The Allman Brothers Band and Phil Lesh & Friends: 10/4/2008

This show was a jam-band fan’s dream. The Allmans and Phil Lesh. I was pretty psyched for this one. I made the drive from Asheville to Charlotte with my friend Greg, which took us a little over two hours. We had scored lawn tickets, which was fine. I felt no desire to be up close. Plus, the lawn tickets were only $16.50++, which was very reasonable for two great bands in 2008.

We staked out our little patch of grass at the Verizon Amphiteatre and waited for Phil. He came out and opened with “Cumberland Blues,” which was great. But the band didn’t seem able to sustain the energy for this particular show. There were a few high points, like “Golden Road” and “Cosmic Charlie,” but overall I was left with the impression that this was probably the weakest Phil & Friends show I had seen. It happens. As a musician, I know that you can’t be 100% all the time, and that any number of factors can affect a performance. Still, it was great seeing Phil, as always.

Then came the Allmans, and in comparison, they were stellar. Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes together on guitar were phenomenal. You could tell that they were feeding off of each other’s energy, seamlessly shifting between solos and augmenting and supporting each other like the seasoned veteran musicians they are. And Gregg Allman was in great form, belting out the tunes and making the hairs stand up on the back of the neck. By the time the last note of “Whipping Post” faded, I was completely rocked out.

My friend Greg and I wandered back to the car, only to discover to our dismay that the car would not start. One of the wires had come loose from the battery terminal. I tried not to panic, but the thought of spending the night in a parking lot in Charlotte was, shall we say, less than appealing. Thankfully, a friendly concert goer offered to help. We got the wire reattached, got the car started, and made it home without further incident.

Here are the setlists from the respective acts. Rock on!

Phil Lesh Setlist:

• Cumberland Blues
• Gone Wanderin’
• Rock-n-Roll Blues
• Minglewood Blues
• Row Jimmy
• The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
• Uncle John’s Band
• Dark Star
• So Many Roads
• Dark Star
• In the Midnight Hour

Encore:

• Cosmic Charlie

Allman Brothers Setlist:

• Done Somebody Wrong
• Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’
• The Same Thing
• Gambler’s Roll
• Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More
• Manic Depression
• Come and Go Blues
• Come On in My Kitchen
• Into the Mystic
• Dreams
• Black Hearted Woman
• Southbound

Encore:

• Whipping Post

Grateful Dead: 10/16/1988

This was the last night of a three-night run of Dead shows. The previous night’s show was excellent, and my friends and I all crashed and slept late.

After waking up and having a late breakfast, I convinced Armando and Tim to join me on an excursion to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. Immersing ourselves in surreal artwork seemed like a good way to prepare ourselves for the third Dead show.

The museum was very cool, and we were not the only Deadheads who had the idea of checking out the Dali Museum. There were many tie-dyed freaks wandering around, gazing glassy-eyed at the many artworks that were on display. Two in particular stood out for me. There was a hologram of Alice Cooper wearing a tiara, which was very cool, especially since I am such a big Cooper fan. But without question, it was the massive painting entitled The Hallucinogenic Toreador that was the most captivating. I stood for what seemed like an eternity, getting lost in the psychedelic colors that pulsated on the canvas. Here is a link to an image of the painting to provide a sense of context.

The Hallucinogenic Toreador: Wikipedia

After the museum, we made our way back to the Bayfront Center and hung out with the other intrepid music fans until show time. It was decided amongst us that we would drive back to Miami after the show. I was not too keen on this idea and felt it would be better to spend the night in St. Pete and drive back early in the morning, but Armando was adamant that he had to leave tonight to be in Miami in time for work in the morning, so I acquiesced since he said he would be the designated driver.

This particular evening was Bob Weir’s birthday, and as expected, the show was stellar. Our seats were not as good as the first night in St. Pete, but since the venue was so small, it really didn’t matter. The second set was especially hot, with Phil opening the set with “Box of Rain.” The set also included “Terrapin Station,” one of my favorites, and “Morning Dew” to close, followed by “Quinn the Eskimo” for an encore. If you are at all interested, the full concert is available on YouTube, with actual video from the show and not just pictures.

Anyway, after the show, we skipped hanging out because Armando was eager to get on the road. We were facing a good five-hour drive, which would get us in to Miami close to 4:00 am. Once we were on I-75 southbound, Tim stretched out in the back seat and fell asleep, while I sat up front with Armando and had the important task of keeping the music going. But eventually, the hypnotic lines on the road got the best of me and I leaned my head against the window and slipped into slumber. I was ripped from my sleep by the sound of Tim screaming as the car was bouncing and careening off the road. Everything was a blur as I waited for the inevitable crash, but somehow, Armando miraculously got the car back on the road without us hitting anything. Tim was yelling from the back seat, and Armando was apologizing that he fell asleep. At this point, we were all wide awake with the collective adrenaline rush, but after a while, the rush was replaced by a deeper fatigue brought on by the adrenaline crash. This time, Armando consented to our suggestion that we pull over at a rest area and sleep a bit in the car. We cracked the windows and sank into some much-needed sleep.

When we awoke, we were all groggy, but rested enough to make the remainder of the drive. We rolled in to Miami around 8:00, which wasn’t bad, all things considered. It was a long, strange trip, which could have ended in disaster, but the four winds blew us safely home again.

Here’s the setlist.

Set 1:

• Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
• Never Trust a Woman
• Feel Like a Stranger
• Friend of the Devil
• Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
• To Lay Me Down
• Don’t Ease Me In

Set 2:

• Box of Rain
• Victim or the Crime
• Foolish Heart
• Looks Like Rain
• Terrapin Station
• Drums > Space
• The Wheel
• Gimme Some Lovin’
• All Along the Watchtower
• Morning Dew

Encore:

• Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)

Grateful Dead: 10/15/1988

I had gone to see the Dead the previous evening in Miami, and the morning of Saturday October 15, I got in the car with my friends Armando and Tim and we made the drive up to St. Petersburg for two more shows. The drive was fairly uneventful. We took Alligator Alley across the Everglades and then I-75 north up to St. Pete. The drive was pleasant and uneventful, and we had a steady stream of bootleg tapes that we listened to as we drove.

The drive from Miami to St. Pete was about five hours, so we got there with plenty of time to check in to our hotel and make our way to the Bayfront Center Arena. Once there, we spent some time wandering the parking lot, buys wares from vendors and grabbing some food from the entrepreneurial purveyors of vegetarian food. We also connected with friends from Miami, including my good friend Todd, who was determined to join us inside the arena.

Armando, Tim, and I had some great 7th row seats that we managed to score through the mail order ticket sales. We snuck Todd up there with us and no one seemed to care, so he was able to hang with us for the entire night.

The show was phenomenal! Bob Weir was in exceptional form and it seemed like the band was feeding off his enthusiasm. Add to that the fact that the audience was in a constant state of ecstasy, and it made for a magical evening.

During the second set, the band came out of drums > space and went into “Truckin’” and the energy was tangible. At the end of the song, the band went into an instrumental jam, building in intensity like some cosmic crescendo. At this point, my friend Todd screamed out to the band: “Give it to Bobby!” And sure enough they did, segueing into the Howlin’ Wolf blues classic “Smokestack Lightning,” which would be the only time I would experience the Dead playing this one. It was an amazing show that is etched into my memory.

After the concert, we hung out in the parking lot for a while, until the mental burnout of a road trip and a show took its toll and we headed back to the hotel to crash. But tomorrow would be another show, and it would be Bob Weir’s birthday, so we had high expectations.

Here is the setlist from this night’s performance.

Set 1:

• The Music Never Stopped
• Sugaree
• Blow Away
• Walkin’ Blues
• When Push Comes to Shove
• Queen Jane Approximately
• Tennessee Jed
• Let It Grow

Set 2:

• One More Saturday Night
• Crazy Fingers
• Playing in the Band
• Uncle John’s Band
• Drums > Space
• Truckin’
• Smokestack Lightning
• Stella Blue
• Turn On Your Love Light

Encore:

• U.S. Blues

Grateful Dead: 10/14/1988

This was the first night of a three-night run of shows. I would see the Dead on October 15 and 16 in St. Petersburg, FL, and those nights I remember, but for some strange reason, I have no recollection of this first show in Miami. No idea why that is. Anyway, I can only assume that I hung out with my Deadhead friends and had a real good time. In the morning after the show, I would be heading up to St. Pete with my friends Armando and Tim, and we had a bit of an adventure. More to come on that one. For now, all I have left to share about this show is the setlist. Rock on!

Set 1:

• Touch of Grey
• Minglewood Blues
• Row Jimmy Row
• It’s All Over Now
• Brown-Eyed Women
• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• Bird Song
• Promised Land

Set 2:

• China Cat Sunflower
• I Know You Rider
• Saint of Circumstance
• He’s Gone
• Drums > Space
• Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
• I Need a Miracle
• Dear Mr. Fantasy
• Hey Jude

Encore:

• Black Muddy River

Warren Haynes 25th Christmas Jam – First Night: 12/13/2013

The 25th annual Christmas Jam to benefit Habitat for Humanity was a milestone event, and as such, was extended to two nights and featured an array of amazing musicians. I, of course, had to go both nights.

The first night featured a solid list of headliners:

• Warren Haynes & Ray Sisk
• Gov’t Mule
• Love Canon
• Keb’ Mo’
• John Scofield and the Uberjam Band
• Gregg Allman
• Phil Lesh Quintet
• Widespread Panic

In addition to the headline acts, the show also included the following special guests: Ike Stubblefield, Randall Bramblett, Birdland, Jay Bowman, Ron Holloway, Ron Johnson, Casey Driessen, and Jeff Sipe.

As a die-hard Grateful Dead fan, I was most excited to see Phil Lesh. And while he played a great set, I felt somewhat sad at the end. Basically, whenever Phil sang, he just seemed weary, like the years were finally catching up with him. It did not come as a surprise that he essentially stopped touring after this, only playing an occasional show on the East Coast and basically playing at Terrapin Crossroads, a club he owns in San Raphael. I guess that seeing Phil looking old made me feel old too.

I’m pretty sure that Gregg Allman played a short acoustic set with Warren during this first night, but I could not find a setlist to confirm that.

On to Widespread Panic. They are one of those bands who, like Primus, I feel that I should like, but I really am just not crazy about. And as the clock was nearing 2:00 am, my tolerance for them plummeted real fast. I ended up leaving the show about halfway through their set. I knew I would have another long night of music the next day, so I wasn’t going to wear myself out staying up for a band that I just wasn’t that interested in.

Anyway, here are the setlists that I was able to find online. Check back soon for my memories from the second night.

Setlists:

Warren Haynes & Ray Sisk

• Glory Road

Keb’ Mo’

• France
• More Than One Way Home
• Government Cheese
• Every Morning (with John Scofield)
• Perpetual Blues Machine (with John Scofield)
• Shave Yo’ Legs

Phil Lesh Quintet

• Celebration >
• Playing in the Band >
• China Cat Sunflower >
• I Know You Rider
• Night of 1000 Stars
• Mountains of the Moon >
• St. Stephen >
• The Other One >
• Over the Rainbow >
• The Other One
• Terrapin Station

Widespread Panic

• Disco >
• Papa’s Home (with Count M’Butu) >
• Up All Night
• Worry
• None of Us Are Free
• Surprise Valley >
• Ride Me High (with Randall Bramblett) >
• Drums >
• Surprise Valley
• Expiration Day
• Angels on High (with Warren Haynes and Randall Bramblett)
• Jesus Just Left Chicago (with Warren Haynes)
• Ain’t Life Grand

Gov’t Mule

• World Boss
• Mother Earth
• Opium (with Bill Evans and Ike Stubblefield)
• Scared to Live
• Game Face (with ‘Mountain Jam’ snippet)
• Captured
• Funny Little Tragedy (with ‘Message in a Bottle’ quote) >
• Thorazine Shuffle (reprise)

Grateful Dead: 3/31/1989

While this show is also fuzzy, I remember more about it than I remember from the previous night’s show. We had general admission tickets for this one, so we were on the floor, which always adds to the surreal experience. I can still envision dancing in smoke that was thick as the Mists of Avalon. A thriving mass of movement, swirling and swaying to the free-form flow of the music. And the lights seemed unusually vibrant.

I recall the second set being exceptionally good. Brent kicked it off with a killer version of “Hey Pocky Way,” which was included as part of the “So Many Roads” compilation set. Then we had “Truckin’,” “Terrapin Station,” “Morning Dew,” and “Good Lovin’,” with “Brokedown Palace” for an encore, which in my opinion is a great encore song.

Anyway, it was yet another night on the long strange trip. Here’s the full setlist.

Set 1:

• Hell in a Bucket
• Sugaree
• Minglewood Blues
• Peggy-O
• Me and My Uncle >
• Big River
• Loser
• Victim or the Crime
• Standing on the Moon

Set 2:

• Hey Pocky Way
• Truckin’
• Terrapin Station
• Drums > Space
• I Will Take You Home
• All Along the Watchtower
• Morning Dew
• Good Lovin’

Encore:

• Brokedown Palace

Grateful Dead: 3/30/1989

The two shows in Greensboro are somewhat blurry, but there are snippets I remember. I definitely recall hanging with my friend Nancy, and I’m pretty sure I was with my friends Jon, Julie, and Miriam, although not totally sure about that. What does stand out distinctly is the sheer chaos in the parking lot scene before each show. Way too many people, many of whom had no tickets and were looking for a miracle or just there for the party. This led to problems in a town that did not seem like it was ready to host a psychedelic circus of freaks. There was a news story where an irate resident near the coliseum expressed his dismay at the fact that someone actually squatted and took a crap on his front lawn. It really seemed like the people who were getting on the Dead caravan were losing touch with reality.

I wish I had more to share about this first night, but I don’t. I am including the setlist though, which looks like it was a good show, but again, no way for me to tell. Maybe I should give the show a listen via ETREE.

Set 1:

• Bertha
• Jack Straw
• Row Jimmy
• Blow Away
• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• Bird Song
• The Promised Land

Set 2:

• China Cat Sunflower >
• I Know You Rider
• Looks Like Rain
• He’s Gone
• Drums > Space
• The Other One
• Stella Blue
• Sugar Magnolia

Encore:

• Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

Phil Lesh & Friends: 4/14/2001

Not a whole lot to say about this show, other than it was great. This was the second show of a two-night run at the Sunrise Musical Theatre, and my wife went with me the first night, which was an experience because she was late in her pregnancy. This night, I went without her and hung out with friends, which was fun. I had a lot of Deadhead friends in Florida at the time, and it was like one big party with my peeps. We all danced and sang along until late in the night.

Here’s the setlist. Although they didn’t play a lot of songs, they played a long time. It was just over three hours, if my memory serves me correct. Rock on!

Set 1:

• Jam >
• Comes A Time >
• Eyes of the World >
• Just a Little Light >
• Help on the Way >
• Slipknot! >
• Franklin’s Tower

Set 2:

• The Golden Road >
• Viola Lee Blues >
• Wharf Rat >
• Viola Lee Blues >
• I Know You Rider
• Dark Star >
• Night of 1000 Stars >
• Dark Star

Encore:

• Box of Rain

Phil Lesh & Friends: 4/13/2001

This was my first time seeing Phil Lesh and Friends. As a long-time Grateful Dead fan, I was pretty psyched. The Sunrise Musical Theatre was an intimate venue, so getting to see Phil there promised to be a treat.

This incarnation of the band consisted of:

• Phil Lesh on bass and vocals
• Warren Haynes on guitar and vocals
• Jimmy Herring on guitar
• Rob Barraco on keyboards and vocals
• John Molo on drums

The band was playing two nights, and I of course was planning to attend both shows. My wife though, who was very pregnant at the time, was only up for going this first night. And when I say very pregnant, she was well into her third trimester and looked like she would go into labor at any minute.

We got to the theatre, and someone from either security or management must have seen my wife and become very concerned. From the moment we walked in, there was someone near us, with walkie talkie, making sure that nothing happened to her. We were basically ushered to our seats, if my wife needed to go to the bathroom, someone was right there to clear the way for her, and once, someone down the aisle from us spilled a drink, and a maintenance person with a mop was immediately dispatched to clean it up. It was a little surreal, but we just went with it and enjoyed the VIP treatment.

The first set began with a poetry reading, which was pretty cool. Here is the excerpt that Phil read:

“Invocation to the Sun, the Prologue to The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel” by Nikos Kazantzakis (part 1)

O Sun, great Oriental, my proud mind’s golden cap,
I love to wear you cocked askew, to play and burst
in song throughout our lives, and so rejoice our hearts.
Good is this earth, it suits us! Like the global grape
it hangs, dear God, in the blue air and sways in the gale,
nibbled by all the birds and spirits of the four winds.
Come, let’s start nibbling too, and so refresh our minds!
Between two throbbing temples in the mind’s great wine vats
I tread on the crisp grapes until the wild must boils
and my mind laughs and steams within the upright day.
Has the earth sprouted wings and sails, has my mind swayed
until black-eyed Necessity got drunk and burst in song?
Above me spreads the raging sky, below me swoops
my belly, a white gull that breasts the cooling waves;
my nostrils fill with salty spray, the billows burst
swiftly against my back, rush on, and I rush after.

After the poetic invocation, the music kicked off and the band performed “Celebration,” which the Dead archivists assert was the first time this was ever performed. Pretty cool! The first set also included “The Eleven,” possibly my favorite Grateful Dead song ever. I was ecstatic.

After the first set was over, my wife ran into a friend of hers, who had been up toward the front. This friend kept raving about “The sickness of the jams!” That became our catch-phrase for the evening.

After the break, the band took the stage again for the second set, which was stellar, and loooong. My wife was definitely hitting her limit by the end of the night. She said that while it was great, she was glad she was not going the next night.

I’ve often thought about our unborn child, exposed to that long night of music. I think the sickness of the jams must have penetrated into her being, because she has had a deep love of music her whole life, and has since become a multi-instrumentalist.

Anyway, here is the full setlist. Rock on, and may the sickness of the jams ever plague you! (ha ha)

Set 1:

• Poetry Reading: Part 1
• Celebration >
• Jam >
• The Eleven >
• Space Jam >
• Soulshine >
• Uncle John’s Band >
• Get Together >
• Not Fade Away

Set 2:

• Low Spark Jam >
• China Cat Sunflower >
• Uncle John’s Band Reprise >
• St. Stephen >
• Sugaree >
• St. Stephen >
• I Am The Walrus >
• Taste Like Wine >
• The Wheel >
• Lovin’ Jam >
• The Wheel >
• The Other One >
• Celebration Reprise

Encore:

• Here Comes Sunshine

Grateful Dead: 4/3/1990

This was the third and final night of the run of shows at the Omni. Things get stranger and stranger the more time you spend in the Grateful Dead environment, and while the first two nights proved weird (first night / second night), this day was not without its weirdness.

As was par for the course, we managed to get to the show early and found a spot amid the colorful caravan of freaks in the parking lot. Armando, Tim, and I were hanging out, sitting on the hood of the car, watching the parade of oddities move past. Then this one particularly wild-eyed casualty came up to us. His face looked recently scabbed, like he’d taken a nasty fall and scraped his face on the asphalt. He walked up to us with eyes darting schizophrenically around, like a cartoon character.

“Have you seen the Easter Bunny?”

The three of us were puzzled. Armando pressed him for more information: “The Easter Bunny?”

“Yeaaaaaah. I keep hearing the Easter Bunny. Don’t you hear the Easter Bunny? I hear the Easter Bunny!”

I replied sarcastically, “Oh yeah man, I hear the Easter Bunny too.” I had no idea what this guy was talking about.

Then he excitedly pointed to a car a little ways down the aisle, where a crowd of freaks was standing around an entrepreneur with a tank of nitrous oxide gas, selling balloons full of nitrous. “There’s the Easter Bunny!!” And he stumbled off to join the line of people waiting to buy nitrous gas. We finally figured out that this dude must have thought the balloons looked like Easter Eggs. The guy clearly spent way too much time in Grateful Dead parking lots.

After a while, he came back, balloon in hand and smile on his face. “Easter Bunny.” He proceeded to inhale the gas, and we watched as his eyes rolled back in his head and he muttered incomprehensibly. After a while, he wandered off, and we concluded that the Easter Bunny dude must have blacked out from huffing gas, smashed his face on the ground, and sustained his injuries. I felt sad for him. Another lost soul.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We went in to the concert and ran into some friends of ours from South Florida, which was cool. We all hung out together, danced, and had a great time digging the music. The next day we would make the trek back to Miami.

Here’s the setlist from the show.

Set 1:

• Shakedown Street
• Hell in a Bucket
• Sugaree
• We Can Run But We Can’t Hide
• When I Paint My Masterpiece
• Row Jimmy Row
• Picasso Moon
• Tennessee Jed
• Promised Land

Set 2:

• Estimated Prophet
• Scarlet Begonias
• Crazy Fingers
• Playin’ in the Band
• Drums > Space
• I Will Take You Home
• Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad
• Throwin’ Stones
• Not Fade Away

Encore:

• We Bid You Goodnight