Trey Anastasio: The Beacon Jams

The Beacon Theatre has shared What Calls You Home, a brief documentary about The Beacon Jams, the recent Trey Anastasio virtual residency at the iconic New York City venue. As the documentary’s announcement notes, What Calls You Home features exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage, performance highlights from the eight-week run, and in-depth interviews filmed during the residency. As Anastasio notes in a voice-over in the film’s opening sequence, “A beacon, if you look it up in the dictionary, is a beam of light that is sent out to a sailor who’s lost at sea, and then my head blew up when I thought, ‘That’s exactly what this is, but sonically. Everybody’s lost at sea, they’re out in the fog … a beacon is what calls you home.'” The short film continues with a variety of interviews with the people behind the residency, including Darren Pfeffer (EVP Live, MSG Entertainment), Trey Kerr (video director), Marc Janowitz (lighting/production designer), and Jeff Tanski (piano/keyboards/associate music director). The topics covered range from the decision to flip the stage plot around (“It feels like being in a garage band or something … The best decision we made was turning around. That was when The Beacon Jams came together,” says Trey) to the creative new renderings of old favorite tunes. As Tanski explains, “There’s few people that are at his level that are just so willing to let go of something he’s created. Nothing is precious for him. He writes something and he puts it out into the world, and it’s no longer his. He’s given himself the permission to do whatever he wants to it. I think that’s why, in a lot of ways, these concerts are kind of a culmination of that. Everyone’s getting to see what’s possible when you can just let go of one idea and let it turn into another, and let it turn into another. Quite honestly, I think that’s what people have been responding to the last 35-plus years with his bands.”