Mountain Stage At BPC

When we were planning a road trip in early 2020 I realized we'd be passing right near Charleston, West Virginia, and of course that made me think of the radio show,  Mountain Stage.  This has been around for years and has had some fantastic musical acts.  I checked out their page and saw that no, they wouldn't be doing a show when we planned to cruise by there, but I saw that they'd be doing an "on the road" show in Boston in December!  I kept checking back for when tickets would go on sale and must have missed it by a significant amount, but I was still able to get tickets to their December 4th show at the Berklee Performance Center, in the middle of the first balcony.  In the meantime they announced that Kathy Mattea would be hosting (she's taken over from the long-time host, Larry Groce), and that Roseanne Cash, Loudon Wainwright III, Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, and Ali McGuirk would be performing.  We were very excited to say the least.

Unfortunately, Dave had a stomach bug that Sunday, but Sarah and I drove into town right before the show, got a parking space on Boylston in front of the Hynes, and trundled on over on a not-really-cold evening.  Found our place in the center of the balcony and gawked at the stage set.  This was definitely a radio show, not a concert, and most of the stage was taken up by equipment of various types, most of it dedicated to recording the experience and shaping the radio sound.  For instance, the grand piano was draped with a heavy blanket and mikes were sticking underneath the blanket, the drums were almost hidden by a set of wood piers, and there was a table for the hosts with a lamp on it out in the open, where they could signal to the performers.

The crowd was worth commenting on too, it was old!  Maybe my inability to get great tickets was because most of the people there seemed to be subscribers who were there to see a Berklee thing, not necessarily Mountain Stage fanboys.  The average age was possibly older than me and Sarah, and Dave would have stuck out like a sore thumb.  There was plenty of polite applause from the almost-full crowd, and everybody seemed to be familiar with Mattea (whom we've seen at Berklee before) and Cash.  But Tuttle and McGuirk were exotic.

Anyway, Kathy opened the show with her executive producer and they read the Mountain Stage intro I've heard a million times, with an excellent piano player rinky-tinkling along behind.  Possibly my biggest impression from the show was the talent and professionalism shown by the Mountain Stage band, who hit every cue and played every note beautifully, though their sound was not projected into the hall as would be the case for a concert.

Molly and her band (Bronwyn Keith-Hynes on fiddle, Kyle Tuttle on banjo, Shelby Means on bass, and Dominick Leslie on mandolin) came on first, right as the intro was ending, and proceeded to play an excellent short set of the songs you might expect for a national performance:

• She'll Change
• Sidesaddle
• Castilleja
• Crooked Tree
• Dooley's Farm
• White Freightliner Blues

Molly is just a wonder on guitar.  We'd seen them play all these songs before and they did them as smoothly as you might expect, but when Molly takes a break you shut up and listen.  Dominick was as slyly excellent as always, and Bronwyn is a pretty impressive musician herself.  Shelby duetted with Molly on Sidesaddle of course and gave it a nice country swing.  They jammed a bit on the fantastic Castilleja, and the crowd started stirring in their seats.  Jamgrass did not seem to be their first language.

Too short a set to my taste, but this was a radio show, and we all behaved and clapped when the "applause" light lit and stopped when it went off.  Next up was Kathy, who's a bit of a nervous musician, picking up the guitar and singing Bobby Gentry's Ode To Billie Joe.  You could have heard a pin drop on this, the audience was so well behaved and was enjoying it so much.. The stage band really shone on this one as well, highlighted by a great harmonica solo.  Kathy exhaled in relief after it was done, she hadn't blown it and in fact she was great!

Loudon Wainwright III was up next and he played solo and was about as entertaining, or not, as I expected.  He started on guitar and talked up what a non-mainstream guy he was, then proceeded to prove it with a song with a few f-bombs, at which the crowd tittered on cue.  He read an excerpt from his recent book, picked up the banjo and did a very mail-it-in, talking blues thing on the The Swimming Song, and then closed with another short song.

Ali McGuirk was up next and brought an indie vibe with an excellent electric bassist, lead guitar, and drums.  The drummer was on that riser hidden way up in the back though, and could barely see the other band members.  The interplay between the guitars and the bass was pretty good, but her songs are kind of moody and self-indulgent.  She could use a rocker or two.

OK, time for the main act!  I could hear one woman nearby complain that the concert was supposed to be over by 9 and here it was 9 and they were still playing.  There were plenty of dead air moments that slowed down the production while they changed setups between the bands, trying to squeeze them into the bit of space at the front of the stage they were trying to preserve for the actual talent.   I may sound like I'm complaining but actually I was loving it.  I was finally seeing the show I'd been listening to for years and was appreciating every awkward minute, as well as the many, many very smooth ones.  The show will air on NPR stations in the week of December 16th, they told us.

They had a hard time getting Roseanne's band set up right and Kevin Barry(!), way over on the right, was still fumbling with switches and his stuff all through the set.  John Leventhal at far left got his three electrics set up first, but just stuck to the one guitar he knew was sounding right.  Kevin had an electric guitar, an acoustic, and a lap steel and managed to excel, I've heard him play with many bands and he's always great.  Roseanne was right in the middle shaping the notes with her hands in her charming way, and strumming a few tunes when John gave her a chance.  But as when we've seen them before, her name is on the marquee and she's the boss!  They also had a drummer way up in back, a very good keyboardist, and a guy on electric bass.

After a nice introduction by Kathy, they opened with A Feather's Not a Bird, covered The Only Thing Worth Fighting For, did some early Roseanne hits including Blue Moon With Heartache (they take winning Grammies very seriously at Berklee), and closed with Seven Year Ache, on which Barry did some great lap steel.  What a set, but again too short!  She's an American treasure and the crowd really loved her.

They re-shuffled the set for the last song (Will the Circle Be Unbroken) and brought out Larry Groce to sing a verse.  Kathy started it off and conducted, making sure that every piece in the Mountain Stage band got a solo and that every one of the headliners (excepting Wainwright, thank Dog) got a verse.  You'd think that Ali with her emo-laden sound would have killed the "But I could not hide my sorrow" verse, but she acted like she'd never heard the song before.  But things turned around when Kathy called out Molly for the next verse and she sang the "Missed my mother, she was gone" verse like a true bluegrass singer should.  No problem projecting her voice through the whole BPC here!

OK, that was the last song and the crowd put on their expensive coats (one guy in front of us was actually wearing a suit) and filed out.  That was really a lot of fun, though it was not your normal concert experience.  We got back to the Hynes pretty quickly and then navigated through some Sunday-night closures back home.  I'd love to do it again, especially if they have acts like Molly and Roseanne.

TTB Full Band At Boston's Orpheum

It's hard to describe how good TTB is.  On the other hand, it's not that hard.  They have a 12-piece band, everyone plays and/or sings remarkably well, their arrangements and originals are excellent and allow each of them to have their moments and play to their strengths, and the band has a few world-class talents.  Susan Tedeschi has an alto blues voice to die for, to my mind bettering Bonnie Raitt, Rachel Price, or whomever.  And Derek Trucks is the best electric blues guitarist I've ever seen.  Also, their ensemble singing, adding the complex backup arrangements of Mike Mattison, Alecia Chakour, and Mark Rivers to Tedeschi's lead, is unexcelled.  And that's not to mention ...

We'd been lucky enough to see the Tedeschi Trucks Band 10 times, but the last two times we've seen Susan and Derek have not been with the full band, due to COVID and its continuing influence.  In the meantime, J.J. Johnson has left the band and they've picked up a new drummer, Isaac Eady.  They've also recently released a fine suite of albums titled I Am the Moon, on a theme which percolated among the members during the pandemic times.  The band announced that they'd be back to their customary late-Fall Boston stand this year (Susan's a Massachusetts girl of course, and we were surprised to learn from her that Alecia is too), and we were more than eager to go see them again.

Tempering that of course, was the fact that the Orpheum sucks for the audience.  It's crowded, dirty, run-down, and we've encountered some nasty staff there, though to their credit they cleaned it as well as possible and had friendly staff this November 30th.  We only got tickets to one of the nights, but really would love to see them every night if we didn't have to brave the Orpheum.  And perhaps the most important thing, they sound excellent there and if you get a center seat (woe to the people on the edges, who are not able to see the whole band!?!) the sound will rock your soul.

That Wednesday was a nasty weather day, with driving, pouring rain and a chilly, intense wind.  We found our way to a parking garage downtown at about 5:00 and met Dave, getting off from work, at Dubliners (whilom Kinsale's) in Center Plaza.  Had an average Irish pub meal, dropped Dave's bag off back at the car, and then pushed uphill through the rain to Hamilton Place.  Checked out the merch (nice t-shirt and poster of the old State House, but we didn't get any), found our places in the fifth row of the balcony, dead center, and chilled with a beer for a bit.  The audience filled in late, and was mostly middle-aged but incredibly enthusiastic.  I heard more shouts, whistles, and woohs than at any rock/blues concert, at times they were a little over the top.  I mean, if you're excited that Alecia is singing a verse and you scream all through it, she might as well not have sung anything, ya know?

Anyway, this was the second night of their Orpheum stand.  They'd done all of the first disc of their 4-disc suite on Tuesday, and we were not surprised when they covered a few songs from the other discs that night, after opening with ... well, here's the first set:

• Anyhow
• Playing With My Emotions
• Ain't That Something
• Emmaline
• Keep On Growing (Derek and the Dominos)
• Done Somebody Wrong (Elmore James)
• La Di Da
• Whiskey Legs

Wow, where do I start?  These were some of my favorite TTB songs, including the great Anyhow (on which they had some sound balance problems, quickly fixed).  The singing on Keep On Growing was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes (luckily I had my mask on).  Emmaline is just a precious, soft song, sung by Mike up front with his acoustic guitar (of course, a lot of middle-aged people shouted all through it, but I've been known to be over-enthusiastic myself at times).  Done Somebody Wrong is one of my favorite songs ever.  Susan introduced their new song La Di Da (which shows off their talent at arrangement) as being about her son going off to college, and it brought a tear to my eye too!  Or maybe it was everything being soaked from the rain.  And Whiskey Legs is a great rocker.

I should say that they've changed their stage setup a bit.  Brandon on bass is now over to the right at the front of the stage, and they've split the horns off to a separate riser back behind Gabe on the left, whom they've moved up front also.  The drummers are arranged kind of on the quarter-axis, half facing each other and half facing the rest of the band.  And let me say that they were incredible!  Eady is a fantastic addition and as excellent as the rest of the band is, they were the sound of the night as far as I'm concerned. great stuff.

OK, time to gush over what we'd just seen and to try to dry off a bit more.  Getting to the shit-hole Orpheum and then squeezing through the crowded lobbies and into those tiny seats was a real pain in the ass.  I'm maybe getting a little too old for rock concerts.  But OMG, when that magic band starts playing, everything else just flies away!  If you ever have a chance to see TTB, gentle reader, do it.

Long line for the bathrooms and then no sense getting back in line for another expensive beer.  The set break was a little longer than you might hope, but eventually they came back out and lit into it again:

• Last Night In the Rain
• Outside Woman Blues (Blind Joe Reynolds)
• Part of Me
• Where Are My Friends?
• Midnight In Harlem
• Learn How to Love
• Angel From Montgomery/Sugaree (Prine/Garcia)
• How Blue Can You Get? (B.B. King)
• I Want More
• Soul Sacrifice (Santana)

Holy shit!  We've seen them do the long jam into and then the wonderfully paced Midnight In Harlem several times, but this was perhaps the best we've seen, especially with Kebbi Williams doing a space-age sax solo in the intro and Derek searing the edges of the world.  Fantastic, basic blues songs in Learn How To Love and How Blue Can You Get?  And the climax of the night was the long, soulful, everyone sing-along (or scream if you like) mashup of I Want More and Soul Sacrifice.  Dave actually said to me, "They have to be the best band around," just don't tell Bobby or Phil that!

Susan did her customary Boston shout-outs to the city and her family, and then some of us had a little time to cool off.  Some other people were still clapping, whistling, and shouting, it was quite an experience!  Then they came back out and did Space Captain (Matthew Moore) for an encore, waved again, and took off.  They have two more nights to go in their Boston stand, and I'm sure they'll be just as good.

The rain had stopped by the time we managed to navigate through the crush out of there.  This is not the place you want to be when there's a fire, but that's old Boston for you.  Chilly walk down to Arch Street, and then a pretty quick ride to drop Dave in Quincy and then get back home.  Again, not the most mellow evening but just a fantastic blues rock show, one of the best ever, and we hope we'll have a chance to do it again!

GDMUATM 2022!

 They haven't been having the annual (at least) Grateful Dead Meet-Up At the Movies for the last couple of years.  Wonder why?  Oh yeah, the pandemic!  But they scheduled one for this year for November 1st and 5th and it was at the same time exciting and a bit of a let down.  It's great that they've resumed this and gussied up the film of the Dead's second performance at Copenhagen's Tivoli on 1970-04-17.  But on the other hand this film has been available for a while, like since 1972.  Oh well, seeing it in a theater on the big screen would be fun.

On November 1st, Sarah and I met Dave at Fajita's and Rita's on West Street near the Common (where we saw some other Dead film aficionados), and then strolled over to the AMC Boston Common where we grabbed some adult beverages and settled in for the film.  My Dog, those guys were great in '72 (and many other years)!  The film has some of the best available footage of Pigpen performances, and is to be treasured for that alone.  But it also has some great footage of Keith, who's somehow usually left out of films of this era.  And that Garcia guy is pretty riveting himself.

The film isn't the full concert but has some of the best of it, including the first He's Gone and some gems like fantastic covers of Bobby McGee and El Paso.  The theater was just about a third full by the time the film started, which is a bit above average.  The endless trailers before the movie were at top volume and I commented to Dave that I hoped they'd play the main attraction at that volume, and they did!  For once I had no complaints about the volume (we were kind of in a corner of the cinema), and the film quality was top notch too.  Lots of fun!

Phil and the TAB Three, part 3

Another not-great night at the Hampton Inn, probably over-tiredness and too much rich food.  Though we were having a great time (and always have at Phil concerts), it's not exactly a stress-free experience for a senior citizen like me.  Anyway, time to get up, take a shower, eat some cereal, and I was ready for another day!

Unfortunately, the weather on Sunday, October 23rd, was pretty dreary.  We sat around the room some, blogged and checked out TV, and then decided we wanted to get out and do something.  We considered a movie, but the one we wanted to see wasn't showing until late afternoon.  I suggested going to see the Long Island Sound coastline somewhere, so we looked at the map and settled on the Greenwich Point Park.  But when we got there we were turned away, seems we had to have a sticker that would have cost us $40 for the season, and they charged $9/person on top of that.  Fuck that!

So we turned around and had a great time at the John J. Boccuzzi Park, exploring the park and a walkway around the inner part of Stamford Harbor, which is the outlet of the Rippowam River which our hotel was on.  Good thing it was high tide, because even though it was there was some smell from the trash and flotsam around the shore.  Low tide would have been interesting.  But we had a fun time, walking around and talking about, "Can you imagine owning a boat like *that*?"  They all looked pretty silly, and most looked downright uncomfortable, though they were probably worth a lot of money.  Downtown Stamford is full of huge apartment buildings too, and I checked out one we walked by, where monthly rents exceed $4k, plus fees.  Not for us, and not at all scenic!

Back to the hotel after that, but we didn't want to eat our last round of sandwiches yet, so looked on the map again and found what turned out to be a friendly, nearby bar for lunch, Tiernan's Pub.  Their beer was cold and their salads not bad.  Back to the hotel after that for a nap and then a bit of Sunday football, and then off to Port Chester!  Dinner at Kiosko one last time, and then down through the intermittent rain and into the theater.

The Sunday crowd was late arriving, but the people finally started pouring in and the show started a little later than the previous two nights.  We had seen two beyond-excellent shows already and so for Sunday, though we expected that great band would vastly entertain us again, we expected a bit of a slower night.  And for the first set it *was* slower, but at the same time more precise, with a crystalline quality.  I thought to myself that they seemed almost like a chamber orchestra in the first set, playing each part succinctly and making sure to stick to the arrangements, valuing ensemble sound more than virtuosity.  And this was great!  Here's the setlist:

• New Speedway Boogie
• Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
• Wharf Rat
• Dear Prudence
• Jack-a-Roe
• That's What Love Will Make You Do
• U.S. Blues

I'd anticipated they'd play Speedway at some point during the weekend, and this wasn't as dark as they'd been the previous night but was played exactly and so was top-notch, as was Half-Step.  But then they thrilled Dave, doing an epic, precise, version of one of his favorite songs.  We were already enthralled by the range of the band again, with Molo's great drumming and the six singers they could go from pin-drop quiet to roaring chorus in a wave of wonderful sound ("I'll get up and FLY AWAY!").

James then stepped up and did a great vocal on Dear Prudence, and of course it was Grahame on old favorite Jack-a-Roe.  But then it was Jennifer's turn again and, though we were prepared, she knocked us flat on our backs one more time with an incredible, colorful, emotion-laden cover of What Love Will Make You Do.  This had everybody up and hanging on her every turn of phrase, stretching out some of the soulful lines and then roaring the great chorus, "I'm trying hard to express myself because BABY THAT'S THE WAY I FEEL!"  Another short and precise song after that to end the set, U.S. Blues.

Oh no, our time on the Phil planet was drawing to a close!  And there was so much we still wanted to see them do.  We were sure they were going to do the Help/Slip/Franklin's suite sometime that weekend, Dave was dying for some Bobby song I forget, and we were hoping to hear that horn section do some great jam like Let It Grow.

Another long set break, and we were all pretty tired.  I was almost ready for a nap in the balcony at the Cap, but then the band came back on and had me up on my feet and dancing through the whole second set.  And it was great that after such a tidy nugget of a first set, they came out looser than you'd believe and let it all hang out for the final set of the weekend.  Here's the list:

• Shakedown Street
• Mason's Children
• Hard To Handle
• Estimated Prophet
• Unbroken Chain
• Stella Blue
• Turn On Your Lovelight

Wow, this was more fabulous stuff from that great band!  Can't emphasize too much that these guys played like they'd been playing together for years (the one exception was that Rick showed some inexperience with some songs).  And there were more great performances.  James soloed once again on Shakedown and it made the song seen so fresh to be led by a tenor.  Mason's was more great ensemble singing and they did not hesitate to milk the song for all it was worth.

And then they did a Hard To Handle of death.  When they started this song with a flourish from the horns, we hoped that Jennifer would sing it, but I think that Rick had told Phil, "I'll do anything you want but you have to let me sing HTH."  And he sure did an excellent job on both the vocal and the strident lead guitar, and then the guys jammed and jammed, touching on the Dead's early treatments of the song.

Dave called Estimated after that, and then Phil stepped up for a lead vocal on his classic Unbroken Chain.  His voice wavered a bit at times on this and he showed a little annoyance with the rest of the band when they didn't fill in where he thought they should.  But what's a Phil weekend without a bit of a rough edge from the maestro?

And then after that, the TAB Three cleared out except for Jennifer and we knew we about to go to heaven (or hell) again.  I called it, Stella Blue.  Her voice is so delicate and powerful at the same time, and even after honking that trumpet all night she brings such emotion and color to her singing.  We were all standing on egg-shells listening intently to her phrasings, and then her compatriots came out while the band was working up to the crescendo, and Natalie and James joined her in a full-throated, amazing chorus of, "Seems like all this life, Seems like all this life, Seems like all this life..." and then Jennifer took it to the roof with, "Was just a dream!"  What a performance by the TAB Three, they are just fantastic.

They closed with a fun and short Lovelight.  We'd been hoping Natalie would take the lead on this, but no lead from her on Sunday night.  Whatever, it was a great closer and it had been a great weekend of music.  Phil came out and did another nice donor rap, again almost getting all the names right when he introduced the band.  I called Ripple as the encore, and yet again they did it as a rocker rather than a ballad, Grahame driving it with a great rock 'n' roll guitar, like they'd done at the Cap in 2021.

Oh no!  Goodbye Phil, we really hope we'll see you again!  They got together for a last bow and you could tell that Phil was feeling as tired as we were.  Anyway, back down the grand stairway in the Cap and out to the street.  What had we just seen?  Was this concert as good as Friday's and Saturday's?  Could or should they be ranked?  My feeling at this point is that no, they shouldn't.  They were each fantastic in their own right, there's no need to compare them to each other.  Each night, everyone in the band had shown the highest level of musicianship, there had been amazing individual performances, and there had been amazing ensemble playing and singing.  Perhaps the sound of the weekend for me will be the guitar interplay, or the great vocal performances, or the fantastic bottom end with Molo's drumming and Phil's new speakers, or the versatility of Medeski ... or maybe all of it!

OK, one last slow drive through Port Chester and following a line of cars to the Turnpike, and then back to the hotel, where we decompressed for just a bit and then crawled into bed.

Phil and the TAB Three, part 2

Though we'd gotten a nice hotel, I had a terrible night's sleep.  Who invented duvets anyway, and why?

But the breakfast at the hotel was at least as good as any Hampton Inn breakfast, and we had a mellow morning after that, blogging and seeing if there was anything good on TV.  In late morning we decided to take advantage of the beautiful Fall day, and piled in the car for an excursion to the Mianus River Park in the Northwestern part of Stamford.

I have to say that Stamford is a weird city that's grown faster than it should and so is a crazy hodgepodge of Hispanic neighborhoods and old housing stock, huge office and residential buildings to rival Arlington VA, and vastly rich old Southern New England enclaves.  Mianus River Park is in the latter and is a carefully managed forest with a creek in it, filled with fences to control people and animals, old stone walls that don't seem to make any sense, awesome stone ridges, lots of tall trees, and lots of white people walking dogs.  We passed a group of the latter as we entered off Merriebrook Lane and the quasi-leader announced loudly, "It would be great if everyone pooped now."  We hurried on.

What a different kind of forest than we see in Northern New England!  Just a few evergreens and very tall beeches, maples, white and black oaks producing huge leaves, and strangely, large rhododendron bushes all over the place.  There were a good number of people there, but once we got a couple of miles into the trail system we had a solitary walk.  Another great interlude for a Phil concert weekend, especially since the Fall light was incredible, lighting up the understory of the tall trees.

Back to the hotel after that and ate some more sandwiches, took a nap, went for another walk in the Mill River Park across the street, and by then it was time to leave for Port Chester again.  We wondered what they could do to equal or exceed last night?  Was it possible?

Had another great meal at Kiosko's as the area filled with Deadheads.  They're so nice at Kiosko and gave us a complimentary dessert, though we were incredibly full already!  Then over to the theater and braved the confusion up to our balcony seats.  We were pretty much where we were on Friday night, but a couple of rows back.  The sold-out crowd showed up on time again, and soon we were pretty packed in and the band came on.

Maybe I can keep this shorter than last night, but they were just as good, maybe even a little more comfortable with each other.  Here's the first set:

• Bertha
• Althea
• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• He's Gone
• Cold Rain and Snow
• Touch Of Grey

Another short set list filled with long jams and great musicianship.  We've seen Grahame sing Bertha several times and he's just better and better.  Then the incredible Althea, which has more corners you can explore and emotions you can exploit than a whole bundle of pop songs.  An excellent Masterpiece, sung again like a Band song they'd just recently picked up rather then sticking to the GD style.

And then they took off like a rocket again.  It was Natalie's turn and she started into a cautious, quiet "Rat in a drain ditch..." with Grahame supporting on He's Gone, and then turned it up to 11 and took it to the ceiling.  She sang her lines a surreal octave or two higher, perhaps another twist on the minor key(?), and brought an incredible human-ness to that song that we'd heard a million times.  It was more fabulous ensemble singing on the choruses and then she'd take another verse and the crows would roar.  Great stuff!

And then they jammed and jammed and emerged into a crunchy, psychedelic, doomed CR&S.  In fact, this was one of my takeaways from the night, that they were playing with dark forces, man's fate, and things that go bump in the night.  The ghostliness had started with He's Gone and then they turned it up a notch with the murder ballad of CR&S.  They followed this with the redemptive, sing-songy Touch, but as with all songs they've done this weekend, they brought something fresh to it as well as excellent musicianship.  James turned in a wonderful, bright vocal on this, made more special from the fact that he's a cancer survivor.

Ack, halfway through the Phil weekend again!  This was again a pretty long set break, but we were mellow and had lots to talk about with that first set.  They came back out eventually and picked up the torch:

• China Cat Sunflower
• I Know You Rider
• Brown-Eyed Women
• The Wheel
• Terrapin Station
•  Morning Dew
• One More Saturday Night

Just as with last night, one of the qualities shown by the band was a tight guitar pairing.  Grahame and Rick just killed the intricate guitar work between verses of China Cat, and then stretched it out and traded runs into Rider.  Medeski was even more brilliant on organ than he'd been Friday, rolling out waves of sound to compliment the guitars.  And Molo was perhaps the player of the night, pounding those drums and leading every song.  Can't knock Phil too, who took my breath away over and over.

A big change from Friday though, was the dominance of James' sax.  I guess they'd realized that they needed to take more advantage of it and turned him up, and he contributed great fills and leads to every song.  The did a mystical cover of The Wheel after a short BEW, and then the Lesh Brothers took over again.  We've seen Phil&F do Terrapin several times and each time you think it can't get any better, then it does.  And the vocal arrangements were again just awesome, with the TAB Three backing up every line and Grahame and Phil singing a unison lead.

Time to fasten our seat belts after that!  They started into the Morning Dew of death, and this was incredible.  Usually, GD bands do this as a massive guitar vehicle, and the crescendo is when the lead starts fanning like the world is going to end.  Instead, they'd somehow arranged it as an alto saxophone tune and James took off himself towards an even higher crescendo than a guitar could reach.  We'd been waiting for Jennifer to step up as she had Friday night (they missed a chance with CR&S IMO, which she would have killed).  But they had her singing a duet with Grahame, with her asking the questions and Grahame trying to calm her down.  This was really dark, and though Grahame tried and tried, when she'd take a line the fear and awful reality of the post-apocalyptic situation came through and washed over the theater.  Then James did his part and by the time the song ended the Capitol was a smoking hole.

Well, what could they do after this?  It was Saturday night after all, and Rick ended the set with a great vocal on the Weir rocker, with the whole band backing him up.  Again, what a show!

The crowd roared and roared and the players were all bashful about leaving the stage, they knew how well they'd killed it.  But they took a break and then Phil came out and did his donor rap, and actually got Rick's name right when the guys came back and he ran through introductions!  Grahame took up the rock and roll thread and gave it a good shake on Johnny B. Goode to end the night, with everyone dancing and singing behind him.

OMG, another stunner of a concert!  Everyone on stage had shone in their own right and then shone even more when supporting each other.  Again, this was not the standard P&F band.  They were beyond tight and there was no line between the stars and the guests, they all displayed excellence, brought something new to the table, and knocked us dead.

OK, time to exit the Cap again through the confused, gob-smacked audience and out to the street.  Up to our parking lot behind Kiosko, much delay getting back past the theater through the crowds, and then followed the cars onto the Turnpike and back to Stamford.  Another fine night!

Phil and the TAB Three, part 1

We've had so much fun doing the pilgrimage to Port Chester to see Phil Lesh and Friends that we were psyched to do it again this year when another "Philoween" run was announced.  As was the story last year, he was planning to do three sets of three shows each, culminating with a show on Halloween itself.  We did the same thing too, and got tickets to the middle set of three, as the dates worked for us and we figured they would be the best in terms of getting good seats.  In fact we did get pretty good seats during the usual online scrum, in the center of the center balcony for each night.

The big question was, whom was he going to play with this year?  They finally announced the lineups near the end of Summer and we may have lucked out on this.  The first set of three shows featured Mikaela Davis, John Scofield, Grahame Lesh, Eric Krasno, Karl Denson, Ian Neville, Steve Molitz, and Alex Koford.  The third set will feature Grahame, Krasno, Marcus King, Duane Betts, Nicki Bluhm, Jason Crosby, and Tony Leone.  Both of these are great lineups.  But the middle set we were going to see had Grahame, John Medeski (whom we'd somehow never seen), John Molo, Rick Mitarotonda from Goose, and the trio of Natalie Cressman, Jennifer Hartswick, and James Casey, who form the beyond-excellent horn section of the Trey Anastasio Band.

Late October snuck up on us, but we're practiced at this go-to-Port Chester thing and got sandwiches, chips, beer, cider, orange juice, granola bars, and more beer in the cooler and hit the road South on a beautiful but nippy Fall Friday, the 21st of the month.  We'd gotten a cheap hotel that had to be better than the one we'd had last Fall or the one we'd gotten in Hartford this Summer.  But wait a minute, how *much* better?  We'd had some pretty gruesome hotel experiences lately and so at the last second we cancelled the cheap hotel after reading horrible reviews and went for the known thing, the Hampton Inn in Stamford.

Took a bit of a scenic route down to deepest, darkest Connecticut, since we've seen enough of the Pike and 84 to last a long time.  Drove South down 95, around Providence on 295, and then along the coast West on 95 through Connecticut, with the traffic getting worse and worse, and the South Conn cities started up and we approached the New York vortex.  The North-bound lanes were one big traffic jam by early afternoon, but we kept moving, dodging some frantic and some plodding Connecticut drivers and getting to exit 7 in Stamford just as the South-bound lanes came to a dead stop.  Great timing, and we only had a few hours to kill before the show, settling into our nice 4th-floor room and having a couple of beers to get ready.

Off to Port Chester and guess what?  We parked behind Kiosko and had another great Mexican dinner there (I figured I was hungry so I went for their half-chicken in verde sauce, amazing and I ate it all!).  Then off to the Cap, checked out the merch table (we got t-shirts), and up to our center balcony seats.  We were back, and they had another great light show, painting the alcoves in an art deco-esque wallpaper while a bouncing squirrel rotated around the walls.

But in other ways, this wasn't your normal Friday night experience.  The crowd filled in pretty much on time and the place was totally packed.  On other occasions we'd seen stretches of empty seats in the Cap on Fridays, probably they were sold but the people couldn't make it there after a busy week.  But this was absolutely wall to wall and the people were seemingly all there to see a concert!?!  Sometimes there are large numbers of attendees on their phones/talking throughout and/or so stoned they could barely stand, especially on Fridays.  This was a polite crowd paying rapt attention.  Probably another benefit of going for the middle set of shows.

So anyway, it was Medeski on the left with two Leslies, a huge organ, two keyboards, and a huge monitor, Mitarotonda with an extensive row of filters/pedals on the floor next, Molo in the back, Grahame up front, Phil to his left, and then the TAB Three on the right side of the stage.  Phil had the same computer setup, but two big speakers with one horn each rather than one huge one, he could turn around and be right in front of Molo, their low end was fantastic and a huge part of the sound.  And being right next to Grahame enabled those two to huddle when they needed to and for Phil to give him directions directly instead of gesticulating angrily.

RickM was an unknown quantity for us but quickly proved that he's a great GD guitarist.  Grahame is great too but somehow seems to improve every time we see him.  It's no wonder he was up front, if not for the old guy at the top of the bill, he was the glue that held the band together and he was the one everyone watched for the changes.  Rick and Grahame seemed to usually be playing similar tones with their guitars and this worked fantastically, the interplay between the two was another highlight, especially with Phil egging them on and Molo punctuating their verses.  Medeski was amazing himself, playing a great piano on some songs but just dropping jaws with his organ work, sometimes being a fourth to the amazing horn section and sometimes weaving himself in with the guitars.

What a band!  And I haven't even started on the horns yet.  Here's the first set: 

• Here Comes Sunshine
• Tennessee Jed
• Big River
• Dancing In the Street (Jennifer)
• Scarlet Begonias
• Dancing In the Street
• Fire On the Mountain (James)

They started with one of my favorite songs and blew us away.  Natalie (trombone), Jennifer (trumpet), and James (alto sax) all had mikes on their horns, but also had mike stands in front of them and boy, did they join in on vocals!  This was what blew us away the most, when they'd all be singing their hearts out on backup behind Grahame or Rick.  And on the choruses all of them would sing together, at times it was six vocalists (counting Phil, who only took a few lead vocals) and the sound was so awesome.

And then they would play those horns!  The TAB Three was what I was really looking forward to and did they bring it.  The horns could have been higher in the mix, particularly Natalie and James (who didn't solo on sax all night, unusual for a sax in a rock band), but they were playing some great stuff and sure knew how to jam, as well as playing their charts when it was their turn.  Other Phil&F bands we've seen have seemed a little ill-rehearsed, especially on their first night.  But this was the tightest of bands right from the start.  Rick was not about to make a bad move in his big chance on stage with Phil, the horns seemed instantly comfortable from their many times with Trey, and of course the Johns, Grahame, and Phil are so experienced and more than solid.

That first set was extraordinary, it just took off like a rocket.  And after a great Grahame vocal on Big River (though he got some verses mixed up), Jennifer in a brown print dress took us even higher.  She sang Dancing In the Streets in a coloratura style that can't be described and she made our ears ring.  The sound in the Cap is great, and they sure gave that hall a workout with the ensemble vocals and above all, her reaching for the highest notes at full volume.  And after each incredible verse she'd bring her trumpet up to her lips and play an impossible lead with more notes to it than you could count.  How did she do that?  What a musician!  They segued into Scarlet, and then went back into Dancing when that was done!?!  This was the loudest ovation of the night, when she finished that reprise.  We were all on our feet and screaming, what a performance!  She had to take a stiff little bow afterwards, like Judge breaking the homer record.  And then it was James' turn, singing a sly, mellow, reggae-tinted lead to Fire to complete the set.

Wow, were we impressed!  I was less tired than I'd expected at that point after an already long day, and that had been such an exciting first set.  It was a long break though, and the second set didn't start until well after nine.  Could they continue the momentum of the first set?  Yup:

• Ship Of Fools
• Cassidy (Natalie and Grahame)
• St. Stephen
• The Eleven
• Dark Star
• The Other One
• Dark Star
• Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad
• And We Bid You Goodnight

A little strange to start with a ballad, but this featured some of the best vocals of the night, with the whole band crooning, "It was later than I thought..."  They were right on top of their sound.  Natalie is a bit of a fidgety musician, always adjusting her mike, playing with her instrument, and adjusting her music stand.  We could tell from her mannerisms that it was going to be her turn next, and she did a fantastic duet with Grahame on Cassidy.  Grahame was up front, but Natalie soon took over the vocal tone, and gave Cassidy a country lilt that I've always heard in the song but that rarely comes out.  She sang, "On the country miles in his Cadillac" like it was a Gram Parsons song, not a hippy idyll.

And then the dragons really came out!  This was the hugest of jams, encompassing some of the best songs ever.  How can they follow this up in the next two shows of the weekend?  Don't know what to say except that The Eleven was incredibly tight and precise, Dark Star was split between three vocalists as is Phil's custom, the third being Jennifer who took it to the roof again, and TOO was jaw-droppingly unexpected.  They finished by going back into the second half of Dark Star and then wandering far off the reservation, to my ear touching on Cryptical and Big RR Blues before settling into the easy lope and sing-along of GDTRFB.

Just amazing stuff.  The crowd had shown signs of getting a bit tired during the huge jam, but everybody was back on their feet and singing along with GDTRFB, and then they slowed down and dropped into Bid You Goodnight.  The crowd was in full voice and Phil realized we were a bit off the beat.  They were slowing it down and Phil graciously stepped up and conducted us all as the tempo changed.  What an end to the show!

Had to sit down for a bit after that, but soon we were all back on our feet for Phil's donor rap.  He introduced the band after huddling with Grahame and probably trying to practice "Mitarotonda."  He blew it anyway, but got everyone else's name right!  And then they encored with a beautiful Brokedown Palace, with another great lead vocal by Rick, and showcasing their powerful ensemble vocals.

Sat down again for a minute, but then braved the crowd down the elegant staircase in the Cap and out onto the street.  Back to the car and then not a bad drive back to Stamford, where we decompressed and then got to bed.  It's going to be a long weekend!

Darrell Scott Early Show at the Club

As mentioned in the previous post, my big sister Sally (and entourage) was visiting and expressed a hope that there'd be a fun folk concert for us to see.  As it turned out, the great Darrell Scott was playing Passim on October 15th, the night before they had to leave, and I was able to get tickets to the early show for 8 of us!  This promised to be a lot of fun.

And it sure was.  Sarah and I hung out at home during the day and then met the other 6 usual suspects in Palmer Street at 6:00 exactly, after parking on the Cambridge Common.  We had some great conversation and a fine, eclectic meal with good beer and wine.  Hit the bathroom right before showtime and of course had a few words with Darrell as he was waiting to go on, charmingly nervous and polite.

He opened on a wonderful-sounding acoustic and switched to a growling electric guitar for some tunes, and a bright electric piano for a few others.  He mostly stuck to his originals, which are as good as it gets, he's a fantastic song writer.  I was hoping for some of his "hits" but was not disappointed at all when he stuck to his newer stuff, as a good artist should.

I was more than delighted when he called for Cambridge country-folk veteran Sandy Martin to join him on bass and vocals.  She sang a great cover of Neil Young's Harvest Moon, and then they played John Lincoln Wright's Rockabilly Man!!!  I was in heaven.

He finished the set with a singalong of The Man Who Could Have Played Bass For Sha Na Na, and encouraged us to stick around for the late show.  I wished I could have, but we had plans and headed home.  A really great show!

Melvin Seals and JGB in Beverly

We hadn't seen John Kadlecik for way too long, seeing how much we'd liked him with Furthur, etc.  And we'd always wanted to see Melvin Seals' attempt to keep alive the Jerry Garcia Band tradition.  Several times we'd come close but were derailed by incidents, such as COVID.  But they announced a show at The Cabot in Beverly and we got great seats, 4th row center, pretty much where we sat when we saw an excellent Los Lobos concert there several years ago.  So we were psyched!

Sally and friends had been visiting and we drove down from Maine on the morning of October 14th, and then met Dave at Gulu-Gulu in downtown Salem.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, do not go anywhere near Salem in October.  But we forgot and paid the price in ridiculous crowds and a bad meal from an overtaxed restaurant and staff.  Oh well, we drove from there the short way up to Beverly, parked in our normal spot, and were some of the first of the excited, practically packed crowd.  It's a really nice theater.

Unfortunately, the show didn't meet our expectations.  The sound system there is great, Seals himself played some excellent organ, and there were some mind-bending moments and the long, flowing leads that you'd expect from a R&B, "JGB" band.  But there were some not-great elements too.  For one, they only had 4 people on stage, organ, drums, bass, and guitar!  The real latter-day JGB sound includes excellent backup vocals and more of a big-band sound than these guys were putting out.  The bass player sang backup on some tunes, but was not that dynamic, and he and the drummer were not best.  John himself was a bit disappointing also.  Maybe we expected too much, but he'd start a great lead and then kind of peter out after a dozen or two measures.  He was far from sustaining the clarity and emotion the way Garcia used to.

The setlist was great though.  They opened with a fantastic cover of Stop That Train (unfortunately, one of the few peaks of the evening), did a couple of JRAD songs in Cats and then R&C, and had a couple of moments in the second set with covers of Clapton and Van Morrison, as well as an Oteil song (If I Had the World To Give).  They did Expressway To Your Heart, but it never really took off and then they followed it with tepid drum and bass solos.  I was excited to hear Sisters and Brothers, but again with just a couple of male voices on stage it wasn't that great.  Here's the setlist:

Set 1:

• Stop That Train
• Ain't No Bread in the Breadbox
• Cats Under the Stars
• The Wheel
• Tore Up Over You
• Scarlet Begonias
• Rubin and Cherise
• I Feel Like Dynamite

Set 2:

• Lay Down Sally
• And It Stoned Me
• Mystery Train
• Expressway to Your Heart
• Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad
• If I Had the World to Give
• My Sisters and Brothers
• Deal

Oh well, we had a great time, our seats were fantastic, and Seals was incredible!  Drove Dave home afterwards (lots of driving that day) and then got to bed by 1:00 or so.

A Bit Of Freshgrass 2022

We had such a great time at Freshgrass back in 2014, but it's a bit of a stretch from Eastern Mass, and they haven't had must-see lineups recently, so we haven't gotten it together to go.  But I've really wanted to see Sierra Ferrell again since seeing her at GRF last year, and I saw she was on stage on Saturday, followed by Del McCoury.  Good enough, we could do one day!  It'd have to be a long one: leave here at 7:00 and get back by midnight if things worked out, but we figured it would be worth it.

And it was!  Saturday the 24th of September was a beautiful, crisp and windy, early Fall day.  And as we traveled West out Route 2 and gained elevation, eventually topping the Berkshires, the Fall colors popped out of the trees and the blue sky and hills surrounded us.  Got to North Adams @9:40 and one parking lot was already full, but we got a great space in another one, grabbed the chairs, and moseyed over to join the line on a chilly, breezy morning.  There were a lot of psyched people there already for the 10:45 gates, most of whom had frozen their asses off there on Friday night.  But we were all prepared with multiple layers, though Sarah and I were possibly the only ones with gloves and the morning Globe.  People looked at us jealously.

Typical confusion getting our bags checked, our wrists banded, and tickets scanned, but we got in eventually and set up our chairs to the left of the soundboard at the field stage.  M&J were going to meet us at 10, but they were delayed and so we brought in extra chairs and tried to hold places for them.

First up was Willi Carlisle over at the courtyard stage.  It was crowded already!  They had a few seats there over on the right and I was able to grab one, sit in the sun, and really enjoy his act.  He called himself an Arkansas folk-singer and he went on to prove it, singing some silly songs on guitar about living in a van and crotchety, euphemistic, hillbilly sayings from his uncle.  But he showed a serious side too, doing Steve Goodman's powerful anti-war anthem, Penny Evans, a cappella.  He then picked up a button accordion and did a great polka, and then another powerful Tex-Mex song.  The sound in the courtyard was fantastic and he was able to rear back and fill it with his voice.  He switched to clawhammer banjo for his last few tunes and led us all in a sing-along on Your Heart's a Big Tent.

Checked back at the main stage and M&J hadn't yet arrived, so ended up back at the courtyard for the next act, California Bluegrass Reunion.  This is a super-star act that Darol Anger's assembled for a few gigs, and I was anticipating some confusion ... they sure sounded close to a train wreck in the sound check, with vocal mikes feeding back and no one knowing who was going to solo when.  But then their set started and they were wonderful, each one getting a chance to shine and no one stepping on each other.  Their sound was great and I was close enough to hear the vocals; they didn't want to risk a lot of loud harmony singing and get feedback monsters so stood back from the mikes.

The band consists of Anger on fiddle, Chad Manning (David Grisman, Laurie Lewis) on another fiddle, Bill Evans (Dry Branch Fire Squad, Due West) on banjo, Sharon Gilchrist (Uncle Earl, Peter Rowan) on bass, the great John Reischman (Good Ol' Persons, Tony Rice, etc.) on mandolin, and Jim Nunally (David Grisman, Kathy Kallick) on guitar.  They rotated the vocal leads and showed awesome talent without any of them dominating.  I have to say that Reischman's mandolin was what I was listening to most closely, I hadn't seen him for 40(?) years!

Sarah and Matt showed up during the set and were able to squeeze in with me up front.  The wind had died down and the day suddenly became warmer, though it kept its Fall brilliance and it never got really hot.  Took a break out at the car for some cheese and crackers, and had a quick compliment for John Reischman and Darol Anger on my way back in.  I wanted to catch some of Alison Brown at the indoor stage, but there was a huge line to get in, and so I instead headed back to the field stage to see the tail end of Willie Watson's set.  He had a wonderful fiddle player (Sami Braman), a bass player, and another guitarist with him, but who was playing at any one time varied.  He did a few songs solo and ended with an excellent cover of Gallows Pole (you could hear people saying, "Where have I heard this before?" and the answer, "oh yeah, Led Zeppelin").

Next up was Misty Blues back at the courtyard stage, and I can't help but gush about how great this was.  The band is led by powerhouse Gina Coleman on vocals.  I'd seen them at GRF on 2021 and they played a mellow and saxophone-heavy set there, but this time they were out to take no prisoners and they were load, raucous, bluesy, driven by an excellent lead guitar who was smoking the strings.  The sound was perfect again, they had the whole courtyard rocking, and Coleman was growling the blues at the top of her lungs.  She mixed in a couple of ballads, and introduced one as composed with her son, Diego, who was stuck at the back of the stage but was so integral to the sound, playing an excellent rhythm guitar.

They were all great musicians, I think they've turned over a lot in personnel since last Summer.  The keyboard player was exceptional, but I kept going back to Diego.  His Mom mentioned him a few times and was obviously very proud of him.  But I wondered what things looked like from his perspective: a) my Mom is supposedly proud of me but sticks me at the back of the stage, and b) how cool is it to be playing rhythm guitar for your mother while she's belting the blues and hundreds of people are dancing?  The capper was when they did an excellent, slow intro to St. James Infirmary, then broke down, and then kicked back into it at an incredible pace.  They actually got into a Buddy Holly-esque groove on that, between Diego on rhythm and the wild lead guitar.  Boy, did they have people dancing!

Wow, needed to towel off and get some water after that set, so back to the seats at the main stage to see a bit of Aoife O'Donovan.  I've seen her many times and loved her with Crooked Still and of course with I'm With Her, but her solo stuff lags a bit IMO.  She had Isa Burke on guitar (and a drummer and bass), but still failed to take off in the few songs I heard.

Ok, I was early for the set but determined to get a great place to stand for Sierra Ferrell back at the courtyard stage.  The word's gotten out about her and I was able to get right up behind the VIP seats about 20 minutes before her set, but then the place quickly filled up.  It got pretty packed!  I spent the time talking with the people standing with me, all of whom were enthusiastic fans.  Sierra came on with Josie Toney on fiddle, a bass player, and a mandolinist.  She wore a beautiful white dress with lace trimming and a bow in back, brown cowboy boots, lots of makeup, and at first a large fur hat, but it blew off in the first song so she picked it up and threw it away.  She is unique, eclectic, and amazingly talented, some of her guitar runs had my jaw dropping.  She's hard to describe, you have to hear her!

But it's her vocals that put her over the top.  I've seen some excellent country/bluegrass vocal performances, like Peter Rowan doing throat singing and Ranger Doug doing the best yodeling ever.  But you have to hear Sierra mixing in woohs and ahs and hums with her great lyrics.  Toney really helped out on this, but Sierra is unreal.  Then she'd laugh at the end of the song or turn her serious vocalizations into a spooky shriek!

She did Give It Time, Bells Of Every Chapel (Sierra curtsied to the crowd after that one), Made Like That, The Sea, and a great cover of Don't Let Your Deal Go Down.  She told us she was sick of only having one record out and promised us another one soon.  She closed with a sing-along (and waving-hands-along) on At the End Of the Rainbow and then her early hit, Jeremiah.  Wow, she was good.

Took the opportunity to hobnob a bit with M&J and new friends Amy and Bruce out at the car after that, and to have some excellent spinach wrap roll-ups with hummus and fried eggplant and sweet potato.  The afternoon was ending, the sun was going down, and the temperature was dropping fast.  But then it was time to head back in for the great Del McCoury!

Sorry to miss Skip Marley's set at the main stage and then Jerry Douglas's set at the courtyard (Sarah and Matt caught a bit of it), but I had my priorities and was determined to not miss a second of Del.  The sun set right before he came on and I was glad to see he was accompanied by not only his sons Ronnie and Rob on mandolin and banjo, but by Jason Carter on fiddle and Alan Bartram on bass.

BUT, they lit into their top-notch bluegrass and the sound was terrible!  I was so disappointed.  These sound guys had just done the quiet Aoife O'Donovan and the reggae Skip Marley, and they were not ready (apparently??) to do a loud bluegrass band next.  That's quite a challenge I guess, and the mike setup was a little odd in that there were two ribbon mikes on stage and everybody had in-ear monitors.  But still, I thought it was quite non-professional for such a big act on Saturday evening at such a big festival.  Ronnie McCoury does not play a toy piano!

Whatever, Del is an amazing musician and entertainer and turned in a great set.  He's 83 years old and he's the last of his generation.  The sound guys got his voice right at least, though all the instruments sounded as if they were playing inside a tin can.  Finally they got it adjusted correctly and actually the sound was excellent for the last three tunes: Traveling Teardrop Blues, Vincent Black Lightning, and All Aboard.

Ok, that was it!  The festival still had a couple of acts to go (Gary Clark and Li'l Smokies), but we were done and had a long road East in front of us.  Said goodbye to our friends and got back to the car quickly.  It actually wasn't a bad drive back, over the Berkshires and down a pretty deserted Route 2 ... got back home right before 11:30.  Soon to bed, what a day!

JRAD Back Downtown, part 2

Ho-hum, just another JRAD concert.  It was a sunny, hot and humid, breezy, end-of-August day and we had a fun time playing croquet during the day and trying to stay cool.  Before you knew it, it was time to head back downtown.  This time we got reservations at the new Lord Hobo (Woburn brewery) in the Seaport.  We had a bit of a hard time finding it, partly because they have few street signs in the Seaport, in that charming Boston way.  And when we got there the right door for the restaurant is not marked.  Whatever, it was a fine evening and it was amusing to see others (many in GD uniform) get confused about where the place was themselves.

Right back to the tent after that, where we had seats in the row in front of where we'd been Friday.  Strange, but though it was just one row we seemed a lot closer!?!  A fellow Deadhead gave Sarah a rose!  No setup for a sax that night, and there was again a real delay in spectators getting to the venue, but it eventually was packed and we were elbow-to-elbow with a full crowd, loving it:

• Foolish Heart
• New Minglewood Blues
• Bird Song
• Black-Throated Wind
• Scarlet Begonias
• Fire on the Mountain

As great as they'd been on Friday,  this was even better.  The sound system was still taxed, but Tommy was back to his familiar old guitar with the rainbow stripe and he was rocking it.  Foolish Heart always reminds me of when it was on the radio back in the late 80s, and Tommy does this kind of song so well.  Without Bogie they were able to turn on a dime and they played a beautiful set.  Scott was not about to let Tommy upstage him and countered with his best, growling Bobby blues on Minglewood and BTW.

What else can I say about that long set?  Not much, you have to hear it, especially the long, perfect Scarlet > Fire.  Ack!  We were suddenly three quarters through our time on the JRAD island.  Oh well, time for the last quarter:

• Lost Sailor
• Saint of Circumstance
• Echoes (Pink Floyd)
• Terrapin Station
• Throwing Stones
• Jessica (Allman Brothers)
• Throwing Stones
• Another Brick in the Wall (Pink Floyd cover)
• Throwing Stones

As mentioned, Scott was not going to be upstaged and he did a great Sailor > Saint to open, though perhaps not as good as the one he'd done for us back in the Boston HOB, which will always be at the top of my list.  But then they went off the reservation and we were back to tingling at their inventiveness and musicianship.  They stretched and stretched and then suddenly were filling the tent with one of the most atmospheric Pink Floyd songs ... don't know if they'd ever played this live before as an ensemble.

They followed this with an excellent and tight Terrapin, and then Scott took over again.  This had become his night and he did the first few verses of an epic Throwing Stones.  They stretched this out and were suddenly doing the Top Gear theme song!  Then more sonic explorations, back to Throwing Stones, and then back to Pink Floyd!?!  Maybe they had the upcoming new school year on their minds.  Finally back to Throwing Stones for the last bridge.  What a set!

Phew, our feet were aching after two nights of dancing on their concrete floor and our minds were reeling.  Many more thanks from Joe, then a quick break and the band was back.  A guy up front had been waving a Ramble On Rose sign throughout the evening, and Joe pointed to him and told him this was for him, then they did a great encore of that song.  Marco waved and waved and pointed to people he recognized.  Tommy gathered up the setlists and handed them out to people in the front row.  They're such a friendly, folksy band, and have I mentioned how excellent they are?

Same scene in the Seaport as Friday, but we got out of there with no problem (actually, the parking lot machine did not want to let us out, but luckily there was an attendant who overrode it).  Back home soon, and we can't wait to see them again.

 

 

JRAD Back Downtown, part 1

We've been more selective than we used to be about what concerts to go to, not wanting to be in a poorly ventilated room with unmasked people in the continuing world of COVID-19.  So when we heard that JRAD was coming back for two shows at the open-air tent in Boston's Seaport (currently called the Leader Bank Pavilion) we got tickets ASAP.  Well, with a little hesitation.  We'd had a great time the last time we saw them, at the Pavilion in 2018 (over 4 years ago!!), but part of that was that we had great seats and so the inexcusably-underpowered PA there was not a factor.  We needed to get great seats again and luckily we did, right next to the soundboard.

Dave came up for the weekend and we got parking tickets online.  We ate at home that Friday and then made it down to the Seaport through really thick rush-hour traffic.  Rain showers and thunderstorms had been taking unpredictable paths through MA all day and we were hoping they wouldn't interfere with the concert.  Close, but they managed to avoid us.

Made it to the show and celebrated with a beer by the shore.  It really is a fun, almost intimate, place when you finally get there if you don't mind the prices and the takeoff/landing route from Logan isn't overhead, as it sometimes is.  Got to our seat and the place was not full at all, must have been a lot of people stuck in traffic and/or at work.  The crowd finally showed up by the end of the first set and the place seemed very full, though the people who had the seats to our right never turned up and so we had plenty of room for spreading out and dancing.

There was a sax on stage and soon Stuart Bogie came out and picked it up, followed by the rest of the band.  We were psyched!  Here's the first set:

• The Wheel
• Queen Jane Approximately
• Help on the Way
• Slipknot!
• Cats Under the Stars
• Feel Like a Stranger
• Not Fade Away

It had been too long since we'd seen JRAD!  The first song we ever saw them do was The Wheel at soundcheck in the Paradise, and so that was a real "welcome back" song for us.  And I can't tell you how great Queen Jane was, with an excellent vocal by Scott and a loping, not-in-a-hurry to get there, country pace.  I didn't know whom to watch!  Dave was booming and dominant, Marco was as brilliant as I've ever heard him, Scott was incredible, Tommy was playing Garcia's Wolf guitar, and Joe, of course, was the leader of the band.

Just a note that Dead concerts are so much fun and the people at them are generally so happy.  That night and the next we saw a good number of excited kids accompanied by their parents.  I love the fact that people want to pass their love of the Dead down through the generations.

And they're such an adventurous band.  The Dead defied convention, and JRAD sure do to.  After the drop-dead Queen Jane the whole band suddenly started into this cacophonous medley of sound that knocked us all flat and then suddenly stood us all back up as it morphed into Help.  I hope the noise didn't scare the children, to coin a phrase.

Stuart was a great addition and integrated into the band very well.  But he distracted a bit from the tightness they can feature ... they didn't want to lose him.  Fantastic to see Tommy playing Wolf again, but he sometimes seemed a little uncomfortable with it.  It has so many possibilities and he didn't want to play the wrong tone at the wrong time.  And though we were well positioned in the Pavilion, the sound system there is just not that good and seemed overtaxed at times.

So a few faint criticisms, but we were having a great time and that was an excellent first set.  Not too long of a break and then they came back out with:

• Here Comes Sunshine
• Truckin'
• King Solomon's Marbles
• Truckin'
• Cassidy
• St. Stephen
• The Eleven
• St. Stephen
• Reuben and Cherise
• Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad

Oh my God, what did we just see?!?  The rain *had* stopped but the sun had set by then and so HCS was not as appropriate as you might think, but whatever, I love that song.  They did a great intro to Truckin' and then played the shit out of that, including teases of Marco's Dropkick, and then suddenly were doing King Solomon's!  The second time I ever saw Joe perform he did this with Furthur.  And to emphasize their scoffing at convention, they went back into StS after The Eleven.

Stuart continued to shine too, and it was a great ending to the second set with a beautiful Reuben and Cherise (Tommy was in great voice himself) and then a rolling, sing-along GDTRFB.  Joe was the gracious host, thanking us all profusely for the applause and saying, "See you tomorrow!"  We thought this might signal no encore, but the band came back out soon and did a rocking and short Johnny B. Goode.

What a show!  We were tingling from the experience, and the venue and the Seaport were still a hive of activity.  But we made it back to the parking garage through it all (and some dentists of course, who were playing tag with the police).  The underground spur back to the expressway was apparently closed, but we made it back up to Atlantic Ave after getting turned around, and had a short ride back home.  We'd see them again tomorrow! 

Phil Lesh at Thompson's Point

We're in the midst of a whirlwind of a Dead & Company tour, but don't forget Phil Lesh!  We've got tickets to go see him in Port Chester in October, but in the meantime he's been doing his own "Summer tour."  I put that in quotes because he said years ago that he was done touring, and when he goes on the road these days it's on his own, quirky schedule.  That works.

We decided not to go to his set at this Summer's Levitate Festival in Marshfield MA because the rest of the bill on that day was not really attractive to us, but he announced that he'd be appearing with the same band the next day at Thompson's Point, in Portland ME, and that was right up our alley.  He's touring with his usual compadres of Grahame and Jason Crosby this year, and also with Amy Helm, Cody Dickinson, and Stu Allen.  Though I'd rank Stu low on my list of "fake Jerry's" (hate to use that term, but there it is), this projected to be a great band and we were psyched!

Never been to Thompson's Point, but have driven by there a lot.  It's a peninsula sticking into the Fore River in Portland, next to the train station.  From our glimpses of the site from the highway we really couldn't imagine how they'd set up a concert there, but they did a really good job of it.  They've having some great acts there this Summer and we'll probably go again if this continues.

Dave had had to miss the DeadCo concerts we'd attended (see previous posts), but was symptom-free, CDC-approved, and more than psyched to see this one, and it was a great day for an outdoor concert on Sunday, July 10.  We drove up in time to get there for "gates open" at 4:30, and didn't have to wait that long in the line of cars filling their dusty, dirt parking lots.  Followed people to the gates, where they were doing thorough searching of bags and measuring of lawn chairs, and had to send some people back to their cars to get rid of contraband or illegal chairs (seat no more than 12" off the ground).  But we were prepared, got in, and grabbed a piece of lawn (well, hard-packed dirt with some weeds) by the soundboard, maybe 50 feet from the stage!

Filled water bottles, got beer, cruised the food trucks and got some (sushi tuna-roll for me, wrapped in tasty seaweed).  Some boats and kayaks were assembling on the Fore River to hear the concert, don't think they could see anything.  But it was a sunny day with a strong Southeast wind and by show-time of 6:00 the place was getting pretty full and there were still long lines to get in.  Don't know if the place sold out, but it got pretty crowded there.  This was our second time seeing Phil in Maine, and we'd seen TTB there this Spring.  Sheryl Crow and Lake Street Dive are coming to Thompson's Point later this Summer and I hope top-level acts keep coming to Maine, and keep getting closer to us!

Late crowd and so they didn't really get started until 6:20 or so, but finally we saw them doing their Phil & Friends trademark huddle in the wings, and then they came out and tuned up.  A big difference was that Grahame was way over to the right, beyond his Dad, with Jason far left, then Stu, and Amy, with Cody on the back on traps.  And then they lit right into:

• Alice D. Millionaire
• Here Comes Sunshine
• They Love Each Other
• Shakedown Street
• Shelter From the Storm (Bob Dylan)
• Bird Song
• Touch of Grey

At first we couldn't believe it, LSD Millionaire is such an obscure song, but this was our second time seeing it performed by Amy.  Amy can bring a lot of energy, and she sure did with this opener!  And great harmonies from Grahame, he and she are a great pairing and were on all night.  Then Stu continued the precise vocals with HCS and was joined by Amy, Phil, and Grahame on the choruses, singing about our redeeming sun, in the early evening while facing South toward the water on an outdoor stage in the beautiful Summer ... I was almost in tears and I think others were too.

Then Amy took another lead with TLEO.  We'd just seen DeadCo cover this in Hartford and I loved Oteil's bassline on it, but how can you beat Phil?  You can't and he brought plenty of funk to it to mix with Amy's soulful vocal.

Great sound from the start!  We were worried that the stiff wind would be a factor, but it was not.  They had the leader of the band turned up from the start and as the evening went on, Phil just got louder and louder and filled our souls.  Grahame just keeps getting better and better and turned in some technical, uplifting, extended leads, especially on Shakedown.  Amy stuck to the vocals and turned in a great performance, and Jason was low in the mix at first, but then they got that right and he had a great night.  Stu was very good, and fit right in with the band.  But the player that again and again dropped my jaw was Cody Dickinson on drums.  We'd seen him with the North Mississippi Allstars and he was great, but with Phil & Friends he seemed to be playing on another level.  No lazy GD drumming for him, he was dropping in the paradiddles and drum rolls in the middle of playing the solid backbone role

Dave called Shakedown from the tuning and this was a long one, they were ready to hit the psychedelics from the start and we were loving it.  Didn't recognize the next one right off the bat, but it was an excellent cover of a Dylan song, sung by Stu (perhaps a few too many lead vocals for him).  I called Bird Song and again, it didn't take them long to get deep into a jam ... a loud one rather than a cerebral one, fitting the outdoor setting.  They were taking their time between songs to make sure they got everything exactly perfect, but when they started up with Touch I knew it was the set closer and so took off for the port-a-potties and more water.  I pooh-pooh this song a bit, but they did an excellent job with it (Grahame on lead vocal) and were still playing it with me dancing in the back of the suddenly large crowd.

Wow, that was a great first set and we gushed about it with our neighbors.  I'd been hoping for another cover of Two Souls In Communion by Amy (we'd seen her do this with Phil in Port Chester) and was sure they were going to a New Speedway Boogie of death, seeing the recent political developments.  But whatever, they should play what they want, especially when they do it that well.  The transitory nature of Phil bands means they're sometimes not well rehearsed, but the only one who seemed confused at times was Dickinson, who soon got back on the same page with everyone else.  The others have played with Phil many times before and were a tight unit.

The sun was about to set, and when it did the strong wind died totally.  Though the sound had been amazing for the first set, it was just perfect when the sun went down.  I was afraid there'd be noise from the nearby highway, but that was never a problem.  Lots of talkers in the crowd, but this was a joyous experience for everyone.  You don't get a great band like this in Maine too often!

So what did they do for a second set?  Well it was even better than the first set:

• Rosemary
• Terrapin Station
• Jack O'Roses
• Scarlet Begonias
• Dark Star
• Morning Dew
• Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad
• And We Bid You Goodnight

Holy shit!  You think LSD Millionaire is obscure, how about Rosemary?  This was a textbook, short version of it, again sung by Stu.  But as much as the others on the stage shone, there was no question that we were at a Phil F. Lesh show and he was at his delicate, nimble, powerful best on this.  And then they did Terrapin and Grahame took the mike to tell us about that fan incident.  I was waiting for it, and then here it came, the return of the Lesh Brothers!  Phil and Grahame can sing so well together, they're almost like one of those great bluegrass brother bands, the Louvins or the Stanleys or the Osborne Brothers.  Grahame watches him intently and Phil conducts the duets with facial expressions and a few hand signals.  It's not like Grahame just met him after all.  And when their harmonies are joined by Amy Helm's soul and Stu's strong baritone, the vocal sound was enough to lift me off the ground.

And then yet another obscurity that we couldn't believe at first, Grahame sang one of the bits of Hunter's full Terrapin Suite, Jack O' Roses.  We'd actually heard a recording of this done 10(?) years ago a few days ago, and here it was again!  It's a small Terrapin world.  Great stand-alone Scarlet after this ... people were just saying that they were sorry they hadn't continued it into Fire.  But then those notes rang out from Phil's bass and suddenly, once again, he was playing one of the best songs ever for us, Dark Star.  They did Phil's preferred vocal treatment on this, with him and then Stu, and then Grahame splitting the couplets between three voices.  And then Amy would join in on the "transitive nightfall" line and this was so good!  They went deep into space on this, and Amy to her credit did not faint from exhaustion, she stuck it out smiling until they swooped back into the second verse and took us all away again.

Boy, how could you beat that?  Well I'll tell you, just listen to that tape and you'll get blown away like we did when we were just coming down from outer space and then, Brrannggg! ... they hit the first chord of Dew.  Coincidental that there were so many "repeats" on this night.  I'd recently seen TLEO, Scarlet, Dew, and the encore done by DeadCo, as well as hearing Jack O' Roses recently.  But I was not complaining.  Stu did some excellent lead guitar work on this and Grahame and Amy sang it in the beautiful call and response arrangement we'd seen them do before.  Jason got out his fiddle for this and played a stellar lead.  The crescendo of this song is fantastic and Grahame hit it just right.  You think the times call for a protest song?  Well this will do.

OMG, GDTRFB came after this and gave us all a chance to wring out our handkerchiefs and start smiling again.  And when they got to the coda they kept it going and eventually morphed into Bid You Goodnight, which was done a cappella.  A perfect ending to an incredible second set, emphasizing their strong ensemble vocals.

I was getting pretty tired by then, especially after such emotion, and we had a pretty long drive home in front of us.  But there was old man Phil coming out, fumbling with his earpieces, and then giving us yet another fine donor rap.  It was unclear how many encores they had planned, but they just did one, with Amy taking the lead vocal on Liberty.  Yet another great protest song, "O freedom, o liberty, leave me alone!"  Don't get me started.

Wow, what a concert, ending right at 10:00!  Said goodbye to our neighbors, hit the port-a-potties one last time for the long drive, and then somehow found our car in the dirt parking lot.  We'd heard that exiting Thompson's Point sometimes takes a while and it sure did for us, as we were one of the last cars in our lot (except for the dentist contingent, who may still be at it).  But actually it was a bit quicker than we expected and by 10:30 we were back on the highway South, and eventually back in Massachusetts.  This was a lot of fun!

DeadCo In Hartford, 2022

Originally, we had thought we weren't going to go through the hassle again if Dead & Company played Hartford this Summer.  The parking fuckup from last year was agonizing and it's a long way to drive back on busy interstates with crazy Connecticut drivers late at night.  But ... every time they've played there has been fantastic and we thought maybe we could spring for a hotel, get there early to avoid traffic, and have a nice retreat after the concert.  Well, it was a good try.

So we got tickets to DeadCo at the huge amphitheater just outside of downtown Hartford on July 5 and the first part of our plan was executed as well as possible.  Dave (see earlier post) is still out with COVID so it was just Sarah and me, driving down through thick but fast-moving traffic in the middle of the afternoon through some off-and-on rain.  Yes, that's right.  The traffic was thick with trucks and on the verge of clogging up several times on a mid-Summer Tuesday afternoon!?!  But we made it to exit 50 in Hartford without getting smushed and luckily we were just in front of the crowd when we got into town, drove by the venue, and then got to our nearby hotel just before 3:00.

But that part of the plan had some flaws.  We hadn't wanted to pay multiple hundreds of dollars for a room we were just going to sleep in, but we should have!  We and then carloads of other Deadicated types arrived at the Super 8 by Wyndham Hartford on West Service Road and checked in, only to find that we'd landed in some sort of prison.  Perhaps we'd broken some obscure Connecticut laws and had to spend a night in a cell?  Our "room" had two spongy double beds which hadn't been made right and were kind of covered by spreads with cigarette holes in them.  The window was too damaged to shut completely and the air conditioner worked a bit but sounded like an air raid.  The smoke detector had been ripped out of the ceiling and thrown into a drawer, where we found it along with other trash when we checked out the bureau.  The TV had been violently broken off its base.  The fire doors at the end of the hall were propped open.  The sink had multiple cigarette burns and I was too frightened to try the shower.  Every wall had cracks in it, the floor was tile, should I go on?  Oh yeah, and they had no complimentary coffee and had cancelled the free breakfast they advertised.  DO NOT STAY THERE!!!!!  As mentioned in some online comments, they have graffiti on the walls *inside* the building, that's how bad it is.

Oh well, we chilled in the room for a bit as well as we could and then left.  The plan was to walk into the downtown area and find a nice restaurant where we could have a long late lunch/early dinner and then get back to the amphitheater at some point.  This plan worked pretty well!  It was a 1.4 mile walk into town, and we were very glad we'd arrived at 3:00 because even by 4:00 the traffic was already pretty bad, lined up almost all along our route to get into the free lots.  We proceeded past the Yard Goats' ball park and by the (closed on Tuesdays) City Steam Brewery that we'd loved back in 2017, and then over to Pratt Street, which is part of a pedestrian mall in the middle of Hartford, and to Vaughan's Public House.

They had outdoor seating and a hamburger/hot dog grill going outside, but no service out there, and so we sat at a table in their window area.  This was a fine Irish pub meal, accompanied by some Irish ciders and Vermont beers.  The guy at the waiter's station told us that they hadn't even planned to open that day because they couldn't get staff, but realized there was a concert going on and they'd better.  The inside tables were almost full when we got there, and it just got worse.  But us sitting up front in the window enabled the maitre d' to wait on us himself, and things went just about right for us there.  They were playing GD and DeadCo music, mixed with a few other tunes.  Everybody there was a Deadhead (one was sound asleep in the patio area and apparently had a nice nap), and the guys at the next table were mortified that they had missed StS > The Eleven the other night and hoped that this show would make up for it.  We smiled.

Left there and joined the tendrils of people dressed for a Dead concert as they gathered from all directions and converged on the Xfinity Theatre.  We detoured to the extensive Shakedown Street they always have at Hartford and were on the verge of buying a few things, including some excellent hats, but we didn't.  The rain had gotten steadier by then and we finally joined the long line to get in the main entrance when the gates opened at 6:30.  I asked a hassled security guy why Gate C wasn't open as well and he said it was because they didn't have enough staff, so I just told him to keep up the good work.

So they let us *in* but didn't yet have the seating or lawn areas open, and we just had to mill about the concourse while the rain intensified.  We were able to grab seats in the sheltered Xfinity tent though, and coincidentally a work friend of Sarah's was sitting at the same table, so we had some fine conversation.  Both Sarah and I spun the Xfinity wheel at a promotion they had set up and she won a koozie and I won a freezer bag, score!

OK, enough setup and we finally settled into our seats in section 600, dead center and about a dozen rows in back of the soundboard.  It had been a long, adventurous afternoon and we shivered at the thought of going back to the "hotel" (could we just drive back after the concert??).  But we knew we had great seats and were in for some great sound, which turned out to be putting it mildly.  This was an incredible concert!  Here's the first set:

• The Music Never Stopped
• Liberty
• They Love Each Other
• Loser
• Alabama Getaway
• Iko Iko
• High Time
• Cassidy

Boy, did they get after it right from the start!  Music was rocking and Bobby and John were singing like angels, and then they did the first Liberty of the tour, a relatively obscure gem that I really like.  One of the great things about the sound in the center of that huge amphitheater was the bottom end.  I've mentioned Oteil's new bass and this was as good as I've ever heard it.  I texted Dave that Oteil was just eating up TLEO, that's the best description of the way he dominated that gentle song with his elastic, bouncing sound.  I was loving it.

And they'd just started!  Loser was all about building up to and then everyone singing the chorus, and then Alabama Getaway was another feel good rocker.  The whole place was grooving to Iko Iko and then they started into High Time and Oteil stepped up to the mike.  As good as everyone else was (again, Lane and no Kreutzmann), this was Oteil's night to shine and he out-did himself over and over.  Then they closed with another explosive song, Cassidy, building and building up to the last coda.  Dave called it the best Cassidy ever.

What a set!  I texted Dave "OMGOMG" because I couldn't think what to say at first.  I'd called Hell In a Bucket (which they always do in Hartford) and I whiffed on that one.  But that was fine with me!  The wind was building through the whole show from the Northeast and did a fine job of drying things out after the downpour, but it never affected the sound.  The lawn was not quite full ... in fact, you could have had a croquet game up in the far corner (the grass was in great shape).  But the rest of the theater was pretty packed and so my strategy was to head uphill to the cluster of port-a-potties up there.  Sarah had gone for the inside bathrooms earlier and then gave up on getting back to our seats before the end of the set, there were so many people dancing in the aisles.  I guess the security staff was really short, there were just a few people checking tickets and no one was clearing the aisles.  I looked for good beer after the bathroom break but they didn't have any up on the edges of the huge lawn area, and I figured I might not make it out to the concourse and back in time.

Whatever, back to the seats without a beer but had plenty of water (one of their water filling stations was not working but the other one was) and I was sure they'd open the second set with the Scarlet > Fire of death, and that later they *should* be giving us a big TOO.  And I was pretty much right!  Here's the list:

• Jack Straw
• Scarlet Begonias
• Viola Lee Blues
• Fire on the Mountain
• The Other One
• Drums
• Space
• The Wheel
• The Other One
• Black Peter
• Sugar Magnolia

The first notes of the jam into Jack Straw were distinctive and let me down a bit because I'd anticipated Scarlet, until they started singing again about leaving Texas on the 4th of July ... it was the 5th but what the heck, why would anyone want to stay in Texas anyway?  And then they tried to hide it in the tuning, but I told Sarah they were about to play Scarlet, and it was an incredible version.  Viola Lee split up the pairing with Fire and I was afraid they weren't going to let Oteil sing again.  But Viola Lee built to its climax and then boom, Oteil was playing that bass line and warming up the vocal chords.  It was his day!

And then he kept it going into the Other One of death.  This song can take so many shapes and on Tuesday it was long and loud, but spacy and went way off the reservation at the same time.  I was ecstatic, especially when I figured they'd break for Drums and Space and then get back into it, maybe after a ballad.  Well, that's what they did!  Bob teased us over and over that he was about to sing the second verse, then they'd go another round, and another, and another until finally we were escaping through the lily fields (maybe leaving Texas but probably figurative you know).

Dave called the next one, because Bobby always sings Black Peter for me.  He didn't really go over the top on this one, luckily.  IMO, it requires some gravitas and Bobby brought it this time, continuing his great singing.  I was surprised to see, after he'd seemed to settle on his green and brown guitars in Foxborough, that he was back to the one with the white pickguard, and he stayed on it all of the second set.  Whatever, he often knows what he's doing and it was just the right sound to add to the mix.  And then another vintage song in Sugar Magnolia, with the whole crowd joining in, especially the Sunshine Daydream coda!

Wow that was great and I was just about to resume texting while they took an encore break.  But they didn't, they put their arms around at center stage and took a group bow, what a fantastic concert!  I looked at my phone and realized it was already a few minutes after midnight.  They'd just given us four hours of extreme brilliance.

Sat back in our seats at that point, while the large crowd jammed the exits.  Waved goodbye to a few seatmates whom we'd been talking with, there was not a frown in the house.  Eventually grabbed our stuff and shuffled after the crowds, then past lines of vehicle traffic back over to Weston Street and soon the Super 8 (which is right next to Erotic Zone!).  Had some crackers and cheese and then lay down for a fitful few hours of trying not to worry about the missing smoke alarms and the unlocked doors downstairs.  DO NOT stay in this hotel!

Oh well, got up at 5:30 or so, gathered our stuff, and took off in time to join rush-hour traffic on the Mass Pike.  Goodbye to Hartford and Connecticut, hate to see you go!  Again, what a hassle to get there and back (and stay there) but wow, what excellent music the band plays in that town.  Maybe next year at a better hotel?? 

Dead & Company Return to Foxborough

 Another Summer with COVID scares, but yet another Dead & Company tour!  This year they started on the West Coast and progressed East instead of the other way around, and didn't schedule as many dates.  One or both of these may have been a strategy to stretch out the tour more for the sake of Bill Kreutzmann, who had to sit out for a few dates as last Summer's tour moved on.  But everybody else in the band is getting older too, and they might have just decided to take the foot off the pedal a bit this year.

Unfortunately, Billy's problems (hopefully just exhaustion, though one of his tweets referred to pulling a muscle) have recurred and he's had to miss a few shows again.  Luckily they've brought Jay Lane along on the tour and he's been filling in admirably.  Billy's still been joining in on the Drums segment lately, though Jay's been handling the traps.  I really hope Billy gets better, and if it means his staying at home instead of touring, that's the way it's got to be.  He deserves a long life and a healthy retirement when he's ready for it.

Even though they cut down on the dates, they still listed Boston right up there, this time on Saturday, July 2nd at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.  We're blessed that they continue to come to the Northeast (we've got tickets to the Hartford show also on the 5th), and we were very glad to hear they were coming back to Foxborough.  They've played Fenway Park and the amphitheater in Mansfield also, but they both have major drawbacks.  Fenway is crowded and frantic, and Mansfield is always a traffic apocalypse.

More good news and bad news in the buildup to the Foxborough show: our nephew, Marin, was able to come up for the weekend and my brother, Andrew, had an extra ticket he could use.  But horribly, Dave tested positive for COVID the day before the concert and so was not able to go with us all.  Also, the Supreme Court continues to make politicized decisions to advance a white patriarchy and the government is filled with idiots, but that's old news.

Marin arrived the night before and Andrew arrived in plenty of time for a @3:00 departure and a pleasant drive around 128 and 95 down to Foxborough.  Missed the turnoff for the better lot, but we got a great spot in the P10 lot across route 1 and settled down for some fine tailgating.  The weather was looking iffy and we'd all brought rain gear, but there was no problem before the show.  Sarah and I entered the stadium around 5:30 (gates opened at 5:00) and there was no line for anything!  We were easily able to stand in front of the soundboard, as we had last time the band was in Foxborough.  There seems to be a sudden drop in people going to concerts, though maybe the smaller crowd was because of other factors, like people having things to do on a holiday weekend and the impending weather.  They hadn't sold any seats in the top two bowls of the Stadium.

Whatever, the crowd soon filled in fine on the field and the bottom bowl was full, as far as I could see.  Andrew and Marin had great seats just a few rows up from the field.  Then the band came out right on time, lit into a rambunctious Cumberland Blues, and we were back!  OMG, what can I say?  We've seen at least bits of most of the shows prior to this stop on the tour, and they've been playing great and continued at that high level.  We were disappointed but not surprised that Jay Lane was on stage from the start in place of Billy, though nothing against Jay at all, he's a fantastic and dedicated substitute (I was wearing my Golden Gate Wingmen t-shirt as two of them were on stage).  Oteil has been playing a different bass this tour and it sounds fantastic.  He was too low in the mix to start but they eventually adjusted this.  And Jeff has a spaceship of a piano, which sounded great itself, though his organ playing was one of the sounds of the night, especially on the Bertha > Good Lovin' sequence.

And speaking of that, we were dancing and freaking out to another great Bertha and anticipating a seamless switch to Good Lovin' when they suddenly stopped and an announcement came on!  And even as we were beginning to realize that they were telling us all to exit the field, the rain started.  Sarah and I crowded with the rest of the field crew under the archway at the West entrance to the stadium.  We had our masks on as we were cheek to jowl with a lot of high people (we were the only ones with masks that I saw, besides my brother).  The downpour was pretty intense, but luckily I heard and saw no thunder and lightning.  After about 15(?) minutes the worst of the rain had stopped and we pushed our way out of the crowd, put on our slickers, and made our way back to our spot, soon followed by everybody else.

We were hoping the band would come right back out but they apparently decided to make that the set break, even though they'd done only two songs.  Probably the biggest factor was that the sound crews had lots of re-setup and re-testing to do.  So we had a bunch of un-anticipated waiting around to do, though we knew that when they came back out they'd try to make up for it.  And they did!  Here's the second set:

• Good Lovin'
• Crazy Fingers
• Mr. Charlie
• St. Stephen
• The Eleven
• Brown-Eyed Women
• Estimated Prophet
• Eyes of the World
• Drums
• Space
• Dear Mr. Fantasy
• Hey Jude
• Morning Dew

They popped right back into the start of Good Lovin' and then played an excellent, long set.  The highlights were numerous, with John Mayer playing some great blues and space and Bob Weir just doing what only he can do on his fantastic-sounding green and brown guitars.  For me the amazing and wandering St. Stephen leading into the bridge and then The Eleven was the part that moved me the most, closely followed though by a long and loping Eyes after a tight Estimated.

Billy didn't even come out for Drums, I hope he's all right!  But Jay and Oteil were out there and as with the prior time at Foxborough, they had the whole football stadium resounding with their beats, especially when Mickey got out his saw and started applying it to The Beam.  It was a long and enthusiastic Space, ending with a nice segue into Mr. Fantasy and then a beautiful Hey Jude chorus.  They've been doing Hey Jude a lot this tour, possibly as an an homage to Paul McCartney, who's been touring the States and whom Dave had seen recently at Fenway.

BUT, I thought it was coming and suddenly here it was, like a large presence suddenly emerging from the mist and knocking you flat, Dew!  I love this song and they sure played and sang the stuffing out of it.  Another protest song in a Summer unfortunately made for them.  Long set, but they finally put down their instruments and took a short break.

People had been saying that Foxborough has an 11:00 curfew, and the band came out soon and started strumming a tune which I could tell was a Dylan, and then recognized as Knockin' On Heaven's Door.  Very well played, but then another highlight of the night ... you knew it was coming ... was a rocking and loud One More Saturday Night to close the show.  Bobby did not leave anything behind on that!

Wow, how do these guys keep doing it?  We followed the crowd back up through Patriot Place and across route 1 to the lot (a guy was raving to us about Sarah's DeadCo VOTE pin, and then saw my GGW t- shirt and offered to buy it on the spot), where Andrew and Marin had already set up the chairs for some post-concert tailgating.  This is always the best strategy of course, as there was a long line of cars trying to get through the traffic jams on route 1 while we just relaxed and re-hashed the show.  Eventually things died down though, the cops around there have learned how to handle crowds.  And we jumped in the car and had a pretty smooth ride home, though there'd been what looked like a gruesome accident on the expressway, involving three cars and a motorcycle.

So that was a lot of fun but we really missed Dave.  We'd been texting with him throughout the show and he was trying his best to enjoy it from afar.  He may have had it a bit better than we did.  The sound where we were was not as great as it had been before; this may have been due to the damp weather and the fact that the stadium wasn't as full.  They had to lower some of the stacks of speakers at the start of the show in anticipation of high winds.  And the rain and the crowd was distracting of course.  But I love live concerts and will do it again, hopefully with Dave!