Papadosio with The Werks :: 12.30.11-12.31.11 :: LC Pavilion :: Columbus, OH

Full gallery for two night run below review!

Papadosio by Brian Hockensmith

Papadosio and The Werks combined forces for the New Year to host what would become one of the best local events of the year. The Ohio bands brought it all back home for a two night celebration at the LC Pavilion in downtown Columbus. They would go on to play to a sold out crowd on New Years Eve, making the night only more remarkable. Playing host to fans from all across the state and beyond, what the bands had in store was nothing short of a genuinely crafted live musical experience that came straight from the heart. With their inclusion of live art in the spatial context of their sets, The LC was set up to also host painters, hoopers, and dancers/performers. Reminiscent of both the bands respective festivals, Rootwire and The Werk Out, familiar faces glowed in every corner. Both bands have a strong following of dedicated friends and fans that will relentlessly turn out, thus completing the creative circle of artistic collaboration within the musical landscape. When it comes to The Werks and Papadosio, everyone has something to bring to the table.

Both bands defy genre classification with ease, which in turn makes them noticeably intriguing and mesmerizing to watch. Each band is uniquely comprised of heavy hitters that cover all realms of their crafted sounds. Rob Chafin (drums), Dino Dimitrouleas (bass), Norman Dimitrouleas (keyboards), and Chris Houser shredding the guitar merge their individual and respective strengths to form The Werks, which is truly a product of each of their own eclectic musical influences. At the heart of Papadosio is Anthony Thogmartin (guitar, keys), Mike Healy (drums), Rob McConnell (bass), Billy Brouse (keys), and Sam Brouse (keys). The five talented guys excel with their inspirational artistic means of expression through music.

The Werks by Brian Hockensmith

Friday night brought in opening acts The Polish Ambassador and the on-the-rise Space Panda. The Werks played a high energy set as they threw down Althea for the first time, brought Mike Healy out on drums to jam, and at one point Space Panda on the keys. They were then followed by Papadosio, who took the stage to headline the evening, playing a set to warm the soul with excitement and smiles. As fans began to arrive in town, the first night was a gratifying one with a peaceful edge as friends reunited and anticipated the impending epic-ness to come the next night.

Night two was packed full of energy and new faces. As the start of the event got closer, the news of a possible sell out was lifting as last minute fans snagged their tickets and pushed The LC to capacity for the inevitable sold out evening. Local bands RoeVY and Karma/Attak kicked it off and the crowd began to pour in. Papadosio would go on first to an ever-expanding crowd, stoking the excitement as midnight drew closer and closer. At just about midnight, the beginning of the end ensued as The Werks joined Papadosio onstage, combining their magical musical powers to become Werkadosio. They kicked off the collaboration with Polygons, a song by Papadosio. It was becoming more clear by the minute that something incredible was about to happen. The countdown began, instigating the crowd into an eruption of excitement as the tolling of bells and clocks rang throughout the room, and the heartbeat pounding thuds followed. There was only amazement as fans realized what the guys had put together as they covered Pink Floyds Time. Masterfully recreated into the Werkadosio style to initiate the New Year, the moment was transcendental.

The Werks & Papadosio by Brian Hockensmith

Then it became The Werks set again as they continued to awe the room with high energy grooves, and some new and bar-raising covers. The Werks debuted OG, covered R.E.Ms Its the End of the World, and rocked Liquid as former member Chuck Love joined the guys for yet another astonishing moment. The jam was so emotionally charged that it appeared to send waves of electricity throughout the room. The set hit yet another high point as the guys covered Rage Against the Machines Killing In the Name for the first time with Norm on vocals. The night was brought to the perfect end as Papadosio joined The Werks again to play a 2001 encore, which included Chuck.

The two bands are at the forefront of what appears to be a shift occurring in the musical world. After a strong summer of numerous festivals and shows all over the country, the two bands took the beginning of 2012 head on and at full speed. For some time now, they have been progressing at a fast rate, astounding fans as they appear to just be getting better and better each time out. NYE was proof of that, and it signified the beginning of a new outlook for this musical family that encourages and is enthusiastic about change, progress, and the promise of what the future holds for us all.

The Werkadosio collaboration represented a New Year of transformation, a shift and change towards a different level of musical experience and consciousness. At the heart of these two bands is a message around the idea of love and appreciation, as well as positivity and one-ness which pulses throughout each song and in every set they play. The two have proven that we as a live music community can transform to become bigger and better. It gives hope that music can be more than just a concert. With their feet well through the door, and the potential to irreversibly change the world of music as we know it, it appears these guys arent going anywhere anytime soonand thats just that way we want it.

12/30/11 – 12/31/11 – The Werks and Papadosio @ Lifestyle Communities Pavilion (Columbus, OH) View Photos

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The New Deal

From the their start in the late 1990s, The New Deal has hewed their own trail, blending the raw ingredients of a classic jazz keyboard trio with future forward sounds and instincts that made them closer relatives to what Squarepusher and Aphex Twin were doing in the same era than Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, or even MMW. However, as electro friendly as they may have been (and remain), The New Deal never lost a sense of humanity, stuffing meat-minded ingenuity into the wires and whirr of modernity. Playful, equally capable of simmering darkness and ebullient light, the Canadian trio never fully attached anywhere but the jam world, which showed itself at its most open-minded and musically liberated in its support of this band.

Sadly, the band announced in April of this year that their 12-year career together was coming to an end (read the official statement here). The New Deals final shows will be
Wednesday, December 28th in Philadelphia, PA at TLA (Theatre of Living Arts), Thursday, December 29th in Baltimore, MD at Soundstage, Friday, December 30th in New York, NY at Highline Ballroom (Late Show), Saturday, December 31st in New York, NY at BB Kings (Late Show), and a final hurrah on Jam Cruise 10 on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 and Thursday, January 12th. We caught up with bassist Dan Kurtz to discuss his winding road with Darren Shearer (drums) and Jamie Shields (keyboards) and what was behind the bands decision to bow out of the touring life.

The New Deal @ Camp Bisco X by Dave Vann

JamBase: I didnt quite realize how long this band has been around until I started digging through my bootlegs and found a few shows from 2000.

Dan Kurtz: And if you were really lucky youd have some from 1999. Yes, its been forever. There wasnt a gray hair on anyones head when we started.

JamBase: A lot of bands get called cutting edge but there really wasnt anything quite like The New Deal when you got started.

Dan Kurtz: Im pretty confident when I say that there was pretty much NOTHING like it, which was why we dropped everything we were doing with our lives to do it, and why so many people bonded with it. I blew my own mind playing with The New Deal. I was a new musician and wasnt sure I would do this forever, and The New Deal changed my mind because it was the coolest thing Id ever done.

That was my reaction to hearing this band for the first time in 2000. You had some of the energy and interplay of a jazz trio but none of the traditional feel, and it wasnt pure DJ/electronic because one immediately picked up on the human element, the blood and muscle inside the machinery.

The New Deal @ Camp Bisco X by Dave Vann

Its funny because I had the exact same experience playing last week. We hadnt played in a while, and Ive been working on the new Dragonette record, where I spend a lot of time hitting play on a computer and crossing all the ts. I was marveling at how it was the antithesis of what I was doing onstage, which was very human [laughs]. I was playing music, and if two seconds ago I really fucked it up theres really no going back and fixing it. I think thats another aspect of what we do that has appealed to people. Maybe as time goes on that will be less relevant because peoples ears are slowly being conformed to perfect pitch and metronomic time, and it might be difficult for future generations to appreciate something as un-machinelike as The New Deal.

One of the things thats always been most appealing about this band is the happy accidents in this music. When you guys stumble its into something interesting, even if the initial step was tripping.

Well, this whole band has been about stumbling into something. There was nothing less planned than The New Deal, and maybe thats been a sand trap ever since. I was just reading an interview Jamie did last week and he talked a lot about how we just didnt decide anything and the music and the band kind of made decisions for us. Thats how its seemed to have worked.

Because you arent doing the metronomic, pasteurized thing, what was your reception in the electronica world?

Dan Kurtz by Jake Krolick

Our participation in the straight up electronica world ended a few years ago. We had a few opportunities like playing at the Winter Music Conference in 2001. We were a novelty to the dance world around that time, but as time has gone on theres a greater divergence between what we do and the greater electronic music scene. In many ways, its almost impossible for a live band to hold up sonically to the music coming off a turntable or MP3 player. So for people who are addicted to the massivity of that sound, I dont think we are, in some cases, as musically fulfilling as these people need it to be. By that I mean as loud, as big, as low, as bass-y, as over-the-top. Were something else. Were really intense in one way but were not electronic music with a capital E.

Not at all! Its always been refreshing to hear you work with some of the same raw elements of that world but you never kowtowed to the expectations of the scene, which Ive seen a lot of bands do. They get on the industrial treadmill in order to conform, and mostly for financial gain rather than for creative reasons.

Its not surprising because its a daunting thing for people who play instruments to see that their forum i.e. the stage playing to a bunch of kids is being encroached by and I dont mean this is what good DJs do some run-of-the-mill DJ who has to do little more than push play on a pre-arranged set that will satisfy an audience, in the right circumstances, more than live musicians can. For real instrumentalists and real bands, the lure of that 24-bit, fully mastered massivity is really intoxicating, like, Sure, well play along with Abelton Live and put a ton of phat beat in there and well track some low keyboards. I dont think its exactly what people want to do but they play along.

I covered the first IDentity Festival when it came through Shoreline recently, and I was struck by how non-musical so much of what was on offer was. Its about sensation – sound and fury but as the saying goes, signifying very little.

Darren Shearer by Jake Krolick

That may come and go. Theres only so loud and so crazy you can get before theres a reset. Maybe its just a matter of time before things swing around and we get another iteration of the acoustic guitar thing.

Thats going on a bit in the Pitchfork world with the bearded bunch.

Yeah, but the bearded bunch all like a little bit of house music and Skrillex and their brother is in a dubstep band. Theyre not mutually exclusive [spheres]. Its really amazing how the live scene, at least from my perspective, is like 40-percent bands and 60-percent DJs, and thats the jam scene right now. Its pretty amazing, and maybe The New Deal is partly to blame for helping change peoples tastes in that direction.

Dont take that on yourself, man [laughs].

It really is the logical progression, so its not all that surprising that harder, better, faster, stronger is what people want out of live music.

Doing something this unique begs the question of how did you find your audience at all?

Jamie Shields by Jake Krolick

We did it the traditional way get in a minivan and drive anywhere someone would take us on for a gig, and then come back again if people liked it enough. That was always the method, and it worked out fine. I think we didnt do a lot of things that would have accelerated that process. We got to a place that was really comfortable to us, which was to play shows in moderation and repeat. We didnt get very good at social media. We decided not to make records because our studio records arent as good as our live show. We were The New Deal and we played shows because people liked it. It was amazing to see that even with that little intent that we went as far as we did. There are many bands that would kill and have tried to kill to build that sort of audience for themselves. We just played music, which is so great AND so lazy [laughs].

The band has always been the three of you no lineup changes, no fourth or fifth member and that chemistry is utterly unique. You are a country unto yourself.

Thats true [laughs]. Anytime we dabbled in trying to bring in somebody new into that experience, especially playing live, its never been a bonus I assure you [laughs].

A lot of bands that work the same circuit as you bring in guests as a standard, and The New Deal has largely avoided that.

Weve done it on records. Im really proud of the records we did with Martina and with Feist. They were really fun to do at the time our first pop songs and its not to say it hasnt been fun to have people come onstage and play with us, but it never felt like, Wow, we should do this all the time! As a result, we may not have had as many strings in our bow, colors in our palette, whatever you want to call it. Were basically bass, keyboards and drums, and theres never been an evolution from that. Ive started playing some keyboards and Darren has some electronics and plays some hand drums, but thats our band. The New Deal is that. Youd never listen to us and think, That sounds like somebody else. By the same measure, if somebody is into The New Deal, they could have something similar played for them but theyd know it wasnt The New Deal.

The New Deal @ Camp Bisco IV by Dave Vann

The obvious elephant in the room is what prompted the decision to play your final shows?

Therell all very reasonable, logical reasons. Theres not even a PR version. The PR version would be we wanted to leave on a high point, weve done everything we wanted to do, etc. While much of that is true, in a perfect world where we could play a show whenever we wanted to and fans would show up and it was really easy to work around your schedules, wed probably have continued to do it. The difficulty is even if all three of us lived in Toronto, The New Deal hasnt been our number one priority for a while. Jamie has his kids and his other business, I have Dragonette, Darrens got his thing, and were busy guys who are not in a position to go on tour 200 days of the year a) because we never wanted to [tour that much] and b) because Jamie has kids and a wife now and its not in the cards. So, the smaller t vision of The New Deal touring band becomes, So, how many shows do we play? and the trajectory has been less and less over the past couple years. We hit a point where we realized its gonna suck if we can only play 20 shows per year. Its gonna fuck over our fans, and really fuck over our crews. There are guys whove been hanging on my schedule for years and its a shitty situation for everyone to be in.

Another factor is how difficult it is for a Canadian band to operate in the U.S. If youre going to tour in the U.S. you better tour a lot because the start-up costs in the U.S. are really high now. The taxes are insane. I feel Ive personally employed a few people at the I.R.S. at a few times. Its become this way with foreign bands from all over the place, but its an especially funny situation to be in given the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the U.S. If it were going to be our full-time job to put food on our tables, I dont know how wed do it as a foreign entity in the U.S. The New Deal is sort of unique in that most foreign bands that tour in the U.S. most of the time tour in the rest of the world, too, but were a Canadian band that ONLY tours in the U.S. Weve played one show in Canada in the past two years. Theres no buffer zone for us, no other places in the world for us to go and play.

It sounds like a massive headache.

The New Deal by Jake Krolick

I just want to play my fucking show. I got so tired of working through visas and dealing with American companies and three sets of books. If I didnt know any better, Id think the U.S. doesnt want my band to play in their country because they make it really hard to get in and then they take almost everything off the top that you make. Thats what happened.

This situation speaks to a creeping disrespect for art that isnt corporate produced and underwritten.

It has to have bankrupted a lot of people. And you know what? The Canadian government is doing it to American bands, too, who they charge payroll deductions if they come tour here. Im sure the U.S. government will do it soon, charging us Social Security for the three days our sound guy is in the U.S. That makes sense when say Metallica is touring through these countries and theres big money to be made, but were the backbone of America. Were the small business that employs three people. Were the 99-percent! Any musician whos been in the music business for 20 years that says, Its not about the money is a fuckin liar because hes had to find a way to actually make a living. But, its not about the money. The New Deal could have become dentists and made a lot more money and had a much cozier lifestyle. When people dont make any money and theyre playing in a bureaucratically hostile environment, its just not worth it. This wasnt the straw that broke the camels back. It wasnt the first or the last thing, but it was a factor. We spend so much time trying to get to play a show that the show itself sometimes hardly justifies the effort.

That helps shine a light on the decision. On a brighter note, tell me about playing with Darren and Jamie.

The New Deal @ Camp Bisco IV by Dave Vann

The reason The New Deal went beyond the wedding band circuit we were all playing in was Darren, Jamie and I all ended up playing as a trio on the same night, and when we all came together it was like magic from the very beginning. Its like falling in love, basically, in the sense that you dont want to do it with anyone else. Thats what it felt like. In the music scene, people are always talking about playing together but even though this guy can play really well he plays too loud or hes a dick and so on. In this case, every single thing about these guys makes this awesome – what a surprise and so we thought, Lets do something, and we did. We may have hated each other at times every band does that plays together over 10 years and Ive had arguments individually that make me shudder when I think of them, but all that is water under the bridge when we play together. That has never eluded us for more than maybe one show.

How are you feeling about these final shows? It seems a bittersweet, intense thing to step out in front of an audience knowing each gig is one step closer to the end.

I started to feel that at last Saturdays gig, like Wow, man, this is the last time Ill be stepping onstage with these guys. And I felt that at the place it all began, the Toronto Opera House, where we came back like soldiers who went abroad and returned with treasure, in this case, brought back acknowledgement from America, which then meant the Canadian press could acknowledge us, too [laughs]. The Opera House is ground zero for that sort of thing and the level we attained. Part of it is really sad, but at the same time, it made me rock my balls off on Saturday. I wanted to go out as well as I could, and if I can do that four or five more times they could potentially be the best shows Ive played with The New Deal. Thats what Im thinking about.

The New Deal Tour Dates :: The New Deal News

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Poor Mans Whiskey :: 11.11.11 :: The Fillmore :: San Francisco, CA

Full photo gallery below review!

Poor Mans Whiskey by Brian Spady

The sky cries rivers through the busy, rush hour streets of San Francisco while grey clouds hide the setting sun. A group of Occupy protestors camped on the corner of 5th and Howard draw honks from passing cars that inch their way towards a soggy night on the town. Despite the cold November rain, the chill is cause for jubilation in central California’s vibrant Mecca of sense and style. As the air cools inland, the fruits of the North Bay’s summer labor are harvested and the end to outdoor weather breathes new life back into the infamous Bay Area music scene as the people and bands flock home from vacations and festivals in places sunnier than the Fog City. This night falls in the wake of San Francisco’s favorite holiday, the mark of summer’s end, Halloween. A traditional Halloweekend glorifies many of San Francisco’s favorite pastimes: dressing up in costume, intoxication, being at least a little weird, and dancing to some high energy live music. This year, Bay Area native sons Poor Man’s Whiskey decided to extend Halloween a little further as they broke out their Wizard of Oz costumes, dusted off their Pink Floyd chops, and headed to the historic Fillmore Auditorium for a sold-out showing of their highly acclaimed interpretation Dark Side of the Moonshine with their friend Michael Kang filling in the ever-rotating role of the Tin Man fiddle player.

Poor Man’s Whiskey is a cornucopia of thumping bluegrass, high flying rock and roll, strutting disco and twangy country grit served up hot with a glass of comedy to cleanse the palate in between courses. Let it also be known that the band loves their covers. Beyond their bluegrass take on Dark Side of the Moon, members of the band have taken on The Allman Brothers and last year, celebrating their 10th anniversary, hosted Peter Rowan of the 1970′s Jerry Garcia-fueled, bluegrass supergroup, Old and in the Way, for an entire set of music from the band that they call their deepest roots. That special night was also their first appearance with the String Cheese Incident’s jamgrass royalty and fiddle virtuoso Michael Kang.

Poor Mans Whiskey by Brian Spady

As their song Only a Rock Star on the Weekend so cleverly states, they have not played many of the region’s larger venues. Rather, they are a band that has thrived in the Bay Area scene because they are able to roll with the punches. This was none more apparent than when their lead guitarist (and the biggest jester of them all) decided in August to lay down his Whiskey hat to pursue his own, perhaps more mature act Huckle. However, never to crack under the pressure of one of their biggest gigs to date, the band introduced their newest addition, the hot-handed Sean Lehe (Izabella), stunning everyone with his slick-as-caster-oil guitar licks.

The band wailed through some original material, giving the audience a chance to get accustomed to the new guitarist as multi-instrumentalist Josh Brough, one of the founders and main songwriters of the group, took the reins in place of Eli Jebidiah. The banter was less open than usual, but the music was top notch. Lehe and Kang’s interplay with the band and one another was stellar as Kang sat in for a good portion of the first set to the delight of the many Cheese fans present. The band really hit their stride in the final song of the set with Abigail as Lehe’s soaring guitar drove the band through an Allman-esque jam that peaked heavily on the back of George Smeltz‘s attentive drumming while the light show sparkled fireworks.

Poor Mans Whiskey by Brian Spady

The second set was, as promised, a high energy bluegrass romp through Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon album in its entirety as the band and friends walked out to the opening notes of On the Run with Brough dressed as Dorothy and every other character from The Wizard of Oz present and accounted for as they broke into Breathe. The main verses of the song raced on in double time following Kang’s screaming fiddle and Brough’s precision banjo picking until dropping into a twangy country shuffle as the band and audience sang home… home again… as the song found its lulling conclusion. Great Gig in the Sky followed as Kang’s fiddle moaned on in place of the sensual operatics of the original. The next song started with clinking bottles, popping cans and bleating farm animals in place of clinking coins and opening cash drawers before descending into an eerie rendition of Whiskey (Money). Releasing the tension, Lehe’s acoustic guitar carried through into Us and Them, which hosted Kang’s most fiery violin work of the night before dropping into the subdued Any Colour You Like.

Next the band jumped into the song containing the album’s namesake lyrics Brain Damage as the audience belted, See you on the dark side of the moon! The energy reignited with Brain Damage/Eclipse as the band, lights, audience and energy all connected for a most exciting finale that left the room exploding with applause.

Poor Man’s Whiskey proved again why they have made it so long in the unforgiving Bay Area scene. They are talented musicians. They are clever. They have something special to offer those looking for something to dance to and something else for those who want to be challenged by the music. As they gathered around the front of the stage for their traditional show-ending unplugged closer, the genuine smiles on their faces and unmistakable luster in their eyes showed that whatever they are doing it’s for the love of the music. And the full house at The Fillmore showed they are not alone.

11/11/11 – Poor Man’s Whiskey @ The Fillmore (San Francisco, CA) View Photos

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Furthur :: 10.07.11-10.08.11 :: Monterey County Fairgrounds :: Monterey, CA

Furthur in Monterey by Dylan Carney

It was a no brainer for most California Deadheads to make the pilgrimage to Monterey County Fairgrounds for the final two shows of Furthur‘s West Coast Fall Tour. The Petee Arena, site of the fabled 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, is where the Grateful Dead famously either played horribly at their highest profile gig to date, or just had the misfortune of being sandwiched between Jimi Hendrix and The Who. Whatever the case, the band refused to license their performance for the highly influential documentary film about the festival by D.A. Pennebaker, and the set attained a kind of legendary status, not unlike the also-omitted performance from the Woodstock movie two years later. For those who know Pennebaker’s movie well, walking into that fairground-size performance area was a bit eerie – the place has not changed one bit, from the low-slung stage to the beveled roof of the stands that surround the main floor, which was covered in sawdust. Vending booths, concessions, and grassy sections surrounded the performance area. The whole place had a homespun, small town feel for a crowd that is used to impersonal arenas. Much credit is due to the band for searching out and continuing to play truly special spots like this, Cuthbert in Eugene, Red Rocks, and on and on.

Furthur in Monterey by Dylan Carney

Expectations were running unfairly high on the first night, but even so, the band came out of the gate a bit stiff and tired sounding. Bobby‘s night got off to an inauspicious start as he forgot the first few lines of “Promised Land”. The infrequently played “Easy Wind” was a great surprise but would’ve come off better when everyone, including the crowd, was warmed up. “Pride of Cucomonga” showed the first signs of promise as the blues groove in the middle opened up and hinted at some Anthem of the Sun era jamming. At this point, though, the inconsistent mix was becoming a big distraction to folks around me. We were right behind the main pit, in front of the board, where you’d expect a good representation of what the engineer was intending. Instead, we got wildly fluctuating levels and an all around lack of John Kadlecik‘s lead guitar. Unfortunately, “Mission in the Rain”, one of Jerry’s most beloved and beautifully melodic tunes, almost fell apart right from the get-go as Bobby struggled with his teleprompter. A certain amount of lyrical amnesia is always a charming element of any Dead-related show, but this moment really deflated the energy in the room and seemed to knock Bob’s confidence for a while. The “Two Djinn” that came next, while probably not on anyone’s wish list, refocused the band. Musically, this song sounds to me like Bob and Jerry sat down and wrote together, with Bobby’s typically dissonant, somewhat futuristic chordal structures giving way to a very “Scarlet”-like melodic hook. “Mason’s Children” contained a gnarly jam led by the finally audible JK that segued gracefully into the set closing “Mighty Quinn”.

Furthur in Monterey by Dylan Carney

JK got the the second set going with a favorite new cover, George Harrison’s “Any Road” from Brainwashed, the excellent album Harrison was working on when he died. This tune is such a natural fit for Furthur I had some folks ask me when Hunter and Kadelecik had started writing together. Its infectious, bouncy feel and zen-like lyrical sentiment fits the “all who wander are not lost” crowd very well. After a brief pause, the band fell into a dark, snaky “Estimated Prophet”. You could almost hear the relief come over the room as people exhaled and prepared to sink into some “primal Dead”. This version, like many of Bob’s tunes of late, was slowed down, but the deliberate, muscular delivery served this song well. Phil‘s dub-like bass was cranked, Bob treated us to some genuine, echo-enhanced screams, and we were off, finally firing on all cylinders! On paper, the rest of the set looks amazing and certainly did contain some jaw-dropping playing, but overall didn’t quite muster the X-factor this band has shown it’s capable of on a nightly basis. The “Dark Star” jam did what it should, and that is to surprise and be forever new, but I would have appreciated a few minutes of theme-based melodic playing. “King Solomon’s Marbles” crackled, and “Dear Prudence” really gave singers Jeff Pearson and Sunshine Garcia Becker a chance to shine.

Furthur in Monterey by Dylan Carney

After a gorgeous, relaxing California day, the band returned on Saturday refreshed, recharged and ready to rock. The audience had also grown to past-capacity and the Saturday night energy was on. The one-two 80s combo of “Feel Like a Stranger” and “Althea” started the first set on a high note, with the whole band interlocking and pressing each other forward. “No More Do I”, the best original song to come out of the Phil Lesh Quintet and sometimes played by the Other Ones and the Dead, was a bold, well played choice. The back section of the first half was like being plunged deep into a second set. “Viola Lee Blues”, arguably the most revitalized of the resurrected songs in Furthur’s repertoire, came next, followed by a chilling duet on “Comes a Time” by Kadelecik and Becker, and a thunderous “Throwing Stones” closer, with Weir, confidence intact, changing the lyrics to “Money green, it’s the only waylike I said, you can buy the whole god damned government today”. A song that sometimes seemed strident and self-important in the eighties now seemed the perfect rallying cry for the Occupy movement gaining momentum while the show was going on.

Furthur in Monterey by Dylan Carney

Saturday’s second set was an example of when the music really was as good as it appears on paper. An amazing setlist and equally inspired playing brought the whole weekend home in an immensely satisfying way. Phil, in particular, was indulging his restless mind with such taste and groove that it was hard to pin down where he was going at any given time — you just knew you were going somewhere. It brought to mind Jerry’s comment about how if you isolated any four bars of Phil’s playing it wouldn’t really tell you anything because his ideas extended the whole length of the song. After the party of “Golden Road > Shakedown Street > Truckin’”, the triumvirate of “Let it Grow” , “All Along the Watchtower” and “Morning Dew” once again manifested a darker, reflective commentary on our culture’s reawakened sense of economic and ecological collapse. After that intensity, what better salve than the reassuring sentiments of “Help on the Way”? This was a beautiful, deliberately crafted journey of a setlist that emerged into the reassuring “Franklin’s Tower” closer and “One More Saturday Night” encore. The audience response was heart-warmingly genuine and appreciative — for this night, and for all the years we’ve gotten to do this together. The band lingered on stage longer than normal, hugging and waving, and we slowly wandered out of this special little place in Monterey.

Furthur Tour Dates :: Furthur News

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