Review: Furthur & Friends

San Francisco, CA – It’s not everyone who celebrates their 70th birthday on stage before thousands of adoring fans, playing vital, at times mind-blowing, rock-and-roll. But then not every 70-year-old is Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, one of the preeminent bass players in rock history, a man embarking on his sixth decade of performing progressive psychedelic rock. Technically the show was held three days before Phil’s actual birthday on the 15th –the Ides of March – but that date fell on a Monday, not as ideal a ‘party night’ for a concert as Friday the 12th. Also, one gets the sense Phil preferred to spend the actual date of his birthday more intimately with his family that he is so famously close to. Bay Area born and bred in the radical city of Berkeley in 1940, Phillip Chapman Lesh was a teenage trumpeter who was naturally inclined towards jazz and avant-garde, which paved the way for his musical explorations when he met equally brilliant lead guitarist Jerry Garcia. Phil donned the bass for the nascent Grateful Dead, anchoring the soundtrack for the groundbreaking Acid Tests held by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters that changed American culture forevermore.

Phil’s birthday concerts actually have a historical precedence; on 3/15/1990, Phil’s 50th birthday, the Grateful Dead performed a stellar show, featuring an amazing jam out of “Terrapin Station.” Besides being Phil’s 70th birthday bash, this show was also a benefit for Haiti, following the recent devastation there after a 7.0 earthquake killed hundreds of thousands and left millions homeless. This show soon became the ‘toughest ticket in town’ with scalpers reportedly asking as much as $400 per ticket; unfortunately, none of that excess money being charged over face value by ‘ticket brokers’ will ever be seen on the streets of Haiti. Still, the concert raised thousands of dollars for the cause.

The show was billed as “Furthur and Friends,” a reference to the latest post-GD band called Furthur, formed in 2009 by Lesh with guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir, also a founding member of the GD (as if you didn’t know). Having Bobby there to celebrate with Phil made it all the more special, along with “Friends” aplenty, as the regular Furthur line-up of Lesh, Weir, Jeff Chimenti on keys, Dark Star Orchestra’s John Kadlicek on (Jerry) vocals and guitar, Jay Lane on percussion and Sunshine Becker (who may be either Jerry Garcia or Ken Kesey’s daughter) and Zoe Ellis both on background vocals was augmented by Phil & Friends veterans Jackie Greene on guitar and vocals, Steve Molitz, keyboardist of jamband Particle and the biggest surprise of all, Chris Robinson, lead singer of the Black Crowes. The appearance of Robinson and Molitz conjured memories of their unforgettable Phil & Friends three-show run in December 2004 in which a multi-part “story” of life, death and rebirth was expressed in an emotionally moving run of performances over the three day weekend. 

To remove all doubt, the acoustic first set announced that Phil’s 70th birthday bash would indeed be a unique show, set apart from the recent three-set New Year’s Eve Furthur show at the very same Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Phil was playing a Ritter bass (an exclusive, innovative instrument) and Jackie Green took up the mandolin, as the set evoked memories of the GD’s ventures into acoustic territory in the early 1970’s, before increasing popularity removed the intimacy. Not that Bill Graham Civic is all that intimate in dimensions, but today’s superior technology results in a far more satisfying acoustic experience. The set opened with one of the most sublime Dead songs, “Ripple” and surely a favorite of Phil’s. Chris Robinson kicked off his contribution to the evening with vocals on the Pigpen-penned rarity “Two Souls in Communion.” The acoustic dynamic allowed Weir to perform yet another Dylan cover, “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” and concluded with another rarity, the soulful “Attics of My Life,” which featured everyone on harmonizing vocals.

Second set saw all the first set participants retake the stage, minus Molitz and swapping Molo for Joe Russo, drummer extraordinaire of The Duo, and founding member of Furthur. The set kicked off with “Scarlet Begonias” as Jerry-sound alike Kadlicek deferred to the more soulful Jackie Greene for lead vocals. After a standard Weir “Minglewood Blues,” the set suddenly perked up, first with another Pigpen turn from the bluesy Robinson, “Easy Wind,” which segued into one of the most underrated of Dead tunes, “New Speedway Boogie,” master lyricist Robert Hunter’s take on the Altamont Speedway Free Concert tragedy in 1969 in which the Hell’s Angels murdered a fan, back when Phil was still a 20-something hippie. At this concert, over 40 years later, minds were melted – especially when it came to the second set peak sandwich of “Viola Lee Blues”>”High Time”>a jam based on the ancient Dead stomper “Caution (Do Not Step on the Tracks)”>verse two of “Viola”>”Hard to Handle” (the classic covered by both Pigpen and Robinson’s Black Crowes in the early 1990’s, when the Crowes first broke onto the scene)>“Viola.” 

Phil dusted off another of his favorite covers, “Like a Rolling Stone,” arguably the greatest rock song of all time, sung by Robinson, as was set closer “Sugaree.” Robinson’s heavy load on lead vocals had some complaining that he was overshadowing Phil, but vocals are the man’s instrument, and besides, Phil was obviously honored having Chris there for his birthday, so naturally he was going to respect Robinson by letting him sing the majority of tunes. 

Set three saw the audience taken about as far away as possible from the gentile sensibilities of the opening acoustic set with a cacophony of sound, light and color with an impressive float parade, balloons, swirling lights and the strains of “Not Fade Away,” perhaps Phil’s favorite Dead cover, sandwiched around a serenade of “Happy Birthday,” sung by all of Phil’s “Friends,” as well as thousands of us in the crowd. And if an entire float parade seems a bit much for one man’s birthday – 70th or not – consider that it was also done in the spirit of the recently completed Mardi Gras and Chinese New Year’s celebrations, both of which have been the centerpiece of Grateful Dead Bay Area concerts back in the proverbial day.

In several ways, the show mirrored the recent Furthur New Year’s Eve celebration at the very same venue – right down to the balloon drop, though there was a more personal vibe in the room for this show compared to the more selfish drunken revelry that typifies New Year’s Eve. After a short break to clean up, the band reemerged for more music, kicking off with the Weir classic “Playing in the Band,” which evoked a sense of 1970’s Dead, a nice contrast from all the 60’s flashbacks, but it wasn’t long before we returned to the glory days with “St. Stephen”>”The Other One” (although written by Weir, “The Other One” has long been associated with Lesh, given the thunderous bass line that churns the song along), segueing perfectly into the uplifting Particle instrumental “Elevator,” which Molitz got a big kick out of leading behind the keys. All the high energy gave way to the sweet and sorrowful Phil classic, “Unbroken Chain,” which proved to be perfect set list placement. The set maintained its mellow for “Comes a Time,” which served Robinson’s old school vocal approach well, before picking up the pace with the little-known, frantic GD song, “Cream Puff War,” accompanied by onstage go-go dancers. The set concluded with another Phil favorite, “Franklin’s Tower” and its transcendent chorus of “Roll away, roll away the dew.”  

Though this was Phil’s big birthday show, he maintained his dedication to espousing his “Donor Rap” before the encore, in which the spotlight was shone on him alone, as he noted how he was only here celebrating his 70th because of the organ donor program that provided him with a liver after he lost his to Hep C (a product of his ‘70’s drinking debauchery), as Phil encouraged everyone in the audience who hadn’t already done so to become an organ donor. The encore was a bit of a surprise, “Johnny B. Goode” with Weir on vocals – perhaps Phil’s tribute to the foundations of rock’n’roll that spawned the complex majesty that the GD would become.

There were some disappointments; no “Dark Star,” no “Terrapin Station,” the two greatest GD songs, both cherished by Phil, but alas, there wasn’t time for everything. 

It also would have been fitting to see other ex-GD members in the house besides Weir; in some cases there were scheduling conflicts, as with Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, on tour with his own band, but Mickey Hart or Bruce Hornsby would have added to the festivities. And while this show won’t rank with the best of the post-GD shows, such as the aforementioned Phil & Friends 2004 December run, or the 12/31/02 final show of The Other Ones, it was still a landmark concert in the overall history of the GD since 1965. Again, Phil was still 69 for this show, so the novelty of seeing an actual 70-year-old rocker will have to wait until the “Furthur Fest” to be held May 28-30, 2010. In the fifteen years since Jerry Garcia’s death, it has been Phil Lesh who has taken over the mantle of ‘most beloved GD member’ (if you’re wondering, Jerry would have been 67 had he been alive for this show), and while Jerry’s spirit and musical legacy permeates nearly everything Lesh does onstage, it truly was Phil’s night to be celebrated as a musical treasure in his own right. The only question remaining: how many more days till his 75th birthday party?