Dead & Company – December 27 & 28, 2019 The Forum, Inglewood (Los Angeles area shows) Review and Photos for Deadheadland by Hal Masonberg
The two night pre-NYE Dead & Company run at The Forum in Los Angeles was a welcome year-end treat for the Southern California DeadHead community. A chance to reunite with friends old and new, to wish one another happy holidays and share hopes for the year to come. And to, once again, dance together.
Pre-show live music was on hand on Shakedown as THE ALLIGATORS played a rocking free set under the stars before Saturday evening’s show. Post-show events were aplenty from THE HIGGS to PARACOSMIC and others playing into the wee hours at smaller venues around the Forum.
25 years after the passing of Jerry Garcia, the music of the Grateful Dead has become a musical movement unto itself. There is a veritable bounty of extraordinary musicians and bands playing Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia music and – whether containing original members or not – each band has their own flavor, their own take and style. We all know the influence, but one of the most adventurous aspects of this modern musical landscape is experiencing how the music changes, is reinterpreted by a new combination of voices, by new musical conversations, by a new mixture of different styles.
Dead & Company offers its own unique take on both the music and the scene that, while certainly channeling aspects of the Grateful Dead experience, deserves its own category. The Dead & Company experience is not a Grateful Dead concert. The music feels more calculated, more precise with specific intent.
As many have noted in the past, many songs have been slowed down, favoring what might be a more ballad-style approach. This change alone creates new spaces for the band to explore, a different tone to the conversations than what the Grateful Dead gave us. To this listener, it feels like a slightly less risky approach to the music than was present in the Grateful Dead or Jerry Garcia’s style of improvisational music-making, but its popularity has shown that it’s an interpretation of the music that transcends generation or expectation. There was no shortage of love and excitement from the audience toward the band, and vice versa.
12/27/19 Dead and Company Set 1 opener – Truckin’
Dead & Company’s first night at the Forum was a rather mellow and ethereal affair. The boys opened the first set with TRUCKIN’ which might have suggested a potentially rocking night, but the energy quickly shifted to a more laid-back, more thoughtful approach.
The second set of the first night opened with an understated PLAYING IN THE BAND. Instead of slamming into the opening rhythms, Dead & Company chose to ease its way into the song, This set the stage for what would be a lilting and graceful set of music from the mythical and folkloric journey of TERRAPIN STATION to the sweet and delicate tones of CHINA DOLL. Even THE OTHER ONE favored a more intricate and weaving approach compared to some of the earth-shaking renditions we knew and loved by the Grateful Dead themselves.
Bob Weir’s influence on the band is everywhere. Being the single most innovative and original rhythm guitarist I’ve personally ever seen, Weir’s stylings and preferences are all over Dead & Company’s approach to this beloved catalogue of songs. Anyone familiar with Weir’s solo bands will recognize his mark, influence and musical preferences here. One of the results of this approach is that John Mayer’s lead guitar is less prominent in the mix than Garcia’s was. His playing doesn’t so much lead the way as blend into the soundscape itself. This offers a very different feel and interplay, one that has come to define the sound of Dead & Company.
Not to say Mayer’s leads don’t occasionally rise to the level of leading the music. It changes from song to song, but it was on night two that Mayer really got to tear into some leads and bring the music to new heights. While the first set felt a bit more like an extension of night one, more reserved and meditative, the second set offered a rocking bolt of energy that really showed what this band can do when they ride the music like a pro surfer becoming one with a wave.
Dead & Company Live at The Forum LA 12/28/19 Set I Opener
Dead & Company Live at The Forum LA 12/28/19 Set II Opener
For me, Dead and Company rarely feels like the music is playing the band. I’m usually hyper-aware of the specific intentions of the music and musicians; I can feel the thought and care that has been put into it. There is a sense of mastering the music as opposed to giving in fully to it. Of course, that’s just my interpretation. Others would disagree. But the second set on night two was as close as I’ve gotten to seeing the music actually playing this band. It felt more connected, more organic, less restrained.
Opening the second set by completing set one’s VIOLA LEE BLUES was the perfect, unexpected intro to a night full of delightful twists and turns. The CHINA->RIDER was inventive and nuanced with a strong life-force behind it. The DARK STAR was melodic and intense with Mayer taking center stage and, along with Chimenti, really traversing some wonderfully rich spaces. The HE’S GONE was both beautiful and powerful. DRUMS -> SPACE was as primal and exotic as ever until the band made a sharp left turn into ALTHEA which turned out to be one of the more powerful songs of the evening.
The MORNING DEW that followed was a most welcome treat that, as MORNING DEW’s often will, acknowledged a special night of music. This MORNING DEW was a perfect example of some of the differences between the Grateful Dead and Dead & Company. Gone is the pin-drop quiet of Garcia’s rendition, that gentle, mournful, barely-audible soulfulness that would take its time in exquisitely and organically building to a crescendo of deep and powerful emotional release. Dead & Company’s MORNING DEW focuses more on the unstoppable heart-wrenching mournfulness that cannot be contained. It doesn’t linger, but instead succumbs to the pain of loss and the rage of helplessness that is at the heart of MORNING DEW.
Though, in my opinion, Dead & Company rarely reaches for the ecstatic highs and the delicate lows the Grateful Dead traversed, they do – with their own creative voice – manage to play that space in-between with both skill and grace. The two nights at the Forum in Los Angeles were the perfect sampling of the diverse spaces this band inhabits, and of what they do best.
Back in 1969, as the Summer of Love was on it’s deathbed, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady ventured away from their psychedelic roots and formed a little blued based band to occupy their time in between Jefferson Airplane gigs. That is where the Hot Tuna story began.
Flash forward 50 years and Jorma and Jack are still at it. Over the last five decades Hot Tuna has had many different configurations, both acoustic and electric. In recent years, as the road warriors have grown older, they have seemingly settled into the acoustic side of their musical journey. Oftentimes playing just the two of them, or with mandolinist Barry Mitterhoff. However this year, with their golden anniversary upon them Hot Tuna decided to plug back in and take their new electric trio, with drummer Justin Guip, for a spin around the country.
This past Wednesday night Hot Tuna’s celebratory tour rolled into western North Carolina for a gig at the famed Asheville club, The Orange Peel. Warming up for Hot Tuna was the bluegrass duo of Rob Ickes and Trey Hensley. Rob and Trey are about as perfect as a bluegrass duo can be. Rob’s dobro playing is unparalleled and the young Trey Hensley can wow a crowd with both his near perfect singing chops and his masterful command of an acoustic guitar.
Over the course of their hour long set they treated the near capacity crowd with a nice mix of Trey Hensley originals and fitting cover versions of other people’s songs. A few songs into their set Rob commented from stage that he viewed his band mate as one of the greatest guitarists on the planet, adding that “If anyone disagrees now, you won’t by the end of the night.” He wasn’t wrong, on multiple occasions, Trey’s playing elicited cheers from the fans, most of whom had probably never even heard his name before, much less his music.
Of course Rob is no slouch either. He’s widely considered one of the best dobro players in the country, and watching him perform makes it evident why he is held in such high regard by those in the bluegrass community. At times the two players seemed to be in a battle to out play each other, while also leaving enough space in the music for the other to shine. It’s truly a euphoric experience watching the two of them work their collective magic.
Based on the reactions from the crowd they made more than a few new fans during their time on stage.
Photo courtesy of J Scott Shrader
As great as Rob and Trey were, this was Hot Tuna’s night, and the anticipation was building all night as we waited for the legends to take the stage. When they finally did grace us with their presence the crowd erupted with applause.
The first three songs were fairly standard blues numbers, that despite the “electric” nature of the show, wouldn’t have felt too terribly out of place at a regular acoustic Hot Tuna show. It was on the fourth song, “I Can’t Be Satisfied” that things finally took a turn into the direction I had been hoping for. Jorma switched guitars just after the third song, and with it seemed to switch personalities as well. The second he strapped that guitar on and strummed it for the first time the whole scene turned REALLY electric. So loud, and so filthy, that I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of the septuagenarians in the audience didn’t get a little scared.
Jack and Justin were locked in as Jorma shredded like few can while almost growling into his microphone. We were witnessing, old school electric power trio music at it’s finest, and the crowd was eating it up.
Jorma and Jack are obviously very used to playing together,
but what shocked me was how well Justin sounded adding drums behind these two
musical icons. He was the perfect man for the job, adding fills and backbeats,
without being too overpowering. He seemed to approach his role with the goal of
simply complementing what Jorma and Jack were doing rather than attempting to
steal the show. Jorma and Jack would congregate around his kit while they were
playing, only retreating long enough to
reach the microphones that flanked the stage to sing a verse, before huddling
back together at the center stage.
Photo courtesy of J Scott Shrader
One of the highlights of the night came mid set when they
busted out the old Jefferson Airplane song “Trial By Fire”. It
started off with a bass intro by Jack, that proved why he is considered one of
the best bassists of all time, while Justin added little complimentary fills.
Eventually Jorma came in at started a playful little back and forth with Jack.
Musically bouncing little licks off each other for a few minutes before
settling into the meat of the song. Once they did finally make it into
“Trial By Fire” it was as magical as anything I’ve heard them play in
the 25 years I’ve been watching them perform. Led by Jack’s spectacular
playing, Hot Tuna put on a clinic reminding the music lovers in the crowd that
long before there was even such thing as a “jamband” trailblazers
like Hot Tuna were paving the way for the music scene as we know it today.
The other high water mark of the show was “Walkin’
Blues”. Very different than the versions we as Deadheads are used to, this
take was a very loud. very electric, and very dirty, distortion filled
shred-fest. As Jorma and Jack proved that, in addition to being one of the OG
jambands they are also one of the best electrical blues bands that has ever
lived. Justin took this song to show us what he had as well. Really taking the
time to shine, he carried “Walkin’ Blues” just as much, if not more,
that the two legends he had the task of backing. All while grinning ear to ear
at the honor it must’ve been to be the man chosen for this specific chore.
Photo courtesy of J Scott Shrader
The most interesting musical journey of the evening was the set closing version of the Hot Tuna classic “Funky #7”. The song started with a very jazzy drum into from Justin. Jack eventually joined in and started dropping bombs over the drum beat before eventually settling to a very funky drum and bass jam for a minute or so. Then as the two of them became completely immersed in their groove, here comes Jorma paying straight heavy metal guitar licks over the funky backbeat from the rhythm section. Before we found ourselves at the end of the song the trio had wandered their way through multiple types of jams. They made their way from the standard kind of jam you expect from a rock and roll band, into the kind of electric blues jam Hot Tuna has come to be known for, into one of the most psychedelic things I’ve heard in a long time.
Reminding us that, despite having slowed down a bit over the years, they are still not that far removed from their roles as pioneers of psychedelic music. The schizophrenic nature of the journey worked the crowd into a frenzy. Even the fans that had chosen to enjoy the show from their seats were now on their feet, engrossed in the music, hurling applause towards the stage, and even swaying back and forth a little bit. At the exact moment we were collectively going to explode from joy due to the music they were making they brought it to a raucous abrupt stop, and just like that they put down their instruments and walked off stage. It was one of those “mic drop” moments in which you could tell their purpose was a little reminder that, despite, their age, they still one of the best in the business. Always have been, and always will be.
For the encore Hot Tuna brought our Rob and Trey for a version of “Baby What You Want Me To do”. Oftentimes musical collaborations like these fall flat, or just don’t work for a myriad of reasons. That was not the case this evening. Rob and Trey both added so much to the sounds that it was impossible not to be moved. Trey and Jorma were locked into, what I can only describe as, a guitar duel. Each showing the other what they had. Rob adding to the assault with a few rock n roll dobro licks of his own.
You could tell everyone on stage was having as much fun as we were out on the Orange Peel floor. As the intensity of the jam built, so did the energy in the crowd. It was the perfect way to end a perfect evening of amazing music.
If Hot Tuna’s 50th anniversary tour makes it anywhere near
your town, I urge you to make it a point to get to the show. After five decades
Jorma and Jack still have it. They can still command an audience with the best
of them, and they can still find new and fresh ways to blow your minds. Plus
you should ALWAYS go see the legends every chance you get, you never know when
you won’t have another chance.
Set list:
Hot Tuna: August 28, 2019 @ The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC
Been So Long; Hesitation Blues; Barbeque King; I Can’t
Be Satisfied; Hit Single #1; Sleep Song; Trial By Fire, Bowlegged Woman, Knock
Kneed Man; Sea Child; Good Shepard, Walkin’ Blues; Funky #7 Encore: Baby What
You Want Me To Do (with Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley)
Vinyl Fuzz reviews
Dead and Company
at Dodger Stadium
– Plus his top 10 bands!
“…I thought that was a very crazy experience, and one of the best concerts I ever went to…”
While enjoying some Dead and Company clips on YouTube, I came across this very upbeat young music reviewer, Vinyl Fuzz, and his YouTube review of Dead and Company’s show this past Saturday at Dodger Stadium. I think you’ll get a kick out of his take on the whole scene, from Shakedown Street to the concert, and his wonderful descriptions of his experience that night.
And then he lists his top 10 favorite bands, and I think you will totally dig his choices, and his explanations of why he likes these bands – of course Grateful Dead is on the list, but I won’t tell you in what place, just watch his show!
Author Brian Hassett has generously shared his review of Long Strange Trip, The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead with us. Originally published on brianhassett.com:
LetThereBeSongsToFillTheScreen
I remember when I first saw the long-in-the-works Beat Generation documentary “The Source” at its premiere in Manhattan with McClure, Amram and all these other luminaries and we all went to the afterparty at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and everybody was freaking out that finally a serious long-form Beat documentary got made!
Well, that night just repeated itself 15 years later in Toronto — at the International Premiere of the definitive Grateful Dead doc “Long Strange Trip.”
The director Amir Bar-Lev (above) and his extended crew have been working on this for the last 14 years (!)
Martin Scorsese executive produced. Trixie Garcia and filmmaker Justin Kreutzmann were very involved, as were all the living band members. And it includes basically all the “lost” / home-movie footage that’s ever been found.
This was only the sixth theater where it was ever shown on a big screen — and will be again in a nationwide one-off on May 25th which I highly recommend any Deadhead make the point of seeing if it’s in your town.
It’ll be streaming on Amazon Prime starting June 2nd — the same happy day I’m headlining at The Beat Museum in San Francisco. Amazon Prime is a Netflix kinda thing, that they told me is $80 a year, and has all this original programming plus expedited shipping on everything you buy from Amazon. If you don’t see it in a theater on May 25th, or in screenings in NYC & LA that weekend, your only way to see it is with this online subscription. There’s no DVD release planned at this point.
And just to get back to the Beat thing — this epic opus opens and closes with Jack Kerouac (!)
“Say what?!”
Not to give anything away — but as the director joked, “don’t tell anyone, but the hero dies in the end” — the last quote in the movie, Garcia’s sign-off moment, he says something like, “Kerouac broke open the doors for me — and I hope the Grateful Dead have been able to do that for other people.”
This is what I’m on about.
Here’s these filmmakers spending 14 years making this tremendous love-filled soulful take on the Dead — recognizing and making prevalent Jerry’s deep connection to Jack Kerouac.
As I write in my book, the very last question he was ever asked on camera, in an interview for the Silicon Valley Historical Society, was about Neal Cassady. And he riffs rhapsodic — “I got to be good friends with him. He was one of those guys that truly was a very special person. In my life, psychedelics and Neal Cassady are almost equal in terms of influence on me.
“Neal was his own art. He wasn’t a musician, he was a ‘Neal Cassady.’ He was a set of one. And he was it. He was the whole thing — top, bottom, beginning, end, everything. And people knew it. And people would be drawn to it. He was an unbelievable human being— the energy that he had, and the vocabulary he had of gestures and expressions — oh boy he was funny. Phew! I really loved him,” were the last words Jerry Garcia ever said on camera.
And now here — his very last line in the definitive Grateful Dead documentary — is him citing Kerouac as “breaking open the doors.”
Besides that — which is really the whole puckin key as far as I’m concerned . . .
Deadheads Unite!
This is gonna blow your mind!
The first two hours cover basically up until the ’75 hiatus … and then there’s a nice “set break” before another two hours of basically ’76 till ’95.
This was made in complete collaboration with David Lemieux (above, post screening) the Canadian Deadhead who took over from Dick Latvala as the Dead’s official audio/visual archivist. Besides all the extended family members’ cooperation and inside insights, it was also made with a non-Deadhead editor & other key krewe who helped keep the perspective from being too insider.
One of the first comments in the Q&A with the director afterwards was a Toronto Hot Docs Film Festival regular saying he was not into the Dead at all but was blown away by the doc. Several of the advance reviews in places like Variety and Vanity Fair were written by non-Deadheads who stated the same, and were similarly blown away.
Also in the post-screening talk, Amir said how part of the film’s motivation was as sort-of “marriage therapy” — that this was for people who “got it” who needed to explain it to their loved one who didn’t.
And they achieved their objective.
I sure wish my Mom was alive to see this.
Oh, and another thing — it focuses on the music! It makes me wanna puke whenever I hear “music people” dismiss the music this band made.
It was formed by — and was a practicing amalgam of — a bluegrass player (Jerry), a blues singer (Pigpen), a jazz & classical composer/player (Phil), an R&B drummer (Bill), and an alt-folkie (Bob).
Then add in that they were born out of Ken Kesey’s acid tests, and had Neal Cassady as their driving headlight, and you’ve got an engine that’s a Bus that’s a circus that’s a movement that’s done nothing but grow till this day. And it’ll be bigger tomorrow. (Especially once more people see this! )
There’s a lot of time devoted to the whole musical progression from their flukey formation and manic morphing —> the studio world, then the learned dedicated focus that produced the Workingman’s Dead / American Beauty masterpieces, and how it all played out from there.
I (and others in the theater) were brought to tears more than once — including the Morning Dew story from the climax of the Europe ’72 tour, and the writing and playing of The Days Between that Dennis McNally rightly calls “the last Garcia-Hunter masterpiece.” Heavy stuff.
Then there were tons of seat-shaking rounds of laughter, including Hunter explaining the lyrics to Dark Star; the very British Sam Cutler’s various takes on things (one of them, roughly, “In America, people actually go ‘in search of America.’ No one in England goes ‘in search of England.’”); Warner Brothers’ Joe Smith explaining how he never “got it;” Al “Althea” Franken explaining how he did; and Deadheads goofing on clueless local reporters who showed up trying to ‘get the story.’
Something else that’s extraordinary and I appreciated was the storytelling. The filmmaker spoke of it in the Q&A when asked about why some person or moment in their history wasn’t dealt with, then he and I talked about it afterwards. It’s all about the storytelling, man — what you leave out, what you put in, how you arc, how you work themes and build suspense and pace mood. A hundred different directors would make a hundred different movies. And boy, I’m sure glad this guy made this one.
Something specific I loved was his ease with breaking strict chronology. He would follow a trail on, say, sound systems, and then loop back to an earlier period to start another thread. It’s to his credit that he knew he could play with time. After all, as Kreutzmann says in the film, “It’s not about keeping the time, it’s about keeping the feeling.”
There’s also a nice tribute to Bear, and a lot of footage and stories about The Wall of Sound.
When asked about how much more unseen home-movie type footage there was, the director said pretty much everything that was any good that they uncovered or was in the archives made it into the movie. (see, also: Hours, 4)
Plus, there’s a fabulous use of still photographs in all different manner of creative collages to tell the story. Even for hardcore lifelong Deadheads like myself and the whole row of people I went with, there’s oodles of stuff you’ve never seen or heard before.
I was lucky enough to experience this on what the director said was the best screen and sound system it’s ever been shown on — the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. The hardcore Deadheads in this town, led by Trevor Cape, set up a whole Dead scene with hanging tapestries and a six-piece band playing in the second floor lounge leading into the theater for an hour before the screening. Don’t tell me this town ain’t got no heart.
Also, a guy I know, Steve Silberman, does some excellent storytelling himself about how an average kid from New Jersey discovered the band — sort of standing in for all who found their way to the sound & the furious party. He also does a brilliant rap on how a Dead show’s crowd was like a Tibetan mandala with all these different pieces that make up the whole. There’s the ones who every night go to The Phil Zone where they can hear and see him best. Then there’s the Jerry people. Then there’s the spinners out in the hallway. Then there’s the Wharf Rats who are supporting each other through their sobriety. Then there’s the tapers . . . and on and on with all these different groups that come together to make up the whole.
And I’m even in the damn thing! Front & center at Radio City Music Hall in full Steal Your Face make-up dancing to Not Fade Away!
Somebody made a cool comment in the movie about the irony of — “The most ephemeral band in history became the most recorded.” These guys were living in the moment for 30 years, only concerned with the next note played, and not with their official photos or albums or anything else built to last, and yet they created something that has an ever-present ever-growing worldwide life of its own.
Classic Albums made a Grate doc in 1997, “Anthem to Beauty,” about those transitional studio years — but there’s no doubt this is the show we’ve all been waiting for. Deadheads will be throwing house parties around screenings of this for the rest of time, but even more importantly, it achieves the collective filmmakers’ objective of telling the story non-Deadheads will get.
Deadheadland would like to welcome a guest blogger, David Bourne, who is/was Bourne Dead. David is a younger 2nd generation head, sharing his perspective as a 21st Century Deadhead on Blogger, Twitter and Facebook. He agreed to review a recent Dead and Company show for DHL. His mother, Sarah Bourne, took pictures. Thank you David and Sarah!
– Happycat
>^.^<m~ | DHL
Dead & Company
— 06-28-2016 — Hartford, CT —
Review by David Bourne, @21stCenturyDead
The band stopped in Hartford, CT to finish the first leg of the East Coast Summer Tour on Tuesday, before going on a quick jaunt to Colorado then making their way back East for their two Fenway shows. On Tuesday afternoon my parents and I drove down to Hartford through spotty rain with our friend Jimmy to catch the show–our first of the tour! We made it to Hartford without much incident, but the line to get into the parking area was grueling as the local traffic started to mix with the Heads coming off the highway. We ended up at the end of the parking lot farthest from the Xfinity Theatre by the edge of some trees and train tracks, which ended up being pretty helpful as there were no porta-potties in sight. We hung out for a bit while Jimmy went off to hit Shakedown Street and get a ticket, and then about an hour before the show was scheduled to start we headed into the venue. Our seats were all the way to the right in the 400 HH section, which was not ideal as far as sight-lines go, but we (correctly) figured the sound would still be great. Jimmy ended up getting Pit tickets with a poster!
We had plenty of time and space before the show started so we wandered around and checked out the scene. I’ve only been to one other show at an outdoor amphitheater like this in Bethel Woods for Furthur, where it also rained, but we were on the lawn for that one instead of under the roof. They had some beer stands and porta-potties lined up around the lawn, and an inexplicably fenced-in area. I’m sure if I asked someone could have explained, but I’m just going to assume it’s for sheep dog trials; it was too steep for it to be the ADA section, and why would VIP’s want to post up all the way out there? Anyway, after some various smoke breaks we all made it back to the seats in plenty of time for the first set.
First Set
Jam >
Hell In a Bucket (BW)
I was thinking “Feel Like a Stranger” before we even got there, and the tuning made me think I was right for a second or two.
The opening jam, while clearly different from “Hell in a Bucket” proper, made it clear where the song was going.
I think the song suffers a bit from being slowed down, and some of the extra measures make it easier to get lost, but the band still delivered!
Cold Rain & Snow (JM)
Ever since I saw Dead & Company’s free stream from MSG last year, I’ve wanted to see them do this song live. John clearly just loves playing and singing it.
John really opens up the solo section in this in a way I haven’t seen other Dead bands do, and instead of letting the song roll on its main riff after the solo section he just dives right back into the vocals.
I was thinking they’d do “Looks Like Rain” for a weather related song, but no complaints here!
Queen Jane (BW)
Whenever they play this one I always think, “Wouldn’t you rather play ‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’ instead?”
That being said, I loved this version of the song. They absolutely killed it! Bobby transposed a few lyrics, but he still sang very confidently with a strong voice.
This was Jeff’s first solo of the night, and it told of greatness to come.
Big River (BW)
John started the song off, but he and the drummers had a little disagreement about where the downbeat was, so Bobby came in between them and split the difference and the rest of them followed along.
We saw them do this one in Worcester, so we weren’t thrilled when it started up, but I think this was ultimately a better version of the song.
Jeff was a little low in the mix up to this point, but then they either made him louder or I just got better at listening for him. Always make Jeff louder!
Row Jimmy (JM)
Got this one in Worcester too, but unlike “Big River,” this one did not seem quite as good as its Worcester counterpart.
There were a few spots where John came in a little early or seemed to lose the beat, but the band rolled with it without flinching.
John pulled out some unbelievable solos here, so by no means did he blow it. He just didn’t get it just exactly perfect.
My mom correctly figured out they must have done this one because we gave Jimmy a ride to the show!
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo (BW) >
The tuning made me think they were doing “Tennessee Jed,” which I was hoping for for the same reason as “Cold Rain & Snow,” but this was an incredibly welcome alternative.
They gave this one the Furthur treatment where they repeat the “half step” line over and over before going into the final “hello baby, I’m gone, goodbye” verse. Phil still does this with some of his Friends, so they must have agreed it was a good addition to the song.
Absolutely one of the highlights of the night. The solos in the first section of the song were some of the best of the show, but the big jam after the “on my way” verse just blew everyone away. John had one of those moments where you think the jam is winding down or maybe going to falter, but then he takes a deep breath and breaks through to the next level and takes everyone with him.
Cumberland Blues (ALL)
Another welcome surprise, and a great way to close the set!
Surprisingly a little bit jazzy like when Phil & Friends play it, but maybe that was just Jeff taking charge.
As I mentioned there were some lyrical flubs in this show, but the singing itself was some of the best I’ve heard from a Dead band. The harmonies on this song especially were phenomenal, almost like they had rehearsed! Jeff and Oteil are really showing that they are multi-talented musicians.
They rocked the set to a close, and Bobby told us to go register at the Participation Row booths outside so we could vote the assholes out of power. We couldn’t hear any of that too well at the time, but we got the basic gist, especially when he said they were taking a short break; they’re always taking breaks! We milled about while some of the crew went to the bathroom or to smoke. By this time the place was completely packed, and what was once an empty field with plenty of room to smoke and walk about had become a dense crowd on a damp slope. Looking at the setlists from the previous nights, my dad and I deduced they were guaranteed to play “Playing in the Band,” “Estimated Prophet,” and “Eyes of the World,” maybe even in that order, and we were pretty psyched! Two out of three ain’t bad as far as predictions go, but I still want that “Playing!” My dad made it back just in time for the second set, and the tuning showed that our estimations (ha) had been at least partially correct.
Another echo of Worcester, but it felt like a very different “Estimated.” It changed from an undulating song about a raving, senile lunatic to what feels like a more apocalyptic song with a sharper yet spacier feeling.
John was really shining on this one. While sometimes the odd time signatures of the Dead’s songs seem to trip him up, other times it’s clear that he’s mastered the art. Some of the things he does with his guitar seem more like magic tricks than music, which is very reminiscent of Jerry’s playing.
John built the closing jam up to a climax that I was sure was about to materialize into a fast-paced “Eyes,” but then he brought the whole band back into the “Estimated” 14/4 lope with a snap of his fingers (or a thwack of a string). They chugged along for a bit and let the jam mellow/melt down, and John started up the familiar, but slower rhythm of…
Eyes of the World > (BW)
Dead & Company has famously been killing this song ever since their first tour, and we were so excited to see what it would bring!
I’d be interested to hear how John would sing this song, but Bobby does a pretty decent job of it.
This song just didn’t want to end. They ended up playing it for a bit over twenty minutes, and you can tell they could have played it for another half hour! John’s playing sounded so fluid and effortless, and the whole band was totally locked in with one another. Jeff took a bit of a solo after the second verse, but then he, Bobby, John, and Oteil formed a group mind and took the playing even higher together.
After the final verse Oteil stepped up for a solo that really shows how much of a genius he is. He and the drummers got a little off-kilter at first, but Billy has fifty years of experience following all sorts of bass solos, and got back on track right away. Oteil’s bass playing is a lot jazzier with less bombast than Phil’s used to be, but he can still drop some bombs, and he was flying from the high to the low end of the bass’ range.
The song used to go through different chord changes or just a jam on one chord after the final verse, but these guys played it straight like the rest of the song, which is interesting. I obviously loved this “Eyes,” but I think the song would be better served if they changed it up a little.
Deal > (JM)
A totally unexpected song to come out of “Eyes!” John really just slammed into this as soon as the jam started to lag, and everyone jumped right in with him.
Probably the best “Deal” I’ve ever seen. They did this in Worcester last year too, but it just didn’t seem as fully formed as this version.
John and Jeff each played enough solos in this new arrangement for about four or five complete versions of the original arrangement, and that’s a very good thing! In fact it’s awesome!!
Viola Lee Blues > (ALL)
They didn’t end “Deal” on a big discordant chord, so this one caught me by surprise, but I was thrilled to see it again just over a year after the Rainbow “Viola Lee” from Fare Thee Well.
The song felt a lot longer at the time than the ten minutes that the tracklisting would indicate.
This is another one where John is clearly having the time of his life. From what I know of his previous career he’s a total blues guy with shades of virtuosity, and this is the perfect song to let someone like that loose on. Bobby just has to set him up, point him in the right direction, and say, “Go!”
They ended this with a big meltdown that almost turned into straight feedback, but Mickey started his rhythm loops going and banging on his boxes, so the rest of the band left the stage…for now.
Drums >
A much shorter “Drums” than I expected, but still fun! Billy and Mickey had really been playing fantastically all night, with Billy especially shining. Mickey, I think, can be a little too prone to hanging back in songs and just whacking a cowbell once in a while, but has really been stepping up lately as a key player the whole show. This, of course, is his time to go totally nuts!
We were dancing along and had moved down in our aisle because everyone had cleared out (wimps), and then we noticed: Jeff is onstage for “Drums!” Oteil started joining them regularly last year so we weren’t surprised to see him up there, but as far as I know this was the first time Jeff had joined in. He wasn’t just playing drums though, instead he was honking at an array of clown horns! I called it right then and there that this band was turning into ‘78 Dead, and soon the whole band would be out on stage for “Drums” again. At the next show, John joined them on the horns too, so I was more right than I thought!
Everyone cleared out and Mickey started bearing down on that Beam of his. It’s too bad it doesn’t come through as clearly on recordings, but the Beam is really one of the highlights of these shows. The different rhythms and sounds Mickey can get out of it are so weird and creative, but it all boils down to those low, Earth-crumbling bass chords that he just lays out on us. The whole structure of the theater and my skeleton were all vibrating at this frequency that I don’t think most people even know exists!
“Space” has really been turning into a much more interesting part of the show this tour. Last year it always just seemed kind of lazy and noodly, but they seem to have made conscious efforts to turn them into thematic jams, which I bet Phil would approve of.
At a few points I thought they were going to go into “Spanish Jam,” and all my dreams would come true, but not this time! Instead they drifted into a kind of “Slipknot!,” “Let It Grow” kind of territory, then mellowed out and resurfaced into…
The Wheel > (ALL)
This band is just so fucking good, I’m telling ya…
More perfect vocals all around here, and the playing was just stellar. This arrangement of the song starts out a lot more like the straightforward versions that the Grateful Dead proper played, as opposed to the totally opened-up versions that Phil likes to play, so that was pretty cool.
Soon, though, the song started going into new territory. They had another little jam between the “robin run around” and “small wheel/big wheel” verses that was filled with ethereal goodness, and then started on the closing jam, but it kept sounding more and more different different…
I’ve been following pretty much the whole tour on various live streams, which has been great, but it kind of ruined the surprise of what they did next. John has started mixing the lyrics of the old song “Stay” into “The Wheel,” singing the line instead as, “Won’t you tryyyyy, just a little bit harder? Oh won’t you tryyyyyy, just a little bit more?” And as if that wasn’t different enough, the song then transforms into a total reggae jam-fest! Even though I did see it coming, it’s still just such a novel thing to do with such a classic song!
Black Peter > (BW)
My dad famously hates Bobby’s singing on this song ever since he saw him do it with Furthur, but has decided to change his mind and enjoy it.
This song too has a new arrangement where they sing the “see here how everything” line twice, once before and once after the solo section. I’m not sure that’s the best possible version of the song, but these guys totally killed it anyway.
I had also called this one as a weather song, so was glad to be vindicated!
US Blues (JM)
I like this much better as a set closer or opener than as an encore, so a pleasant surprise for me!
Not the longest version of the song, but they were not holding anything back as they rocked the night to a close.
Encore
Touch of Grey (BW & JM)
The second song I got to cross off my list this night, and a great encore.
Like some other songs they do, I think this one’s a little slow, but they still play it so well. John and Bobby trading lyrics sounds so natural, and the solos were really good.
While it is a great song and I was glad to get it, my dad has correctly pointed out that this song doesn’t have much variation to it. The best versions are almost indistinguishable from the worst versions because the song is so very much the same each time. Still though, a great way to end the night!
We hoped for a second encore, but no such luck. Billy was riling up the crowd and looking like he was having a grand old time, and Jeff escorted him off the stage — save it for the after party, Bill! We made it out of the theater pretty easily and had a straight shot out to the far end of the parking lot where we met with Jimmy again. Even though we were pretty close to the entrance/exit, we could see there was no hope of getting out of the parking lot any time soon; they seemed to be letting the VIP parking lot out first. So we decided to just cool our feet in a bit of drizzle and have a couple beers while we watched the clusterfuck unfold. Eventually it cleared up and we headed for the highway, where it was smooth sailing from there all the way back to Boston.
Well that’s my first Dead & Company show of the tour! I want to thank DeadHeadLand.com for letting me do this guest post, and I hope some of you will follow my regular blog (http://bournedead.blogspot.com/) where I have old reviews and new ones soon to come out and much more!
You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook @21stCenturyDead, and let me know what you want to read about in the future!
