Terrapin Crossroads presents Phil Lesh & The Terrapin Allstars featuring Stu Allen, Scott Amendola, Jason Crosby, & Grahame Lesh
the Backyard Stage in Beach Park at Terrapin Crossroads
100 Yacht Club Drive, San Rafael, CA 94901 USA
3:00 PM, Sunday, April 11, 2021
Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2021 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2021 event list! ☸ On to the next event!
{3:12 PM band out, PA down}
The weather today was even nicer than yesterday: sunny and warm with just a light breeze now and then instead of gusty blasts. Less traffic noise (fewer sirens!) too.
Our table today was a bit off center, so I couldn't really see either Scott or Jason from within the boundaries of our nominal social square. Bummer! On the plus side, the sound was quite good. The side fill speakers are set up just exactly right: the listener experience is one of being enveloped in the sound of the band rather than distracted by sounds emanating from a position different from the band location. Good work guys!
Tune choices today might appear less inspired than yesterday, but I was super happy with the show. The spacey introduction to Jack Straw caught me by surprise – I didn't expect a space jam to evolve into that standard! Loser was a solid choice for a hot Sunday afternoon, and Friend of the Devil featured a bunch of amusing teases from the performers (mostly Jason & Stu?) as they tossed riffs from other tunes into the jam: Foolish Heart, Cumberland Blues, Revival (Allman Brothers), and others all appeared as flavors in the musical stew.
The segue from Estimated Prophet into Touch of Grey was another interesting bit: it was obvious that they weren't going into Eyes of the World, but the destination remained uncertain for a minute or two. I love it when I find myself somewhere off the map out in undiscovered territory as a listener! Must have sent my attention way out somewhere into the ether, as I didn't notice that Graham had swapped back to SG until sometime during the Wheel. Need to go back and review Ting's pictures to see when that happened!
New Speedway Boogie was jammed out in all sorts of directions, and at one point I thought I heard Jason and Stu tossing licks from Jeff Beck's Freeway Jam back and forth. That would be an interesting mash-up to work out more thoroughly, eh? That one ended, and as the band regrouped for the next choice, Phil commented, “Let's rock out some more!”, which got me thinking that Let It Rock or Mystery Train would be next, but instead they surprised me with a jaunty take on Franklin's Tower, trading the lead vocal with every verse. Franklin's would down at the end into a somewhat whispy, tenuous trace – the four winds about to blow us safely home? – and then the guys modulated into Shakedown Street: another surprise move! Nice to dance to wrap things up today with that groovy funk. Sock it to me one more time for the road!
Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!
Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!
Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2021 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2021 event list! ☸ On to the next event!