Last night Phish keyboardist Page McConnell made himself known as hanging out in New Orleans by dropping in on a little warehouse party to sit in with an old buddy Russell Batiste, surprising the locals and no doubt a nice break in between studio sessions with his 2018 revival of his Vida Blue project.
It was confirmed earlier this year that the project had gotten some time in the studio with the Spam All-Stars, so it’ll be great to see what the Page McConnell / Oteil Burbridge / Russell Batiste trio comes up with again with under their Vida Blue moniker.
In fact, last night they even confirmed that the new album is indeed happening. Check out the video below…
Russell Batiste announces Vida Blue album…
The lineup last night was gnarly, too, with Damon Batiste leading the show and Page sitting in with Russell Batiste’s usual band “& Orchestra from Da Hood”.
Some videos of the sit-in have surfaced, too.
Page McConnell Sits-In with Russell Batiste
“Most Events Aren’t Planned”
Our buddy Pete got the tweets out the earliest, though, thanks in part to his NOLA crew…
My NOLA sources inform me that Page is playing a warehouse party right now and Russell Baptiste just announced the new Vida Blue album pic.twitter.com/KKbuspfJbJ
— PeteLikesPhish (@PeteLikesPhish) June 23, 2018
Rest of the band was Russell’s local NOLA crew. There was a keytar pic.twitter.com/ov0jMvvFPd
— PeteLikesPhish (@PeteLikesPhish) June 23, 2018
Also in attendance musically was Casme, Shaka Zulu & Voices, Damon Batiste & Batiste International Music Exchange, Ken Smiley & Magic Show, T Lyons with DJ’s Anki.Unicorn, What tha Funk and Tristan Dufrene.
In case y’all forgot the good stuff this band could put out, check out this video of their epic “Most Events Aren’t Planned” which Phish now has back in their rotation.
