Furthur @ Red Rocks - A Brief Review

[jefkahn]

Hey everyone,

I caught the Friday and Saturday shows at Red Rocks. It was my first time seeing Furthur and my first time at Red Rocks. Here is a brief review of my experience.

1. Red Rocks is an awesome venue. Thank you, Colorado, for making it a great trip. Everyone was very cool, including all the RR employees. I saw no hassling (except for a few cops), and the spirit there was excellent. It almost felt like Heads were running the venue, but I think it was just the cool Colorado culture.

2. Great sound, as you would expect. I was in front of the keys 3rd row Friday and about 20th row Saturday. Not too loud, not too quiet. My only complaint was Bobby was a little hard to hear, but Phil was super loud, and I'm down with that.

3. I love the transition the band does between songs. It seems their formula for transitioning is for Phil to start in with the new tempo and rhythm until they all lock in, and then Phil would give directions through the stage monitors alerting the band to when the key change was coming. Once the key change came they were pretty much in the new song.

4. Awesome drummer! Joe is a monster. He was totally into his toms. Jeff's keyboard style didn't quite click with me. Too many blue notes maybe.

5. No stage monitors for Bobby. Was he doing everything in-ear? Also, Friday he played the Pepto guitar (or one that looked a lot like it), and Saturday it was a sunburst strat.

6. I love how the set list seemed to have every possible song as an option. The new songs are catchy and it was great hearing things like Sittin' on Top of the World that GD wouldn't have done during the years I was seeing them ('83-'95).

7. John K - YES, YES, YES!

Anyway, very good time. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Jef

[TheMissingDigit]

Bobby played a black Les Paul on Sunday for a few tunes. Couldn't get a close look at it nor do I remember exactly which tunes he pulled it out for. It was clear at the time, but not so clear today. Funny how that happens.

[Stevo123]

I was also there for all three shows. Three great shows overall. Zero repeats over the weekend and a wide range of material. Also my first time at red rocks, and it's freaking beautiful there. Three crystal clear nights with a mostly full moon. Chapstick was a clutch item to bring, you can get dried out really fast up there, lol.

First two nights I was up about 50 rows, Sunday I was down around 20. Bob's guitar was really quiet, especially the first two night, which was a massive bummer for me. It takes a lot away when you can't hear Bob's licks and his contributions to the direction of the jams. There does seem to be some definite evolution happening with the jams and transitions between songs. Russo is a polyrhythmic machine and I love how he constantly teases different rhythm patterns. It's good that he has the freedom as the sole drummer to do that. They have amazing flexibility as a band. Jeff was great as always. I gotta listen back but I think I do remember hearing one psuedo-train wreck on Friday, lol. John K keeps sounding less and less like jerry to me and he's bringing so much of his own style to everything now. Phil sang way too much, John didn't sing enough. I thought Stella on Saturday was the greatest vocal performance of the weekend.

I couldn't believe how many deadheads I saw on the way. I flew in to denver from atlanta and there were at least 10 other people on my flight that were going out for the shows. Even more on the way back! Our hotel was packed with deadheads too! So we met a lot of cool people throughout the weekend. Overall it was a really great time.

[hogan]

I thought friday's show was about a 50/50 split between good and total cheese. Weir's arrangements of tunes is a real problem. Bob seemed to be having real problems all night. Seemed totally distracted from the task at hand. Adult ADD probably isn't out of the question. He's got what looks like 2 2X12 speaker cabs firing back at the drum riser. Who knows why? It seems recently as though he's fucking w/ things to a point where it amounts to him not sounding any better and he's struggling w/ it on stage for most of the night. He turned on a flanger during Estimated and it was way over the top. For the first time that night you could really hear him and it was obnoxious, almost distracting. What happened to the guy who that could once command a stage or at least not seem surprised by the stage environment?
The back up singers can give a real bad vibe of Grande Ole Oprey to tunes. Too campy, too pussified whatever you want to call it. The monotone droning of the chorus of Casey Jones was about all I could take.
The sound of the musicians that were actually engaged was pretty killer. Phil sounded huge, like good old fashion GD huge. JK sounded good also, but he wavers between JG and Trey tone. Russo and Chimenti are absolute godsends. Chimenti plays so outside sometimes you think this can't possibly work and it always does. Crazy. Russo is basically an animal. Jaw dropping.
Saturday's show was very good. Weir played a sunburst strat and had his head on straight. Audible, engaged and he didn't fuck up momentum at all. These days that's about as much as you can ask for.
It seemed like they took the reins off of Chimenti and JK and the show was better for it. The only cheeseball occurrence of the night was the split of Viola Lee 3 times. I know Phil has been doing that for years, but that doesn't make it any less of a played out gimmick. That said, the playing on sat was incredibly tight and together. Keeping the Help>slip>Franks together is a welcomed move, not everything needs to be fucked with. Saturday's show was like a totally different band from Friday. Front to back it was a thrill.
I don't know how many more times I'm going to extend myself to see these guys again. Hell, after friday I wasn't sure I was going to go saturday. I'm glad If i don't see them again that Sat. was the last time. It felt like a nice high note to go out on.

[Stevo123]

I thought Casey Jones was absolutely horrid, lol. They (purposely) gradually sped up the end as they repeated the chorus over and over again.

Who know's what Bob's deal is, lol. I saw the Allgood show this year (still my favorite this year) and he was absolutely dominating that stage, moving around and pouring out with energy. I did notice that on Friday he was way too quiet for almost all of the show, but then he'd turn on an effect and be louder than he needed to be. I wouldn't be quite so hard on him, his playing was mostly really great, when you could hear him. I like his new song except for the super cheesy rap part talking about one eyed jacks or something lol. Took a listen of some of the songs on the archive of red rocks and it sounds way, way better and more balanced on the recordings than I actually heard at the show, and bob actually seems to sit o.k. in the mix a lot of the time (He had a solo during FOTD that was completely buried, though!). The sound apparently was very different up at the sound booth compared to what I was hearing. Could have been that Phil's bass just carried better than the treble instruments and by row 40 or so it kind of overwhelmed other parts. Seems like a venue like red rocks should be able to do much better sound-wise.

[phpbb]

IMHO most of the sound problem was the winds blowing the stacks, especially on Friday night. Red Rocks is just amazing, but it got even more amazing when you could start buying cans of Colorado Micro brews! Ice Cold Dale's Pale Ale without having to leave my seat was almost worth the price each beer cost me!

[erock]

IMHO most of the sound problem was the winds blowing the stacks, especially on Friday night. Red Rocks is just amazing, but it got even more amazing when you could start buying cans of Colorado Micro brews! Ice Cold Dale's Pale Ale without having to leave my seat was almost worth the price each beer cost me!

Man I need to move there. Dale's Pale ale is one of my staple beers. If i can't decide, i usually go with that or Bell's Two hearted Ale.


great. now I now what I am doing after work today

[DenverEd]

Friday 6.5
Saturday 9.0

Could not hear Bob at all on Saturday. We were dead center 18th row.

[Stevo123]

Wow, 18th row and you couldn't hear him? Wonder what would cause him to be audible at the tapers section but like nowhere else?

[ugly rumor]

It may not have been different at the sound booth. Sound can be mixed without even hearing it if you have good level meters set at soundcheck, and run direct. The sound that the board hears is almost never what the ears hear.

[jefkahn]

I also think Bob was easier to hear on archive than he was live. His solo on FOTD was actually pretty cool.

But he was definitely lethargic, and he looked sorta worn down. I saw him putting eye drops in his eyes multiple times Saturday. Not sure what was in the drops, lol.