Trey Anastasio Was Late-Night TV’s First In-Studio Musical Guest Since March

Trey Anastasio Was Late-Night TV’s First In-Studio Musical Guest Since March

When the pandemic started shutting the world down in March, late-night TV shows moved production online, shooting segments and doing interviews virtually. Music performances were first done from the comfort of the artist’s home and, a little more recently, as pre-recorded clips with bands performing in various venues and stages wherever they happen to be. Perfume Genius’ recent Fallon performance, for example, was shot in an empty Lodge Room from Los Angeles.

Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show studio opened up in the middle of last month to serve as the host’s home base, but until today no musical performances had been done on their stage. That all changed when Phish frontman Trey Anastasio stopped by on Tuesday afternoon to perform for a segment that aired on Tuesday night’s show. He was there to promote his recent quarantine album Lonely Trip, which came out at the end of last month, and he performed “I Never Needed You Like This Before” from it, accompanied by Questlove and the rest of the show’s house band the Roots.

As Rolling Stone reports, Anastasio arrived at Rockefeller Center alone and took a COVID-19 test (negative) before heading up to studio 6A, Conan O’Brien’s old studio, for the socially distant performance. “I’m still buzzing after playing with the Roots. Man, I needed that,” Anastasio said in a statement to Pitchfork. “I don’t know what was better, feeling Questlove’s drums shaking my whole body or watching the crew in the back of the room dancing around while we played.”

Watch below.

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