Miss Tess at The Burren

The latest record by Miss Tess and the Talkbacks is on my best of 2016 list, and she was finally playing back in the Boston area, at The Burren in Somerville on December 15th.  Met Sarah at Redbones on a very cold and windy almost Winter day, had a couple of beers and then filed into the back room at The Burren where we had a quick dinner.

The room filled up quickly and may have been sold out.  This was a WUMB “Third Thursday” concert and so was hosted by their DJ, Jess Phaneuf, who strangely looked exactly like she sounds.  Most DJs don’t and you’re surprised when you meet them.

Miss Tess was playing with different people than the last time we saw her, which was two and a half years ago, so that’s no surprise.  But it was the same instrumentation: Thomas Bryan Eaton on lead guitarist, a (very tall) bass player, and a drummer with a small but effective kit.  She was not playing the big guitar I’ve always seen her with before and love, but the one she had last night was possibly even better.  Her guitar sound is so rich and chewy it’s phenomenal.  I spent most of the concert just concentrating on her guitar work.

And she’s a great song writer too.  They opened with the whirlwind Ride That Train, the opening track on her 2016 record, and later did a few of the other great songs from that, Little Lola (which she said is about her neighbor’s cat, I should have guessed!), I Can’t Help Myself, Take You Break You Shake You, and Going Downtown.  She also did several brand new songs, including one that could have been written by Hank himself, it’s got the laconic true life blues set to a deadly melody that he specialized in.  I complimented her on that one, and she smiled in her Miss Tess way (we were at the front table of course).

Another thing worth noting is the vocal arrangements were very good.  All of the guys filled in at various points and didn't slow her down at all, they just egged her on.  She's more of a bandleader than she seemed previously and had the whole sound working and pulling in the right direction.

Had a nice conversation with our neighbors at the table before and after the set, and then bundled up and braved the cold Davis Square air.  Luckily the car was not far away and we got home in fine time.

JRAD ROCK HOB

Well ... in yesterday's post I said that we'd decided to go to just one of the three TTB shows.  And it's a great thing we did because soon after we made that commitment, JRAD announced that they'd be playing the House Of Blues the second night of the TTB stand!  Geez, we would have been in a panic if we'd committed for the second night instead.  But this meant that we were going to see two consecutive nights of some of the best music around at this time in history.  We are very lucky.

And JRAD in the House of Blues instead of the Paradise again?!?  I love the sound at the HOB and was very excited to think of JRAD playing there.  They've been doing acoustic mini-sets at the end of their first sets lately (Bob Weir sat in on a recent one, and John Mayer did a couple of months ago), and I was hoping they'd do that.

Sarah and I were at home for various reasons, but took off for the Fens at the end of the afternoon, making it to the parking lot on Van Ness eventually through thick traffic.  The HOB restaurant was closed for a special event, so we met Dave at Yardhouse and had another excellent Yardhouse dinner and raft of beers.  Headed over to Lansdowne Street (after a detour by the car) and took our places about 20th in line about 45 minutes before the doors opened.  And it's a good thing we were that early, the line was soon around the block!  Needless to say, this show was sold out and almost everyone there was there to see one of the best bands around, not just out for a night at a rock club.

Met some nice people in line and the time flew by, and before we knew it we were filing in.  Dave and I got quite searched and they ended up denying him access temporarily.  I saw he wasn't behind me and so turned around; was able to hand him the keys so he could go back to the car and then try again.  In the meantime, Sarah had secured our spot so everything was ok, except Dave now had to go to the back of that long line and it took him basically a whole hour to get in.

Met some nice people inside and that hour flew by while the hall filled in; it was eventually as packed as it gets.  The guy next to me got in with a whole baggie of stuff and must have smoked it all (discreetly??) by the end of the night.

Dave showed up eventually and we critiqued the stage setup.  Marco did not have his stand-up piano and Joe's drum kit was a little smaller than when we'd seen them before.  And it didn't look like they were geared up for the switch to an acoustic setup that we were hoping for.  Oh well.

Soon the boys came out, tuned up a bit, and launched right into the good stuff.  Dave called the first song from the intro ... here are Costello's notes:

Show #87
House of Blues,
Boston, MA
2016.12.02
(SOLD OUT - THANK YOU!!!)

Set 1 (9:16PM - 10:21PM)
Music Never Stopped @ (SM) ->
China Cat Sunflower (TH) ->
Touch of Grey (TH)
Black Throated Wind # (SM) >
Jack Straw (SM & TH)
Ruben & Cherise $ (TH) ->
I Know You Rider (All)

Set 2 (10:53PM - ~1:00AM)
Althea % (TH) ->
Duo Jam ->
Good Lovin (SM) ->
Terrapin Station Jam ++ ->
My Pet Goat Jam ^ ->
Terrapin Suite & (TH) >
Uncle Johns Band (All) ->
9x9 Jam * ->
Uncle Johns Band Reprise + (All)
He’s Gone (TH/All) ->
Saint Of Circumstance @@ (SM)

E: Ophelia (SM) >
Not Fade Away ## (All) ->
Brown Eyed Women %% ->
Not Fade Away Reprise $$ (All)

@ - With The Eleven Tease (SM), unfinished
# - With a Jack Straw Jam (Band)
$ - With China->Rider Transition Teases (TH) & a “Waltz #1” (Elliot Smith) Tease (MB)
% - With an “All of My Love” (Led Zeppelin) Tease (MB)
++ - First Time Played by Almost Dead (I think?)
^ - First Time Played by Almost Dead, Benevento Russo Duo Original, not the complete song
& - With Ruben & Cherise Teases (Band)
* - First Time Played by Almost Dead, Benevento Russo Duo Original, not the complete song
+ - First Time Played by Almost Dead
@@ - With Ruben & Cherise and Terrapin Station Teases (Band)
## - With GDTRFB Teases (SM) and “Shortnin’ Bread” (James Whitcomb Riley) Teases (Band)
%% - With a “Come On Feel The Noize” (Quiet Riot) Tease (JR)
$$ - First time played since 2015-02-16 Boulder, CO, a gap of 66 shows, With a “Hey Bulldog” Jam (Band) - that may end up being a track, not sure if it was long enough.

• They were firing on all cylinders right off the line.  Music was big and beefy and featured an excellent outro jam, which sounded like it was going to morph into The Eleven.  Instead they turned a quick corner and bam! ... were playing the China Cat intro ... Dave had called this too.
• The sing-songy Touch, as you might imagine, was a bit of a weird thing for this band to play, but they aren't afraid to be weird.
• Black-Throated Wind was awesome; Scott was singing incredibly last night.  And that went into a short and sweet Jack Straw.
• Then Tommy took over the mike with a crackling Reuben and Cherise, which morphed into a sing-along I Know You Rider to end the set.

Wow!  The were all on fire and, it seems strange to say, but if you had to pick a slightly less then incredible performance it might have been Joe (he cured this in the second set).  He was really singing and playing fantastically and did not turn in a weak performance at all, but everyone else on the stage was beyond the top of his game!  Marco was just spectacular on his organ, Rhodes, and piano ... his piano sounded incredible.  Tom was coming out with aggressive, stand-on-your-head lead after lead, the singing was excellent, and Dave was amazingly amazing.

At times I got the feeling I've mentioned when seeing Phil and Stanley Jordan, that I could see the music.  Dave was laying down a popping bass line and looking at Joe; Joe was slamming his toms and cymbals and looking over at Marco; Marco had one hand on his organ and one hand on his Rhodes and was bouncing the energy from the rhythm guys to the guitarists.  You could see the electricity crackling back and forth among them.

And the room was great for this band.  I think that may have been part of why they were playing so well: the House Of Blues can ring in time with a loud band, the space fills with the sound and reverberates with the beat.  As I say, everyone there was [Almost] Deadicated and when you looked out over the floor, it was a sea of wildly dancing people.

Our place was being threatened of course, but we were able to take turns at the bathrooms and smoke area, and then get back together before the second set started.  Joe had said the break would be short, but it was average length.  It was already getting late, but we were about to see JRAD do a second set ... "late" was not an issue.

What can you say about that second set?  It was a little weird because it basically had only 7 songs.  But these were epic versions filled in with jams that left you drooling.  There is never a down second with these guys, it's rare to find a time when there isn't something unique and remarkable going on on stage, and usually there are many remarkable things happening at once.

I have to say something about the Terrapin, because it was one of the most epic versions ever.  It seemed to go on for a hour with the transitions and the jams and the choruses.  It built and climaxed and built and climaxed over and over.  You would have thought it would have been exhausting but it wasn't, it was exhilarating.

And when they were finally done they fell into a crunchy, rocky UJB that was driven by its beat, and then one of the best He's Gones I've ever heard ... soulful and yearning.  And then they finished the set with another left turn into a rocking Saint, which had the entirety of the Fenway area jumping.  We were going for it for sure.  And to top his excellent vocal night, at the end, right before the last chords, Scott switched into his best falsetto and capped the song with an emphatic, "Going on a feeling!!!"

Again, Wow!!!  The floor was a mess of empty cans and cups, and we were all a satisfied mess as well.  They came back out after a little bit and launched into Ophelia, a drummer's special.  That's so perfect we thought, open the second set with Althea and end the night with Ophelia.  But they were not ending!!  They teased us a bit at the end of it and then before we knew it they were playing the ultimate rocker, Holly's Not Fade Away.  My buddy to my left went nuts, having predicted that they'd close with this (he was about done with his baggie by this point).

But then the music didn't stop!  They burst through another door in unison and whacked us over the heads with Brown-Eyed Women.  Again, a crunchy, rocky version in which they hit all the emotional phrasings but did it fast, with an incredible beat and Joe playing every possible part of it.  And then they were back into NFA!  They stopped while everyone was chanting, waved at us all, and then walked away.  What a night and what a performance!

Actually, the last on the stage was Tom.  He'd taken off his jacket in the middle of a song, but was still as stylish as ever in a long scarf and his ever-present scally cap.  And then someone threw a number of scally caps on stage at him!  He was a little surprised but then realized the story, that a fan wanted him to autograph the caps, so he went over to the side of the stage, sat down and hung out while signing.  Nice music and nice guys.

Got it together and started out pretty soon after that.  It was already just after 1.  Got to the car and it would have been an easy ride home, but the staties had blocked off the entrances to 93 from Storrow Drive and Leverett Circle, so had to wend our way though Charlestown before we could get on the highway.  It was well after 2 by the time I got to bed.

Tedeschi Trucks Band in the Orpheum

Tedeschi Trucks Band is blessing Boston with three consecutive nights, though they're at the stinky old Orpheum.  The first night (12/1) was with Jorma Kaukonen opening, tonight's is with Amy Ray (of Indigo Girls), and the third night is just them doing two sets.  All three shows sold out and TTB is sure indicating that they'll only get better and more popular over the coming years.  We debated for a minute and then decided to go to just one of the shows though, the one with Jorma, even though that was a Thursday night.

In recent interviews, Derek has said that he anticipates a significant number of fans will go to multiple nights, and so they planned to play unique sets each night.  Glad to see they take their music seriously!  And I was astounded to see that when I grabbed tickets for the Thursday show as soon as they went on sale, that I had gotten first row center tickets in the Orpheum!?!  I've been there many times and never sat in good seats.  We were very psyched.

Met Sarah and Dave after work, parked in their building, and then we headed over to the 21st Amendment for a nice bar dinner (noisy and funky as always in there), and then mosied on down to the Common.  What was happening that evening was the unveiling/lighting of Boston's annual Christmas present from Nova Scotia, a huge spruce tree.  For those not familiar with this tradition, please read about it here.

After touring around the Common, the tree with festivities going on around it, and the Frog Pond skating rink, we made our way back uphill on Tremont and slid down Hamilton Place towards the maw of the Orpheum, old Boston all over.  The place has been cleaned up some since when I spent the night in that alley waiting for tickets to Garcia Saunders in 1975, but there are probably still rats lurking in the shadows.

Grabbed a beer and headed to our front row center seats, which we found in as good shape as the rest of the theater.  Not much leg room, a speaker was right in front of us and cut off a bit of our view when we were sitting down, and there were signs of decay everywhere.  But what was I complaining about, we were almost as close to Jorma when he came out as when we'd seen him recently at the Bull Run, and when TTB came out, it was like having our own Tiny Desk Concert in their living room.

Jorma came out in a stylish sport coat, black jeans, and t-shirt, and was as stellar as ever.  Here's his set:

True Religion
Come Back Baby
Hesitation Blues
Watch the North Wind Rise
Sea Child
Death Don't Have No Mercy
San Francisco Bay Blues
How Long Blues
River Of Time
I Am the Light Of This World
Good Shepherd
Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
Water Song

Wow, long first set!  And this was transcendent stuff.  As stated previously, I feel that listening to Jorma play Come Back Baby is one of the keys to civilization, and his fingering was exceptional.  He's been working on that song for a while and pretty much has it down.

Another very high highlight was Sea Child.  At some times in his set he sounded like a symphony with just his guitar, and you could feel Jack pounding away on the bottom end, though he was just one of the ghosts flying around Jorma on his small metal chair.  San Francisco Bay Blues was another fantastic cover, with Jorma growling out the lines in funky syncopation like some old blues guitarist.  I wonder when he realized that he'd spent his whole life admiring the old blues musicians and now he was one so he'd better start acting like it?

Just ridiculous that there was the standard amount of first-set chatter going on in the theater, but a good number of us there were enthralled even so.  There were shouts of delight from all over the theater at his phrasing and skill, hopefully startling the fuck out of the chattering idiots.  Between sets I actually heard several people ask, "Who was that opening?"

After Good Shepherd we all stood up (those who were listening that is) and applauded, but Jorma apologetically told us, "Two more!"  He could have played a lot longer as far as I was concerned.  As usual, Jorma was out there with two guitars and spent most of the time on his gut-string wonder, but when he picked up the steel-string beauty for the last song, no question but that we were about to be blown away with Water Song.  I think that means he's done Come Back Baby and Water Song every time I've seen him, and that's fine with me.

Ran into famous Jorma fan, PeterP, at the break and we gushed about what we'd just seen.  Talk about playing with the old powers!

As mentioned, the Orpheum is ridiculously dirty, small, and cramped.  The lobby between sets was scary it was so packed.  A guy in the beer line in front of me was freaking out because of the high-strung crowd, and needed a little encouragement from those of us around him, especially when a lazy beer vendor snarled at him that he was in the wrong line.  He was about to explode but we talked him down and he got his beer.  I got mine and made it back to our seats, and soon all 12 of the Tedeschi Trucks Band came out on stage and lined up right in front of me!

Hopefully I can restrict describing this next incident to one paragraph.  Dave and I wanted to stand because a) it was a rock concert, b) the speaker was right in our faces and if we stood up the sound was much better, and c) sitting down we couldn't see Kofi Burbridge, who was as excellent as always that night.  Everyone in the theater was standing except for some people in the row behind us, and they felt they could demand that we sit down.  One person asked Dave with a "please" that he sit down, so he did.  But one guy six seats to my left (that is, I wasn't even in his sight line) poked me firmly in the butt with his cane to get me to sit!  I sure let the people around us know at the next song break that he had done that, and he was later confronted by security.

OK, another paragraph on this topic.  I was heartened to get a lot of support from many people around us who had seen the incident, and who came up to me afterwards and told me they couldn't believe the guy had done that.  "Has he ever BEEN to a rock concert before??" was the sentiment from person after person.  The security guy who'd confronted him actually came up to me also at the end of the concert and said, "I told that senile old guy to stop poking people with his cane and he just glared at me!"  One person told me he had heard him say, "I didn't jab him, I just poked him!"  Oh well, I was steamed up and embarrassed pretty good and I sat for about half the concert, but then I stood up again and loved it.  Everybody in the second row left sometime during the set and now everyone was standing ... good riddance to them.

Anyway ... again, there I was with the whole fucking Tedeschi Trucks Band playing and singing their hearts out right on front of me.  They opened with an incendiary vocal by Mike Mattison, who came down off his riser for that.  Susan took most of the leads from there, though Mark Rivers got one late in the set and one was a duet between Mike and Alecia Chakour.  As mentioned, Kofi Burbridge was just excellent, stamping every song with his powerful organ fills.  I could mention everybody in the band, they were all playing fantastically.

But as you might imagine, this was another transcendent experience in a large part because of Derek Fucking Trucks.  I'd seen him play many times, but this time he was just 20 feet in front of us and his powerful technique and volume were dominating our world.  He's a bit of a stone face when he performs, but on this night we were close enough to see the glances he shot around the stage to keep his band together, everyone on the stage was hanging on his little winks, nods, and quick smiles.

As mentioned before, they were determined to play three nights of non-repeats, and so did a few songs that perhaps could have been rehearsed a bit more.  But we loved it, and Susan was delightfully embarrassed when she forgot some words.  Dave got a setlist from a roadie at the end, and here's what it says:

Get What You Deserve
Laugh About It
Don't Drift Away
Within You Without You
Just As Strange
Bird On a Wire
The Storm
Color Of the Blues
Key To the Highway
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
Leavin' Trunk
Volunteered Slavery
How Blue Can You Get?
Ali
Let Me Get By

Encore:
It Ain't Easy
Space Captain/Delta Lady

The Beatles song Within You Without You was the surprise of the set, but soon segued into the powerful Just As Strange.  Susan just killed Leonard Cohen's Bird On a Wire, and later did the song she does as a duet with John Prine on his latest album, George Jones' Color Of the Blues.  Jorma came out and joined the band for Key To the Highway, playing a vintage Thunderbird electric.

Here's an excellent review of the show, and I think that's my profile blocking the camera in his pictures.  Good!

Confabbed with people who wanted to tell me what a jerk that guy had been, got the setlist, and finally pushed our way out through the cramped lobby and up Hamilton Place.  Not far back to the garage, and got home and in bed by midnight.

Del and Dawg In Beverly

Geez it's been a horrible year in several ways, including in the number of fantastic musicians we've lost, most recently Leon Russell, Leonard Cohen, and Mose Allison.  One universe-class musician we still have with us is Del McCoury, and when we heard back in August that he'd be playing at the newly-refurbished Cabot Theater in Beverly on Saturday, November 19th with another incredible (and elderly) musician, David Grisman, we got tickets immediately!  4th row center, that is.

Dave was working downtown but showed up towards the end of the afternoon.  We headed out for the North Shore in plenty of time, but I then realized I'd forgotten the tickets ... though I realized it before we'd even gotten to 128 it still took us 45 minutes or so to go back and get them.  Whatever, we still were in time to grab a table at Gulu-Gulu in Salem and have a fine dinner and couple of beers.

Then headed up over the bridge to Beverly, found the Cabot (we'd never been there before), and found a parking space on a nearby suburban street.  Grabbed another beer from their bar and had a little time to admire the handsome theater before the guys came out and lined up right in front of us, the great Del McCoury with his guitar to the right as we looked at them, and David Dawg Grisman on the left, of course with a beautiful mandolin.  They then proceed to be as fantastic as you might expect.

They opened with Feast Here Tonight, did East Virginia Blues, Toy Heart, and just ripped off fantastic tune after fantastic tune.  Hearing Del McCoury sing is literally incredible ... it's hard to believe that a person can do that.  But to see him do it right in front of you forces you to believe.

Grisman was great on vocals and his touch on the mandolin is unique.  There's a style named after him, for Dawg's sake.  But as wonderful as he is, to see Del sing was the most magical aspect of the night.  They did two relatively short sets, and as I say, pushed the bar higher and higher,  They climaxed with Dark Hollow, which of course Del sang with the loneliness, bravado, and character you'd expect.  His tempo and his precise ability to hit any note ever invented is spectacular.

Great Saturday night, and then Dave drove home.  A car in front of us was cut off and almost turned over by another car swerving for an exit on 128.  We stopped and they were ok; Sarah called 911 and the State Police were soon there, though the guy who did it had driven off.

DSO At the Calvin Theater

It was a bit of a depressing week … in a depressing year in politics and popular culture.  So we figured what the heck, lets’ go see DSO in Northampton on Saturday, 11/12 and cheer up a bit!

Made some plans and headed first to Mt. Tom State Reservation in Holyoke on a slightly chilly but beautiful, blue Fall day.  I think I’d been skiing at Mt. Tom way back in my teenage days, but the ski slopes there have been closed for years and now it’s a mish-mosh of picnic areas and hiking trails.  It’s a beautiful area with great views of the Connecticut River and the surrounding hills, and features 47 of the 80 tree species native to Hampshire County, according to the website.

We made it out there without much traffic in early afternoon, and had a great hike on one of the loops recommended on their site: part of the M&M trail (Monadnock to Metacomet), over the summit of Whiting Peak at 1014', back down the East side of the mountain on the DOC trail, and then back to the road on the level Quarry Trail.  That section of the M&M trail is very vertical, but the reward is being on top of some spectacular cliffs, looking Northwest.  The ground was thick with fallen leaves and the footing could be very treacherous on the not-level parts, which was most of the hike, but the scenery was fantastic.  We saw many young people on the hike, and a couple of old ones, which was the theme of the day.

We then spent some time hanging around Northampton, where we saw many, many people younger than us, a lot of them dragging their kids and/or babies around downtown.  Had a beer at the Toasted Owl, some great Middle Eastern food down the street, and then another drink at Foundry before heading over to the Calvin Theater, where the box office was mobbed with young people getting last-minute tickets (the show sold out).  They wouldn’t let Sarah bring her camera in, but we’d parked nearby and she took it back to the car.

This was our first time at the Calvin and it’s a pretty little theater, though it shows some signs of age.  And the bathroom floors became swamps by the end of the concert, perhaps related to the fact that it was packed with young people drinking and carrying on … which is fine with us.  But the sound was not good; sure, it was loud enough, but they seemed to have a hard time ( and to then give up) with un-muddifying it.  RobE and RobB managed to sing well and project through the mud, but Jeff Mattson never sounded good.  Maybe he was having a bad vocal night (though his leads were great), but I think the real culprit was the sound in the theater, which is narrower and has a lower ceiling than (e.g.) the Wilbur or the Capitol.  At the end when RobE rambled on about the show they covered and the filler they were about to do at the end of the night, we could barely make out what he was saying.
And I’ll have to say that the setlist they did was a little disappointing.  Here it is:

First set:

• Touch Of Grey
• Minglewood Blues
• We Can Run
• Friend Of the Devil (which was the 30DoD song for the day!)
• Mama Tried > Mexicali Blues
• Help On the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower

Second set:

• Foolish Heart
• Man Smart (Woman Smarter)
• Scarlet Begonias
• Truckin’ > Jam > Drums > Space > China Doll
• One More Saturday Night

Encore:

• Black Muddy River

Filler:

• Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
• I Second That Emotion

OK, a little disappointing with Touch, We Can Run, and some uninspired playing.  But in all it was a lot of fun.  I’ve never not had fun at a DSO concert, and one of the great things was the crowd was going nuts, dancing and freaking out through the whole thing.  There was not a depressed person in the house!

As mentioned, Jeff pulled off some great leads, RobE was trying as hard as he could on the vocals, and RobB is always great.  Lisa didn’t appear at all, which was a little disappointing too, but what are you gonna do?  Not every DSO show can be Europe ’72 or Boston ’69.  Highlights to me were a great Minglewood, a very good jam in the second part of Help, and a fine Man Smart that had everyone dancing.

I was texting Dave and he figured out the show early: Brendan Byrne Arena, 1989-10-14.  I told him, no wonder they sound like they’re playing in a hockey rink!  I think every Saturday show should end with Saturday Night, so that made me happy, as well as the encore of Black Muddy River, a song I love, and the filler of Tom Thumb and Second That Emotion.  Skip sang Tom Thumb woodenly (this must be sung by the bass player), but threw in “started off on Diet Coke” and “I’m going back to Massachusetts” which got quite the roar … we’ll keep our universal health care and marriage rights here (and we’ve just legalized marijuana), even if the rest of the country changes.

Took a bit of doing to push our way out through the crowd a few minutes before midnight; everyone was having so much fun they didn’t want to leave!  Sarah drove us back and even though the traffic remained light it was a long haul.  Got to bed just before 2:30.

Phil Once Again, Armonk part 2

Woke up in the Armonk La Quinta after a nice sleep.  Breakfast was open until 10 that morning and we sure didn't want to miss that (sarcasm intended)!  The place was pretty full, probably mostly with business-people who spent Friday on the job but left early to get back to Podunk (not Armonk).  A bunch of stragglers remained however: a mish-mosh of families on their way to somewhere, elderly folks on their way to somewhere else, and partiers like us who were just stopping in for a spell.

We all hit up the lobby for an American motel breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, make-your-own waffles, and catch as can pastries (good blueberry muffins actually).  We sat in the back room, thankfully far away from the blaring FoxTV station, along with a Mexican family and a couple of young black guys who bitched half-heartedly about ho's and then probably went back to their suburban homes.  Have you been to America?

OK, time to re-gather in the hotel room and it wasn't long before we were all ready to focus on the excursion we'd planned, to the Butler Sanctuary, just North of Armonk in Mt. Kisco (which is a town).  It's so rare to see them in the wild and we were psyched.

Jumped in the car and pulled into the Sanctuary parking lot not too long after that on another lovely Fall day, with a few dark clouds in a mixed overcast, a nippy-but-warm-feeling-inside Fall glow, hints of a languorous idyll hiding among the rocks, and the musty and moldy but bright smell of a full-lunged Autumn day in the woods.

The Butler Sanctuary is right off 684 and was noisy at the parking lot, but straight-away we climbed right up to the hawk observation platform, high above the highway, where we could see Long Island Sound in the distance to the South and a trio of predators circling to the East.  We amateur-observed a bit and talked to a couple of late-season official observers; we were far away from the highway and what it represented with just a short climb.  We then went downhill and uphill and downhill and uphill past a few dog-hikers and jeez, we loved the place.  The light and the mix of trees (ash, beech, oak, and maple, with a few pines and other sorts) were so refreshing and the rock outcroppings, the stone walls, and the roll of the land were just incredible.  This place is highly recommended. 

We didn't go for the longest walk around the perimeter trails that we had considered, for several reasons,  This place is a bit more challenging than you'd think because of the frequency of elevation changes ... you're rarely *not* going up or down.  And we weren't as equipped as we might have been for such a woodsy walk.  And anyway, we were well aware that in a few hours we'd be dancing all night, and that was really the point of this goddamn expedition, not trying to catch a glimpse of butlers whisking around silver tea sets!!

Got back to the parking lot after a really fun time, and then headed into Mt. Kisco itself to seek out the Mt. Kisco Diner we'd seen mentioned on signs.  Turned out it was in the middle of a charming North Westchester town and we got seats after a bit of a wait, and got some VERY large dishes: Chef's Salad, Portabella Grill, and Aruba Wrap.  Sarah and Dave got fancy drinks too.  We had a fine time there but had to leave the deep-fried green beans behind.  Maybe we'll go back there another time when we're looking for good, pricey, American food with a bit of high-calorie whimsy and a suburban ambiance.  They actually have a burger served between two grilled cheese sandwiches!?!

OK, back to the Armonk hotel, a bit of catching up with the internet, and then we were off once more to Port Chester to see Jay Blakesberg's show at Garcia's.  Jay, of course, is one of the pre-eminent photographic documentarians of the Grateful Dead and other rock artists.  We were running a bit late and the Church parking lot was not open to us hoi-polloi (turned out they were having a function that night), but we found a great spot on the street and soon settled into folding chairs at Garcia's (with adult beverages) in plenty of time for Jay's slides.

Garcia's is the Capitol Theater's side-bar, which is open at times that the Theater itself isn't and functions alongside the Theater, sometimes as an overflow for the crowds there.  They have their own functions too, and we'd seen that Blakesberg would be presenting a slide-show of his photographs there in the afternoon before the P&F show.  Jay walked around nervously in a paisley shirt, but seemed to figure all was ok eventually, and settled into his stool on their small stage.

This was another great time!  Jay's done some fantastic rock photography over a long career, and in his rambling, rapid show frames his iconic pictures in his own experiences, including some poignant seventies-teenager moments and some brushes with larger-than-life (they wish) characters like Tom Waits and Bill Murray.  About 50 of us were sitting in rows of folding chairs listening to this, and the crowd gradually filled in around the edges as the show went on.  Two surprising things were that GD crowds are generally 60-70% male, but the audience at this event was predominantly female.  Also, when Jay asked, "Who here was at Fare Thee Well?" well over 50% of the hands went up.  I guess we profiled ourselves there.

One fun thing was that Phil and Friends launched into their soundcheck in the middle of the slide presentation.  Jay said to the audience, "Want me to go ask Phil to turn it down a bit??"  I was so focused on the slides that I didn't pay a lot of attention to what they were playing, but one song you could not help but hear was Nicki Bluhm singing the Jefferson Airplane's Somebody To Love.  

Great time and got out of there just in at the right moment to escape the forming crowd and to walk up the few blocks to Kiosko, where we had another delicious, quiet and private meal.  Fed the meter (well, the parking ticket dispenser) on the way back, and then figured we might as well go in.  They sure searched me thoroughly this time (ok, no cavity inspection) and they made me discard a couple of un-documented tabs of ibuprofen that I had in my pocket.  The interior doors weren't open yet so we had plenty of time to kill and we hung out back in Garcia's, where Jay and his paisley shirt were still holding court,  Would have liked to talk with him, but he was busy entertaining paying customers.

Before we knew it, it was time for the Saturday show in the Capitol!

We had seats a few rows back and a few seats to the right of where we'd been on Friday.  The crowd was late-arriving and we had plenty of time to detour to the smoking area (where I met a guy from Scroon Lake), drink some beer, and watch the pre-show.  It soon became apparent that, not only were lots of people in costume, but lots of people were already very fucked up, and they got more fucked up as the night went along.  Didn't see any puking, but saw a few people fall down in ways that had to hurt, saw a few people who had no idea where they were, and got bumped into by a number of fellow concert-goers (I was on the aisle).

At one point someone danced or staggered too crazily and launched a beer all over the woman standing in the aisle next to me, getting my right side too.  But the worst was the people who were on their phones!  We were listening to a fucking concert, sitting in (or trying to stand at) $100 seats, and some idiots spent most of the show on their phones.  A woman near me actually tried to stream a video *with sound* while the music was going on.  She soon gave it up with a disgusted look.  A trio two rows in front of me leaned together and gabbed about some Facebook thread they were participating in, all the while waving their phones around and showering us all with the bright light.

And really just as bad was the fact that all this added up to us feeling cramped and uncomfortable in the theater we had had so many good times in.  OK, we could deal with that and a rock-n-roll concert is a rock-n-roll concert.  But we had to keep looking around us to see who would fall on us next, and this was not the loosey-goosey mellow good time we'd had Friday night.  The music was really just as good, but forgive me if I don't gush about the experience as much.

OK, complaining over!  Luther had moved next to Nicki in the middle of the stage and Scott took the spot between him and Jason.  They came out at about the same time they had the night before and the crowd roared.  They were as well rehearsed as any P&F band, and instantly launched into another excellent opener.  We were off!

Jack Straw
I'm a King Bee
High Time
Big Railroad Blues
Bird Song
Somebody To Love
Feel Like a Stranger

• Nicki was certainly feeling it that night.  She had a hippie gown on instead of the blue jeans look and proceeded to belt out the blues all night.  First up was a duet with Scott on Jack Straw, with Phil taking a verse too.  She wasn't really a convincing Shannon, but whatever.
• Time for more blues and Luther sang a gleeful King Bee, probably more faithful to the original Slim Harpo 50's version than to Pigpen.
• Barry got settled down at the pedal steel next and Phil was anxiously getting the band ready.  We watched for a second and agreed, they were about to attempt High Time, without Jerry!  They really did an excellent job on this, though there were a few missed cues.  Very good cover of a great early Dead song.
• Barry stayed on the pedal steel more for most of that first set, and he and Scott next led the guys through a fast, upbeat version of Big RR Blues.  Dave had commented about not being able to hear Jason at times on Friday, but on Saturday he was dominant on a lot of songs, rocking his organ lead here.
• This time they didn't stop ... they just kind of wound down from the country blues, Phil the bandleader made sure they had everything just perfect, and they gently rolled into the Bird Song of death.  This was a highlight of the weekend shows to our ears.  Nicki was as excellent as she was all night, and the song had exactly the right feel ... floating but in pain.
• OK, time for a rocker.  We'd heard Somebody To Love in soundcheck and when they lit into it, everyone on the stage was instantly having as much fun, or more, than anyone in the audience.  Nicki got the lungs going here and they crunched right through the Airplane classic.
• Then it was Scott's turn and he was Feeling Like a Stranger!  This is a showstopper for him and we were glad that Phil set him up to do it.  Very nice first set closer.

Well, the only thing to do was sit down and let the wasted people filter out a bit.  There was a guy passed out across the aisle from me, but that kept him quiet.  Started down to the smoking area with Dave after a bit, but from the top of the stairs I could see it was a mosh pit down at the bottom, and I bagged.  Got a beer successfully at the upstairs bar, even though I had another drunk guy hanging over my shoulder and yelling endearments at the bartendress while I tried to order.  Then back to the seats to mellow out for a bit.  I think the band realized that they had to keep things moving and they came out after one of the shortest set breaks ever.  Dave made it back just in time for...

Deal
Walking Blues
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
New Speedway Boogie
The Wheel
Terrapin Station
In the Midnight Hour

• You know, we've heard Deal before, including at three of the four Dead & Company shows we've been to.  But it's a great song and they did a nice arrangement of it, Nicki sliding along right through it.
• They didn't bring Bobby out for Walking Blues, but did a fine cover anyway, or maybe in spite of that.  Luther was feeling it here and led the guys on a long outro jam, into...
• Most people didn't recognize this right away, but I did with the first sliding notes.  Elizabeth Reed is one of the best songs ever in my mind and these guys didn't nail it like the ABB used to, but who could?  They did a very nice job though and the Cap crowd was delighted.  Some reviewers think this was the most unexpected song of the weekend, but I've always thought this would be right in Luther's wheelhouse and he and Scott really wrung some of the deepest soul out of it, wailing away on twin guitars while Phil and John and Jason thundered in the background.  This was one of the pinnacles of the weekend!
• They funked from that right into the groove of Speedway, and Nicki came back out and helped nail the vocals.  This maybe wasn't the most soulful Speedway, but was very well played by the whole band.  And I realized, this was the fifth of the eight songs on Workingman's that they played that weekend!  Can't argue with that.
• They wound down and Phil instantly started up the cadence of Wheel, another of the most excellently played songs of the weekend.  Dave observed that they did a lot of tracks from first Garcia too.  The crowd tried to get into this but was a little bit off key by that point.
• The musical surprise of the evening for me was Barry Sless.  I'd been wishing after the Friday show that he'd just stick to pedal steel, but he had his electric out and was fantastic on it.  As Dave said, he did all the little Garcia parts that help make GD songs so great, and this allowed Scott and Luther free rein to add their own personalities to the songs.  As with the best P&F combos, they showed potential as well as polish.
• Same juncture in the second set that I talked about last night, when they lit into Help.  Would they wind it down now after that Jerry ballad, or would they take it higher?  They took it to Terrapin Station, and this sure was a fine one.  The three guitars wound around and around that baroque theme and the old man nailed the vocals (with Nicki's and Scott's help), preaching to us about the spiral light of Venus until there was a tear in everyone's eye.  Good ol' Phil.
• Tight little Midnight Hour to close, though Luther kind of blew the lines.  Oh well, you can't play the blues if you get all the words right I guess.

Yeeha!  This had been such a great experience, but I had to admit to myself that it would be great to get out of that hot and wasted crowd.  Phil came out for his donor rap after a bit of a long break.  I hope this won't be the last one I hear live.  Then they lined up and I called it: Music, sung by Scott and Nicki.

In my mind, one of the things that makes The Music Never Stopped such a great song is the quasi-descant, the "Donna part."  Brent, John Mayer, and others have had their shot at it, but what this really needs is a rocking chick singer letting it all hang out.  And that's what Nicki did here, just belting out the "There's a band out on the highway" and the "Keep on dancing through to daylight" lines.  This was a marvelous end to a marvelous weekend!

We needed a little water and a little rest before struggling out of the theater, but the Cap has a nice flow to it, and the crowd soon thinned out enough for us to exit.  We'd had another great time there and though this night was a little difficult, we won't hesitate to show up again the next time Phil's there with an amazing band.  How lucky are we to have seen those concerts?

So no butler sightings, that would have made the weekend too perfect.  Got back up the street to the car, twisted around to the highway, and got back to Armonk pretty quickly for another good night's sleep after a long day of having fun.

Phil Once Again, Armonk part 1

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."  We keep going down to New York to see Phil Lesh and Friends, and to date we've been delighted by very different results each time, all excellent!

Seems we're doing it more and more often, but it's such a fun trip.  We heard Phil was coming back to the Capitol Theater in Port Chester for another Halloween weekend with a group of Friends, and so we got tickets and got a reservation at the hotel on Armonk that's so convenient.

What really made this a must-do thing was that the Friends on Friday, October 28th, were Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams(!), AND Luther Dickinson, AND John Molo and Jason Crosby, AND Barry Sless on pedal steel, AND Nicki Bluhm!  The Friends group on Saturday was scheduled to be the same except Scott Metzger would be added instead of Larry and Teresa,  Phil's also playing on Monday, Halloween itself, with the former group above, but we'll be back in Massachusetts by then.

So we took Friday off from work, had a morning session with Marina from Seaver's and a couple of contractors, and then threw the beer, sandwiches, and tickets in the car and drove down to Quincy to pick up Dave.  Back up to the turnpike (about 9 hours in advance of the start of open road tolling and the demo of the toll booths that have been there since Christ was a child) and headed West and then Southwest, starting with rain and finally sunny skies on a beautiful mid-Fall day, into and at last through the middle of Connecticut, driving with massive amounts of traffic the whole way, but moving quickly.

Got to the La Quinta in Armonk finally ... it really was pretty quick ... you can sneak up on Port Chester this way.  Checked into a nice first-floor room, and got psyched for the concert.  Got saddled up around 5:30 and fought more bad traffic down to a crowded Port Chester.

Our favorite parking lot is under different ownership and was not open, so we turned around and headed down the hill to the Church parking lot, which was the same price and just as close.  Up to Kiosko for another Mexican meal that couldn't be beat, though the waitress (not our normal one) almost forgot our drinks.  Same old routine ... checked out Shakedown Corner after that, which was packed with people but not much merchandise, and then into the theater at last.

Are we crazy to eat at the same place after driving all the way down there, and to retrace the same footprints?  Some would say yes, but we all say no.  This is the routine that we've lucked into (Kiosko is so excellent!) and that we follow.  Our favored parking lot folded and we had to change ... which was fine ... and we're going to sour eventually on Kiosko and/or it will go out of business.  But at that point we'll be glad to let fate push us in another direction, to another restaurant or to a different routine.  We don't need to struggle with fate.

We'd seen the poster for this show online, a proud-to-be-Headless Horseman outlined against a Nightfall of Diamonds, and Dave had to have that.  And they had the same motif on t-shirts!  Sarah and I both opted for that.  Up the lovely stairs, grab a beer, and then to our seats, which were dead center in the third row of the balcony.  We love the Capitol!

The had their loop of The Skeleton Dance playing in one pair of alcoves, and a new loop of the silent film Nosferatu in the center alcoves ... and lots of swirling lights and trippy patterns of course.  Hit the smoking area right before 8, and weren't too disappointed when they didn't come on until 8:25 or so.  Sitting in the balcony and enjoying the pre-show can be groovy.

The lineup was Jason far left, then Luther, then Larry ... the two stacks of guitar amps very close to each other, then Teresa, John behind her, Nicki to her left, then Phil with his control center of stuff (though curiously fewer speakers than we'd ever seen him with), then Barry to the far right.  Both Larry and Barry had other instruments they could pick up; Larry played his cittern a bit, played his mandolin a bit too, and also played a wonderful fiddle (it looked so small to us?!?).  And Barry ended up playing his electric guitar most of the night instead of the pedal steel he started on.  Teresa also picked up her acoustic for one song.

But, to leave the narrative for a bit, this was mainly about all of the band excelling on their main instruments, not about versatility or varied instrumentation (though those were featured of course).  It was delightful to see that Luther was having SUCH a good time playing with Larry Campbell ... who could not enjoy playing with Larry Campbell?  Time after time the two of them, right next to each other, faced off and let it rip and just *dominated* the song.  Or should I say, they tried to ... but just across the stage was the firm of Lesh and Molo and they weren't taking a back seat to anyone.  As before when we've seen Phil & Friends, Mr. Lesh was leading the band and was easily and gracefully playing better then anyone else on stage.

And as before, though I was so drawn in by the other excellent musicians, I kept forcing myself to turn back to Phil and listen to what he was laying down, which remains the most incredible music I've ever heard ... 45 or so years after I first heard it.  Maybe it's feeling myself get older this Fall, but I could see exactly how old Phil was, and ways in which he seemed older than he was even last March.  He was just a hair more stooped and a hair more of an aged, dignified, scarecrow inside his blue jeans and long-sleeved shirt.  An incredible man who plays with the old forces, but a skinny guy getting smaller.  How long will he keep on doing this?  I was very glad we were back at the Cap, back watching and listening to Phil.

So what did they play?  Well it was a great first set ... here's the list and some notes:

Till the Morning Comes
Peggy-O
Uncle John's Band
Cumberland Blues
Rollin' and Tumblin'
River Deep, Mountain High
Sugaree

• Fantastic opener, showing some of their best cards right from the start.  Larry and Teresa sang this so sweetly and Barry Sless picked a perfect pedal steel.  Perhaps "You're my woman now, make yourself easy" is anachronistic wording, but people with their minds open get the point; this is about the kind of mutual support we all need.
• Another fantastic Peggy-O from Phil and L&T (Larry on cittern).  Phil was so eager he sang the "I would marry you" verse and in the middle of it chuckled at himself ... he'd stolen Teresa's part!  She tried not to give him mean looks.
• So these guys just hit us with the good stuff right off the bat.  Larry got out his mandolin, Nicki took a couple of verses, and they played another sparkling UJB and then let Larry and Luther just jam the fuck out of it.  We were up in center balcony, dancing our asses off.
• And they jammed and jammed and all of a sudden were playing Cumberland!  Barry had switched to electric guitar somewhere in there and the leads and overlays and rhythmic chording flowed back and forth between Barry, Luther, Larry, and or course Jason, who was tinkling the (electric) piano so daintily I can't believe it wasn't a melted mess.
• Luther's turn next and he got after it with no hesitation.  He pulled out the tin-can-and-strings guitar we'd seen him play at GRF and proceeded to howl the Muddy Water blues, and I mean howl.  He sang a few verses into the tin can and brought us all closer to the center of an echoing blues vortex.  Larry had the little violin out for this and tried to match Luther's funkiness. 
• And then they stopped for a short rest, Phil nodded at the players who would start the next song, Teresa turned to the mike, and she, Larry, and Phil hit it: "When I was a little girl I had a rag doll...."  We'd seen them do this before in the middle of Dark Star(!), but this time it was a stand-alone and the guys dragged it out and out.  She sang the "like a flower loves the Spring" bridge twice after long jams, and she could have done it several times more to my ear.
• Dave observed that this night (and the next) were a bit unusual for P&F sets in that they featured many separate songs more than free-flowing jams.  Perhaps that was because they had so many people on stage and wanted to be sure the individual talents were not swept away.  Another observation was that Phil likes a lot of guitars on stage.  Some of these songs would definitely have been more vivid if they'd just had Luther/Larry with Barry on steel, or Luther/Barry with Larry on fiddle/mando, or whatever.  Sometimes the tumultuous river of guitar sounds was excellent, as in Crossroads (see below) or Sugaree, and sometimes it was a bit over the top.
• Did someone say Sugaree?  Nicki stepped up for this and did a great duet with Luther, but Holy Fuck, this became an amazing guitar showcase.  Sugaree has been played over and over, but rarely with this degree of rhythm, soul, and searing guitar blues.

OMG, maybe going on too much again.  As with every other time we've made the effort to go see Phil, the first set was phenomenal.  Perhaps the rest of the weekend after this would now be judged/remembered at a higher level and with more discernment than the first set had been, after our tribulations getting to the Capitol Theater at that exact point in time?  But maybe now I'd be able to appreciate it better, having gotten back up to that plateau that Phil had brought me to before.  Whatever, I say again.

The Capitol that night was delightful, especially since there were a couple of empty seats around us and we had more room to relax and dance.  I'd checked the day before and some seats were still available, which had not been the story at other P&F shows we'd been at.  Maybe people are distracted by the election.

But anyway, had another fine half-time at the Cap, checking out the smoking area, getting replenished with local beer, and peeing in the stinky old bathrooms.  The film loops were going strong, the GD scene was happening all around us, and then the guys came back on after an average-length break.  Here's the second set:

Casey Jones
Midnight Highway
Cross Road Blues
Unbroken Chain
Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning
Help On the Way
Slipknot!
Franklin's Tower

• Casey Jones is a great song, though at times it has become an embarrassing and rote druggy sing-along.  And it was an awesome second-set opener, with Nicki giving it her laid-back hippie blues treatment and Larry playing some great guitar.  This needs a strong lead, and Larry did it like you wouldn't believe.
• Midnight Highway is another song Larry and Teresa kill (Larry wrote it with Julie Miller) ... this was *the* earworm from the show when I reminisce.
• In my mind, the next song was Crossroads, because Clapton's version (and spelling) is basic to my appreciation of this kind of art.  But this was something different, and was long, encyclopedic, lyrical, etc.  Luther and Nicki again paired off for the blues and perhaps didn't get to the furthest reaches of the song, but they, and the whole band, took us pretty far.
• And then one of the quintessential Phil Lesh songs.  Don't know what to say about Unbroken that I haven't said before.  There's such an incredible layer of rich bass sounds in this song, room for virtuoso drumming, melody lines to bite on, and a beautiful vocal line, which Phil falls right into.
• And then Teresa came back out for Trimmed and Burning!  I've gushed before about her talent at shouting out this song, and this was as excellent a rendition as I've heard her do.  We were gobstruck at getting River Deep and Lamps on the same night!
• Well jeez, it was getting a little late.  At other GD concerts we've been to, this point of the second set has then led to some varied results, mostly excellent.  We were just beginning to think that and then they struck those chords...
• Help On the Way, sung by Nicki.  Nicki's a tall woman with long dark-brown hair and was wearing tight blue jeans and a big Stetson that night.  She sang those great words ("Cause I love what I love and I want it that way") with a little shuffle.
• Fantastic Slipknot!, with lots of jamming, and then a short and sweet Franklin's.

Yay!!!  We were in the middle of the balcony at the Capitol but standing on the top of a mountain in our own way, or in our own minds.  We'd just seen and heard some incredible stuff and were still in that bubble.  As I've said before, I hope that bubble will always surround me when I need to call it up ("Phil Power, now!!!").

We were hoarse and tired but made as much sound as we could and soon Phil came back out and did a perfunctory Donor Rap.  Then the guys came back out, Nicki stepped up to the mike, and Phil started into the groove.  They did Turn On Your Lovelight for an encore!  This was one of the most unexpected GD encores ever.  Maybe Nicki didn't get as graphic as Pig at his peak, but maybe that's a blessing.

Anyway, we loved it and the whole Capitol was swaying and shouting and moving in time.  A wonderful end to a wonderful night!

OMG, time to sit down and take a few moments before getting out of there.  Back down the lovely stairs after a few minutes rest, and then followed the crowd out onto the street.  Not too far to the car, and then not too far back up North to Armonk, where our nicely-sized, quiet room was waiting for us.  One more beer, checked internet stuff, and then we all fell into a sound sleep.

Pictures from Sarah here!

An Evening With Eilen

We've seen Eilen Jewell a million times, but couldn't resist seeing her again at Sinclair in Cambridge on Saturday, 10/15.  We bought a parking space in a garage a few blocks away, with the tickets, and that was a good deal, though the garage had no pedestrian exits or entrances.

While I'm complaining, let me get it over with about Sinclair.  It's too precious to be a real rock club and too open to be a real folk club.  They had their seats set up for Eilen, which means you have to look was up to see the stage and get a crick in the neck, and the seats are those kind of cheap things that make you feel like they're going to collapse the whole time, or that you're going to fall out the back.  But their sound system is good and the beer was cold.

No opening act, Eilen and band came on not at all late at 7:00.  This had been billed as "An Evening With Eilen Jewell" and I wondered if that meant that she'd be solo or with alternating players.  But no, she had her usual 4-piece band: her, husband Jason Beek of course, and Jerry Miller, who's a phenom, as well as Shawn Supra on bass.

We had a great time and I loved her setlist, though I had criticisms.  The last few times I've seen her I was very impressed with her guitar work and this was no exception.  Her voice was great at Sinclair as well, milking that plain-spun honey in an authentic country style, while her band plays cracker-jack rock and roll behind her.  And her songs are so excellent.  She did some of her best, like Sea of Tears, High Shelf Booze, Rain Roll In, and Rio Grande.

Criticisms were that as great as Jerry is, he seemed a little tired of playing this music.  Some of his leads were really good, but on others he was trying way too hard to do something different and ended up leaving us scratching our heads.  Shawn just isn't as dynamic and down-and-dirty as Eilen's long-time bassist Johnny Sciascia was, and it was hard not to miss him.  And Eilen did no new, self-penned songs.

She covered a wide range of tunes from throughout her career, including four from her first record and one from her Loretta Lynn record (Deep As Your Pocket), and three from her latest record.  She also did three from her current project, covers of 30s blues songs such as Memphis Minnie's Nothing In Rambling and a Big Maybelle (Don't Leave Poor Me) and an Otis Rush song (You Know My Love).  They ripped through these songs fast, with no nonsense: verses, Jerry lead, and then one last chorus and done.

She also did a cover of Johnny Cash's Train Of Love that I'll remember for a long time, "Every so often everybody's baby gets the urge to roam" ... perfect for her style.  And she did her cover of Anderson's Dusty Boxcar Wall.  But I would have loved to hear new, Eilen Jewell stuff, and I felt a little disappointed about hearing none.

I was also a little disappointed to not hear her solo for once.  Every time I've seen her she's done the 4-piece thing, and I wouldn't mind hearing her tackle some of her excellent stuff without a safety net.

It wasn't a very long show, one pretty hefty set.  And then she came out quickly to cover Songbird from her latest record, which is a tribute to her daughter, Mavis ("Mavis" is an old English name for "song thrush"), who was bopping around the club and distracting her Mom.  There's a very cute picture of Mavis playing her Dad's drums on Eilen's FB page.

I complain, but we had a great time and loved seeing her again.  Come back soon Eilen!  She talked several times about how much she missed Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, and how she had thrilled to Big Papi's last season.  It was a family reunion and though one may complain about one's relatives, there's still a great amount of love and appreciation there.

Chip and Carrie Reunion Tour

Early rock hit-maker Chip Taylor (Wild Thing, Angel Of the Morning) and Carrie Rodriguez (often mentioned in this blog) were a band back 10-15 years ago and their four records (plus two halves) were fantastic.  About 40 years apart in age, they’d met at a folk festival and Chip instantly realized this was magic.  She played fiddle but then he convinced her to sing and it’s all history from there.

I’d heard back in January or so that they’d be touring this year and hadn’t seen any announcement of a tour until I stumbled across it a few weeks ago.  The closest they were coming was the Iron Horse in Northampton and there was no question but that we were going.  We booked a room for the night at the Quality Inn in Hadley where we’d stayed once in 2014; and as the date got closer we were excited but knew this was going to be a mid-week hassle.  Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Got out to Northampton pretty quickly after picking up Sarah at the West Concord train on Thursday, August 25th.  But it was already 6:00 or so by the time we took a small wrong turn walking on a beautiful summer day in crowded downtown Northampton.  And the Iron Horse was packed when we finally got there for the 7:00 show!  It was set up with all tables and the best we could get was way up in the loft, in the back, but kind of centered on the stage.

This was my first time at the Iron Horse and I found a lot of things wrong with it.  It was small and cramped and dirty-funky.  We were shoved up under the ceiling (we could touch the tin panels) way in the back and the sound was nowhere near “good” back there.  The waitresses were working hard and the food was ok; the beer was cold (Switchback Ale) and food and stuff came on time, and then the band came on and they brought the magic.

Chip played acoustic guitar and harmonica or course, and Carrie stuck to her fiddle and her cowboy boot, which was as good as the shit-kicking heels we’ve seen her use for a percussion instrument lately.  They were accompanied by John Platania on electric guitar.  Here’s the setlist:

Set 1:

• Keep Your Hat On Jenny
• Let’s Leave This Town
• All the Rain
• Your Name Is On My Lips
• Oh Set a Light
• Do Your Part
• Red Dog Tracks
• Elzick’s Farewell
• Angel Of the Morning

Set 2:

• Sweet Tequila Blues
• Dirty Little Texas Story
• Memphis, Texas
• Don’t Speak In English
• Big Moon Shinin’
• Wild Thing
• We Come Up Shining

These were both very short sets, and the break between them was a little longer than you’d want, though that meant we had time to wait forever in the hot and cramped basement for a turn at the bathroom.

But no more complaints.  This was so worth it!  You’d have to call what they play a little bit of rock, a little bit of folk, a little bit of Texas music, and a lot of … well, magic.  They take their time, they listen to each other, they respond to each other instrumentally like they’re a hive mind of two (or two and a half, Platania was almost there at times).  And they sing together like you can’t believe.

They’d done five shows before this one on the tour, and have been singing off and on for the past 10 years since they released Red Dog Tracks and then split up for their own careers.  But they sounded like they’d been working on these harmonies for years.  Their voices are each wonderful on their own, and they fit together like lovers on a porch swing.  But that analogy doesn't describe the range of what they can do together, from whispers to shouting.  You have to hear these two.

It was futile to stand up and whoop as far back under the ceiling as I was, and there was plenty of that coming from elsewhere in that cramped room.  They ended too soon with their rote cover of Wild Thing, a song Chip *has* to play every time he appears anywhere.  We clapped and clapped while they stood there, then gave us one more drop of the magic with We Come Up Shining.

It was only 9:00 when we got out of there!  If we’d known it was going to be such a short concert we would have planned to head back to Woburn afterwards.  But the Quality Inn was there and we were glad to be able to have a relaxed time for reading and getting ready for bed before our early start the next day.  Actually got Sarah back for the 8:07 train from West Concord!

Fighting the Tide in Ipswich

You've gotta time the tide right if you're going to kayak in Plum Island Sound, and I pretty much did yesterday.  I put in at the Ipswich Town Landing, which was already almost full of cars (one was stuck on the launch ramp) by 11:00.  Had an excellent trip out the river, though some of the roaring motorboats had no clue about staying in the channel.  [Overheard from one boat, "It gets shallow on the edges here."  "Then stay in the middle."  Did they ever wonder what those red and black buoys were for?]

By the time I got to the mouth of the river though, I had to really fight the tide to get out into the bay.  The shore South of the river was filled with beach-goers, many of whom had arrived there by boat.  It was a glorious day to be at the beach or on the water and the whole area was a mess of boats and chop, particularly with the current stirring up the water.

And it *was* water!  The drought we've been living through lately has been depressing and I've hesitated to go kayaking on the rivers, since they're so low.  My heart rises when I see full bodies of water, or high tide.  It was wonderful to be out on the ocean and to be reminded that water is neither created nor destroyed, to see the blue goodness flooding the salt marsh.

After struggling out past Castle Hill I turned around and let the tide rip me back to the North, and then, assisted with a few strokes of the paddle, back into the maw of the river.  Made it back to the landing with the tide a little bit before full flood.  Put up quickly and not only were there cars waiting to take my parking place, people with trailers had parked all over the road around there by that point, some in people's yards.  Full day at the shore!

Ol' Brown Shoe Early Show

Late afternoon decision to brave the drive to Salem on a Friday night and go hear Ol' Brown Shoe at the Black Lobster.  They were playing the early show (7-10:30) before the reggae band upstairs. and the late evening August weather on the waterfront in Salem was delightful, as well as the music of course.

Drummer Kevin has split for Colorado, and so old drummer Jack Howard filled in, which was quite a treat.  Tim continues to get more and more comfortable with the band, and of course Larry was great!

Stuck around for both sets and some nice conversations with other fans and with the band.  Lots of fun again!  Here's the set list ... note that the second set was cut short to make way for the upstairs band:

I: Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard, Sample in a Jar, Ramble On Rose, I Shot the Sheriff, Samson and Delilah, That's What Love Will Make You Do, Let It Grow > Dancing In the Street, Ramblin' Man > Bertha

II: In the Midnight Hour, Loose Lucy, The Other One, The Weight*, Feelin' Alright, Birds Of a Feather, Sugar Magnolia.

* - Allegra Larson on Vocals

A couple of notes were that I mentioned Me and Julio to JeffL before the set, and he was nice enough to have the band open with it.  Tim did the vocal on Dancing and sang "They're dancing in Beverly" before realizing that we were not in Beverly ... so he corrected with "They're dancing on the bridge."  Note that the patio at the Black Lobster looks up to the superstructure of the bridge between Beverly (where they often play) and Salem, so this was a good catch.

GGW at BMH One More Time

It’s weird for a Grateful Dead fan to say he gets tired of the same old songs :) … I don’t, but it’s so fun to hear twists on them.  As mentioned before in this blog, it’s great to hear good ol’ GD songs given a facelift by younger musicians like Elana James (Ripple), Dave Alvin (Loser), the entire Songs Of Their Own series, etc.  And leading the charge are JRAD and Golden Gate Wingmen.  So we were very excited to get the chance to go see GGW again at the Brighton Music Hall on Saturday, August 13th.

Brighton was just on the cusp on the annual student invasion, but we were able to grab a fortunate parking space (no ticket this time) on a hot and humid summer day and had a pretty good dinner and some excellent beers in a frosty Sunset Grill.  Then a few doors down to the BMH where this time, even 30 minutes before the doors opened, we were 30th or so in what was rapidly becoming a long line.  Guess the word has gotten out about them!

We wanted to situate ourselves where we could see Jeff Chimenti’s fingering well, but a quick hop around the stage showed no great place, so we settled for second row, behind a couple from Fairfield CT who were on a brief GGW tour (Pawtucket the next night) right in front of the stage.

Had a beer and got a t-shirt and then Sarah came running in with the news that John and Jeff were joining the crowd for a break in the smoking area.  You can believe Dave was out there in a flash and was able to share a few mellow moments with John and Jeff out back.

Then he came back, the guys came on a little late, and they proceeded to rip up the place, which was packed by that point.  There's an excellent recording of it on IA.  Here’s the first set:

• Nobody Told Me
• Brown-Eyed Woman
• Seen Love
• Just Like a Woman
• Lazy River Road
• The Business
• Loser
• Feel Like Dynamite

We’d seen the first three songs done by the JK Band at BMH a few months before this (in a different order), but were not really upset by the duplication … John can play BEW every time I see him as far as I’m concerned.  Reed Mathis was obviously a bit high, and though this meant he drifted at times, he was playing and singing with the fierce abandon that’s so captivating about his performances.  Jay Lane was perhaps the player of the day, perhaps the best performance of his I’d seen, and I’d seen some good ones.  So the whole experience was excellent!

Of particular note in that first set were a fantastic vocal by Reed on Just Like a Woman … he’s born to sing Dylan songs; a beautiful, slow, meander through summer down the Lazy River Road; and a crunchy, threatening, desperate, psychedelic cover of one of Garcia’s best songs, Loser.  And then we all grooved into the set break, feeling like dynamite, rocking to Jeff’s milking the organ like Saunders used to do.

We suddenly realized we were standing in a puddle of beer, and when the crowd dispersed a little we saw that the whole Brighton Music Hall was a mess of drunk and high people and their detritus.  Saturday night had come quickly.  Not too long a set break … though it was after 11 by the time they came back on.  Oh well, time for the second set:

• She Belongs to Me
• Golden Wings
• Dark Star >
• Join Together >
• Dark Star >
• Estimated Prophet >
• Eyes of the World >
• Touch of Grey

More excellence, starting with another fantastic Dylan song, sung as a duet by Reed and John.  At Christmas buy her a big bass drum!  We were delighted to get an off-the-reservation Dark Star done as differently as you might hope by this fine group of musicians … this was not just a cover.  And to jump into the Who’s Join Together in the middle of it showed their imagination.

But the best moments of the evening were yet to come in the perhaps formulaic combination of Estimated and Eyes.  The two were killed by Reed on wild-eyed prophet and John on blissed-out hippie, and featured amazing combination keyboard work by Jeff and Todd Stoops, a guest from the JK Band.  As mentioned, Touch, the set closer, is a song that doesn’t allow you to stray too far from normalcy, but they tried!

Short break, and then they came back out to encore with Liberty, another best of the best songs.  Lots of fun on a late summer Saturday night.  Home quickly up Everett Street to route 16, and you can bet I was glad to wash the spilled beer off my legs and feet when I got home.  In bed around 2.

Hot Tuna Leftover Salmon and Other Fish

Went to the Wilbur on a Sunday night (8/7) to see Leftover Salmon and electric Hot Tuna.  Barry wasn't with Hot Tuna, but Justin Guip was on drums.  They were awesome!

2016-08-07
Wilbur Theatre, Boston, MA

Serpent Of Dreams
Ode For Billy Dean
I Can't Be Satified
Sea Child
Sleep Song
Bowlegged Woman, Knock Kneed Man
Come Back Baby
99 Year Blues
Good Shepherd
Bar Room Crystal Ball
Water Song
Funky #7

Encore:
Hit Single #1

Leftover Salmon set included:
Demon In Disguise *

Lineup:
Jorma Kaukonen - guitar, vox
Jack Casady - bass
Justin Guip - drums

*w/ Jorma & Justin sitting in

Supporting act(s):
Leftover Salmon

Larry and Teresa Steam Up Bull Run

It's been a great season for concerts, including Bob Weir guesting at Sir Paul's Fenway concert last weekend.  A review I read talks about the blessings bestowed on us this summer by certified rock royalty, such as Sir Paul.  Be that as it may ... and I can't imagine why I'd ever bad-mouth Paul McCartney ... one of the great things about great music is that it's ecumenical, democratic, expressive of the human spirit.  It isn't only dispensed by royalty.  And we were very glad after a foray into arena rock to get back to seeing the best artists of our generation in small venues.

Which brings me to seeing Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams at the Bull Run.  How could such an incredible act not be adored by the millions?  The Sawtelle Room at the Bull Run was two thirds full of  enthusiasts, but come on!  Oh well, one of the charming things about seeing an act like Larry and Teresa at a club in Shirley MA is that there's absolutely no pressure.  We all showed up on a Friday night and had a great time.

Picked up Sarah and Dave at West Concord and drove out there on a steamer of a mid-summer, New England night.  Ordered some great food and beer, talked with our table-mates, some of whom we'd met before at great Bull Run concerts (this was our 35th at the Bull Run by my count), and mellowed out in the air conditioning.  We stepped outside for a bit and Justin Guip was blabbing on his cell phone, Jesse Murphy (guest bassist) was doing some homework, listening to his ear buds on the bridge, and Larry in his black get-up was in his car texting and presumably roasting.  I went inside and headed to the bathroom, but Teresa jumped in front of me on her way to the lady's ... I almost followed her in.

They came on a bit late, as most acts do, though the room was more than primed for them.  No late arrivals here, we were all ready for the night.  They opened with a few numbers off their record (strange that they'd release a record last year and only tour for it now?!?) and ended up doing most of the numbers we'd expect from them in a short set, with a double encore.  For some reason, the sound wasn't great for the first few numbers, but then they got it straightened out with a bit of advice from the band.

As a listener pointed out, "Larry, the room's full of Deadheads heah!" A guy at our table recognized Dave's t-shirt from when Larry and Teresa played with Phil & Friends a few years ago.  The biggest whoops of the night were reserved for the "Dead" songs: Samson and Delilah (If I Had My Way), Deep Ellum Blues, Big River (an absolutely crackling version), and an encore of a song actually written by the Dead, their incredible a capella cover of Attics Of My Life.

But there was more for the Deadhead and music fan to go nuts over, such as Teresa belting out Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning, a tidy and precious rendition of Julie Miller's Midnight Highway (both of which we'd seen them do with Phil), and their top-of-the-heap (and it's a big heap) cover of the Louvin's You're Running Wild.  This was great stuff and the thing that had me riveted was watching Larry pick the country blues on his acoustic and his Telecaster while Guip and Teresa hammered and wailed behind him.  Again, how come the place was not full to see this stuff??

For me, the song of the night was Larry's If You Loved Me At All.  He's written some of the best stuff ever, and this was done perfectly.  Teresa has that twang (Larry: "I married Elly May Clampett, without the oil wells"), and Larry has that perfect, American, honest, gritty quality to his singing and playing.  He did a solo bit, where he picked out the tricky melody of Blind Mary from 18th century Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan on his small acoustic, and then Duke Ellington's Caravan.

Another shorter than anticipated night at the Bull Run ... we'd all made it there on a Friday and were ready to go all night.  But the band wasn't; an act at this rank on the pecking order has to do a lot of traveling.  Larry and Teresa absorbed the accolades and tried to deal with the many requests (I shouted out for When I Go Away and the two looked at me like, "Thanks for the request but we're not ready to do that tonight," so I shouted out for Mountains Of the Moon, which made Teresa laugh (an obscure Dead song we'd seen them do with Phil)).

After the encore of Attics and Deep Ellum they signed for the crowds but we escaped into the steamy night and had a relatively quick ride back to Quincy and then to Woburn, making it home in time to go to bed by midnight.

Pictures here!

Dead At Fenway Park! Saturday

Yowza, time to truck into the city again and see Dead & Company at Fenway Park (7/16).  What a way to wake up!  We’d spent the morning downloading pictures and blogging and stuff, and had already downloaded and heard most of the show from Friday night by the time we had to leave.  The Friday show was great, perhaps the best of the tour so far, and the “second day” question was hanging over us … would the show tonight be as good?  You never know with the Dead.

Sarah and I parked in her building after a pretty quick trip in, and then had a slow, mellow walk through the Common, the Garden, and up the Commonwealth Mall, past the succession of iconic Boston sculptures to Hereford, than over to Boylston and up and across the Fens, including crossing the Muddy River.  It didn’t look black on that sunny afternoon, but had been in last night’s encore!

We waited in line at Yard House to show IDs and get wristbanded (the door on Van Ness was not open, you had to go through the front) and the place was already chock-full at 3:30!  They soon stopped letting people in because of fire codes, though Dave and friend Parker made it after taking the T from Quincy.  We had a leisurely late lunch and a few beers, conjectured about what we were about to see, and then headed over to the intersection of Yawkey Way (whilom Jersey Street) and Van Ness to meet friends.  We’d agreed to meet there at 5:30 and I was a few minutes late, but I then proceeded to stand in the middle of the intersection for about 20 minutes and no sight of them (though Scott and Michelle showed up)!  Oh well, not surprising that we had a hard time meeting up in a crowd like that.

And what a crowd it was.  By the end of the night, Fenway was packed as far as I could tell … don’t know if it was an official sellout [just saw on the Red Sox Facebook page that it was a sellout, except they apparently didn't sell the section under the press box?!?].  And this included all of the turf except for the stage and the grass part of the infield being covered with seats.  I’d guess that at least 40,000 people were there, possibly way more.  But back to the corner of Yawkey and Van Ness … after waiting for a while (and getting a t-shirt) we decided we’d better start in right away, knowing it might take a while.

Almost had to push our way down Van Ness to get to Gate B, but then entered and knew where to go.  It was just as much of a rush as it had been the day before to actually walk onto the field at Fenway.  Sarah and I took the time to tour around the field and she snapped pictures of me in front of the seat I was in when Dewey Evans caught a fly ball in my lap, and then posing at my shortstop position in front of the infield grass that was so perfect it had to be a painting.  Then made it to our seats in section B7, a few rows back and a few seats farther left than Friday, but essentially in the same spot.

BobR was sitting in front of us, totally unexpected!  We picked out W&L in their seats behind us and they eventually saw us too and waved.  At the break, Sarah found our friends F&P and B, though A was over sitting with their son behind the visitor’s dugout.  Again, Fenway Park was packed with friends … and then the band came on.

John was wearing a white t-shirt … guess his flirtation with picnic cloths was over.  The others were pretty much the same, though Bob’s hair was perhaps even more disheveled than it was Friday.  Hadn’t seen his stool before on the tour, but it was there last night.  He acted a bit tired at the end too, they are probably very glad to have a few days off and be returning to their native time zone.

They launched right into the Jam that we all know leads to Truckin’ and we were off on another beautiful Fenway evening, with the sky showing some blue but getting more overcast as the evening went on, though thankfully rain and thunderstorms held off once more.

Here’s the first set and some notes:

• Jam into Truckin' – Kind of fun to look around and see half of the people get what song they were playing right away, and then hear the other half of the crowd roar only when they lit into, “Truckin’, got my chips cashed in….”  And this was a titanic Truckin’ with an outro that could have turned into anything.
• But what it turned into was Big River, Bobby leading the way.  Maybe it was the humidity or the Park being so full, but the sound wasn’t quite as good Saturday night.  John tried to take off on this, but the song never really fell into place, though Jeff did his best on organ.
• I was hoping we’d get a brace (at least) of cowboy songs, but they came to a full stop, and then John started picking They Love Each Other.  Donna came out and the crowd went nuts, could be that some of them were unaware of her presence on this tour.  The harmony singing and particularly her singing on the “Lord you can see…” choruses was excellent.  John definitely achieved takeoff on this song!
• Deal – This was the third time (in 4 concerts) we’d seen these guys do Deal and so it was a little disappointing to get such a repeat, though this was done very well.  This really is one of the best little pieces of music that Garcia ever wrote, and the song contains boatloads of lyrical possibilities (see Hartford post) that John and Jeff love exploring.  Go to it guys!
• I called the next song in the middle of Deal; for some reason I was sure they’d do Bird Song next and by gum they did.  Don’t know what made me think that.  This wasn’t the best Bird Song in terms of diving full-tilt into the dark take on life that this song implies, but again the vocals were very good, and there were plenty of stretches of instrumental brilliance.  The Dragon of ensemble Dead playing almost emerged here and the song was riveting.  But in all, another case of a bit more practice with Donna and they might get there with this one.
• Passenger and Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad – I have to admit I was off to the bathroom and the beer line as soon as Bird Song ended and it’s a good thing I made that strategic decision.  The tunnels were packed with people, even during the set!  There was a line for the bathroom and I had to wait for at least 10 minutes for beer.  Caught a bit of these tunes snaking down into the depths of Fenway (I was very bummed I missed Passenger), but the crowds pouring into the tunnels as GDTRFB ended and I was trying to exit were scary!  I was very glad to push my way back into the open air and have some time to sit in our suddenly un-crowded area after that.  Sent shivers down my back to imagine trying to navigate them during the set break.

Caught up and yucked it up with BobR and friends after a bit of rest, and then we bulled our way up into the field boxes to visit our friends there for a bit.  They could see the stage without standing on tip-toe since they were elevated a bit, but were jammed into those small Fenway seats that are kind of a nightmare themselves.

Back to our seats and the crowd was now pouring out of the tunnels, it was really kind of frightening how jammed with people it was, though we were ostensibly in the open expanse of left field at Fenway Park!?!  The guys came back out after an average-length break and we were off again, for the final time on this stand in Boston.

We’d been hoping and hoping that Donna was going to be at Fenway and that they’d play PITB.  It happened!  Here’s the second set:

• Playing In the Band - Dave called it from the first few random notes from Bobby.  We were so ready for this!  Need I say that this is one of the most essential songs of Western Civilization (and I mean West of Alpha Centauri)?  John got out the old wah-wah filter for this and at times it seemed there were four guitars playing ... might have been some looping going on,  Bobby may have played this song a few times before.
• We were waiting for them to come back into the chorus after the jam and for Donna to scream and rip the foundations of our world.  But before you knew it they were starting up with ...
• Estimated Prophet - My Dog, I've heard this song so many times I couldn't believe at first that they were playing it again and I also can't believe that it hasn't been played out yet.  But it hasn't been by a long shot.  Perhaps here Bobby first showed signs of being tired, and he didn't elevate this vocally like he can (on one chorus he sang, "Don't worry about me now, I ain't getting old").  But the firm of Mayer-Burbridge-Chimenti did the deep dive into this song and the team of Kreutzmann-Hart was right there with them.  This was excellent stuff and again featured great harmonies between Oteil and John.  Really, this may have been the song of the night ... just ridiculously good stuff.
• Then those guys were done being fantastic ... for the moment ... and so Bobby started up He's Gone, singing the "Rat in a drain ditch" verse in his best 2010's, raspy style, and then John and Oteil and Donna and Jeff coming in on the chorus.  This is one of those songs that means a lot to everyone who's paying attention, "Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile."
• Wait, why would they do Sugaree now when they had their mojo working and could go into like, TOO (just a suggestion)?  Maybe because it's another of the most excellent things Garcia ever wrote and was done as well as Deal, wonderful!  Played a lot and a bit of a sing-song for the masses here, but good.  Again, maybe another sign of being a bit tired.
• And then another incongruous thing, Bobby and Oteil were suddenly right in the middle of Fire on the Mountain.  Odd place in the setlist for this, but maybe they were playing songs they knew they could kill.  And they did kill this, very plus version, especially Oteil floating above everything and John and Jeff (and Bob of course) hammering the melody.  Or maybe they were doing songs they'd practiced with Donna.
• Drums/Space - This interlude is evolving and hopefully won't evolve *into* anything, just become more itself.  In some ways, this is becoming the highlight of the night.
• And then a majestic descent into Days Between.  From their accounts, this seems to be one of the most meaningful songs in their quiver to the original members.  To me, this was one of the best versions I've ever heard because of the great timing from the band-leader, the pitch-perfect passages between verses, and ethereal piano from Jeff.
• Not Fade Away - Got to please the crowd and this song is one of the most epic sing-alongs ever, thanks and RIP Buddy Holly!  To see Bobby and Donna belting this out was beyond description.  This was a very perfect version.

The crowd was clapping of course, and everything was wonderful.  I looked around at Fenway and was feeling very good,  Then the guys came back out for the encore.  I don't know if I've ever seen Saturday Night, though it's one of the most classic songs ever and I've been there many a Saturday,  Anyway, guess what they played for an encore?

One More Saturday Night - No overt politicizing here, just the rock and roll of the ages, including a totally satisfactory Donna scream!

[Sarah's pix from Saturday]

Far be it from me to be analytical (if you've read this far, that's a joke).  I feel these were two of the best nights of the tour.  Friday featured a classic setlist and upbeat playing.  Saturday was tired but endlessly baroque.  Let me conclude my thorough exegesis by saying we were lucky to be there for both nights, in many ways!

Again I have to mention the awesomeness of the setting.  Fenway Park was delightful, and they’d set up a humongous stage, worthy of a stadium rock show, in deepest center field, but extending out to where Fred Lynn would play for a straight-away hitter.  When I turned around to see the whole park, as I often did, the seats were crammed with Deadheads dancing and having fun.  Lights from the stage played over the crowd, the grandstand, and the boxes where Jean Yawkey used to sit primly and watch her team.  And the almost-full moon floated up among the clouds, beyond the Cumberland(!) Farms sign, peeking in and out through cracks in the gathering cover.

I loved seeing the Dead in such a setting in the middle of my city.  I used to live and work in the Fens, 40 years ago!  But I came away from there saying that I may never go see a stadium show again.

Fare Thee Well in Levi’s Stadium last summer and these shows at Fenway were great.  But it wasn’t like going to see a concert, more attending an event.  The field at Fenway is not tilted towards the stage of course, and I had to stand on my tip-toes to see the band, and sometimes just could not see them through the heads in front of me.  Sarah and Dave had a worse time.  I need to see the band play to most appreciate the music … that’s why I go to concerts.  Sure, we were close enough to catch glimpses of interplay between the musicians, and see how Bobby’s gestures set the pace for the band.  But I needed to see more, and could barely see the drummers’ heads, let alone their kits.

And the security was a pain in the butt.  Friday night was ok, but with the packed crowd on Saturday they had set up steel gates around every section and would only let you in if you showed your ticket.  I had to flash mine about 25 times during the course of the evening, and they’d only let you in to section B7 (our section) via a circular path that was just stupid.  They were way past the point of considering the comfort/ease of the concert-goer in their decisions about access, which I hate.

We were meat as far as the concert organizers were concerned, we were not humans attending a concert.  You could say the same line is crossed all the time when dealing with large crowds of people.  I don't think people should stand for this, and I'm calling out the concert organizers as being uncaring about individual concert-goers' experiences.

As we left, we had to bluff our way past a cordon of security people to get to the exit we knew we wanted, otherwise we’d still be smashed into a cramped line in the bowels of Fenway.  No idea what they were thinking there, except maybe it was not wanting that many people on the scaffolding they’d set up over the bullpens, which was shaking while we crossed it!

Next time Dead & Company plays Boston they should do Thursday and Friday night at the Wang Center for the aficionados.  I know I'd be there and would pay a high price (but don't tell them that).  Then they should play the third night at Gillette and charge a low price, and might fill the stadium but I'd watch it from home.  Everyone would be happy!  It would cost them more in overhead to play two sites, but probably not as much as to move to a totally new city, they'd be able to contract for labor to do the package.

Oh well, I may be saying something different next summer, but if you ask me today I’m not going to see a rock show in a stadium again, so there!

So that was it for the Dead at Fenway.  We made it outside after a bathroom stop, and met up with S&M for the long walk back to Beacon Hill.  The crowd was still all around us like a cheap picnic tablecloth, including some motorists who did not want people walking in front of them, though the line of traffic they were in was not going anywhere.  We headed down Boylston and the crowd did not thin out until we were past the Hynes!  Had a nice walk from there and a chance to see Copley Square and some of the lovely architecture in Back Bay on a Saturday night.

Crossed into the Garden and just had to show S&M the Make Way For Ducklings sculpture, then up the Hill past the nicely-lit Massachusetts State House and down to the underground garage, where our car waited to take us home (S&M hitched a ride to Stoneham).  Got home and washed off my feet and legs in the tub before going to bed ... yuck!