From the moment I entered Tipitina’s, it was plain to see 7 Walkers came to steal some face – and take the opportunity to get the well-worn tie-dyes out from the dresser drawers. The balcony and backdrop were draped in multi-colored tapestries, an oil paint artist was waiting for the first set to start so he could begin an improv experiment (a la STS9 live painting), a dead head by the bar was counting the multiple tie-dye’s draped over his shoulder. Best of all, Professor Longhair overlooked the band below, cosmically lit up in kaleidoscopic fashion from the first note through the second encore. Fall’s first chill winds blew in through the doors as the quartet opened with Grateful Dead’s “Space”, quickly warming up as the band segued into a funky rendition of the always-poignant “He’s Gone.” Effortlessly interspersing Dead classics like “Bird Song”, a healthy sampling of their new material, and a Meters staple (“Just Kissed My Baby”), 7 Walkers tore their way through set one – with a little help from the one and only Big Sam on “Eyes of the World” and the 7W original stone groove instrumental “For the Love of Mr. Okra” before set break.
In honor of today being Jerry Garcia’s birthday (i.e. Jerry Day), I thought I’d at least drop some memorial of sorts by posting by favorite Dead song at the moment, “Loser.” I got turned back onto it when I saw the Furthur set at Outside Lands and it’s been a song I cue up from time to time ever since.
Watch the version above and go ahead and listen to the whole show over at the Archive.
About 10,000 people flocked to Frogtown over the Memorial Day weekend to frolic in the sun and listen to some rock ‘n’ roll.
The Furthur Festival @ Mountain Aire brought back some of the members of the Grateful Dead – now performing as Furthur – who had played here in the late 1980s to much fanfare and public criticism, but the Saturday and Sunday festival drew a much kinder, gentler group of music fans.
Sirius XM’s Grateful Dead channel will broadcast Furthur‘s upcoming show this Sunday, Feb 14th at Barton Hall in Ithaca, NY (@ Cornell Univ.). The venue is, of course, well-known among Dead fans for the Grateful Dead’s much-hyped concert from May 8, 1977, a show which has received plenty of praise, even from the mayor of Ithaca. If you’ve never heard it and feel so inclined, then tune in early for a special edition of Tales from the Golden Road, as they’ll be featuring recordings from the legendary 1977 Cornell performance prior to the live stream. Of course, you could also just stream the show from the Live Music Archive.
I’m home chilling and about to watch some evening news after running some errands — yes, I’m that cool — and I’ve got the new Atlas Sound/Panda Bear collaboration called “Walkabout” cranked about as loud as my upstairs neighbor would ever allow. I dig it.
And speaking of Panda Bear, I figured it was a good time to post an Animal Collective track I was actually sitting on for a while. I think I meant to get it posted when I posted the photos from their show at the Fox Theater in Oakland but I never got around to writing too much about that show. I’m not sure why, though. I probably could have easily gushed out 1,000 words about how much that band is changing the face of music as we know it, how nobody can compare right now, how they manage to get as many good reviews as they get bad reviews, etc. etc. I’ve been totally studying this band and their sound for a few years now, and this track still totally blew me away the first time I heard it.
According to the Rock n’ Roll Daily blog over at Rolling Stone, the upcoming movie based upon Grateful Dead roadie Steve Parish’s book, Home Before Daylight, is starting to take shape. Though first announced in summer 2007, Rock Daily reports that the movie has some potential actors on board as well as a preliminary soundtrack:
The Grateful Dead biopic adapted from Home Before Daylight already has a shortlist of hot directors including Oliver Stone, Sean Penn, Jonathan Demme and Larry Charles. “Those are the guys that would really knock it out of the park,” producer Stephen Emery tells Rock Daily.
Several musicians, including Jefferson Airplane, Neil Young and Bob Dylan, have already signed on for the soundtrack, with guitarist Bob Weir as the music director. “I’m very proud to have Bob on board,” says Emery. “He wants to write new stuff for the film, too.”
While I read Phil Lesh’s Searching For The Sound, I haven’t had a chance to plug through Home Before Daylight. Anybody think it’s a good adaptation for the screen? I’m wondering how they’re going to integrate the live Dead experience into the movie in a realistic fashion, and how much this movie is going to focus on Jerry’s health/drug problems through the 80′s and into the 90′s. It should make for an interesting piece; let’s hope they treat it with the respect it deserves.
Relix is confirming a Spring 2009 tour by all of the surviving members of The Dead:
Sources confirm that the surviving members of the Grateful Dead — guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh,and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann — are planning to tour in April and May of 2009. There’s no word yet on the band’s configuration — previous configurations of “The Dead” and The Other Ones have included singer-guitar hero Warren Haynes, guitar ace Jimmy Herring, singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi, singer Joan Osborne, keyboardists Jeff Chimenti and Rob Baracco, as well as guitarists Mark Karan and Steve Kimock.
While Ratdog and Phil & Friends seem to have found their niche in the post-GD touring world, nothing really compares to getting all the surviving members together on a stage. The big question is who will fill in on guitar duties. Jimmy Herring seemed pretty busy with Widespread Panic until they announced that they’d be taking some time off during 2009. So he’s a possibility. As much as I would love to see it happen, it’s hard to imagine Steve Kimock ever re-joining with The Dead. So, Herring seems like the obvious bet. But Mark Karan maybe? Warren Haynes? Larry Campbell? I’m sure we’ll find out more specifics soon enough.
Also, it looks like the band is planning another “Deadheads for Obama” show. Relix has now confirmed the show will take place on October 13 at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, PA, and it will also feature the Allman Brothers Band and an undetermined opening act. Warren Haynes and Jeff Chimenti will respectively fill in on guitar and keyboard duties for the band.
In his first post on the Live Music Blog, Jesse Jarnow weighs in on the recent Grateful Dead / Archive.org debacle currently being picked up by many, major news/blog sites. We’re glad to have him. You can find him bloggin’ on his own site, Jesse’s Frank and Earthy Blog. If you want to send him [...]
Medeski, Martin & Wood – Notes From the Underground [CD] I just recently picked up Uninvisible and I haven’t even gotten their second-to-most recent End of the World Party: Just in Case Anyone have any feedback before I figure out which one of these I should actually get first? Phish – IT [DVD] This DVD [...]
