For this second show our seats were not all together. We had one seat smack dab in the center of the balcony, and then two seats off to the right in the orchestra section. My dad and I switched seats at set break, with me starting in the balcony and him starting in the orchestra; the balcony seat was streets ahead as far as sight and sound went, but the orchestra had a more intimate feeling, so we got a pretty good balance between the two of us. Once again the curtain was down when we went in, so people were speculating about a change in guests, but soon the duo started tuning and the curtains went up to reveal the same set-up as the previous night.
Setlist with annotations once again courtesy of https://twitter.com/Terrapin_Nation
(*Wally Ingram- percussion, ^Bob- acoustic)
First Set
- Uncle John's Band*^
- Yet again they were showing us that they planned to repeat quite a few songs in this run, this having also been played in NYC the previous weekend.
- Of course no one can complain about hearing this song, and it came from the Dead's early experiments with semi-acoustic music so it fit this template perfectly
- Black-Throated Wind*^
- I thought this one would feel a little empty without a lead guitar doing that classic riff, but this was one of the strongest songs of the set. Bobby just played and sang the hell out of it, the loose format allowing him to add in extra bars where he felt they belonged.
- Cosmic Charlie^
- Bob and Phil bullshitted (bullshat) a bit about when and where they wrote this one, none of which seemed too historically convincing.
- This was a classic song for Furthur to do, so seeing these two performing it again brought a grin to my face.
- Lazy River Road^
- Phil loves this later-day Jerry tune, and while it is a pretty folk song, his singing wasn't as strong as it has been in the past and the song kind of dragged as a result.
- New Minglewood Blues*^
- I was shocked they did this without a lead guitar, but aside from some lyric confusion from Bob they really killed it! Just goes to show that if you play a song for over 50 years you might be able to bust it out at any time and leave audiences wowed.
- Girl From the North Country^
- Definitely a surprise, and a definite casualty of Phil's weaker voice this night, but fun to see them do a cover that I'm not aware of any Dead band doing in the past.
- Box of Rain*^
- Not to belabor the point, but Phil just wasn't singing at his best. Not only did he seem to lack confidence in the strength in his voice but he had a few misplaced verses here and in other songs.
- That being said, they more than made up for it with their playing, stretching the song out in ways that made you think they didn't even need a lead guitar! And it's always such a blessing to see Phil play possibly his best song.
At set break my dad and I met up to smoke and change seats, and we ran into the same guy I run into at every Dead show around Boston! For the life of me I can't remember his name, and I feel kind of bad about that, but we still hugged and shot the shit for a bit. While it wasn't snowing this time it was still cold and windy outside, so we were all huddled together, making it easier for lighters to do their jobs. I met my mom at the orchestra seats down below, and after last night expected to settle in for another long wait for the second set. To our thrilled surprise, though, the lights went down and the curtains went up just a few minutes later!
- Alligator^ >
- This was a definite surprise for us, especially with Larry on mandolin! Phil sang it like he had at Fare Thee Well, but of course the song had a much more bluegrass feel this time around.
- Cassidy^
- This was one of the exploratory highlights of the night, though sometimes Bob would lose Phil and Larry on the changes. Bob has a way of playing this song these days that is very much his own, whereas Phil only plays it occasionally in his own way.
- Larry started off on fiddle for this one, which was a nice little twist to the song; it felt a little bit like the intro song to Firefly. Bobby started on acoustic, but the two of them switched to electric guitar in the middle of the song and things started to amp up.
- Jack Straw
- Furthur was the first post-Jerry band I saw, and as far as I know that was when Jack Straw started to really stretch out. The two of them led the band into corners of the song that normally pass by in a couple of beats, and let Larry explore them with his laid back leads. While he did start to tear the house down at points, he continued the previous night's approach of mostly letting Bobby lead the songs.
- Mountains of the Moon >
- We pretty much knew they would do this one, especially with Larry and Teresa. We were surprised that Teresa didn't sing at all on this one in Boston, but Larry was on his bouzouki as usual, carving delicate and intricate leads in the air.
- Larry teased another song in the middle of one of the jams, and for the life of me I can't place it, so if anyone out there knows what it is please chime in so I don't lose my mind!
- Rosemary >
- Phil led the transition into this, and while we hadn't expected it we picked it out immediately, to the shock of the people around us.
- Mountains of the Moon
- Cumberland Blues^
- While Phil and Larry normally turn this one into a shredding rocker, this performance was more of a rollicking country good time.
- Viola Lee Blues
- We had assumed that "Cumberland" would be the last song of the night, but the huge opening of this proved us pleasantly wrong!
- They performed a stellar version of this when we saw Furthur at the Wang, and the last time we saw them at Fare Thee Well they famously conjured a rainbow above the stadium, so we were excited to see them do it again.
- They really took this one for a walk, going from furious blues to far-out space, making it seem like they were going to segue into a ballad like they had in NYC. Instead they kind of snuck their way back to the final verse.
- Wheel
- They had also done this one last time Furthur came to the Wang, but I had missed that particular show, so this felt almost like a make-up for me. We had also seen Dead & Company play the Boston Garden this past Fall where they did a fantastic "Wheel," but in some ways this one surpassed it.
- Ok, maybe "surpass" is too strong of a word. Phil just likes to really take his time and stretch this song out more than Bob does, and the whole band was following him along the whole time.
- Morning Dew
- To us, this is the most classic Boston song to play. At my Dad's first Grateful Dead shows in 1973 (Dick's Picks 14) they opened the first night and closed the last night with two epic "Dew"s, and once again Furthur played this at the Wang in 2012.
- Larry was on acoustic guitar, so while it wasn't the most barn-burning version, it was replaced thundering power with emotional finesse. While Larry did play some truly inspired leads, he then backed off and let the Duo bring the song to its cathartic climax.
- Donor Rap
- E: It's all Over Now, Baby Blue
- A song I had been hoping to hear ever since listened to my first tape of it. This was a huge surprise (two Dylan songs in one night!), and despite some more lyrical confusion from Bob it was an excellent way to end the Boston run of these Duo shows.
We filtered out into the cold and met up with Dad, then made our way leisurely to the car; no rush for the train in a blizzard tonight! In a way I am still digesting the wonderful music we saw both of these nights. While a lot of Dead performances are dense and miltifaceted, this were so stripped down and bare; but strangely, this leaves even more to think about. When they played as just the Duo then it really let you hear what these two have been building up in their heads for these songs over these 50+ years. While one or the other of them would sing and "lead" the song, it felt like a very egalitarian partnership between the two of them over where the songs were going for the most part. In fact a lot of the time it felt like no one was in charge, and that's the way it's really meant to be; let the music lead, and we'll all follow along.
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