Phil Lesh's Birthday Run, Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY 2019-03-16

     Phil Lesh wrapped up his birthday stand at the Capitol Theatre last night, and he left it all out  on the stage.  After two nights of intense music that went well past midnight, you would think a newly 79 year old would want to take it easy.  But instead, he invited even more Friends to join him, including an opening act, the Sisters of the Strawberry Moon.  In the very little research I did before the show I couldn't really figure out who would be on stage, but while I didn't catch the pianist's name, I can now safely say that the rest of the band is Amy Helm on drums/mandolin, Luther Dickinson on guitar, Grahame Lesh on bass, Allison Russell on banjo/clarinet, and JT Nero on guitar.  Allison and JT are in their own band called the Birds of Chicago, who I've seen and enjoyed at the Green River Festival.  The Sisters were very much just a meshing together of the different musicans' styles, but it worked perfectly.  The harmonies were heavenly, and Luther showed the crowd right away that he was bringing a lot to the table for when he would join Phil later (replacing Scofield).  Jackie Greene joined them on organ for the last song, and the crowd gave them a huge round of applause when they were done.  I don't know their songs enough to provide a setlist, but I highly recommend you check them out if possible.

     They wound up their set at exactly 9, which left us wondering if Phil was still going to play two full sets (he was).  The vibe in there was a lot less edgy and it was a lot less crowded than the previous night, perhaps because all the birthday expectations were gone.  It honestly felt more like a Sunday crowd than anything, and the music that was to follow the short setbreak reinforced that feeling.  My parents and I were in the left balcony this night, towards the center more than Friday, and all of our neighbors were thoroughly enjoyable.  A lot of very spaced out people being their friendliest to each other.  After not too long Phil came out, the lights went down, and we were ready for one more Saturday night (someone should write a song about that).

                                           

First Set

• Deal (JG)
• I'm generally of the opinion that I've seen enough Deals to last a life time, but the energy with which they opened this show was so infectious that I couldn't help but love it.
• It seemed like they were just going to play it in the 80's fashion with the middle solo, the "don't you let that deal go down" refrain, a big solo, then the refrain and the end.  But instead they added another final solo in after the second refrain just to make sure they had covered all the ground the song had available.
• Grahame got to show off his chops early with some very danceable lines; this whole night all in all felt like it was the "& Friends" night, after the Phil-heavy set the night before.  I think Phil wanted to show off how cool all his friends were, even if one of them was his son.  In fact, Phil didn't sing a lead verse until late in the second set.
• Operator (LD)
• I had seen Phil sing this before, so I was a little disappointed when Luther stepped to the mic instead, but he proved himself more than capable.  Well ok, maybe he came in a bar or two early for the first verse and the first solo, but he did it so convincingly that the rest of the band didn't seem to mind.
• Luther had two guitars, which I couldn't say more about other than one was white and sounded very clean, and the other was darker and sounded raunchier.  This was the 4th Phil show I've seen Luther play, and by far the best.  I think he knew he had some big (and weird) shoes to fill over in Scofield's position at stage left.  The band kind of forgot how to end the song and drifted apart, until Luther led the closing riff and everyone cracked up.
• This is one of those Dead songs that you'll probably never hear live unless you see Phil.  So go see Phil.
• High Time (JG)
• This is the kind of stuff I'm talking about when I say this felt like a Sunday show.  This was crystalline perfection, with a beautifully unexpected solo section.  High Time can be so finicky and faltering if not played right, and they got it exactly right.
• This was the only time all weekend when Jackie's personal stylings didn't elevate the song.  I just think there's no better way to sing it than how Jerry did it.
• King Bee (LD)
• Luther is Phil's go-to Blues Boy, typically of the Bobby Blues Boy variety,  but he got some good Pigpen work in this night.  It sounded like he said something about Pig at the start of the song, but it was hard to make out.
• Last time I saw Luther with Phil they did this song, but the two versions are night and day.  Instead of a brighter, peppier blues song like in 2016, this one was more the murky, dark version of the song like Pig used to sing.
• Or at least it was until they started jamming it out.  By the time Luther came back for the final verse it had turned into more of an uptempo shuffle.
• Tennessee Jed (JG)
• A typical Saturday Night Crowd loves to cheer "drink all day and rock all night," but a Secret Sunday Crowd can cheer that and then shut up to listen to the music, which of course is way better.
• Jackie and Luther got their leads in between the verses, but once the unfolding jam at the end started, it was Tench Time.  Benmont's organ work made it sound like he wrote this song with Tom Petty and had been playing it ever since.  Even some of the band looked shocked by it!  With Grahame's help he built a solid foundation for the Jackie to take over, who walked up to Luther to join forces in a charge to the end.
• Brokedown Palace (GL w/ Amy Helm and Allison Russell)
• My dad and I both leaned over as soon as Tennessee Jed ended and said, "Is Amy not coming out with Phil?"  And as if she heard us being impatient, she came out on stage immediately with Allison!
• What followed was one of the most beautiful renditions of Brokedown that I've ever heard.  Allison took Jackie's mic, Amy had her own, and they traded verses with Grahame with seamless fluidity that couldn't have possibly left a dry eye in the house.  And as if their individual parts weren't stunning enough, their harmonies can't be described as anything less than unearthly.
• I just listened to it again and I'm crying, you should be too.
• Sugaree (JG)
• I heard the first note of this and hung my head and said "dammit" to myself.  Why me, why another Sugaree?  Is it because one came on in the car earlier in the day?  Is it because I did something wrong?
• These were my thoughts as I sat down for all of 30 seconds before the music swept be back onto my feet.  "Well if they're going to play it like this...," I thought to myself as I started dancing.
• It's not like they changed up the arrangement or anything, this was just a damn good Sugaree with fiery solos left and right.  Tench actually did take it down into a barroom jazz kind of space during his solo, which definitely grabbed my attention, but the rest of the time it was wailing guitars and thrilled dancers.

      The lights came back on for setbreak, and we knew that Phil was giving us the whole shebang tonight.  Everyone was beaming, even the people mysteriously waiting in line for an empty stall in the bathroom.  I don't know if all the assholes just got too drunk at a parade to make it to the show, but everyone I ran into was happy and pleasant.  It's almost like we all love this music or something, go figure.  We made it back to our seats and prepared ourselves for the final set of the weekend.

Second Set

• Viola Lee Blues > (ALL)
• We had been expecting Caution tonight, and this fooled both my Dad and I into thinking we were right (almost...).
• We definitely weren't disappointed though; who can complain about not getting one Primal song when you're still getting another?
• This one played out about as expected at the start: heavy blues, ricocheting solos, and thundering bass until the next verse.  But instead of building the final jam up into a blistering frenzy of flashing lights and guitar fireworks, Phil pulled the rug out from under everyone's feet and led the band into what could arguably be called Viola > Jam (or even Space) > Viola.  It was totally outside of what I expected from the song, and led into some thick layers of feedback.  I thought this was where the floating Dark Star Reprise would come in, then even thought this was the beginning of Caution (patience...), and then it became what sounded like a completely different song that none of us had ever heard before...but then they sneakily slid back into that Viola groove and finished up the final verse.
• Jack Straw (GL & JG)
• They slipped back into some more feedback ambience, led by Luther.  That boy likes to make his guitar make crazy noises. 
• Jackie and Grahame resolved the discordance into what could have turned into any Allman Bros song, but it revealed itself to be Jack Straw instead.  Grahame took Jerry's parts, and Jackie took Bobby's, both of them singing excellently.
• Like both Phil and Bobby have been doing since at least Furthur, if not earlier, the band took the opportunity to stretch out what had otherwise been two bars between verses into a mini jam, and it really started to feel like it was a hot sunny day in July.  The jam at the end was a little compacted and didn't feature as many hard bass bombs as the typical Dead version, but it was still played at a breakneck pace with a huge ending.
• Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks) > (LD)
• Well it finally happened, and it took a couple of minutes to even realize.  Luther would fan his guitar for a bit and get everyone rumbling, and then it would die down...then he would do it again with slightly chords and it would die down again....and then he did it one more time and I realized that they were the Caution chords and punched my dad in the arm right as Phil started doing that signature Caution riff.
• Sure, it wasn't a total meltdown that resulted in all of us leaving our physical forms behind to explore distant galaxies, but it was pretty damn close.  Luther sang some pretty convincing lines about a gypsy woman and having to go down somewhere, but there wasn't quite enough mojo hand content for this aficionado.
• But then none of that silly shit mattered because the jam was kicking in and Phil was feeding back, and I was running out of room on my face for my grin to spread.  They were a little off kilter for the fanning at the start of the post-mojo jam, but Luther took over and got Jackie playing with him in some tight leads before fading back into the land of feedback and dark shadows.
• Truckin' (JG)
• Phil took a little bit of a lead himself out of the darkness, setting the rest of them up for the revolving intro into Truckin'.  My dad had been saying they would play this and I didn't believe him because I'm a fool.
• Grahame provided some great backing vocals here.  There was so much whispering, pointing, fist bumping, and smiling between these two all weekend long that I wouldn't be surprised if they started their own side band, or at least started playing racquetball on the weekends.
• Truckin' got everyone back on their feet and singing along after the roiling weirdness of Caution.  There were some exciting solos between the verses, but instead of a huge jam with a big finish they closed it out with a funny little vocal ending.
• China Doll (BT)
• The guy next to me had called that they would play this tonight, but he had promised that Amy would sing it.  While I haven't heard her sing it before, I have to say that it couldn't have been any better than this.  I don't think Tench had even sung any harmonies or backups this weekend, but he can apparently sing the ever loving shit out of China Doll.
• They switched the arrangement around a little so that the piano was the lead instrument, and if I hadn't heard Oteil sing the song before I would say that no one alive could ever do it as well as Benmont Tench.  I have a feeling like Phil had planned to go right into Terrapin from there, but the crowd went absolutely nuts once this song ended that the band had to just stand there and clap along.  I think it's safe to say we'll be seeing more of BT playing the with Dead in the future.
• Terrapin Station > (GL & PL)
• The poster for this whole weekend was a giant turtle floating above some bears who were holding its lines so it didn't float away (or a giant turtle being held up by the bears with sticks that was about to fall and crush them, if you ask my dad), so you know they had to do a high-flying Terrapin.
• Grahame and Phil traded verses on this, kind of like it was two generations of "The Storyteller" telling the same story years apart...or maybe I was a little high.
• Grahame played the solo just once through, and he did it nicely.  I was still sure they were going to finish Dark Star, and when they took off into the Starlight Jam it really seemed like that was going to happen.  Phil led them on an extended journey that seemed to have a definite destination in mind, but instead was just the most scenic route back to Terrapin that Phil could think of.
• The crowd screamed "Terrapin!!" at the top of its lungs in the lead up to the final jam, and Phil looked so goddam happy.  The rest of the band didn't go too far off the reservation in the outro, but Phil sure did some interesting leads throughout.
• Morning Dew  (GL, AH, & AR)
• The band held onto the last chord and the crowd cheered over it, but then everyone realized that they were still playing, and the were playing motherfucking Morning Dew.  And not only that, they were rushing out a music stand for Amy and Allison!
• Amy and Allison sang the "question" parts of the song ("I thought I hear/where have all"/etc.) and Grahame sang the answers ("I can't walk you out/there's no need"/etc.), and once again their harmonies were beyond description.  If this Dew doesn't make you cry you're a robot or severely dehydrated, and I feel bad for you either way.
• The band, perhaps overwhelmed by emotion, wasn't perfectly together in the build-up to the middle solo, but got it together immediately and did their best to live up the vocalists' perfection.  The solo and the outro jam were both played masterfully and with all the heart these beautiful people could muster, but those ladies stole the show and all of our hearts.
• Donor Rap (PL)
• Phil seemed really touched and emotional for the Rap, but everyone kept yelling and clapping whenever he got up any momentum, so it was very faltering, took forever, and was impossible to understand.  Let Phil say his piece, cheer when he's done, and give him your organs already.
• In the Midnight Hour > (JG, AH, & AR)
• Everyone had wiped the tears away by now,  and was ready to dance again.  It was about 12:30 when they started this, so it was really the obvious answer for what they should play.
• It wasn't exactly a perfect version, but everyone onstage (and off) was beaming, and they immediately picked up any beats they dropped.
• Turn on Your Lovelight (LD, AH, & AR)
• See comments for Midnight Hour.
• Molo wound up the song with a little drum solo and big group finish.  I realize I didn't say anything about him tonight, but just know that he might be the perfect drummer for Phil.  He's ready for anything, keeps the beat going no matter what, and even challenges the other musicians into playing better.

                                       


     Well damn, what else is there to say?  This show may not have been as technically great or mind bending as Thursday night, but it had more heart in spades.  It might have been the most cathartic concert experience I've ever had.  The whole band was hugging, fist bumping (even Phil!), and congratulating each other before they even had their instruments off.  Official soundboards haven't surfaced (take my money!), and the audience recordings are slowly trickling onto the Archive, so we'll just have to wait to hear it again.