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theloniousbach · 5 years

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BOB WEIR AND WOLF BROTHERS, THE PAGEANT, 21 MARCH 2019

There is a shift in my relationship to the Grateful Dead universe occurring and it feels a bit like a crisis of faith. I don't think of myself as religious, but maybe I have worshipped this music and that the arc of my listening over the years mirrors a spiritual quest.

"Anthem of the Sun" and "Live/Dead" were my introductions and I was on the bus before "Workingman's Dead." I listened and bought albums through the hiatus. But "Steal Your Face" seemed flat and "Blues for Allah" and "Terrapin Station" were overproduced. I was not a disciple but I was a member of the early congregation. I saw them in 1972 (twice), 1974, and 1977. And this period remains mine, especially 1971-1974.

I came back after a jazz, Celtic, trad folk interlude in the late 1980s as the taper scene led me back to the good old days and a chance to hear what I missed. The Hornsby period helped inject some of the old adventure back into it. I mourned Garcia's decline and death and kept checking in with the various iterations. It has been fun to see the Core Four in various iterations. I haven't wanted to miss the big ones (The Other Ones/The Dead/Furthur/Fare Thee Well/Dead and Company) but they have served to capture the Grateful Dead experience as it evolved in the period while I was away. I'm not sure I need that and I might well not reflexively jump on a D&C show.

Ratdog was fun and did some creative things, but it didn't fly the way Phil Lesh and Friends has--both the legendary Q and the Larry Campbell/Jackie Greene versions but whatever experiments Lesh has offered. That is also my part of the universe--jamming out everything, the nimbleness of one drummer, high level musicianship.

I get to see one last time this summer as part of a barn tour with Willie Nelson, but I bet that's the last time as I'm not likely to be at Terrapin Station in Marin County or at a show at the Capitol Theater. Couch tour maybe.

So I came to Weir's show with Don Was on acoustic bass and Jay Lane on drums last night in an autumnal and valedictory mood. I am really glad I saw this experiment/extension of his days with Rob Wasserman and even a solo tour. He is such a fascinating guy on guitar, not a full blown lead player but more than a rhythm guitarist too. To see that was fascinating, though I both wish there was more (sound in the big room was hard and the inevitable GD party--including a couple of dreadlocked (and white) twirlers deciding that standing right in front of us in seats that weren't theirs)--didn't pay sufficient attention. Weir still stretches things out but maybe he shouldn't, that he needs to bounce off of others. But then you don't catch what he's doing.

So it's an experiment that I didn't want to miss, but I can't deem it a wholly successful experiment. Not only was the sound not sharp enough, even on acoustic, but particularly not on the D'Angelico Bedford guitar that has a particularly thin, jangly tone. Such an approach was in the Ratdog mix (but not exclusively), but was on hiatus during Fare Thee Well and much of the D&C run. I'm afraid that it's back. It was an obstacle to hearing his unique harmonic conception and his rather successful approach of emulating McCoy Tyner's left hand.

Also his voice is thinner and his phrasing often more than eccentric. I can live with, even welcome eccentric, but limited as if he didn't have enough lung power. The set 2 closing "Throwing Stones" and the "Knocking On Heaven's Door" rallied and was close to the good old days.

This is not at all to say that there wen't things to treasure. He opened on acoustic and I sure thought it was going to be "Friend of the Devil." Nope, it turned into a slowed down "Bertha" which also got turned inside out nicely by an arrangement that helped me hear new things. It transitioned into the "Friend of the Devil" I thought I heard originally. Again, a new insight into the connections among songs. "Black Throated Wind" with its St. Louis reference was fun to hear again, but was a sign that Weir's voice wasn't quite there. The "Cassidy" on acoustic and at a reduced tempo also opened up and had him somehow blowing the lyric "Let the words be yours, I'm done with mine." Evidently. So it was bubbling along nicely and probably even the take on Dylan's relatively newer "Most of the Time" would have worked but we had the young twirler drama in front of us. Perhaps that colored the rest of the first set as he picked up the D'Angelico for an unfamiliar song, I'm guessing Daniel Lanois's "The Maker" which he's been doing on the tour and often in proximity to "Most of the Time." [It turns out it was the tour debut of John Prine’s “Great Rain.”] But I found "Tennessee Jed" sluggish and "Bird Song" too unfocused to take off.

The second set started with stories about visiting St. Louis on family vacations about as far as they got from the West Coast and about a woman he left crying at the airport. He even remembered her name. Weir's been the more talk-y one from the stage, but even he's not been chatty.

"Me and My Uncle" started fine but he was back on electric for a pretty good "Scarlet Begonias" with an intro that only slowly hinted at the riff and slinky bass. I realize I'd seen this song as a stand alone first set song in 1974 and the "Fire on the Mountain" versions I'd seen had also been separated, but I didn't get a proper "Scarlet>Fire" as it ended to almost a full stop before "Corrina" which was fun as was "Truckin'" which benefited from the audience carrying the vocals. "Truckin'" has often enough segued to blues tunes and this time it was "Fever," a cool enough song but it needed more voice than Weir had.

I liked the end of the set as "Dear Prudence" swung much more than "Bird Song" and "Throwing Stones" was just fine. The set ended with a solid enough “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad.” given the show “solid enough” counts as a plus.

It was, in toto, a show I wouldn't have wanted to miss but don't know that I need to replicate.

Right now, I'm iffy about seeing something big like D&C and wonder if Weir is worn. I would be pleasantly surprised if Lesh comes here or at least close, but I'm thrilled that we even got this summer's chance.

There is a shift in my church attendance. I may be falling away.

Or acknowledging that the torch is passing, for me at least, to Joe Russo's Almost Dead.

#Concert Review #2019 #Bob Weir

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