Willie's Outlaw Festival 2021 in NH

 Back in the Spring, going to Willie's Outlaw Festival in the amphitheater in New Hampshire seemed like a great idea.  Live music was back!  But as mentioned in the previous posts, being around crowds of people has become dangerous and scary again.  We went anyway.  It would be outside, we'd wear masks, and hopefully others would be too.  As it turned out there were very few people wearing masks, but we survived and had a great time, what a show!

This year's tour has a changing cast, but on September 10th they were going to open with Margo Price, then Government Mule, then Sturgill Simpson, and then Willie.  Good enough, to put it mildly!  Sarah and I loaded up the chairs, sandwiches, and our summer concert tailgating stuff and headed North at around 2:00 for a 5:00 show.

Wonderful weather and lots of fun sitting around the parking lot and talking to the other concert-goers, some of whom had seen DeadCo recently like us, and some of whom were planning to see Phil Lesh in the Fall, like us (we hope).  Government Mule t-shirts/gear predominated, surprisingly, though a good number of people were dressed in Western regalia, as was Sarah.  Soon it was time to go in.  We passed the three checkpoints (vaccine proof, metal detector, and then tickets), got our water bottles filled, and headed to our seats, which were exactly three rows behind where we'd been for TTB, next to the soundboard.

Margo came on first and from the start this was such a well-produced show!  She had a lead guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, and a rotating cast of backup guitarists who filled in very professionally, picking up her guitar part when she was singing, swapping instruments with not a wasted motion, and disappearing when they were not needed.  Margo concentrated on newer songs but did the great Four Years Of Chances, Tennessee Song, and Don't Say It.  Great opening act and nice split-to-here dress and boots.

Government Mule was on next and I'd never seen the band, though of course I'd seen Warren Haynes in other combos.  They also were very professional and in control of their sound.  Haynes stood in the middle of the stage and was the man, lead guitar and all vocals.  He was surrounded by a simple but rocking combo of bass, drums, and keys, though the keyboard player switched to a second guitar for some songs.  Here's their setlist:

• Traveling Tune
• Banks of the Deep End
• Stoop So Low
• I'll Be the One
• Dreams
• Revolution Come, Revolution Go
• Broke Down on the Brazos
• Tributary Jam
• Soulshine

The stage crew were working feverishly, but I was a little confused by their setup for Sturgill Simpson.  Here was this cosmic country guy (whom I'd never seen before) who favored lots of guitars, horns, and effects, and they were setting up for a bluegrass band.  He had put out a few bluegrass-tinted covers of his own songs lately, but I was not prepared for the amazing, full bluegrass band he came out with.  He announced this was their first show together.  They're incredible and will be more so with some practice.  Mark Howard on guitar, Miles Miller on drums, and (wait for it) ... Sierra Hull on mandolin, Mike Bub on bass, Tim O'Brien on guitar, and Stuart Duncan on fiddle!!!

They were great, and Hull's mandolin was the lead instrument.  She was wearing a white pantsuit and silver boots and playing like she was dueling the devil.  O'Brien, Duncan, and Bub are also some of the greatest bluegrass players around and showed it when they got a chance.  But the main attraction was that Simpson guy in the middle with an acoustic guitar and that great, sonorous voice.  He was the most riveting player of all on stage and he made that amphitheater ring.  Here's his list:

• Brace for Impact (Live a Little)
• Long White Line
• I Don't Mind
• Life of Sin
• All Around You
• Living the Dream
• Shamrock
• Sometimes Wine
• Juanita
• Railroad of Sin
• Oh Sarah
• Breakers Roar
• Sam
• Call to Arms

Whew, that was three great acts, especially Sturgill!  Time for another quick bathroom and beer break (and trying to avoid the unmasked minions).

When we last saw Willie in Bangor (back in 2019 when the world was young) they had taken a long time to get him set up, but this time he had a very basic show and he came out pretty soon.  He *is* 88 years old and in the middle of what must be a grueling tour.  He had the family with him, his sister Bobby on grand piano, a drummer, his son Micah sitting right next to him and trading licks, a bassist, and Mickey Raphael on harmonica.  Here's an incomplete setlist:

• Whiskey River
• Still Is Still Moving to Me
• If I Die When I'm High I'll Be Halfway to Heaven
• Everything Is Bullshit (Particle Kid)
• On the Road Again
• Keep on the Sunny Side
• Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
• Good Hearted Woman
• Will the Circle Be Unbroken? / I'll Fly Away
• It's Hard to Be Humble

A very enjoyable set, not leaning as much toward a "greatest hits" setlist as when we'd seen him last, but still including a bunch of his most popular songs.  And his guitar work was as great as ever, he gets such a unique, warm but edgy sound from the acoustic he's played for years.  And speaking of sound, Bobby tinkling the grand piano and Mickey blowing the harp was timeless, the band could have played anything!

And speaking of playing anything, Willie the dad had apparently made up his mind that he needed to teach son Micah how to be a bandleader.  He had Micah sing a few songs, including his "Bullshit" song, which Willie played with a straight face.  Micah was great and filled in some guitar licks that Willie didn't get around to.  BUT ... we were there to see Willie and so the concentration on Micah was a little much.

Anyway, great set and I think everyone in the crowd was totally satisfied.  I know we were.  To see four fantastic acts like that from great seats, produced seamlessly, was a lot of fun.  And I've decided I like the small (8K seats, including a tiny lawn) amphitheater in Gilford NH (currently named the Bank of NH Pavilion).  There's such a mellow vibe, beautiful scenery, and it's not a crowded madhouse like others we've been to, particularly in Hartford.

Easy stroll back to the car and we had another sandwich and beer while the parking lot thinned out.  Very soon we got packed up too and got out of there and back home with no problem.  What a show I say again!

Dead & Company Back In Hartford: 2021 part 3

One of the most amazing things about the concert in Hartford that Sunday was that it was a "part 3" of the shows we saw in Mansfield.  As mentioned, they do not stray far from their repertoire, but they arrange it with such care, and what we saw on Sunday closed out thematically what we'd seen on Thursday and Friday.  Did they do this consciously, or was it just us who perceived it?  Does it make any difference?

Day off from touring on Saturday, but back to it on Sunday September 5th, and we with our ice chest full of goodies were off to the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford in good time, after picking up Dave.  The sky threatened rain all day and there were a few showers on the way down to Connecticut.  It wasn't a bad trip, but the traffic got worse and worse as we traveled along, though it was moving.

And then we got to exit 50 in Hartford at about 4:20, about a mile from the venue, and stopped!  And I mean we stopped.  We were barely off the highway and then advanced only a hundred yards or so in the next hour.  The line must have been backed up on the highway back to Massachusetts by then!  And the only reason we advanced at all was because some of the cars in line bailed out and went searching for parking in downtown Hartford, the people planning to walk in.

I think that this was just a huge fuckup on the part of the concert organizers and the police, they did not anticipate the number of cars.  We'd been to sold out concerts at this venue before and they always managed to squeeze us into the existing lots, but this time they could/did not.  The time we spent waiting was apparently spent turning around the cars that were waiting for the regular lot and finding another place to put them.  Then they finally let us into that lot, 0.8 adventurous miles from the venue (not handicap-accessible to say the least).  And of top of everything, the heavens had opened and we were treated to a steady, pouring rain.

Oh well, as before that's enough bitching about the audience experience.  We got out our chairs and hung out in the rain while others tried to barbecue, play cornhole, and do the usual things you see in a Grateful Dead crowd.  But this fuckup will make me think twice before ever going to the Xfinity Theatre again.  They really did not do right by their audience.

Finally it was time to follow the crowd into the venue, a long walk.  The entrance was crowded with high people trying to stay out of the rain, but we got in and got to our seats, and they were very good!  We were under the overhang so no problem with the rain (which soon stopped, fortunately).  And again, the sight lines were great and the sound was even better, significantly better than it had been in Mansfield to my ear.  The screens were not working and this must have been a pain for people on the lawn, though it was ok for us since we could see the stage well.

The start was delayed while the huge crush of people finally filled the place.  The Xfinity Theatre holds 30,000 people, it's a very large amphitheater.  For comparison, the one in Mansfield holds 19,900.  Anyway, we were in, we were soggy, and it was time for the first set!

• Shakedown Street
• Samson and Delilah
• He's Gone
• Big Railroad Blues
• Lost Sailor
• Saint of Circumstance
• Franklin's Tower

This was more beautiful, well-arranged, excellence.  Shakedown was the perfect cure for the hassles of getting in and the ensemble singing on it was great, as inventive as anything we'd seen in Mansfield.  Samson was a given, as it was a Sunday.  But He's Gone was as majestic as Dew had been on Friday, and they followed it up with a rollicking Big RR Blues, again exploiting the blues edge they can get down so well.

Sailor/Saint has always been a mixed bag for me, I find a lot to criticize in Sailor but Saint can be fine, and this one was great too.  And then they ended the first set with a fantastic Franklin's, stretching it out to a long song on which everyone in the band had a chance to solo and shine.

My halftime experience is worth noting.  The concourses were jammed with people and so I went up to the lawn (not far from us) to hit the porta-potties up there and the beer stands.  This was a good decision, but the macadam walkway going up the lawn was barely visible through the people when I started, and after I got my beer it was not visible at all for the trek back down.  We've had a very rainy summer and the lawn section was a muddy horror-show.  But I'd been to Hartford before and was not thrown by this.  The only thing to do was to walk all the way around the lawn and then through the concourses back to our seats, which I finally accomplished.  In time for the second set!

• China Cat Sunflower
• I Know You Rider
• St. Stephen
• The Eleven
• Drums
• Space
• All Along the Watchtower
• Wharf Rat
• Playing In the Band

Again, this was an exquisite second set, satisfied us immensely, and was a great cap to their three-show New England loop.  They started off with China Cat and your first reaction was, "I've heard this before," but then you realized how excellent it was.  The wonderful sound in Hartford didn't hurt, and then they went into Rider.  I'm not kidding you, this was one of the best Rider's I've ever heard.  Bobby's playing was incredible and the sound was so well balanced.  I was trying to listen to Oteil, to Billy, to Bobby, and then John would crack off a run or Jeff would take it up to another level.

The Eleven is one of my favorite songs and St. Stephen is way up on my list too.  We'd speculated that *maybe* they'd play the pair, and then we heard a rumor that in sound check they'd done the William Tell Bridge, which holds the two together.  Well, it was as good as I could have imagined, what can I say?

Drums/Space and then Watchtower.  We knew we were winding down and this was a great, "Dylan," bookend to Masterpiece the other day.  And then they went into a wonderful, perfectly paced, perfectly sung Wharf Rat.  You can get into this song and totally lose track of time and space, listening to August West's song and then zooming out and thinking, "Yeah, but how threatened should this make me feel?"  Everyone in the crowd was entranced.

And then those notes rang out from Bobby's guitar and we knew that the world and we were one.  We had forgotten that we were due a Playing reprise and here it was, suddenly upon us.  No Donna (or John doing a Donna Scream), but again, the sound was great and the playing was spot on.  This is one of the most important songs ever and we were so glad that they did not abandon it, they book-ended our New England tour experience with it.

Short encore break again, and then they delighted us some more with Werewolves of London.  In other situations I've seen this song (written by Warren Zevon) as an outlier, but in this case it fit in perfectly.  People were laughing and singing along and dancing and we were not the least of them.

Amazing, amazing show and we had just experienced an amazing three-show window into their tour!  It was a long walk back to the car and a long wait until we finally could get out of the parking lot (which we filled with lawn chairs, beers, and sandwiches).  We got out of there but the line of cars from the closer lots was still creeping along.  Got back home after a not bad drive on 84 and 90 (and dropping off Dave), and I took some time to wind down and got to bed by 3:30.  Long day.

So was it worth it?  You betcha, the traffic sucked all weekend but the shows were the best.  Will I do it again?  Yes, but with a grain of salt.  We were so psyched this time after the last year and a half of Covid.  But I hope that for the next tour in New England they play closer venues with better parking experiences, like Fenway or Gillette (or Gilford NH??).  Of course, I'd love to see them in a theater like the Boston Music Hall (now known as the Wang Center).  But whatever, I'll be there!

Dead & Company Back In Mansfield, 2021 ... part 2

Thursday's concert was available quickly, and we listened to it Friday morning and early afternoon before we left.  In review, it was as excellent as we had thought, but it left a few open questions.  Would they do the Jam > Jack Straw we thought they were overdue for?  Would they reprise PITB after leaving Dave hanging time and again?  And would they finish Dark Star with the second verse or would they figure one was enough?  Would they play the Morning Dew and TOO we anticipated?   And would they "treat" Dave and me to Sugaree and Black Peter, which respectively are our bête noires for reasons too painful to get into?

Time to get on the road and go see, but the traffic did not cooperate.  128 South of the Pike was excruciatingly slow, and 95 was as well.  We finally made it to the shopping center in Mansfield to meet L, and she'd been delayed also so we didn't have to wait that long.  A bit of serendipity was that we discovered I'd left Sarah's tequila behind, but we were at a TGI Friday's and the bartender pulled into the parking lot for work, spied us, and talked some Dead and then told us that he could make margaritas to go!  Sarah and L took advantage of this, for sure.

Got in line for the venue and it took even longer than it had the day before.  By the time we got there we felt like we'd been in traffic all day, and we were almost through listening to the tape of Thursday's concert a second time!

Oh well, beers and sandwiches and then again, no line to get in.  This time we knew where the water bottle filling station was and what stands had the best beer.  Dave was tempted by the t-shirts on sale but didn't get one, though L got the excellent Mansfield poster.  This was a beautiful, breezy, late summer day.  Time for set one:

• Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
• Cold Rain and Snow
• New Minglewood Blues
• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• Dire Wolf
• Jack Straw
• Sugaree

This was delightful!  You can never complain about an opening Half-Step, and CR&S is one of my all-time favorite songs, which they played with the dark, bluesy seriousness you want.  Minglewood is always a treat, and Masterpiece was also done with gravitas, Bobby's singing was great.

A jaunty Dire Wolf, and then finally they started into the jam into Jack Straw that I'd been hoping for.  And of course, what was the set closer?  Both Dave and I went for a bathroom break during Sugaree (though the tape reveals it was a fantastic version, with John and Jeff going nuts).  And it's a good thing too!  The crowds were twice as bad as they had been the day before and this wasn't even set break.  People were sprawled all over the venue, then suddenly lurching in one direction, taking a few dance steps, and then lurching the other way.  It was a Friday and everyone was very high.

Back to the seats for some peace and quiet finally, and soon after that it was time for the second set:

• New Speedway Boogie
• Bertha
• Truckin'
• Dark Star
• Terrapin Station
• Drums
• Space
• The Other One
• Morning Dew

OMG!  After this second set I was saying that we'd remember this concert for a long time.  They opened with perhaps the best Speedway I'd ever heard, balanced perfectly between its darkness and depression and the incredible beat and groove.  Bertha was a pleasant surprise and Truckin' was done well.

And then they reprised Dark Star.  The jam started off well-disguised, but soon there was no question what it was.  And this was a fitting reprise to the amazing performance of the day before.  Again, they jammed forever and then finally came back into the Solar System and found themselves at the second verse.  Someone should take these two halves of Dark Star and put them together (over 30 minutes between them), and then loop them over and over.

We'd all predicted Terrapin and this was a fine one, perhaps a little short, so they could get back on schedule.  Drums and Space were also a bit short, but that was because they had to leave room for another of their masterpieces, TOO with a ripping, booming performance from Oteil!  This could also have been predicted based on the frequency of what songs they'd played when on the tour, but again, though the setlists were not unusual, there was still inventiveness in what was introduced how and all of the playing was top notch.

And speaking of top notch playing, it was now time for the majestic, apocalyptic, searing Morning Dew of death.  What a set this was!

OK, the band barely left the stage again and then came back for a sing-songy  encore of U.S. Blues.  My feet were not touching the ground as we left, this had been a fantastic experience.  We ran into our friends P&D on the way out and they were just as unattached from Massachusetts as we were.

Jeez, that had been fun.  We got out the lawn chairs again when we got back to the car and had a few beers and sandwiches.  Then we were able to get out of there through the same back exit and looped back up to return  L  to her car, then up to Quincy to drop off Dave.  Back home soon and time for sleep!

Dead & Company Back In Mansfield, 2021 ... part 1

 Back when life was a bit less inexplicable, Dead & Company had scheduled a stop in Fenway Park on their 2020 tour.  We all know how that turned out: the world stopped in the Covid-19 pandemic and the concert was cancelled.  With DeadCo, as with any band, there's always the possibility that they'll call it a day at any point and dis-band.  John Mayer had put out a solo album in the meantime, and we wouldn't have been surprised if he continued his solo career, and Bob Weir pursued his jazzier stuff.  An ending to this band would have been another cruel twist, and so we were very excited when instead they announced an *extensive* Summer and Fall tour for 2021, and that it would include two dates at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield MA, and one at the Xfinity Theatre in Hartford.  And we realized we'd be retired at the time, so there was no worry about making it to work the next day!

Well, apparently a lot of people were also very psyched for the concerts and the ticket rush was fierce, but we were able to get decent seats for all three of them with much clicking and recalculating, and waiting for spinny wheels.  We also got parking tickets for Mansfield.

We'd been to the GRF the weekend before, and had tickets to the Willie Nelson show the next week, so this would be a great peak in a late-summer of music.  Unfortunately, Covid-19 has stuck around, people have not been getting vaccinated, and variants of the virus are prowling around, even infecting vaccinated people.  They announced that all concert-goers would have to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test, but this did not calm our fears totally, and we spent most of the concerts masked.  Some other people did too, but most of the attendees were unmasked and who knows if their "proof of vaccination" was real?

Oh well, on Thursday the 2nd of September we got ice, beer, orange juice, water, sandwiches, chips, gummies, chairs, and vaccination cards ready and hit the road for the South!  Picked up Dave in Quincy and then headed down to a shopping center in Mansfield to rendezvous with friend L.  We had had torrential rain from the latest tropical storm the night before, but the weather was great and the sky was maybe going to clear.

Then we got in the traffic jam.  Don't know if you've ever been to the Xfinity Center (previously called Great Woods and the Tweeter Center), but they don't know how to let cars into their lots quickly and pre-concerts become a clusterfuck of cars backed up on 495, on 140, and all local roads.  Whatever, we got in to the Red Lot after spending 30-45 minutes creeping along at slower than a walking pace.  The Tour advertised that they were carbon-neutral, but they must not have been counting all the cars sitting in traffic.

But plenty of time for some beers and sandwiches and then there was no line to get in!  We showed pictures of our vaccination cards, got right through the metal detectors, and then each called up his/her ticket on his/her phone to get scanned.  It would be even easier if they had paper tickets, but no one misses a chance to say, "You have to install our app," these days.

OK, time to stop bitching about the audience experience and to start gushing.  Our seats were pretty far away but the sightlines were great and we could see everything happening on stage, though we sometimes had to look at the big screens for detail.  This was essentially the start of the middle third of the tour, after a break of about a week.  They have a 31-date tour scheduled which started in North Carolina on August 23rd and after another break later this month, will continue on the West coast until Halloween!  The shows so far had been excellent and this one was excellent too:

First Set

• Playing In the Band
• The Wheel
• Iko Iko
• It Hurts Me Too
• Ramble On Rose
• Brown-Eyed Women
• Let It Grow

The opening jam threatened to lurch into The Wheel but instead resolved in PITB, and we were already impressed.  Though they stick to a repetitive repertoire, they mix this up well and still manage to show inventiveness as well as incredible talent.  For me, It Hurts Me Too and Ramble On Rose featured incredibly infective blues playing from the whole ensemble.  Brown-Eyed Women is always great as well, though their long jam on Let It Grow left a little to be desired.

Mobs of people at halftime, but everyone was mellow and eager for the second set.  Bathroom and beer and then I was back in my seat in plenty of time for:

Second Set

• Deal
• Dark Star
• El Paso
• Uncle John's Band
• Drums
• Space
• Casey Jones
• Stella Blue
• Sugar Magnolia

Deal was a bit of a surprise to open the second set, but thankfully this didn't go into Estimated or Sugaree (though Eyes would have been fine).  But when they finished Deal (which was excellent itself), they started into a jam of death that eventually became Dark Star but still was way out in space, parsecs from the lyrics.  How fine is it to hear a Dead band spin out the Dark Star net and catch our minds and souls in it, and then go on and on for 15+ minutes?  Well, we enjoyed it.  They finally did get to the first verse, but after that jammed some more and suddenly found themselves in a soulful El Paso.

Time to bring it back to a beautiful, dainty, UJB.  And after Drums/Space they lit into a riotous Casey Jones!  Again, though the setlist was not daring, the playing was amazingly excellent (especially for a band that must have had very little time to practice during the pandemic), and the range of emotion in the songs was incredible.  And speaking of emotion, Bobby then sang one of the best Stella Blues I've ever heard, one of the Dead's most heartfelt songs.

The closing Sugar Magnolia was a little perfunctory after that, and the encore break was very short (they didn't really leave the stage).  And they got out the acoustics for a lovely Ripple.  Time for curfew in Mansfield!

Whoah, that was good!  There were a few down spots as always in a Dead concert, but the musicianship was incredible and they wound up those songs like a Swiss watch.

Back to the parking lot and set up the chairs again while the exiting traffic clusterfuck slowly died down, and then we were out of there.  Not really any trouble leaving the lot by the back exit, turning back up to where L had left her car, and then cruising up 95 and 128 back home.  Same tomorrow!