Got a good night's sleep in, and we all made it through the chaotic breakfast room unscathed. There were a lot of Deadheads infiltrating the place.
Spent a mellow morning and then went out for an excursion to the Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary, next to Playland Park in Rye. It was very windy on the LI Sound coast, but the visibility was great and it was not too chilly. Parked in the Playland lot and walked into the Sanctuary, where we followed their trails counter-clockwise, onto the shore (where we could see as far as the Throgs Neck Bridge to the West, up to their spooky bamboo grove, past their apiary, and around through March mud and bare trees, past the tidal lagoon separating it from the shore, and back to Playland.
The morning was warming up a little, so we took a left into Playland, around their promenade, and out onto the nearby city pier. It was a nice walk and the deserted Park was entertaining, probably would not be at all though, when crowded with screaming kids. Back to the car and we debated going somewhere for lunch, but ended up going back to the hotel and eating sandwiches I'd brought along in our suite. A game of Parks in the hotel's lounge, while a gaggle of 40-something Deadhead's had a pizza party. A nap somewhere in there, and soon it was time to head back to Port Chester for Saturday's concert.
Had another great meal at Kiosko and, as they'd done the year before, they surprised us with complimentary deserts. It's such a great place! Though my answer to most places that ask, "Would you recommend us...?" is a straight no, I'd recommend Kiosko to anyone. Up to the balcony after that and this time we were pretty far up and on the right side, not too far right though. And on Saturday night not only was it sold out again, this time everybody showed up. Though the chomping was not too bad, the guys in front of us, and many people around us, were more interested in having a good time than in paying attention to the concert. Oh well, we've experienced much worse.
On Saturday the 14th, the left to right lineup was: Holly Bowling and Crosby on keys (Jason alternated on fiddle), Rick Mitarotonda on guitar, Nathan Graham on drums, Helm and Rose on vocals, Lesh on guitar, John Molo on drums, Kanika Moore on vocals, Burbridge on electric bass, and for several songs, John Kadlecik on guitar. Here's the setlist:
- Jam >
- Shakedown Street
- New Speedway Boogie
- Row Jimmy
- Jack Straw
- They Love Each Other
- Tangled Up In Blue
- Mountain Song
- Brokedown Palace
More fantastic stuff, they started with a Jam (and debatably stopped) before going into a mega-funky Shakedown, sung by the very talented Kanika Moore. Another vocal highlight was Row Jimmy, sung by Rose. The girls were again shining, though the male vocals were below average. Crosby actually took the "Shannon" part on Jack Straw, but did not add to the song. Just the opposite for TLEO, which the girls sang the shit out of. JK came on for Tangled Up In Blue and we were really glad to see him back on stage. He did a decent job singing that long and tangled song, and was as good as ever on psychedelic guitar.
But the high point of the set was Mountain Song. Grahame mentioned that he might be playing songs written by his brother, Brian. This song has a long pedigree, but the version they sang was the one Brian contributed to, performed by Furthur without the definite article. AND, the sound of the first set (not to mention the second) was Holly F. Bowling on piano and organ, as augmented excellently by Crosby. Those two seemed to be having as much fun playing keyboards with each other as we did listening to them. Bowling is just jaw-droppingly good.
OMG, halfway through the weekend already! That had been a fantastic first set, and we hunkered down to wait (and time the squirrel) while the crazy, packed crowd seemed to cramp our space more and more. Oh well, I say again. The crowd was late-arriving and the concert had started a bit late, and then that was a really long first set. The break was not bad, and the guys came out and did:
- Jam >
- Unbroken Chain
- Estimated Prophet >
- Eyes Of The World
- Terrapin Station
- Scarlet Begonias >
- Fire On The Mountain
- Days Between
They *had* to play Unbroken Chain at some point, and they did a fine version of it. Dave and I have commented that Grahame and Rick have very similar guitar sounds and play some great stuff together, and on this they really jammed out there, finally bringing it back to the end of the song, on which the female vocalists again shone.
Eyes was sung by Amy (who was really dressed up, with a fluffy hair-do and heels, which she took off at some points) and this was definitely a highlight of the set. Another highlight was Scarlet Fire, with the latter sung by Kanika Moore. We think that Lavon Helm came out and banged on Molo's set for a while, but may be wrong. This was another long, long set with a lot of jamming. And the keyboard playing was simply surreal, with long stretches of Holly just eating everybody's lunch, egged on by Jason, grinning like a banshee. She started Eyes on organ and you knew she was going to move to piano during it, but Jason wasn't about to give it up until she pushed him out of the way.
The band finally calmed down to do a closing ballad, and Oteil stepped up and sang a heartfelt tenor on Days Between. It's such a delight to see him hopping around in his bare feet and to feel that bass beat. He's always one of the most talented people on whatever stage he's on.
Jeez, how late was it? We were already almost past midnight and the show was not yet over. Thankfully, Grahame leapt back out for his donor rap after not too long, though the band was apparently too tired to leap behind him. They gradually came back though, and settled down for a long encore: One More Saturday Night of course, on which Maggie Rose did an excellent duet with Rick, and then The Weight for a closing sing-along.
Whew, that was quite a night! We drank our water and weren't out of there yet, but we finally made it down to the lobby, out to the street, back up the hill to the Kiosko lot, and then drove the few miles back up to Harrison. Had to decompress some, though we were exhausted, and finally made it to bed by 1:30 or so.
No comments:
Post a Comment