Back in December two of our favorite Pranksters announced that they were hitting the road as a duo, immediately conjuring comparisons and jokes about the Dead's own Hot Tuna-esque band.
Of course Phil has been saying for years now that he's done with touring, and that seems to be holding true; three cities in two weeks is not what I would call a tour. Either way, my parents and I were thrilled to hear that Phil would not only be coming to Boston for the first time in 5 years, but that the duo would be playing at the Wang Theater. I had only been to the Wang once before for Furthur in 2012, so it seemed fitting to see these two there again. Getting tickets was a bit of a hassle to nobody's surprise, but we ended up getting them for both nights anyway, and the hype just built and built in the last few months.
All six shows were/are (Chicago shows starting tonight at the time I'm writing this) being webcast, so we got a little sneak-peak of what to expect when they played at Radio City Music Hall in NYC last weekend. Rumor, speculation, and hopes abounded on the internet leading up to the shows, with the main rumor being that Trey Anastasio would be the guest in NYC, and John Mayer would be the guest in Boston. Trey did indeed show up for the second Radio City performance in the second set, and while most people seemed to love it I thought he detracted a bit from the duo dynamic (more on that later). Either way, we learned from the webcasts that while they were being billed as a duo, they often had Wally Ingram on auxiliary percussion. He did a very good job of keeping the beat without dominating the soundscape like a drum set would, but occasionally left the stage to let the duo shine.
Fast forward to the middle of this week, and the duo arrived in Boston with the second big snow storm of the last week. There was some anxiety about getting in and out of the city, but nothing could kill our excitement. We got dinner with some family friends who were at Fare Thee Well with us, and then made it over to the beautiful theater while it was still just raining. We learned online that Mayer was in California, so the speculation engine really kicked into overdrive as everyone found their seats and got comfortable. I took some shoddy cell phone pictures of the theater that you can find on my twitter page, but I don't think they're good enough to bother bringing them over to here. The curtain was down, so we couldn't even use the stage set-up to base our speculations on....yet. My dad killed some time by wandering around the theater and going up the faaaar upper left of the balcony, this being the location of his seat for his first ever Grateful Dead show on 1973-11-30.
Soon we heard the unmistakable sounds of Phil and Bob at their instruments, warming up and counting off. Just in time the curtains opened, lights went down, and cheer rose from the crowd. I'll start with some general observations, and then add some additional notes to the setlist below. First thing some of us noticed was that besides the duo's oriental rugs and amps, there was a smaller rug and amp set-up with what looked like a solitary guitar. We missed a fourth vocal mic between bob and Phil. These were for Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, both of whom I absolutely adore, especially when they play with Phil. They didn't come out until the second set, but I was pretty sure that was Larry's guitar from the start. Larry also had a rack of instruments that we didn't see at first that included a mandolin, a fiddle, an acoustic guitar, and a bouzouki (or something). Bobby had an acoustic for most of the night, but also had two of his most-played electric guitars, his black and gold Fender and his green D'Angelico, the latter of which didn't get played at all until late the second night; we love that guitar, and couldn't believe that he didn't play it more than he did!
The first set, for me at least, was a lot tighter and more exciting than the second set. Part of this maybe came down to a comment Bob made in the second set about the sound on stage: it seemed that that once Larry and Teresa joined, especially when Larry and Bob were both on electrics, the band could not hear itself very well. Ingram's sparse percussion that seemed so perfect with the duo, now struggled to keep everyone on the beat. This renewed and echoed my feelings about Trey's contributions the previous weekend; now it felt a little more like an under-rehearsed Phil & Friends, and the subtle interplay between Phil and Bob was getting lost when everyone was trying to get on the same beat. That being said, there were some truly magical moments in both sets the first night and I had a great time.
Setlist with annotations courtesy of https://twitter.com/Terrapin_Nation ( *Wally Ingram- percussion, ^ Bob Weir Acoustic)
First Set
- Loose Lucy*^
- This immediately shattered one preconception we went in with, that they wouldn't repeat any songs from NYC. While they do have a wide catalog, they must have thought about what songs they like best, and which ones would work best in this format.
- Me & My Uncle^
- When I Paint My Masterpiece^
- I've been looking for one of these for a while, and Bob absolutely killed it.
- Deep Elem Blues^ >
- This got surprising far out. One little look between Bob and Phil and they immediately drifted into exploratory mode. This is exactly what I was looking forward to, only the two of them onstage psychically weaving the song together and creating something entirely new out of an old standard.
- Althea*
- Phil got a small solo here while Bob switched to his electric guitar. As far as Bobby singing Garcia songs goes this wasn't the best, but he gave it a shot. While I love this song and had been hoping they would do it, the sounds that Bobby chose to make with his guitar didn't sit too well with me. It was the combination of his usual slide approach with those piercing, whining sounds he loves to get out of his guitar that put me off: two of my less than favorite Bobby tropes combining. To be fair my dad and many others loved this, but it wasn't my cup of tea.
- Bird Song* >
- This, however was exactly my cup of tea! Like with Deep Elem the two of them were 100% game to leave the reservation and discover new spaces in one of the Dead's more exploratory songs. Wally added some nice beats to this one while still letting the duo dictate the direction and tempo. I also love the way Phil sings this song, especially switching the pronoun from her to him in the vocal reprise after the jam so that it honors Jerry as well as Janis.
- He's Gone*
- This song perfectly exemplified what I think is the most wonderful thing about these performances: the empty space that they left for Jerry. Phil and Bob are playing their parts to the song, and Jerry's part is conspicuously missing, but they can clearly hear it, and their own imaginings of how it goes affected their playing in surprising and magical ways.
This was possibly the longest intermission I've waited through as a Dead show, and the natives were getting restless. We went out for a smoke pretty early on and discovered that the rain had turned into blustering snow flakes and there was already a few inches on the ground. The crowd huddled under the roof of the theater like penguins, and somehow no one seemed to get burned by cigarettes, joints, or dab rigs. We went back inside, took a piss break and returned to our seats, thinking they would be coming back soon...but they didn't. The set break lasted longer than the first set, and even though that gave us plenty of time for drink and bathroom runs, it meant that the show would go even later. While normally not a problem I still had work the next morning, and was starting to worry about when the last train I could catch was...but eventually we heard them tuning up again, and the curtain lifted for the second set.
Second Set w/Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams
- Crazy Fingers^ >
- Right off the bat this song was a little off-kilter, I think suffering the worst of the equipment issues they seemed to be having on stage.
- I was immediately impressed, however, by Larry's approach to being the "lead." He actually spent most of the night laying back and comping while letting Bobby do his rhythm/lead guitar work, and I was so glad about that. Trey really stole the spotlight, if not the show, in NYC, and it was great to have such a masterful musician letting the boys shine through most of the time, and then let loose solo after solo when the music called for it.
- Friend of the Devil^
- Larry was on madolin (edited from fiddle 3/14/18) for this one and it country bliss, while still maintaining a bit of a psychedelic edge.
- Tennessee Jed^
- The Maker^
- This is a song I had never heard before by Daniel Lanois, and apparently the Jerry Garcia Band used to cover it. Bobby and Teresa took this as a duo and it was perhaps the best song of the night. It's a beautiful song that the band took to right away, and the harmonies that the singers found were gorgeous.
- The song's main little riff sounds a bit like a sped-up Mountains of the Moon so I kept expecting that transition, but instead the song kind of wound up, with Bobby stepping to the mic saying, "so much for our seamless segue."
- This was probably a pause for the best, because they seemed to exorcise some of the technical gremlins they had been battling so far in the set. They took this opportunity to joke at us a little and do the "Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" ditty, so that was nice; a little classic banter.
- Cryptical Envelopment^ >
- Long time readers, or recent readers who may follow me elsewhere online, may recall that I am a "That's it for the Other One" fanatic, so the opening notes of this of course got me yelling a little bit, and I may or may not have bruised my dad's arm by punching him (sorry!).
- This song has always been a bit loose tempo-wise, so the disagreements on beat and timing made it a little more authentic, if anything. Phil did a great job singing it as always and Larry got the jam moving at a good pace, laying down sweeping licks while Phil and Bob twisted underneath him, Bob making the transition from acoustic to electric somewhere int he middle. The music reached some truly weird spaces, leading me to think that they would reprise a trick from the last time we saw the Duo, as part of the Core Four at Fare Thee Well doing "Cryptical > Dark Star."
- The Other One >
- Those suspicions were soon laid to rest as Phil and Larry dropped down, and the beat started to pick up. Again, a "real" drummer might have suited this song better, but while Wally's sparseness potentially kept the song from reaching Super Nova Drive levels, it allowed for the guitarists to really intertwine with each other and carve some amazing patterns into the air.
- Phil gave his classic intro run a few tries, and while none of them landed in a whole-band explosion, it at least made up for "Other One"s in the past that were missing the run entirely.
- While this could have been faster, it at least had more energy to it than most Dead & Company versions. I think Larry is just better at spacing out without losing momentum, wheres Mayer can only seem to rock or melt, rarely both together. Having a lead who could go places Bob didn't expect, together with Phil Fucking Lesh, made this one of the most interesting "Other One"s I've seen live.
- Mississippi Half-Step >
- Black Peter
- This was a given, for us, because Bob seems to know that my dad doesn't care for the way he sings this particular song, and therefore plays it just about every time we see him. I don't mind it so much, but it's certainly not his best Garcia song.
- I actually really loved Bobby's wok on the slide guitar on this one, much more tasteful than on Althea earlier.
- Music Never Stopped
- This song suffered the most for the lack of a full drum set, it just felt like slog instead of a rollicking good time. Which is too bad, because I love this song, especially when Phil and Bob are on it together!
- On the bright side, Teresa killed the Donna part on this and had me and everyone else in the theater cheering for more.
- Donor Rap
- E: Touch of Grey
So that's the first night done, let me know what you think in the comments below! I should have the next night up soon, and like I said up top I'm hoping to start cranking posts out again, so keep checking in.
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