Photo by Erik Kabik

Trey Anastasio Band
The Wiltern
Los Angeles, CA
November 4
Nine years since last visiting The Wiltern, Trey Anastasio Band made a cheery return to the mid-city Los Angeles theatre in support of the guitarist’s new album Paper Wheels.That 2006 appearance, just days ahead of Anastasio’s darkest personal hour, became more notable in hindsight but also marked a touring band that at the time carried masterful hired hands Jeff Sipe and Tony Hall as its rhythm section.This time around, TAB’s core unit of drummer Russ Lawton and bassist Tony Markellis, the latter described by Anastasio as the world’s best bass player, were back, flanked by longtime keyboardist Ray Paczkowski and a now-familiar trio of horn players- James Casey, Natalie Cressman, and Jennifer Hartswick.
Anastasio is an undeniable workhorse.Having completed in July a five-show stint with Fare Thee Well, and touring the summer with Phish, he spent little time off the road before rolling out again with his trusted solo group.Certainly there could be an expectation that his summertime spent studying up on the Grateful Dead or stretching with Phish would inform his playing in TAB, yet the uncanny redhead seemed to do just the opposite.His solos, while still bearing his myriad influences, were more lyrical, probing, and concerted, even among the dissonance of expanded minor-key entries like “Money, Love and Change.”Notes wailed and moaned, expressed in singular showcase rather than in sheets of sonic rapid-fire or chromatic, Garcia-esque adventure.His tone was often spitting with barks and growls, with Anastasio hunched over his instrument, almost Pacino-like in his Scarface blaze of glory, fixated on connecting with the near-capacity clump of bobbing bodies.
There were classics of the catalog, from “Mr. Completely” and “Night Speaks to a Woman” to “Plasma” and a closing “Push On ‘Til the Day,” a few nods to his other band with set-opener “Sand” and “First Tube,” and a cavalcade of covers.It was in those excursions that Anastasio and his band were at their most limber and salient.A beautifully paced rendition of The Wailers’ “Soul Rebel” or klezmer-meets- bluegrass-meets-Zappa joyride on “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” were tame by comparison to the candy-striped silliness of Guy Lombardo’s “Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later than You Think,” and Hartswick’s spot-on vocal that shattered Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused.”
The new album got its moments, as well, as on an optimistic spin of “Sometime After Sunset,” but within a TAB performance any song feels of a piece more than a plug.The echoing spirit of this ensemble is that of musicians who appreciate and enjoy playing music, whether new or old, their own or others.It all dovetails into a concert experience whose intent is clearly to have a good time.From this night at The Wiltern, it’s evident Trey Anastasio and his Band are happy to enjoy themselves for hours, even if it’s later than we think.