Chad Berndtson

With Furthur having just wrapped its own festival and heading out for plenty of summer fun, here’s an appraisal of the past 15-or-so years of Phil Lesh-anchored bands: some justifiably great, others a real stretch for decency. Marvel at this: player-by-player, there are technically more than 50 alumni for bands called Phil Lesh & Friends, and given the various combinations these artists created for Phil over the years, a constellation of different ensembles and different flavors.

[Photo by Stephen Dorian Miner]

Here’s a look at 15 of them for the memory books, and a few players scraped from the “what if” section of the Dead-addled brain. Feel free to argue. We can take it.

5 Greatest Post-Jerry Phil Lesh Bands

1. The Q (Sept. 2000-Sept. 2003): Some of my fondest music-going memories from the past decade, and definitely – unimpeachably – the most accomplished of the individual Phil bands. What fun they were, and transcendent on their best nights, with those guitar tangles, blazing blues rockers, gooey psychedelics, killer rhythms (Molo – the man!) and gorgeous harmonies. Miss ‘em. Still.

Phil Lesh, Warren Haynes, John Molo, Jimmy Herring & Rob Barraco

2. The Jackie Band (July 2007 – Dec. 2008): A band of twang and finesse, and helpful in that it introduced the talented Jackie Greene to a much wider audience. There were some fine, though not always consistent shows from this crew, and it especially clicked whenever Barry Sless was in the mix, as it freed Larry “The Master” Campbell up to play more things with strings.

Phil Lesh, John Molo, Jackie Greene, Larry Campbell, Steve Molitz, Barry Sless

READ ON for the best and worst Phil-led lineups…

Widespread Panic won’t officially celebrate its silver anniversary til 2011, but you can’t help but appreciate the group’s longevity. Twenty-four years of more-or-less nonstop Panic. Just sort of crept up on us, eh?

As Panic gets set for its first extended run of 2010, it’s about to release Dirty Side Down, the band’s eleventh studio effort and the return of longtime associate John Keane to the producer’s chair.

Having spent a few weeks with it, I feel like it’s among the better Panic albums of the past decade: emotional, propulsive, slightly unrefined and pleasant in its ragged imperfections. There’s a wealth of new material – the shifting tones in opener Saint Ex, for example, are as eclectic as Panic gets — but there are also several Panic live gems, like the furious Jerry Joseph tune North, and vintage cuts Visiting Day and Clinic Cynic, finally making it to the studio. And credit Panic another thing: rather than stumble under the emotional weight of a tribute to fallen comrade Vic Chesnutt, they have here a tasteful, yet heartfelt salute in recording Chesnutt’s tender This Cruel Thing. It does the job, without overreaching.

Hidden Track caught up this month with John “JoJo” Hermann, who was already gracious enough to participate in Hidden Track’s Baseball Preview, to look at what’s ahead. Panic, which kicks off its spring tour this weekend at the Wanee Festival, has another action packed year on tap, following a 2009 that was hardly restful.

HIDDEN TRACK: Before we get into what’s coming up for Panic, I wanted to rewind a bit to your action-packed 2009. The co-bill tour with the Allman Brothers Band is what a lot of people will remember most, and it just seemed like you guys were having so much fun up there every night.

JOJO HERMANN: It was such a great idea. It was a dream tour, it really was. I mean, having Warren and Derek and Jimmy, the three of them up there it was like the Three Tenors, except, I don’t know, the three guitar masters. Getting to sit behind them every night was a really incredible experience. I think we’re going to get to do it again soon, at Wanee.

READ ON for more of Chad’s chat with JoJo Hermann of Widespread Panic…

Drive-By Truckers @ HOB Boston – April 2, 2010

On Saturday morning I was trying to shake the fog from my brain & poke around Drive-By Truckers sites to confirm a setlist. I was greeted on the NineBullets board with the type of exhausted, post-visceral reactions one comes to expect following great shows. “Boston was left a smoldering wreck,” said one. “Awesome, awesome, awesomeness!” read another.

As a paid observer, I’m asked to articulate those types of feelings in a more sophisticated fashion (or something), but really, why overdo it? The Drive-By Truckers were off the fucking chain at Boston’s House of Blues on Friday. They rocked, ripsnorted, ran ragged and swashbuckled their way through two hours, 20 minutes of positively nasty, shaggily soulful rock ‘n’ roll and alt-country. Are they at this moment the country’s best live rock band? Well, leave that to the wags that decide such things. But, hell, they’re in the conversation.

My Truckers affections go back more than a decade at this point, and like many in the Truckers faithful, I agree that the departure of Jason Isbell in 2007 meant the departure of the band’s best songwriter. (Isbell’s own 400 Unit, a more R&B-flavored quartet, is coming on strong and with a bit more seasoning may end up the equal of his former band.) And yet, the Truckers sound like a fully formed unit again, with co-founders Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood as fierce as ever. The Big To-Do, the band’s ninth album, doesn’t have the polish of its predecessor, Brighter Than Creation’s Dark, but there’s strength – a hardiness – in the new songs, too, that makes them more heavy and immediate.

READ ON for more of Chad’s thoughts on the Truckers in Boston…

The Allman Brothers Band @ the United Palace – March 15 and 18

I have a half-written column on the Allman Brothers Band that I’ve kept, sort of knocking around, for a few years now. It’s the one I plan to write when it’s clear the memories have been great but the thrill is gone, and that there’s not really any polish left on the shoe. It’s bound to happen, right? The Allmans, to their credit, seem to be slowly recognizing as much, thanks to scaled-back touring and the de-emphasis – can we just come out and agree there isn’t going to be another album of originals? – on, well, growth.

It hasn’t happened, the column. No matter how gently or artfully I try phrase those thoughts, they still sounds churlish. What other band has given us this much justifiable magic this late into its career, or hell, this late into its third act (or sixth or seventh, depending how you evaluate lineups and general eras)? If this is a band no longer much interested in growth as it is enjoying its twilight in grand fashion, fine. Nothing wrong with that at all, boys. No question you’ve earned it. No question you can still bring the heat.

This year’s March NYC run has felt a little muted, but only from afar. You wouldn’t call it a dearth of buzz and excitement – if you were in the seats for any of the United Palace shows so far, you still heard the roars and felt the radiant energy – but the move uptown, the hangover from last year’s 40th anniversary extravaganza (each show every bit as good as the hype, as those who were there and the Beacon Box will attest), and the decision to cancel the last five nights of the run cast something of a pall. But in two very different shows this week, Monday and Thursday, I found the confirmation I needed: the end is near, but I’d be out of my mind to quit on the Allmans until they say they’re done.

READ ON for more from Chad on the Allmans @ United Palace…

The Allman Brothers Band kicks off its annual NYC residency tonight, and it’s safe to say the vibe’s a little muddled this year. No, we know: it’s going to be the usual insanity & balls-out excitement once the boyos get humming, the guests start arriving, the guitars start wailing & the roof starts raising.

But as if the move to the United Palace hasn’t jarred longtime Beacon goers enough – and it’s jarred the band, plenty, as Butch Trucks told us recently – last week came the news that the band would cancel the final five shows of the run, dialing the total number of shows back to eight and leaving more than a few ticketholders, some with travel plans already booked, shorthanded.

Be that as it all may, that good ol’ “people can you feel it” Allmans vibe still permeates NYC this month, and as always, there are plenty of shows going on around town that, intentionally or not, latch on to that vibe and draw in a few extra concertgoers they might not otherwise.

Pickins are a little slimmer this year on the post-show and official afterparty front, but here’s a selection of NYC-area goings-on during the United Palace run (March 11-20) that should appeal to Allmans fans looking for a little extra mojo.

In chronological order:

1.) Bowlive – tonight, tomorrow and Saturday 3/13

WHERE: Brooklyn Bowl (Williamsburg)

TIME: 9 p.m.

COST: $10-$12.50

Soulive’s 10-night Brooklyn residency, dubbed Bowlive, has been positively raging, and if you were in the house Wednesday night you know that a number of the Brothers showed up to blow it out. There are three more nights starting tonight, with the announced guests, respectively Thursday to Saturday, ?uestlove and Rahzel, Marco Benevento, and DJ Logic, with many more expected. We know the Allmans will bring their A-Game, but if they falter at all at United Palace, their crown for kickass-ing-est NYC March residency goes to Soulive for 2010.

READ ON for eight more shows to fatten your Allmans trip…