Phil Lesh and Friends

October 20, 2000

Riviera Theatre

Chicago, IL

Had a great weekend down in Chicago seeing the last two shows of Phil Lesh and Friends’ four-night run at the Riviera Theatre. I left Ann Arbor by train early Friday morning and had a pleasant train ride into Chicago. All leaves were changing and the sun was shining and combined with anticipation of the shows to come, I was in a great frame of mind. I got into Union station and walked along the Chicago River taking in the day, before heading to the El. I went and met my Dad and Sister in Oak Park in the afternoon before heading to the show via the El. I got to the Riviera around 5:30 and met my buddy Ben at the Green Mill next door for a beer. Soon we headed inside and found a good spot on the floor in front of where Phil would be standing. My sister and her friend David found us. This was an 18 and over show and they are both only 17 so we were happy to see that they got in.

We stood around talking and taking in the scene and before long Phil and the band started to appear one by one on stage. I hadn’t seen Phil play since the last Dead show at Soldier Field over 5 years ago and I had never seen him this close up. He looked healthy and energetic despite his illness and transplant two years ago. He picked up his bass, adjusted his trademark red white and blue sweatband and led the band into a fast paced, jazzy jam that featured lots of interesting interplay. After about 5 minutes they started to play the chords to Traffic’s "Dear Mr.Fantasy" which is one of my favorite songs ever. Guitarist, Warren Haynes sang lead and really led the jam. Haynes has a good voice which reminds me of former Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland. Mydland actually used to sing "Dear Mr. Fantasy" with the Dead so this made sense. The jammed on "Mr. Fantasy" for quite awhile and eventually it mutated into sort of a reggaeish version of the tune. At one point it sounded like they were actually starting to play "Fire on the Mountain" but they dropped back into "Dear Mr. Fantasy" one more time. This somehow led into the Beatles psychedelic masterpiece, "Tomorrow Never Knows" with its distinctive rhythm beat out by drummer, John Molo. This was a loose version with Warren once again providing lead vocals and Phil doing some droning background vocals. The jam on this one got pretty freeform and wound down into a nice version of "Bird Song" which sounded better sung by Lesh then I would have imagined. The other guitarist, Jimmy Herring and keyboardist, Rob Barraco really got to stretch out on this one. Haynes and Herring play really well together. They have similar styles although Haynes is more bluesy and Herring is more jazzy. They have a telepathic rapport when it comes to playing at the same time. It never seemed cluttered at all to me. " Bird Song" was a lot of fun and it finally wound down. The band stopped playing and I realized that they had just played for over an hour with out stopping at all.

They took a few minutes to retune and we all caught our breath wondering what was to come. Soon they started playing a tune I didn’t know which turned out to be "Mirror of Thalassa" which is a new song with words and music by Phil. This tune is interesting but I think the band is still feeling it out. As per usual with Phil it is very wordy and contains all sorts of words and phrases that most singers wouldn’t attempt to sing. The music is cool and Herring played some nice guitar on it. This led into a crazy hoedown version of "Cumberland Blues" which had great three part vocals by Rob, Warren and Phil. It didn’t sound much like the Dead used to do it. To me it sounded like what the Aquarium Rescue Unit would sound like playing this tune which cool. The jam was huge and the crowd loved it. They stopped again and then launched a crazy version of "Pride of Cucamonga" which is one of my favorite and most underrated Dead tunes. Of all the songs that Phil has resurrected this was the one I most wanted to see and this version did not disappoint. This song is on From the Mars Hotel and the Dead never performed it live for some reason. At the point where the song changes tempo and goes into that little bluesy shuffle, Warren took over and expanded that section way beyond the Dead’s recorded version. Phil’s vocals were strong and Barraco also played great on this one. They played a long version and finally wound up. If the set had ended there I would have been happy, but they played a fun version of "Scarlet Begonias" with Phil taking lead vocals and forgetting a few words. The ending jam was nice. After the song the whole band came up to the front of the stage arm in arm and Phil said they would be back in a bit with more music.

During the intermission, I located my Dad who had arrived by car after us and we hung out during the break. The Riv had gotten really hot and they definitely sold all the tickets for the show. It was hard to move around during the break because all the pathways were packed. After about 45 minutes the band hit the stage again and launched right into a very tight version of "St. Stephen" which everybody sang along with. This led into a very nice "Not Fade Away" which reminded me of the best of the 70’s Dead versions. Herring and Haynes were at their best on this tune playing off each other and Barraco was all over the place. I was really impressed with Barraco all night. He used to play in the Zen Tricksters who are a Dead cover band, but now he is really in the big leagues. He played all sorts of styles of piano and organ all night and it was always inventive and tasteful. The "Not Fade Away" led back into a short "St. Stephen" reprise and then into a nice jazzy "Eyes of the World". The band was really kicking now and I could hear Phil and Molo better than in the first set. Phil was plying so well. I have never heard him sound more melodic or innovative. The tone of his bass was also beautiful. The sound people did a nice job with the mix, at least where I was standing. "Eyes of the World" was very pretty and led into a very cool version of Miles Davis’ "Milestones" which was given pretty much a straight jazz version. Barraco and Herring again shined in the jazz context. I love hearing Phil play tunes like this. They brought "Milestones" to a quiet close and the crowd went wild. The band was all smiles and obviously having a great time. Next up was a nice reading of "Cryptical Envelopment" where Warren played some really greasy guitar that sounded a lot like Garcia in the late sixties. Phil did a good job with the vocals and they were hinting "The Other One" but instead went into a cool version of ‘Wharf Rat" with Warren singing and playing some great guitar. Then they finally played "The Other One" and Phil was going nuts on bass on this version. Very primal music. Barraco was playing organ. Incidentally someone told me that the organ he is playing is actually Pigpen’s old organ that Phil had access to or something like that. Either way, it sounded great. They wound up a very heavily jammed "Other One" with a return to "Cryptical" and it was all very satisfying, but they stepped up the energy another notch as they slammed into an extremely rocking’ "Passenger". This is another great Phil tune, which the Dead played all too rarely. In the Dead, Weir used to sing lead, but Warren took the vocals with lots of backup by Phil and Rob. Warren’s guitar work on this was really stellar and I really can’t imagine a much better version. As the song wound down, the crowd was ecstatically cheering the band again came out to the front of the stage and took bows before leaving the stage. After a lot of cheering they finally returned and after Phil talked about organ donation for a few minutes, Warren sang his original song, "Patchwork Quilt" which sounds very Allman-esque. It’s a nice song that alludes to Garcia and was a pleasant way to end the evening. Again the band came out to the front of the stage and bowed arm in arm before leaving and sending us out into the cool Chicago night. I started looking forward to Saturday night immediately.