pre-arranged by SPAC staff and placed in small circles of two-tofour seats and indoor seats were sold in similar groupings, with seats in between cordoned off — with an acoustic show would inherently seem to be a more subdued affair, Anastasio was clearly excited to be in front of a live audience again and his ebullience stood out all night.
That was obvious by his setlist, which was full of songs never performed either acoustically or with the occasional string section and pianist accompaniment. The spin on the Phish track “Fluffhead” was absolutely gorgeous, the strings augmenting Anastasio’s deft touch on the acoustic solo perfectly and follow-up track “Mercury” was masterful.
But while the different arrangements were sure to please Phishheads and offer up a special experience, it was a couple of specific track choices and humorous stage banter that indicated Anastasio’s and the audience’s enthusiasm to be back at a concert again and the sheer joy of having apparently made it through the pandemic and back to some semblance of normalcy.
During second song “Alive Again,” the fans absolutely lost it at the refrain of “The time has come for you to be alive again.” It happened again during a fun “Sigma Oasis,” when Anastasio belted out the lyrics “So take off, take off your mask” and let the words linger in the air for a beat.
Based on the passion of the response, you would have thought it was a celebration befitting the end of a major international conflict.
To be fair, it kind of is. The coronavirus pandemic was hard for the vast majority of the population. Being able to safely sing along to your favorite songs in-person again in the summertime after being unable to do so for nearly two years feels like a victory.
And “safely” is the key word here. There were really only a couple dozen non-employees wearing masks. Basic math skills (the state’s vaccination rate is a touch over 70 percent and the Capital Region’s is slightly higher than that) would indicate there were a lot of people abusing the honor system as it pertains to mask usage, which, quite frankly, is a real bummer. Despite that, the SPAC set-up to encourage distancing and the year-plus worth of social conditioning paid off and overall it was a pleasant, comfortable evening without the specter of a contagion hanging overhead.
Here’s hoping the rest of the summer season is just as fun, if not more so.