Phil Lesh's Birthday Run, Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2019-03-14

     After a few years of catching Phil at the Capitol Theatre consistently, my parents and I somehow went 2.5 years without trekking down!  Sure we saw Phil and Bob do their duo shows in Boston, but even that was over a year ago now.  So when Phil announced this year's birthday run, we knew we had to go.  This lineup included John Molo on drums, and Grahame Lesh on guitar, both of whom we've seen with Phil.  Also included were two more guitarists who I always wanted to see with Phil, Jackie Greene and John Scofield.  On keyboards was Benmont Tench, a founding member of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, who has never performed with Phil before.  He was the only one I was skeptical about leading up to the shows, but as you'll soon find, my concerns were ill-founded.

     Making it from Boston to Port Chester can be a bit hairy, but we made it down in plenty of time to catch dinner and the opening act.  The first time we came down here there had been a fairly legit Shakedown Street set up down the street, but the last few times it had just been a Shakedown Corner.  This time it was more like 5 people selling some shirts, but maybe we were just early.  The opening act was playing at Garcia's, the bar attached to the Cap, and it was essentially Midnight North with some people I had never heard of.  Grahame did a fair job of playing bass instead of guitar, and Elliot Peck sang as well as ever, but I was too distracted by thoughts of Phil to really get into them.  So I took off, grabbed the poster for this first night, and got up to our seats in the balcony in plenty of time to get into the right headspace.

     Note that this is from memory, and not as in-depth of a review as I would normally post, but I wanted to get this out before the next two nights.  Once I get my hands on the soundboards of these shows I'll revisit them with some more depth, so stay tuned.

                                         

First Set

• Mason's Children (ALL)
• This and Mountains of the Moon are the Phil songs to see these days.  He revived them as soon as he could, and he's been jamming them out ever since.
• Right off the bat I knew that Tench was going to fit in with Phil perfectly.  He had a grand piano, an organ, and what looked like a Rhodes.  He also had some electric keyboard set up, but I didn't see him touch it all night.  He stayed on the organ and the Rhodes for this one, and he wailed on those suckers.  He has a very unique style, especially on the organ, and Phil was beaming.
• This song was mostly led by Tench and Scofield, with Grahame and Jackie providing some heavy backing riffs.
• Mr. Charlie (JG)
• Jackie Greene took the reins with this one, singing and taking most of the leads.  He has a great voice that manages to be high in the register without getting squeaky or strained.  His slide work was also incredible.
• Grahame got one of his few solos in this one.  He an amazing guitarist, but whenever a solo would be nodded his way he would shrug it over to Tench, which I think was pretty classy.  He tours with his dad all the time and gets plenty of time in the spotlight, and I think tonight he was focusing on providing a steady rhythm guitar that would allow the other players to get off the reservation a bit.
• They finished this song up suddenly and Phil furrowed his brow, but then Molo and Grahame led them into the usual ending riff and Phil pointed at his drummer and laughed.
• Bird Song (PL)
• Looking back, this was the sign that tonight was going to be full of wild improvisation.  If Phil puts a jam vehicle like Bird Song this early in the first set, you better buckle your seat belts.
• Everyone got a chance to shine in this one.  It didn't have too many blistering leads, but the jam had a wide open atmospheric vibe to it.  Tench got some good piano work in here, but really grabbed my attention with some spooky organ work.
• The band didn't really pick up Phil's cues to go back into the chorus from the jam, but they got on track with him right away after he started singing.
• Move over JRAD, Grandpa Phil is in town!  All night long Greene and Scofield were throwing in jazz teases and classic rock melodies that I couldn't identify at the time, but always fit perfectly in what was being played.
• Scarlet Begonias > (JG)
• One of the drunk idiots behind me did call this one off of just one tuning note, but when I turned around and gave him a thumbs up he had no idea what I was doing.  Go figure.
• Not only was Phil stealing JRAD's teases, he was stealing their tempos too!  This was the fastest song of the night, and it got everyone up and dancing.
• Grahame again passed on a turn at the solo section, but the other three leads all got two rotations at it, each picking up from where the other left off.
• The outro jam didn't feature the usual Scarlet riff as the jumping off point, instead Phil steered them straight into the Unknown Regions.  The jam mellowed down eventually, and instead of jumping into Fire, Phil shifted them into Eyes of the World!
• Eyes Of The World (GL)
• Grahame did a great job singing this one, which makes sense because he grew up watching Jerry sing it from on top of a road case.
• Jackie took the first solo and really sped through it, getting the tempo back up a bit.  Tench took the next one, and had a very different approach.  Where Jackie's had been like a sprint through a field of many wild flowers, Tench instead found one perfect flower and wanted to show it to us in great detail from every angle he could think of.  It was beautiful!  Then Scofield got kind of bored and started shredding, which was also cool, but not quite as...hypnotic.
• After the final verse Phil wound the jam down to a neat finish instead of segueing into something else.  Molo also helped conduct this wind-down; he was really Phil's second all night long, which makes sense since he might the drummer who's played the most with Phil besides Billy and Mickey.
• So Many Roads (JG)
• This one took me by surprise, and I feel so lucky to have caught it.  Jackie sang it with so much soul and heart, one couldn't help but be moved by it.
• Now seems as good of a time to announce the MVP of the show.  And the result is, drum roll please.....Phil! *cheers*  It was a tight race, seeing as how all the players were at their best, but Phil really took the cake.  He had such good balance between ambient rumbling and clean precise notes, and his singing was as good as it gets.  He was so active, present, and excited during the whole show that he really deserves this award.
• US Blues (GL & JG)
• Normally a boring encore, this song works so much better as a first set closer.

     The band left the stage to raucous applause, and even though the lights didn't come on for another 10 minutes, we all knew it was setbreak.  This was the only night of the run that wasn't sold out, and it was a pretty easy going crowd, being a work night and all.  No one got into too much trouble and we all cooled our feet during an average-length intermission.  The security getting in had involved a good amount of patting down and feeling of shoes, but the staff at the Cap are so nice and professional that the only time I saw them scold someone it was a lady filming with the flash on, not the guy with the vape pen immediately next to her.  So everyone was able to elevate their headspace appropriately for the second set, which as we all know is when they bring the dragons out!  Even John Molo blew out a giant vape cloud when he got to his kit!  White Cloud indeed...

Second Set

• Dark Star (v1) > (PL, GL, & JG)
• I told you, dragons!
• In classic Phil style this started as tuning that slowly turned into a jam that led to the opening riff, but as we all know, it's all just Dark Star.
• This is a case where I'm gonna need to relisten to it at least 5 times before I have much more to say about it besides "WOW."  They got to the first verse pretty quickly, trading the lines in the order I indicated above, and as soon as they wrapped those up things got weird fast.  What followed was a series of mini jam episodes where the "leader" role would shift seamlessly back and forth, all while Phil really led the whole thing.  Eventually (this could easily have been 30 minutes, won't know until a tape comes out) the jam ended up in something sounding very familiar, that turned out to be Box of Rain.
• Box of Rain > (PL)
• First of all, shut up while Phil is singing Box of Rain, you animals.
• Second of all, this might have been the best version of this that I've seen, and not just due to its position in this awesome sandwich.  It was a great tempo, Phil sang it perfectly, and the leads in it were off the chain.  And then the leads turned into a jam, and it looked like we were headed back into Dark Star to wrap it up, but Jackie twisted a lick around and it resolved into Wharf Rat!
• Wharf Rat > (JG)
• This was Jackie's bid for MVP of the night, even more emotion than in So Many Roads, and he sang those lyrics with a uniquely personal style.
• I was convinced they were going to continue the sandwich theme and go from "live the life I should" and go > The Other One (v1) > Morning Dew > The Other One (v2) > etc., but alas it was not to be.  Instead they wound up Wharf Rat with some more heavy riffs from Jackie and Grahame.  They didn't jam much between the two final verses, but the jam back into Box of Rain hit some stellar places.
• Box of Rain (PL & GL)
• When Phil led them back into the lyrics my dad and I, and about 100 other people, pumped our fists into the air.  I was levitating at this point in the concert, I just felt so full of love: love for Phil, love for music, and love for everyone in the theatre.  Love will see you through!
• Speaking of the theatre, I can't think of a better place to see a concert.  The sound is so clean wherever you go in the Cap, and the light show had my jaw hanging loose a few times.  It's no precise, techno-organic monster like Phish has, but instead is more focused on trippy displays on the walls with some tastefully choreographed stage lights.
• Tench's organ work kind of stepped on Phil's singing here, but it all still sounded great.
• Grahame backed up his dad for the final verses wonderfully, and they wrapped the song up, leaving the rest of Dark Star as a floating variable for the rest of the weekend.
• Franklin's Tower (GL, JG, & PL)
• After some ass scratching and vaping by the band, they started up this Franklin's at a blistering speed.  They started it with the Slipknot! ending, which is another thing they're "stealing" from JRAD!  I'll admit that as a Help > Slip! freak, I was a bit perturbed by their absence, but I was too busy boogying to really be bothered.  And hey, maybe they'll do Help > Slip!> Fire one of these next nights.
• Phil got the whole band soloing at once at a few points here, keeping the song nice and punchy, the way I like it.
• Uncle John's Band (ALL)
• Both Frank's and this were strangely standalone versions, but I can't complain.
• Phil sounded like he was having some feedback issues with his rig for this one, but he conquered them before the dark jam got going.
• Scofield was really the one in charge for this, and Tench maybe got a bit lost in the 7/4 meter, but Grahame got him back on track while Jackie goaded Scofield into some crazy syncopations.  That Scofield can get so many different noises out of his guitar that it boggles the mind.
• St. Stephen >  (ALL)
• I saw/heard this one coming from a mile away, Phil really tipped his hand with some power chord tuning.
• There was some shakiness in the bridge and coming out of the jam, but once again the band was quick to get back in the saddle and get things moving along.
• The big jam in the middle had Jackie basically menacing Grahame into taking the lead.  He walked right up to him and started soloing in his face, and Grahame happily took the bait and started shredding.  The two of them made such a good pair, and could get some very grungy tones going.
• Let it Grow > (GL)
• This one took me by surprise, and maybe could have used some more rehearsal, but you could make a good argument for Phil just wanting to play it in his own way.
• Jackie and Grahame started it off with some more grunginess that I was sure would turn into a Tom Petty song.  Molo made some scowls during bits of this, which makes me think it was more of a rehearsal issue than a style decision by Phil.
• Either way, the solo section went off without a hitch as Jackie switched his attention back to Scofield.  The jam mellowed down into a meandering, spacey vibe that was reminiscent of Playing in the Band for a bit, before they shifted through the usual chord changes of the song.  They did hit all of the regular changes and the closing riff, but they did it in a very subtle way that once again may have just been down to not rehearsing a tighter version, but whatever.
• The Wheel > (ALL)
• This segued very nicely out of Let it Grow, and I couldn't believe they were still doing open jam songs this late in the set!
• The only hiccup here was going into the first verse, and the rest of it was the classic Phil Wheel: jam it out between every verse, let the momentum take you until Phil says it's time to sing again.
• The song did come to an end, but with only maybe half a second of being done before Phil started them up into the next song, so I'm leaving the "into" sign there.
• I Know You Rider (ALL)
• At first I thought it was GDTRFB, and rolled my eyes because to me that's the classic "boring" show closer, a real "roll credits" song where everyone gets a turn at a solo while their name appears on screen: Starring Phil Lesh as "Dad."
• But once Scofield shifted the chords I realized that it's the better roll credits song!  Once again Phil got the whole band soloing at once at the end, really whipping the exhausted crowd into a final frenzy!  There may have been some tears shed along with all the sweat.
• Donor Rap
• Before Phil came out for his Rap, people started singing Happy Birthday, and I wanted to tell them that his birthday wasn't until tomorrow.  But it was tomorrow!  Phil had played until after midnight on his first night of the run, which is impressive for a newly 79 year old.
• But Phil interrupted them with a story of a man named Chuck who was an organ donor who recently passed, and he encouraged the rest of us to promise to become organ donors ourselves.
• Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad
• Uhh....see my Rider notes.
• In all fairness this isn't a bad song or anything, it's just a bit cliche.  And they rocked it right out, no matter how late it was!

     The band took a bow, the lights came on, and we sat our asses down after all that dancing.  A lot of people had cleared out early because they had to go to work the next morning, but we took our time getting out and walking back to the car.  All in all this was one of the best Phil shows I've seen, maybe one of the best in general.  I can't wait to see what he has in store for us the next two nights!