PhilHarmonia, Sunday, December 5, 1999.
"In
explaining the inspiration for the first PhilHarmonia in 1997, Phil said,
'It has been my experience that the feeling generated by communal singing
easily equals anything that an audience receives from passive reception
at a performance'. PhilHarmonia is designed so that everyone who participates
will leave with that feeling and joy that comes from singing together."
(Unbroken
Chain Foundation)
December 8, 1999 - Rolling Rider back at you with the PhilHarmonia scoop. Unbelievable to think of this show as the last Phil show of 1999. Wow. What a remarkable year it has been! From April 15 until now, who would have thought what musical adventures would have occurred? So many Friends to join Phil Lesh in his musical quest for the gold ring.
PhilHarmonia, in the ancient tradition of holiday sing alongs, was the perfect end to such an exciting year. Not to mention Phil's cast of friends included the one and only David Crosby, who had not yet played with Phil since Phil's liver transplant. We all waited though, and hoped, and it happened.
The setting at the Marin Vet was mellow and inviting. A small banquet was set up outside the main room for the after party. The crowd tranced out to a hypnotic and meditating performance by Alam for the show opener.
Phil soon came out on stage with most of his guests for the evening and they broke into a Not Fade Away. It was good to see tonight, since Phil really wanted audience participation, that the PA would be turned way down. That way the sound of the audience's voices could be well heard. We did not expect much jamming, but Phil was in the mood, and with the line-up he had put together it was only inevitable there would be some acoustic classics tonight. Derek Trucks subdued slide playing seemed to blend very effortlessly with Phil, Crosby, Grisman,Barraco, and Susan Tedeschi.
The Get Together was a real treat after hearing Phil develop this song during the Fall East Coast Dylan Tour. Then Phil brought in the holiday cheer with a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells. Come on crowd..this is a singalong!! It took a little reminding from our leader of the evening to raise our voices. Next Susan led the group through a beautiful version of Let it Be. It was great to hear Phil on this Beatles's classic. There is just something about Phil's playing when he does any Beatles's material….it's so Phil! Another holiday song to follow, Angels We Have Heard on High.
Then David picked up his guitar again and did the infamous key change tuning, asking his eager compadres to "cool it" a few times while he tuned, wanting to get the perfect pitch for Phil. What followed was yet another historic performance of Laughing; a Crosby/Lesh classic that the two always play together. Hearing Donna Jean on this version made it that much more classic. David really seemed psyched to hear young Trucks turn up the juice where David's partner, Pevar, usually takes off.
David then told the crowd that the next song, Amazing Grace, was sang to him by his wife as they wheeled him into surgery for his own liver transplant. This touching story inspired the crowd to sing along loudly with our fine friends (a little help from the teleprompters didn't hurt!). Then Phil announced we would do the "ultimate" crowd participation song - 12 Days of Christmas. Michael Tilson Thomas led the crowd into a chaotically staged section sing along. Things got a little hairy when the crowd tried to follow Michael's leads through each round at double time! When we finished the song, quite pathetically, Phil quickly declared that that was only for practice and pushed Michael into shape! The second version was good enough for Phil to close the set with.
The stage was then transformed to prepare for the Set Interlude which included Tibetan Monks chanting. Again, the vibe was steeped in trance as we gazed upon the holy monks in their low buzz fixated on the white lights on the black drop. Enlightening, to say the least.
Now the second set began and we were treated to a beautiful rare song of David Crosby's, Music is Love. He told a short story about the song's origin. It was born out of a jam session with Neil Young and some other friends and ended up on his first album, If I Could Only Remember My Name. This was the perfect setting for this song, with Donna hitting the high parts, and David Grisman playing the sweetest mandolin strums, which he did on every song. The creed of this song is especially important now, "Everyone's saying that Music is Love".
Next, Phil led the group for some traditional "rounds" singing. It was Ave Maria, Dona Nobis Pacem, and Hava Nashira. Phil did a great job leading the group and the audience through these rounds, hitting a group over mind when the rounds were sung correctly.
After the rounds, the Unbroken Chain Children's Choir came out and performed Music for the Stars and Oh Christmas Tree. There was also perhaps a small practical joke played on the Choir's conductor as the children sang different words to Oh Christmas Tree? Then Rob Barraco, Lisa Vromen, and David Grisman came out and performed two Herbrew songs, with one sung in Yidish. Susan Tedeschi also joined them on the second song, Light a Candle.
Next, Michael Tilson Thomas came out and told us about how the San Francisco Symphony recently performed with Metallica. This had made him realize that heavy metal was really founded in the roots of Brahms. So he banged out a Metallica version of Brahm's Opus 79 #2. His excellent chops prove why he is the leader of his own Big Band! Then he was joined by Rosalid Barak for the corky song, Grace.
The set wound down now and all of the evening's guests came out for a boisterous Deck the Halls! The grand finale was a solid Box of Rain with the perfect encore - Ripple. What a spectacular evening! Leave it to Phil to bring in the good holiday cheer with such good friends!
Well, Phil really did it. He packed in 4 sold out shows at the Warfield. 3 sold out shows in Denver at the new PHILmore. 1 festival. 1 summer tour. 1 East Coast Fall Tour, and a few randoms in his own back yard! 1999 has been a true Friend year with Phil's renowned glorious life comeback.
As the Millenium draws the century's end, we look back in retrospect to ponder the coming New Year. We look to see Phil again in 2000. Where will we all be? Who will Phil's friends be? What can we expect from Phil and from all of his musical companions?
Stay tuned… "till the tale is told and done".
Until
next time,
Rolling Rider
Unbroken Chain Foundation Presents
PhilHarmonia,
Sunday, December 5, 1999
Phil Lesh
David Crosby
David Grisman
Alam Kahn
Donna Jean (Godchaux) MacKay
Michael Tilson Thomas
Rosalid Barak
Rob Barraco
Derek Trucks
Susan Tedeschi
Lisa Vromen
Unbroken Chain Children's Choir
Thupton Jugney
La Jigme Chunphel
La Jamyang Lama
Alam opener
Set I. - Not Fade Away, Get Together, Jingle Bells, Let It Be, Angels
We Have Heard on High, Laughing, Amazing Grace, 12 Days of Christmas
Set Interlude: Tibetan Monks Chant
Set II. - Music is Love, Ave Maria, Dona Nobis Pacem, Have Nashira, Music for Stars Oh Christmas Tree, Baruca Atam, Light a Candle, Brahm's Opus 79 #2, Grac, Deck the Halls, Box of Rain
Encore:
Ripple