Phish October 30, 2009 Festival 8 Indio, CA Set 1: Party Time, Chalk Dust Torture, The Moma Dance, NICU, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan, Stash, I Didn’t Know, Poor
On New Year’s Day, when the news that the surviving members of The Dead were reforming for a spring tour I couldn’t have been more excited. Bob Weir and Phil Lesh have hit the road hard over the past few years and I’ve been underwhelmed with their solo projects. Yesterday, The Dead took Manhattan harder than the Muppets did back in the day performing four times at four completely different venues including a spot on The View. I caught the band’s 8PM show at the Gramercy Theatre and I left an hour later thoroughly impressed and excited to see a show or on the tour.
[All photos by Adam Kaufman]
As a varied mix of Deadheads entered the 700 person capacity theater there was a sense of excitement in the air that all of those with golden tickets felt. The venue filled up just before showtime and The Dead – on a tight schedule – came on shortly after ticket time. Warren Haynes started noodling and his bandmates followed along. Unlike in the solo bands, there was no clear leader which was a marvelous thing. Phil picked up on Warren’s riffs and would follow along for a few minutes before asserting himself. Bobby would throw in some weird, choppy chords that added a nice spice to the mix with all of the ingredients lining up for an interesting jam that was more psychedelic than blues.
The jams on this evening were reminiscent of ’73 Dead – one of my favorite periods. Keyboardist Jeff Chimenti channeled Keith Godchaux thanks to a slew of rollicking ragtime licks and quick changes in tempo. Eventually, the jam turned a corner and the band kicked off Playing In The Band. Bob Weir has taken some knocks lately for his singing, but he did a nice job with one of his signature songs. The Dead sounded surprisingly tight for a band that hasn’t started their tour yet.
READ ON for more of Scotty’s thoughts on The Dead…
The parade of those who influenced the Allman Brothers Band and those who have been influenced by the Southern Rock pioneers continues at the newly renovated Beacon Theatre on Manhattan’s
The Allman Brothers Band’s 40th Anniversary Run at the Beacon Theatre continues to be filled with special guests, bustouts and tremendous playing all around. Last night, the parade of epic
The Allman Brothers Band took things to the next level tonight both by themselves and with special guests keyboardist Page McConnell and axemen Buddy Guy and Trey Anastasio at the third show of their 40th Anniversary run at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. ABB guitarists Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes both were up to the task of dueling with their extremely talented guests and the crowd ate up every moment of it.
[Moogis Screenshots]
I’ve been following the run on Moogis so far and tonight was the first show of the run I caught in person. Boy, did I pick the right night to show up at the Beacon. It was clear the Trey and Page rumors I’ve been hearing for weeks were about to come true when I entered the newly renovated theater to see Anastasio’s wooden cabinet set up next to bassist Oteil Burbridge’s rig. As amazing as the Phish member’s sit-ins were, this show would still be my favorite ABB show I’ve seen without a sniff of our boys.
This third show started the same way the first show of the run started off on Monday; Derek and Warren nailed Duane Allman’s beautiful instrumental – Little Martha. The rest of the band shuffled out afterwards and ran through a number of their more bluesy numbers before welcoming Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy to the stage for a nasty cover of Elmore James’ The Sky Is Crying. Trucks was beaming as he dueled with Guy – one of his influences – through a number of call and response segments.
READ ON for the rest of Scotty’s ABB at the Beacon review…
Remember when you’d have to wait weeks to hear your favorite band’s big shows? We’ve all gotten used to hearing audio within 24 hours of a concert ending, but it
