Phil Lesh and Friends Ramble
9/1/12
Grate Room, Terrapin Crossroads, San Rafael, CA

Phil Lesh - bass, vocals
Jon Graboff - pedal steel, acoustic guitar, percussion, vocals
Mark Karan - guitar, vocals
Neal Casal - guitar, vocals
Adam MacDougall - keyboards, vocals
Joe Russo - drums

Set 1:

Like a Rolling Stone (MK) >
Candy Man (NC)
Crazy Fingers (JGr) >
'Til Summer Comes Around (NC)
Long Black Veil (JGr)
Hwy 61 Revisited (MK)
Sugaree (MK, NC)

Set 2:

Ship of Fools (NC)
Cosmic Charlie
Into the Mystic (MK)>
Jam ~~>
Uncle John's Band >
Jam ~~~~>
Space ~~>
Dark Star (PL>MK>NC)~~~~~~~>
Stella Blue (NC)
Help on the Way (JGr) >
Slipknot >
Franklin's Tower (PL)

Donor Rap
Enc: Don't Ease Me In (JGr)

After posting a rant about audience talking on August 31, I feel compelled to follow up with a few words about last night's show.

OMFGoodness! What a GREAT show!

It was strong right from the start, with an energetic Rolling Stone opener, and it just got stronger throughout the evening. On Friday, I felt like the ballads were a little too slow and Neal Casal had some difficulty making the slow tempos work, but not last night! Candy Man, in its traditional arrangement, was strong indeed. The Stella Blue following Dark Star in the second set, was also on the slow side, yet Casal pulled it off in an absolutely stunning rendition!

Joe Russo started Highway 61 with a long driving triplet thing that got louder and louder and LOUDER and LOUDER, building tension until the band came in with an absolutely driven rendition, full of energy, which shook the audience with a frenzy! I was loving him last night, as he knows how to find appropriate tempos for the music and keeps things rock steady, while virtually dancing on his throne. His bumping up the tempo for Franklin's Tower made for one of the best Franklin's I've ever heard.

The Second set opened with Ship of Fools in its current up-tempo arrangement. I remember not liking this new arrangement the last time I heard it (I can't remember which show it was, as they all meld together in my memory). However, on Saturday night, I found myself loving it, as it found a perfect groove to carry the vocals.

Cosmic Charlie was also very energetic right from the intro, and its vocal breaks were sung with great confidence. Into The Mystic was also strong, but it felt like the audience lost a little focus, perhaps due to lack of familiarity with the tune. Uncle John's brought focus back to the audience, and the whole room was dancing hard as the band jammed it out.

Energy was sky high throughout the whole show, and whenever the energy is that strong, it translates into amazing Dark Stars. Last night's Dark Star was one of the most expressive, deeply trancing, episodic, Dark Stars I've ever heard! Please forgive me if my memory is a little hazy, but Dark Star morphed out of the post-Uncle John's jam with an uncharacteristically up tempo beginning jam. Then there were a couple of different episodes which eventually led to the Introduction. Then there was another episode, followed by the first verse, and other episodes, some thick, some sparse. My memory is truly fuzzy about the order of everything, but I do remember at one point it all came down to Phil singing a capella -- at which point you could hear way too many drunk people carrying on loud conversations in the back of the room, so the a capella thing didn't last very long, but it was an incredibly moving moment, all the same.

Adam MacDougall did some crazy shit with his synthesizers and toys! In addition to his strong vocals and guitar playing throughout the night, Mark Karan milked his slow note bends for all they were worth in Dark Star! There were parts where he and Jon Graboff were virtually pulling my ears apart with their slow glissandos -- totally mind blowing! There were so many episodes taking the audience to so many places, my friends and I agreed it was like Dark Star > Dark Star > Dark Star > Dark Star > Dark Star > Dark Star! Very acid-testy! One of the best I've ever heard, period!

As I mentioned before, Stella Blue following Dark Star was stunningly beautiful and expressive. I thought it might be the end of the show at that point, but they started Help on the Way and the energy kept growing and growing until Russo picked up the tempo for the rousing Franklin's closer!

The donor rap started off with Phil talking about seeing so many familiar faces around the room, and about how TXR was meant to be a home away from home, and how good it feels to be here. It was clearly heart felt and the audience was clearly moved by it. Then after the standard equally heart felt shout out to Cody, the band came back on stage to play Don't Ease Me In, which seemed appropriate, as I think many in the audience had dough knees at that very moment ;-) Jon Graboff was a little off kilter in his timing of the beginning of a few verses, but it was still a good performance and an appropriate dancing encore after such a deeply profound show.

Phil is awesome! His somewhat unorthodox bass lines make the bands he plays with have that total Grateful Deady-jammy-psychedelic feel to them. I have heard nobody else who does it even close to as well as Phil. He is like the Miles Davis of jam bands, in that he is not about bass virtuosity, he is about the music. Also like Miles, Phil is a great band leader, and for the last 14 years, he has had a constantly changing band, often with a few younger players who are still learning as they perform. Just like Miles did in the 80's. Hopefully the people playing TXR now will carry on the Phil Lesh style long into the future.

I've heard that the Grate Room will be renovated during the Furthur tour. I hope they will raise the stage a bit, install some terraces (so the people in the back will be able to see the performers and they will be less likely to talk), and install a Meyer Constellation speaker system, like Bob Weir has at TRI. While I'm at it, I hope they will install a short stage in the bar for the same reason -- the people in back will be able to see so they will be less likely to talk. I'd love to get to the point where the band can get slow, soft and/or sparse without losing the audience's attention.

TXR is an incredibly special place. It's not about making money, it's about making music. The free bar shows are a perfect example. There are so many different performers in so many different combinations and they all appear to be thrilled to be in such a special place and play their hearts out because of it! That's why I keep coming back for more.

Joe, thanks for your enthusiastic and thorough review. It fits with my experience - a terrific night. I especially agree about the Rolling stone, Dark Star and Stella Blue.

Good hopes for the Grate Room renovation, especially for a better speaker system.

STELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

stealth tapers: can anyone post a link to this show?

i don't know this "ANYONE" person, but if they post a link to the show please let us know. :-)

hey I'm anyone and here's a link to download (most of) the show


http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=558293


Ramble With Phil Lesh
9/1/12
Terrapin Crossroads, San Rafael, CA

Sonic Studios > Sony D-100 > (48kHz, 16 bits) > Peak 6.20 > 44.1khz > FLAC (XLD, Tagged)


Set I:

Like a Rolling Stone >
Candy Man
Crazy Fingers >
'Til Summer Comes Around
Long Black Veil
Hwy 61 Revisited
Sugaree

Set II:

Ship of Fools
Cosmic Charlie
Into the Mystic >
Uncle John's Band >
Dark Star >
Stella Blue
Help on the Way >
Slipknot! >
Franklin's Tower

Notes:
Thanks to EATB1979 for the recording! Sounds pretty good overall but as with other recordings with this rig there is some distortion on the louder bass parts. Missing Encore - "Don't Ease Me In"

Band:
Phil Lesh - bass, vocals
Jon Graboff - pedal steel, acoustic guitar, percussion, vocals
Mark Karan - guitar, vocals
Neal Casal - guitar, vocals
Adam MacDougall - keyboards, vocals
Joe Russo - drums

^^^ gracias ^^^