Trey Anastasio Covers Talking Heads with Jo Lampert at Joe’s Pub
Trey Anastasio and Jo Lampert, image via YouTube.
Last night, Feb. 12, Trey Anastasio headed downtown for a surprise guest-spot in Jo Lampert’s special Valentine’s concert, Color Me Cupid – A Night for Lovers and Loners. Onstage at Joe’s Pub, the intimate club room in the East Village’s Public Theater, the Phish frontman joined the singer, actor and regular Phish collaborator for a cover of Talking Heads’ “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).” Lampert introduced her collaborator as “both an idol and a friend.”
“I consider him one of the best men that I know,” Lampert shared. “His talent is unending. He decided that he would, in fact, grace the stage with me tonight, and I feel super duper honored.”
Anastasio’s sit-in came towards the end of Lampert’s hour and a half on stage. In the company of bandleader and keyboardist Keith Cotton, bassist Julia Adamy, drummer Ross Pederson, guitarist Ben Butler and guitarist and keyboardist Matt Beck, the leading duo stretched the Speaking In Tongues classic out to an impressive 10 minutes, deftly moving from jazzy passages to full-blown progressive rock in a jam breakdown that centered Anastasio’s fiery soloing and vocal improvisation from Lampert. After Anastasio stepped off the stage, Lampert expressed her gratitude by closing on a surprise cover of Phish’s “Waste,” featuring backing vocals from Edie Falco, Nicole Weiss and Jake Stigers.
Lampert and Anastasio first shared a stage for Phish’s 2016 Halloween show, when the stage and screen performer added vocals to the jam quartet’s full-album cover of David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Their most recent collaboration was Lampert’s feature in Anastasio’s Beacon Theatre run last year, which recalled her participation in the 2020 Beacon Jams livestreams.
Watch Anastasio’s sit-in in the full show recording of Color Me Cupid below.
