Wednesday Intermezzo: The Dead Play Ball

The surviving original members of the Grateful Dead teamed up with Warren Haynes and Jeff Chimenti last night to treat the crowd at the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball to a tasty set of their greatest hits. The mini-set started off with the apropos Dancin’ In The Streets which The Dead jammed into Uncle John’s Band and then Sugar Magnolia. Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the crowd after the band rocked out Eyes of the World.

The Dead returned after Biden’s speech with The Wheel > Touch of Grey before ending their performance with Box of Rain. President Obama addressed the audience at 11:20 and stayed at the ball with the first lady for four minutes at the sixth of their scheduled 10 stops for the night.

Change is everywhere, except our traditionally stellar link dumps…

• April 21 brings us Tortoise’s first album in nearly five years
• The McLovins made their local television debut on WFSB
• Greg Kot interviews Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchinson
• Railroad Earth returns east with a new batch of original songs
• Howard Wyman of Crawdaddy! explores the close relationship between the mafia and the Music Industry
• Goldmine takes a peek inside guitarist Frank Zappa’s vault

Finally, our pals at Consequence of Sound have just launched their first “Ultimate Raffle” in which they’ll be raffling off a number of awesome prizes, each of which is divided into five separate tiers. By purchasing a raffle ticket, you will be eligible to win a prize from any one of those tiers. Prizes include a pair of Langerado passes, a Bob Dylan box set, an Elvis Costello – Spectacle package and much much more. Head over to CoS for full details.