Hey phreaks!! Hope you all have a great time tonight. Is Taperrob at the New Year's shows? Will he treat us to the uploads on Live 365?

I sure hope so!!!

Jonathan

Anyone have a good guess as to when Furthur will start playing? Based on the Fox shows and the east coast mini-tour it seems like around 8:30pm.

Hello can't wait for the show tonight my brother Roland is gonna be there and I will be posting the setlist!

Hey Wrat..Come into Live Chat tonight..

Hit this link..pick a Portal Skin log on no password neccessary

http://www.philzone.com/portal

Taperrob might be at the show and in Chat

Yes, TR is our virtual tour guide!

Lessens the sting of not being at the shows.


Thanks Taperrob

Furthur, BGCA, SF, CA 12/30/09 Set 1:

Did it ever really sell out? I was able to pull up tickets every time it was reported to be sold out.

I think I see Uncle Bobo.

thanks TR for the updates!

Bought one at the box office...

Lights camera Action. Jam-here comes sunshine

Furthur, BGCA, SF, CA 12/30/09 Set 1: Jam> Here Comes Sunshine

I'll post as much as I can leaving work now

anyone know who is the backup singers on HCS ?

Sunshine>Bertha

Sick!

Phil bumpin knuckles with Bobby and John...

Sunshine >Bertha
Promised Land

Furthur, BGCA, SF, CA 12/30/09 Set 1: Jam> Here Comes Sunshine> Bertha, Promised Land

Furthur, BGCA, SF, CA 12/30/09 Set 1: Jam> Here Comes Sunshine> Bertha, Promised Land, Mississippi Half-Step

Furthur, BGCA, SF, CA 12/30/09 Set 1: Jam> Here Comes Sunshine> Bertha, Promised Land, Mississippi Half-Step...> Deep Elem Blues

Furthur, BGCA, SF, CA 12/30/09 Set 1: Jam> Here Comes Sunshine> Bertha, Promised Land, Mississippi Half-Step...> Deep Elem Blues, Lost Sailor> Saint Of Circumstance

so everyone is dressed head to toe in black except for JK who is all in white?

okkkkkkayyyyyy

(okay maybe those are faded blue jeans on JK but still....did he not get the memo or something?)

>> so everyone is dressed head to toe in black except for JK who is all in white?

wierd!! I dont get it.

I don't know if there is anything TO GET but wow it looks very odd.

I mean, last performance I saw was the Metropolitan Opera, they are very about the costumes.

I think they didn't tell him on purpose.
Making him stand out but without putting the spotlight on him

Thanx!!!

He is preparing to be sacrificed!

Set 2. Playing

Set 2: Playin' In The Band

Eyes of the world with mr Lesh singin!

Set 2: Playin' In The Band> Eyes Of The World

So I asked my buddy what was going on and all he would say is Wow! and someother choice words

Scarlet b

Scarlet Begonias

Fire on the mtn

Set 2 playin eyes scarlet fire

Fire On The Mountain

King solomons marbles

Unbroken chain

sunshine garica becker on backing vocals? Is that Jerry's youngest??

Unbroken Chain

She's NOT jerry's daughter, no relation

Standing on th moon

Don't know about bobs singin standing on the moon??? I mean who else could or even have the right to? Ian just grateful that there still playing together!

china rider

Set 2 playin
eyes
scarlet fire
kingsolomons
unbrokenchain
sotm
chinacatRider

Set 2 playin
eyes
scarlet fire
kingsolomons
unbrokenchain
sotm
chinacatRider

Encore terrapin

better not...i was just looking at last years 12/30 and thinking how much i regretted missing that simply for the terrapin....

Wow and it looks like a new lighting rig too
I hope that comes back east with them.
Nice shots TR!
The lights on UC are beautiful!
Looks like the faithful got another barn burner
(((((Furthur)))))

Furthur
BGCA, SF, CA 12/30/09

Set 1:
Jam>
Here Comes Sunshine>
Bertha
Promised Land
Mississippi Half-Step...>
Deep Elem Blues
Lost Sailor>
Saint Of Circumstance
Cosmic Charlie

Set 2:
Playin' In The Band>
Eyes Of The World>
Scarlet Begonias>
Fire On The Mountain>
Drumz> King Solomons Marbles
Unbroken Chain>
Standing On The Moon>
China Cat Sunflower>
I Know You Rider

Donor Rap

encore:
Lady With A Fan>
Terrapin Station

Giddy up February!

The compass always points to Terrapin!

the 2nd set list

Back safely from SF and wanted to check out the photos and see what I missed in 1st set which was very good from those I spoke with at set break when I arrived.

Looking at Taperrob's photo of the setlist they called an audible and went with Terrapin Station for the encore instead of The Race Is On. I don't think I've ever heard a Terrapin encore in the last 25 years I've been on the bus and it was kind of a strange ending to the show.

2nd set was fantastic I.M.O. since that is all I saw. Stellar song selection. John K. has stepped up even more guitar presence and vocal wise since the 3 night Fox Theater run which is all I had seen previous to tonight.

Can't wait for the New Years show and hope they tack on another Bay Area show or two or three to the upcoming tour after they finish up in Portland as currently scheduled.

Too bad they can't do the 3 night "rehearsal" run in January at a place like the Warfield or Fox Theater or even Fillmore where us fans would have at least a possible chance of getting tickets instead of the lucky 200 folks who seem to get the word from insiders to be online at the right time just to get a ticket for the recent and upcoming Marin shows.

Happy New Year and see ya all tommorrow night at the good ole Bill Graham Civic.

Steve

were the girls out there for every song? who are they? setlist looks great. the December Hammer/ Asbury shows were so good im not sure why they felt the need to add backup singers.

I arrived in the Civic Center (the park, not the building) just before showtime. Got a ticket at the box office, $50. Tonight never sold out. Still, lots of hopeful people with their finger in the air. I think they were drying out their fingers, or maybe testing the temperature. Whatever, not sure why people think they need to walk around like that when it's not sold out. I guess they all think they'll get miracled. In times like these, not everyone can afford $50.

Anyhoo, first set opened with a nice lilting jam, kind of a bump-along mid-tempo head-nodding warm up into HC Sunshine. Then the music kind of relaxed and took its time to develop, but it just didnt' grab me. It took me a while to warm up to this show, toward end of Sailor, near the end of the set.

But then Set 2, wow! Over an hour of awesome Dead music, through Unbroken Chain. In the Zone, x-factor, liftoff. King Solomon's Marbles, a difficult piece to play, many twists and turns, strange time signatures, key changes, the works. But they pulled it off, I knew they could, I'm so proud of them!

Then Bobby singing Standing on the Moon (full moon tonight). Just doesn't work for me. But I never did get into the late-Jerry tunes in the first place.

China Cat finally had the old-skool heads movin' and groovin'. It never fails to please. What fun it was to hear Bobby play that familiar intro.

Big Fun tonight, don't need to see New Year's. I'll pop open a bottle with the wife and go to bed early. Jeez, am I old or what?

sratched the race is on?

What time did show start last night? Were there any openers?

What a rippin' show last night. JK just blew it away. All that talk of him holding back doesn't apply anymore. The guy just wailed!!!!

I went in not knowing what to expect and left just absolutely blown away by this band. WOW!

This show was OUTSTANDING - far, far superior to the AP shows. Standing on the Moon was very moving. I agree completely with Jaybee's comment on JK. If he was being held back before, he's been cut loose now. The back-up vocalists are a great addition.

Phil was FANTASTIC :-)

In regard to selling out - it didn't, but the floor was packed to the gills and the only seats left were bad seats way off to the side where you could have gotten a good view of Phil's right or left ear.

>> all he would say is Wow! <<

pretty much all I was saying throughout the show too, fuckin' WOW!

Show started pretty much right on time at 7:30 (no opener). First set went to about 8:50, with second set starting at 9:30. Set ended around 11:10 with Terrapin over around 11:35. Floor was absolutely packed, but seats upstairs to the side provide great sound and an interesting vantage point of everyone. The Civic pretty much doesn't have a bad seat in the house. I also agree that there's no way John is being "held back"; he led the way the great majority of the evening. What a breath of fresh air he is over Warren!

IMHO first set was just a sound check for a thoroughly engaging second set.

The Sailor > Saint was pretty decent but the Cosmic Charlie set ender seemed like a dud to my ears outside of the driving slide guitar ramp up.

Set two, with the exception of a dismally delivered (by Bob) SotM was Electric Chamber music of the highest order. That had to be the longest, most jammed out Unbroken Chain on record. I think it was at least 20 minutes?

FURHUR? In(freakin')deed....

After the set break and that unfortunate Standing it was ALL extremely interesting, trippy, highly engaging trippy stuff and the Encore was killer.

Just my .02

Grateful Ted

Did I mention it was trippy?

> That had to be the longest, most jammed out Unbroken Chain on record. I think it was at least 20 minutes?


AGREED.
That has to have been the best performance of Unbroken Chain of all time. I am still dragging my jaw along the floor.

Lots of good comments so far.

To my ears, the first set was nothing special. I did dig the electric Deep Elem Blues...its been a while.

The second set started with the muscular Playin' with excellent jams and movement, going right into the nice Eyes and a great Scarlet>Fire. Joe and Jay had some nice interplay starting into KSM, which was so tight, not Grateful Dead, but Phil and Friends. UBC was off the charts with the final solo by JK screaming. No question that JK was in and above the mix last night. SotM by Bobby didn't work for me. China>Rider was nice, but signaled the end of the mindmelt. Rider had no JK vocals and didn't feel right...Northbound Train's gotta come from someone other than Bob. The audible for the Terrapin encore was beautifully played with Phil dropping big bombs finally. It should have gone back into Playin' IMHO, but I didn't write the set list.

In all, I was impressed by how rehearsed the band sounded. In particular, JK and BW had the vocals nailed and they looked really comfortable together. I think this familiarity really helped Bob to be Bob, sounding his best in years. John was not buried in the mix or shy in any way. He had several tremendous leads, notably in Scarlet, UBC and Terrapin.

This is a band that will be able to do big arenas and festivals for the next year or two. There appears to be some good personal chemistry, and in particular, Phil seems to be having a ball!

Great show last night. Best of all the Cali shows so far imo.

They started at 740pm,awesome f$%^&ing show!

Back in the 80's/90's there was some magical thinking in the lots regarding the playing of the unbroken chain.

So, I thought I would check out the annotated dbase, here:
http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/chain.html#cha in

a snippit:
"The laying on of hands was, since pre-Christian times, a symbolic act of the granting or passing of authority. Monarchs, priests and teachers of the ancient worl(d)s used the gesture to show publicly and ritually that they acknowledged their successor, adept or pupil. The laying on of hands in Baptism, confirmation, ordination and consecration was a natural public gesture of affirmation of a person's place in the church and in the church hierarchy."

Welcom JK Indeed!!!

And, this too:
"As with many owls, especially the smaller species, the Saw-whet Owl is capable of producing remardably ventriloquistic effects. The authors have actually watched one of these interesting little owls calling from a branch about 20 feet in front of us and yet both of us were utterly convinced for a time that another owl was calling, first from behind us, then off to the left, and finally from far ahead of us past the owl we were watching. It was only through associating the sounds we were hearing with the movements of the bird's beak as it sang that we were able to convince ourselves that the bird we were watching was the one who was doing all the singing."

I read this and think of JK's singing.

LOVE YOUR BROTHER, MAN.

Shakedown opener and a fat Help>Slip>Franklin's tonight..?

Last night was a mixed bag. Started a bit rough with HCS (Not a favorite and JKs first solo was pretty bad), but it led into a pretty hot Bertha. Rest of the set was pretty blah, IMHO. Nothing to really grab onto. Bobby's voice was pretty shot all night. Basically the worst I have ever heard him sing. Lost Sailor was pretty bad with St. of Circumstance being a bit better. Cosmic was the weakest one I have ever heard. The one from the Fox was way better and any Phil and Friends version is better.

Set 2 started with a pretty good Playing. Bobby fucked up the first line, but the vocals were a bit better once he remembered the words. Pretty hot jam into Eyes. Phil singing Eyes ruins it for me, but Jeff took a good solo and John a good one after that. Next came the best part of the show- Scarlet and Fire. John owned these tunes, sang them both quite well (his vocals were a hightlight of the night, especially compared to Bob and Phil). Marbles was pretty hot. Much hotter than the Fox, but still not the version with Herring on it. The UBC. What a waste this song has become. Phil can't sing for shit even on his tunes and I don't think John even knows this song. He missed time changes, chord changes and couldn't solo for shit until the "easy" part at the end, which did sound nice. They either need to practice this one more or just give it a rest or bring Larry Campbell back to show everyone how this one is done. Then the biggest laid egg of the night. SOTM. So bad we were laughing. Bob fucking up the lyrics even in front of him, barely singing it anyway. Did I mention how bad his singing was last night. If they are going to play a mediocre Jerry song, why not at least let John sing it the way it was written? Must kill him to hear Bob butcher this one. At least it wasn't Days Between, one of their worst later songs. Kind of in a funk with 2 duds in a row, but China Cat brought us out of that in a big way. Huge jam into IKYR with 8k folks singing along. Nice way to end the set. I was fearing a Box encore, but they played a kind of slow, but very sweet and well played (and long) Terrapin. Nice John vocals and even Bobby woke up for his part at the end. Very good jamming at the end and big finish.

I know this review is a bit negative, but I feel I need to counter the "best show ever" reviews with some reality. This band has major flaws and question marks like who is in charge? and can Bobby still sing? This being said, there were some very good moments. The good stuff was really good and the bad stuff was pretty bad. Besides a few rough solos from John, he played very well. Mixing it up from sounding just like Jerry to just being influenced by Jerry, if that makes sense. Phil and Bobby's playing was top notch and if they didn't sing, the whole experience would be better. The backup singers were just that, back up and did a good job at that. I still got a normal concert length - 2 hours or so - of good music out of the 3+ hours they played, so I feel I got my money's worth for sure. Also had a blast with about 15 good friends partying, dancing and laughing. Not going tonight and I think tonight will be better. If Bobby is a bit more awake it can be a great show. I'm not going, so have a great time tonight.

Show grade- Solid B.

> The good stuff was really good and the bad stuff was pretty bad.

Sounds like Good Ol' Grateful Dead to me!

>That has to have been the best performance of Unbroken Chain of all time. I am still dragging my jaw along the floor

Really? I thought it was the worst version I had every heard. JK doesn't really know how to play this song. He was shaking his head and missing cues throughout. Funny how folks hear things differently.

LOL, same as it ever was. What do you get when you put two Dead Heads in a room after a concert? Opposite opinions.

that or a new baby 9months later.

YMMV.

Highlites:
Pomised Land, Entire 2nd set (save SOTM), Terrapin Encore

Face it, If The Grateful Dead would have ever played last nights show with me in attendance, I would have vaporized on the spot.

This band has clearly raised the bar.
Funny how our expectations so easily follow.

I thought it was a so so show.

The mix was off during most of the first set. The band sounded out of sync for a lot of the set as well. it was as if John was playing well, but the rest of the band was not there with him. It sounded like a mismatch.

I think there needs to be more low end presence from the percussionists. Their sound is very metallic (lots of cymbals and tambourines). Phil was low in the mix for a lot of the first set, so that made that whole aspect of things worse.

John's solo on promised land was quite good though, and Lost Sailor started to gel a bit.

I have noticed that with john (both in DSO and Furthur) on a multiple night run, he is usually a bit tentative and off the first night. I expect that on NYE he will be much more on top of things.

Set two was much better. The sound balance was greatly improved and the playing was more of an ensemble of interest. As others have mentioned, the jam in the middle of UBC was a bit weird, and in general, the song was not executed with the panache that is needed to make it successful. The jam at the end was confident, but too forceful.. that jam needs to breathe.

I also agree that Bobs singing of SOTM was pretty bad. I am not usually a basher of Bob's singing, but it sucked. I am surprised to see how many people do not like this song in general though. I thought pretty much everyone loved it.

Terrapin was the best song of the night IMHO. It started real strong, and the first jam had john getting creative with his guitar tone (no midi for him during this show though). It did lose a bit of momentum when Bob sang though. I think that one of the issues with Bob singing jerry songs is that he changes the cadence. Aside from the fact that I like ti better the old way, it throws the rest of the band off rhythmically. i could hear them stumbling to accommodate his unexpected vocal inflections.

All in all it was a mixed experience veering toward somewhat disappointing, I have seen them play better though, so I have great hopes for tonight.

Well, us heads have definitely proven that music is a subjective experience!

As I wrote earlier, I totally got off on the show. Sure, it had some moments that were weak and others that were just brilliant. But, that's to be expected with any band who jams. I agree with Gentle Jack above that the drums could use alot more low end to them. That being said, Russo is a super cool drummer and he and Phil were getting off on each other all night.

I went into this show with really no expectations. Saw many, many GD shows and, post Jerry, really only was into the Q while it was happening. What took me by surprise was the sound of these guys. They weren't the Grateful Dead but they were the Grateful Dead, if that makes any sense?! I guess that that means that for me, they captured a sound and vibe that I haven't experienced in a long time.

Much of that probably had to do with JK's tone which was just ripping and very reminiscent of Jerry from the early '70's to my ear but, also had a sound all of it's own. Phil was really strong and he and JK played off each other quite a bit. JC also was great. Bob was lost in the mix for much of the show to my ear but really shined at moments.

Regardless of if it was a "good" show or a "bad" show, it was just a great place to be and a total blast. I haven't been in the BG Civic since New Years '83/'84 and last night captured alot of the vibe that I recall from those times.

More power to these guys. They seem to be onto something.

Oh yes.. I feel that the scarlet>fire deserves an honorable mention also.

>They weren't the Grateful Dead but they were the Grateful Dead, if that makes any sense?! I guess that that means that for me, they captured a sound and vibe that I haven't experienced in a long time.

That's what happened for quite a few of us at Wallingford on 12/11. Furthur nailed IT (second set in particular).

Happy New Year all! To all attending tonight's concert, have a great show!

>>>sratched the race is on?

I noticed that too.

A few random thoughts:

We parked our cabooses with a bunch of old and new friends on blankets about 8 rows from the stage right in front of Phil of course. A little jam led into an acapella opening of "Here Comes Sunshine," which sounded beautifully with back up vocals from Sunshine Garcia & Zoe Ellis; and the lilting chords of this beloved classic from the "Wake of The Flood" album. The girls did the Philharmonia show, the latest rehearsals and are on board for the New Year's run. This transitioned into a rocking "Bertha" with John handling the lead vocals. Following the power packed "Bertha," Phil went around fist pumping the whole band! Clearly they were well rehearsed and pumped up for the night with such an early celebratory gesture! Bobby got into the mix with a spirited "Promised Land," and John & Bobby shared the vocals for "Mississippi Half Step," which roared on the chorus of "across the rio grandioooo, across the lazy river..." Great crowd signing and a smooth transition took us into a funky eclectic version of "Deep Elem Blues," creatively sung by Weir and was great fun. After a lot of tuning which had me coming out of my shoes because I knew it was coming, we got my favorite Weir combo of "Lost Sailor" > "St. of Circumstance," and John absolutely nailed the leads all throughout. "Cosmic Charlie" took us to set break with Bobby & Phil sharing the vocals. The floor got way crowded as it usually does, many wooks trying to scam their way up front. Some wasted wookie dropped a glass Seagram’s bottle and it shattered in front of us, but we told him to exit and thankfully he left...

Set 2 opened with a reliable and spacey "Playing In The Band," > "Eyes of The World." Phil was thumping away on the Eyes with a lot of interaction with Bobby, John, and the drummers and it was really hot! Jay Lane was bouncing up and down like Snoopy on steroids and pounding the crash cymbals with his tambourine, it was hilarious. Jeff Chimenti played some sweet runs on the baby grand piano in the jam too. This led into a "Scarlet Begonias > Fire" so smoking hot and it was the closest thing we could get to the good ol' days. John sang the line "there's nothing wrong with the LOVE that's in her eyes" instead of LOOK that's in her eyes, which I think is the way Robert Hunter always did it. Cool stuff for those who caught it. I could go on and on about how hot this combo was, but you know... They nailed it. The drumming duo of Joe Russo and Ratdog's Jay Lane have been tight and gave us a little drum duet which led into a tight "King Solomon's Marbles," which again was light year's beyond the version from the Fox shows back in September. Rehearsing is a good thing. Although not as tight as the rehearsal Monday night, "Unbroken Chain" was awesome as always and led into "Standing on The Moon," which if there was one low point of the evening, it was the first half of it as Bobby stumbled through the vocal phrasings. The crowd shouted the line "somewhere in San Francisco on a back porch in July," which is always great to hear in the Bay Area, and Bobby really reclaimed ownership of the song by belting out the lines, "I'd rather be with you," a few times and really reaching back and shouting them to the back of the room! As if we were not already drenched in goodness, we got a blazing "China Cat Sunflower," > "I Know You Rider," to end the set. This was one of the evening's highlights as Phil & Bobby shared the line of "I wish I was a headlight on a North bound train..." the first go around, the crowd was singing the line so loudly and Phil & Bobby were singing it quietly, Phil looked up at the crowd and smiled ear to ear and then raised his hands in the air as if to encourage the crowd to keep singing it louder and then they sung it the second time, "I wish I was a headlight on a North bound train," and they took it up a notch and we were all going wild as they continued the song. Phil was looking into the first few rows of the floor and up across the arena just beaming, smiling, and looking around at all the band members, they were clearly having a great night. Completing this killer 2 hour second set, they encore with a monster version of "Terrapin Station." WOW! What a great setlist and show.

Well done and well written...
Always a pleasure to hang with you and the missus...
Have a wonderful 2010!

Thanks Ro, you too!

ROB! AGREED!!!!!

The show the 30th said to me, we can take our show back on the road for a real good time. Bob did sing "our trips will blow all our troubles away..."

Anyway, when I left the show on the 30th I had that x factor feel.