Phil Lesh at the Grate Room at Terrapin Crossroads, April 19, 2019

Terrapin Crossroads presents Phil Lesh & Friends featuring Jason Crosby, Cody & Luther Dickinson, Alex Koford, and Al Schnier
the Grate Room at Terrapin Crossroads
100 Yacht Club Drive, San Rafael, CA 94901 USA
8:00 PM, Friday, April 19, 2019

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2019 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2019 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

Today's Poster

I wasn't hanging out too long, and I wasn't always paying attention when I was present, but I can report that the band played at least these tunes between 4 and 7 PM:

• Viola Lee Blues
• Alligator
• Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
• the Wheel
• Tennessee Jed
• the Other One
• St. Stephen

[8:09 PM lights down; 8:11 PM band out]

1. [8:13 PM] Beat It on Down the Line (AS)
2. [8:17 PM] Tennessee Jed (AS)
3. [8:29 PM] Friend of the Devil (PL)
4. [8:38 PM] Little Red Rooster (LD)
5. [8:48 PM] Althea (AS)
6. [9:00 PM] Operator (LD)
7. [9:06 PM] Deal (AS)
   [set ends 9:17 PM]

[9:55 PM lights down, band out and noodling]

1. [9:57 PM] Alligator (LD)
2. [10:08 PM] They Love Each Other (AS)
3. [10:17 PM] Crazy Fingers (AS)
4. [10:29 PM] space » [10:37 PM] Dark Star theme » [10:38 PM] 1st verse (PL-AS-AK-all) » [10:40 PM] jam » [10:51 PM] Dark Star theme » [10:53 PM] 2nd verse (PL-AS-AK-all) » [10:54 PM] outro » [10:55 PM] Smokestack Lightning fake-out jam
   [10:58 PM full stop; smiles all around onstage]
5. [10:59 PM] Scarlet Begonias (AS)
6. [11:10 PM] All Along the Watchtower (LD)
7. [11:20 PM] Samson & Delilah (AS)
8. [11:28 PM] Going Down the Road, Feelin' Bad (PL-AS-AK) »
9. [11:36 PM] And We Bid You Goodnight (all)
   [set ends 11:40 PM]
   
   Encore
   [11:42 PM abbreviated donor rap; 11:44 PM band back onstage]
10. [11:46 PM] Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) (AS)
    [show ends 11:52 PM; bow, then all off by 11:53 PM]

• Phil Lesh: bass, lead and harmony vox;
• Jason Crosby: Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards;
• Cody Dickinson: drums, harmony vox;
• Luther Dickinson: guitar, lead & harmony vox;
• Alex Koford: drums, percussion, lead & harmony vox;
• Al Schnier: guitar, vox.

Outside, in line, waiting in a drizzle of Wisteria petals (might have been more poetic to say it was a lilac rain, but this is a reality-based blog).

Inside about ten minutes past seven. Got a good spot in the center behind Keith and Sam. Pretty mellow crowd for the first half hour. Slowly starting to fill up as it approaches the nominal start time.

Beat It on Down the Line started with many beats … maybe 19, to match the date? More than usual, for sure!

The long (at least 3 min) blues jam to start Rooster is my choice for highlight of the first set. Nothing else really took off for me – it was all good, but grounded. Hoping now (at set break) that the band will take flight for the second set.

Alligator most excellent, but they would it down without the big “Alligator!” finale. Harumph!

I was super-happy to hear Crazy Fingers, and they did a terrific job with capturing that lazy-day feeling I like about it.

Dark Star was transcendent. The jam went through all sorts of unusual spaces. Really really well done! Following the outro, I was excited to think that Luther was about to lead them through a heavy blues version of Smokestack Lightning, but I think what really happened was that the jam simply headed through a blues-space that worked off that riff … and the similarity caught my ear and got me jumping up and down, anticipating a release that never came. Bitter? No, it was fun, even without the result I wanted!

Alex contributed a cute vocal bit to Going Down the Road, Feelin' Bad, singing something about feeling like a monkey in a zoo … it's always fun when the band gets loose!

And while I was excited to hear Quinn the Eskimo, I think they probably needed to have rehearsed it a little more … I'm not going to say they flubbed it or anything, but it seemed a little wobbly and uncertain compared to the standard established by the Mighty Quinn of yore.

Finally, as noted earlier, the crowd was exceptionally laid back tonight. Hard to say why, but it seemed to me like they were less enthusiastic than a typical TXR turnout. This made for a nice time up front, but it felt weird when I was the only one cheering (such as at the start of Crazy Fingers).

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2019 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2019 event list! ☸ On to the next event!