Another JRAD Show in Boston

JRAD hasn't been touring anywhere near as much as we'd like, but we're really glad that when they do tour, they almost always seem to stop in Boston (and had been in Bangor the week before).  They played the waterfront pavilion in Boston on August 12th and we got great tickets and were psyched, though our fingers were crossed that we wouldn't have the bad weather luck we'd had with Phil Lesh back in July.

Dave had been on vacation in Maine with us, and so we had a fun day of croquet and board games before heading into the city through surprisingly light traffic, down to a parking garage on Drydock Avenue so we could eat dinner at Lord Hobo's Seaport restaurant.

And what a sight when we walked out of the garage.  We were a block away from the cruise ship terminal and the Caribbean Princess (hailing from Bermuda) was docked there.  OMG, I'd never seen boat that big!  It towered over us and over the huge office building next to it.  We shuddered at the thought of taking a cruise on a ship like that, you'd be surrounded by people, stuffed into an expensive and tiny state room, and expected to enjoy mainstream entertainment.  Not for us.

And speaking of non-mainstream entertainment, we headed up to the Leader Bank Pavilion (current name) after a fine meal at Lord Hobo.  There they gave me a brimful cup of Harpoon IPA (well, I had to pay for it) and we had a fine time hanging out on their patio over the harbor while waiting for the show to start.  We've got to kayak into the Inner Harbor someday and see the venue from there, though I plan to give a wide berth to the Black Falcon Terminal, especially if they've got one of those monsters docked there.

Not a bad crowd experience, but this was not like Bangor to say the least.  The place was packed and there was Saturday-night-out-to-a-rock-show crowd noise going on around us all through it, as well as lots of people who really weren't paying attention to the music pushing past us to their seats for a few minutes and then back out, and repeat.  But the weather stayed great all night and there were also lots of people there who were dancing (the guy in front of us was dancing so hard he almost fell over a few times), smoking good pot (as opposed to Fenway), and raving along.  Many people agree with me that this is one of the best bands around.

The crowd was slow to fill in and the start was a little delayed, but then they straggled out like a good GD band, this time with Dave Dreiwitz back on bass.  And he had no problem letting us know of his presence, Dave had taken his vitamins, as well as the other guys on stage.  Here's the first set:

• Stagger Lee
• Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line
• Eyes of the World
• Me and My Uncle
• Mission in the Rain
• Uncle John's Band
• Ophelia

We'd talked about them doing Stagger Lee, and here it was!  This is such a great, character-driven song and I love that, and Tommy sang it perfectly.  His teleprompter was working fine that night.  And then they totally reversed again, and Scott riveted us with one of the original, quintessential Outlaw Country songs.  Besides growling and singing the hell out of this, he played a space-country lead all through it that had me jumping up and down (figuratively).  I was kind of surprised when several people around me were asking, "What's that song??"  They claimed to have never heard it before, which I could understand for many people, but not the guys my age.

Well, toweled off after that and then realized that the long, mellow jam they had started into had taken form and they were playing Eyes.  Joe has gotten more and more involved in the singing since we first saw his band back in 2015, and harmony singing has gradually become one of their strengths.  He backs up Tommy with a lower line, and Scott joins in with a higher one, a bunch of angels, especially on an uplifting song like Eyes.  And then Scott brought us right back out to the country with a rollicking MAMU.

After that a fantastic Mission In the Rain that many people talked through, a great UJB, and then a tribute to the recently deceased Robbie Robertson with their Levon-esque cover of Ophelia.  Again, wow that was a great set.

Yup, it had been such a great set that I was already kind of worn out.  I could have gone home at that point and been satisfied, but there was still another set to go.  The crowd was milling about like it was Saturday night at a rock concert, but that's part of the price of admission.  Not too long a break though, and then the band came straggling back out.

Again, I have to gush about Marco, who is just an incredible technical player as well as having a truly warped musical imagination.  How he can command those keyboards the way he does is amazing.  His standard white t-shirt read, "Dear Earth, thanks for the flowers."  And Joe Russo is a talent that everyone should experience.  Who doesn't like a good drummer?  And besides the energy and dynamism he brings, he's an amazing technical player too, who never misses a beat and who conducts his band with facial expressions, sticking out his tongue(!), and a few hand gestures.

Here's the second set:

• New Speedway Boogie
• Crazy Fingers
• Playing In the Band
• I Second That Emotion
• Let It Grow
• Stella Blue

Highlights were a long, jammed out Crazy Fingers and a crowd-pleasing Second That Emotion, that had everyone dancing and singing along.  After that though, Joe was taken over again by the dragons and started playing louder and faster and louder and faster until you thought something had to bust.  And then Scott jumped up to his mike and started screaming about the young girl singing her way down to the river and gathering her water.  I wonder if she knows the little school girl?  This was a cathartic Let It Grow, and after that Tommy took over and sang a beautiful but dark Stella Blue to cap it off.

OMG, do these guys never quit?  I'd been a little worn out but that second set packed so much energy that I had no choice but to stand and dance all through it, especially when the guy in front of us was dancing so hard you thought his spine must be made of rubber.

Joe is always a gracious host and thanked us as profusely as ever.  But after a break they came back out for an encore of Saturday Night.  Scott really hammed it up on this, calling out one more Saturday night in Boston.  I guess they like it here and I'm glad they do.

We sat back down and let the crowd filter out a bit before we took off.  Not a long walk back to the garage and luckily not a long line to exit.  We twisted around to the ramp down to the tunnels, and then made it back home without any traffic delays.  Another great night with JRAD and I can't wait to see them again!

JRAD Rock Bangor

They booked a great Summer of shows in the riverside pavilion in Bangor, and we were on board for TTB in July, and then for JRAD on August 6th.  We asked friends S&M if they'd be interested and the timing of the JRAD show was perfect for a weekend visit.  They and we three headed up there in their new car on a beautiful and mellow Sunday after a river kayak earlier that day.

We had an early dinner at a sports bar near there in Bangor (Seasons), and then approached the venue from the Main Street side, though we had tickets up front and they want you to use the Northeast entrance for those sections.  They waved us in though, barely checking our tickets, and we found ourselves a bit confused as we passed through the lobby.  Were we in the right place?  Were they having a JRAD concert here?  They were selling JRAD gear in the merch stand, but besides us and the many venue staff who were all friendly and trying to assist us, there was no one there!

We kept on going toward the front sections, and realized there were a few people.  Dave and I stopped for the bathroom and to fill water bottles, but where was everyone?  The bathroom didn't have a line, in fact it was deserted.  We walked into the front section and saw what the story was, though it still mystifies us.  The front section was only about a third full.  The rear section and the lawn were closed as they had been for TTB in July, but the front section had been packed for that.  We had great seats, dead center (maybe a row or two behind where we were for TTB) but had so much room around us we could sit and see everything on stage.  At one point the seats in six rows in front of me were empty.

Really, really strange.  This band sells out places in Boston, and that's what we'd been expecting, but I guess they're not big enough ("just a Dead cover band") to attract the casual fan in Maine??  That's too bad, but the good news is that this meant it was one of the most mellow concert crowd scenes we've been in in a while.  It was really fun to just have a casual evening and to see such a great band.  And another great thing was that everyone there wanted to see and hear JRAD, this wasn't a "let's go to a rock show, who's playing?" crowd.  Everyone was in their Grateful Dead gear of course, including an uber-cute father and young daughter, dancing in front of us.  One guy was wearing a "Fat People Are Harder to Kidnap" t-shirt.

Anyway, the band came out right on time (why wait?) and they had Jon Shaw playing bass instead of Dave Dreiwitz, who was touring with Ween.  Details of JRAD's setup change, though they generally keep the same positions (Marco far left, Scott far right, etc.).  This time they lined up close together, though it's a large stage and they could have spread out.  Joe was not set up as far front as usual, but he had a huge set, including a second, smaller bass drum, and the sound was excellent.  I was afraid they'd be uninspired by the small crowd, but these guys don't worry about being stars.  They turned in one of the best shows I've seen from them.  Here's the first set:

• Good Morning Little School Girl
• Reuben and Cherise
• China Cat Sunflower
• Feel Like a Stranger
• West L.A. Fadeaway
• The Other One

But as you might expect if you've ever seen JRAD, this was not a textbook set.  They opened with a long blues jam and then Scott started singing in such a funky style you almost couldn't recognize School Girl, it wasn't done like Pigpen did it.  They stopped and reversed direction with the story song of Reuben and Cherise, on which Tommy usually excels except on this one he totally blew the words.  He seemed to be having a tough set with glitches in his teleprompter, his monitor, and his guitar going out of tune.  But he persisted and next sang a strange, little China Cat ... they may not have broken the three-minute mark with this one before going into a deep jam that ended with Scott suddenly springing to the mike and singing about everything flashing.

But after Stranger and West L.A. they went back into deep jam territory and got louder and louder until Joe was absolutely hammering his kit at an unsustainable pace, and then he really went crazy.  And we realized we'd ended up in The Other One.  Jon may not have been as dynamic as a Phil or an Oteil here, but the rest of the band made up for it.  Besides Joe, Scott (on his old guitar), and Tommy having great nights, perhaps the performer of the evening was Marco.  He had (at least) 4 keyboards set up, including a baby grand, and as we said in the car on the way home, it was just mind-boggling some of the dual parts he played with his right hand on the piano and his left on the organ.

Wow, that was a great set, and it was still early evening on a great Summer day, with plenty of room to spread out.  Pretty standard set break and then they came back out with:

• Catfish John
• Good Lovin'
• Shakedown Street
• The Wheel
• Dark Star
• Tennessee Jed
• Greatest Story Ever Told
• Fire on the Mountain

Well, this set may have been even better.  They started off with a wonderful, lazy, sunny, and mellow version of Catfish John that could melt in your mouth.  And then they went right back to rocking.  At the end of The Wheel Joe started taking off again, breaking sticks and pounding the bejeezus out of everything in sight ... the twin bass drums are a great addition to his rig.  But then he calmed down and we realized we were adrift in space and there was a Dark Star right over there.

I was afraid they'd mail in the Bangor show, but they did a great, long, loud second set, ending with a fantastic GSET (which I love) and then an incendiary Fire.  Great stuff!  It was so amazing not being jammed into a small space to see this band, and we all spread out and relaxed a bit before they came out for a tidy encore of Ripple, with Tommy singing.  His equipment luck had been much better in the second set than in the first.

What a fun concert, it was wonderful to hang out a bit, have a leisurely walk the few blocks back to where we had parked for free, and then have totally empty roads for the 50-minute drive back home.  I'm looking forward to seeing more great acts in Bangor.