Hey Gang,
I got miracled-in to the P&F show last night at 7:15pm, by a friend and fellow DeadHead musician who's wife couldn't make it at the last minute!
I had pretty much written off going to these shows, so I was stoked!
Anyway...
They kicked off with Shakedown, and I became a Jackie Greene fan right away. He looks like a young Bob Dylan crossed with a young Keith Richards, and his vocals and stage mannerisms made me think, this guy is so cool.
I thought he did a very good job on both his lead and harmony vocals. The harmonies were, imho, like 95% very good. Very enjoyable and impressive.
His biggest vocal wail was on the ending of Sugaree. Again, nice job Jackie, and thumbs up all around.
He took some solos's on a Strat and an SG over the couse of the evening. Nothing virtuistic, but cool sounding and inspired playing, along a Freddie King kinda string bending blues-esque thing. I would only encouragingly caution him to "watch the slide playing" (he only used it briefly).
The Drumming and Keyboard-ing was good. Thumbs up from me on both. I don't really know those guys but they were both good players doing a good job of supporting the big picture, musically.
Larry Campbell is a real pro. I live vicariously through him on nights like this, although I am way more Jerry'd out than he is.
Larry played several distinct styles. Many songs they played had a section where they jammed for a while on a know progression (think UJB or Scarlet, jams). Some specific styles that I heard go by over the couse of the night included, Eric Clapton, multiple Allman Brother-isms (Duane-ee slide playing and Dicky Betts type Les Paul guitar playing), BB King, Toy Caldwell (Marshall Tucker Band), with just a tiny bit of Jerry-shtick. Larry also has his own take on soloing, too, which was also just fine by me. Of course in my mind (like literally, "in my mind"), there were alot more Jerry solo's flying around
.
Phil Lesh is a great Bass player!
Pretty much everything he played was surprisingly unpredictable and so "outside-in" that he was just plain kick ass! Just plain great to see the guy, too!
His singing was as good as I've heard him.
A friend "on the inside" of the venue said that what was cool, was that from the board by the stage, he could monitor all the jam instructions Phil was issuing to band silently through the in-ear mons.
"To the Em in 4 bars, Boys" type of thing(s).
The show was sold out and a good time was had by all.
The first set was extremely tight, and I think they hit everything they were going for both musically and vocally.
The 2nd set had a bit more jammy feel. I think they were trying maybe some less polished ideas, but still very well played. No train wrecks. No real musical "cliff jumping" ala The GD either, but some fun musical ideas and interplay all around in what "Space" there was.
I had to wear earplugs after the first few songs, and the 2nd set was pretty loud. A friend asked for the set of plugs I had offered him earlier in the night. But I am an earplug guy at most live music events, so I guess there are many who might of thought is was just fine.
I hope somebody took some film or good pic's because the stage and the room and Phil and the guys with the lighting and all... it just all looked really cool up there!
I was glad I got to see this show!
It was billed as the 40th Anniversary of when the Grateful Dead played there in 1968.
Pete B.

I got miracled-in to the P&F show last night at 7:15pm, by a friend and fellow DeadHead musician who's wife couldn't make it at the last minute!
I had pretty much written off going to these shows, so I was stoked!
Anyway...
They kicked off with Shakedown, and I became a Jackie Greene fan right away. He looks like a young Bob Dylan crossed with a young Keith Richards, and his vocals and stage mannerisms made me think, this guy is so cool.
I thought he did a very good job on both his lead and harmony vocals. The harmonies were, imho, like 95% very good. Very enjoyable and impressive.
His biggest vocal wail was on the ending of Sugaree. Again, nice job Jackie, and thumbs up all around.
He took some solos's on a Strat and an SG over the couse of the evening. Nothing virtuistic, but cool sounding and inspired playing, along a Freddie King kinda string bending blues-esque thing. I would only encouragingly caution him to "watch the slide playing" (he only used it briefly).
The Drumming and Keyboard-ing was good. Thumbs up from me on both. I don't really know those guys but they were both good players doing a good job of supporting the big picture, musically.
Larry Campbell is a real pro. I live vicariously through him on nights like this, although I am way more Jerry'd out than he is.
Larry played several distinct styles. Many songs they played had a section where they jammed for a while on a know progression (think UJB or Scarlet, jams). Some specific styles that I heard go by over the couse of the night included, Eric Clapton, multiple Allman Brother-isms (Duane-ee slide playing and Dicky Betts type Les Paul guitar playing), BB King, Toy Caldwell (Marshall Tucker Band), with just a tiny bit of Jerry-shtick. Larry also has his own take on soloing, too, which was also just fine by me. Of course in my mind (like literally, "in my mind"), there were alot more Jerry solo's flying around
Phil Lesh is a great Bass player!
Pretty much everything he played was surprisingly unpredictable and so "outside-in" that he was just plain kick ass! Just plain great to see the guy, too!
His singing was as good as I've heard him.
A friend "on the inside" of the venue said that what was cool, was that from the board by the stage, he could monitor all the jam instructions Phil was issuing to band silently through the in-ear mons.
"To the Em in 4 bars, Boys" type of thing(s).
The show was sold out and a good time was had by all.
The first set was extremely tight, and I think they hit everything they were going for both musically and vocally.
The 2nd set had a bit more jammy feel. I think they were trying maybe some less polished ideas, but still very well played. No train wrecks. No real musical "cliff jumping" ala The GD either, but some fun musical ideas and interplay all around in what "Space" there was.
I had to wear earplugs after the first few songs, and the 2nd set was pretty loud. A friend asked for the set of plugs I had offered him earlier in the night. But I am an earplug guy at most live music events, so I guess there are many who might of thought is was just fine.
I hope somebody took some film or good pic's because the stage and the room and Phil and the guys with the lighting and all... it just all looked really cool up there!
I was glad I got to see this show!
It was billed as the 40th Anniversary of when the Grateful Dead played there in 1968.
Pete B.
