Everyone Orchestra with Phil Lesh and Friends at the Grate Room, December 1, 2017
- Set One
- Set Two
- Performers
- Notes
- Photos

Everyone Orchestra with Phil Lesh and Friends at the Grate Room, December 1, 2017

Terrapin Crossroads presents the Everyone Orchestra with Phil Lesh and Friends the Grate Room at Terrapin Crossroads 100 Yacht Club Drive, San Rafael, CA 94901 USA 8:00 PM, Friday, December 1, 2017

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

Set One

[8:08 PM lights down, announcements from Matt, band out]

[8:09 PM] “We Move As One” (NC)
[8:25 PM] Some sort of mutated hybrid of Turn the Beat Around and All Along the Watchtower, with Jen singing lyrics completely different from either of those musical bases: “Find My Way Home”
[8:44 PM] Al leads things off with a Dear Prudence-like descending sequence; “Thank You For Your Presence Here” (NC)
[add Connor O'Sullivan: bass]
[8:59 PM] Holly leads with piano; “Take Me Down to the River / Let Me Drown / Hold My Hand / Let Me Go” (AS)
[9:14 PM] Jen starts things off with a trumpet solo; “Follow Your Heart”
[set ends 9:34 PM]
[Phil comes back inside 10-15 minutes into break to grab a few things, then the roadies break down his gear. Dang! Guess that's all for the host tonight]

Set Two

[10:03 PM lights down, band out for more]

[10:05 PM] Vinnie and Connor start things off with a disco beat
[10:21 PM] RJ starts bluesier vamp
[10:41 PM] GL starts with a rolling lick; “Don't Fly Away” (GL)
[10:59 PM] NC solo to start – kinda Spanish jam; RJ section takes off in another direction altogether – reminds me of VU. Matt weaves the two together nicely
[brief pause. Matt checks whether or not the audience is game for one more tune]
[11:20 PM] CO starts this one: slow funk; girls: “Take a Little Time With Me” / part b from Al is reminiscent of Beatles' Don't Let Me Down jam » 11:32 PM Jen takes us back to funky town » 11:35 RJ wailing rock solo
[show ends 11:42 PM]

Performers

Vinnie Amico: drums;
Holly Bowling: keyboards, Hammond B-3 organ;
Matt Butler: conductor, vox;
Natalie Cressman: trombone, vox;
Jennifer Hartswick: trumpet, vox;
Ross James: guitar;
Grahame Lesh: guitar, vox;
Phil Lesh: bass (set one only);
Connor O'Sullivan: bass;
Al Schnier: guitar, vox.

Notes

If you don't already know, Everyone Orchestra is an improvised music happening facilitated by Matt Butler, with an ever-changing cast of participants. I'm pretty sure that tonight was my first EO experience, though I certainly saw more than a few shows by Matt back in the Jambay days.

So the setlist above? Well, with collective improvisation as the rule, everything is new (except for the bit about experienced musicians recycling those years of practice into the momentary NOW). As the show went down, I jotted brief notes above – then tried to make sense out of things a day or two later. I suppose that strategy is good enough, though in retrospect, I wish I'd written more: it's easier to write about the impression made my a recent performance of familiar songs than to recall what was exciting and noteworthy about something totally new.

Overall, it was great fun. I think the cast did a great job of going with whatever feel that Matt was projecting, meaning that we ended up with a decently good variety of tunes (slow, fast, funky, bluesy, dancier, etc), and trying to contribute to overall flow more than to show off any particularly flashy notions that happened to manifest in their hands or lips.

Phil seemed to enjoy himself pretty well, but as noted above, he only stuck around for one set. Bummer about that! There's nothing wrong with Connor's more traditional approach to the bass role, and it probably fit even better in the dance party context that Matt was stirring up, but given the choice, I would have rather heard another hour of lead bass from our host.

I was also pretty knocked out with the contributions from Al and Vinnie. Makes me think that I should have tried harder to see moe. more often over the past twenty years! Too late for that now!

I'd be curious to hear from folks who attended the Saturday night gig: did it work for them too?

Might you be curious about hearing this gig? Guess what, thanks to the Terrapin crew, you can! Check it out on the Live Music Archive.