Phil Lesh, Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz, Ross James & Jordan Levine
2014-06-15
Terrapin Crossroads Bar
100 Yacht Club Drive, San Rafael, CA
4:00 PM, Sunday, June 15, 2014

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[4:10 PM Jordan at his traps; Lebo and Ross walking around]
[4:14 PM Phil out to noodle, ready to go!]

1. [4:17 PM] Detroit Turnaround (RJ)
2. [4:21 PM] I Wanna Feel It (L)
3. [4:27 PM] I Feel the Earth Move (L)
4. [4:36 PM] Been All Around This World (RJ)
5. [4:43 PM] Father and Daughter (L)
6. [4:51 PM] Quinn the Eskimo (RJ)
7. [4:58 PM] That's All Right (L)
8. [5:07 PM] Learning to Fly $ (RJ)
9. [5:15 PM] Scarlet Begonias (L) »
10. [5:26 PM] the Other One (PL) »
11. [5:36 PM] the Harder They Come (L) »
12. [5:40 PM] Scarlet Begonias coda
13. [5:43 PM] Sugaree (L)
    [5:52 PM thanks, announcements, band introduction; all off 5:53 PM, no encore]

• Ross James: guitar, pedal steel guitar, lead vox;
• Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz: acoustic guitar, $ lap steel guitar, vox;
• Phil Lesh: bass, lead and harmony vox;
• Jordan Levine: drums.

What a nice time in the bar this afternoon! We pushed over through sluggish Sunday afternoon traffic to arrive about quarter til four, just in time to walk into the bar and find friends offering a spare seat at the front-right table. Perfect! So we hung out visiting while the band got their shit together, and 30 min later it was showtime!

The setlist today was refreshingly different – hardly any of the hoary old chestnuts were played – making for a loose and casual Sunday sound. Just the thing for a lazy afternoon. The crowd was different too. LOTS of families – parents, kids and pets of all generations mixed up with the usual crowd of freaks. Everyone seemed to be in a pretty good mood, though the Giants' late-game collapse for the third time in three days definitely cast a shadow across the faces of those trying to follow both the game AND the show.

I thought it was interesting that despite the smaller group, the guitar players didn't really step up to rage as much as I'd expected. Not sure if that was a deliberate group decision, instructions from the boss on bass, or just reflection of the Sunday feeling.

Although it didn't bother me too much, Ting thought that Ross' speak-singing delivery on the Mighty Quinn ruined the tune. “Why can't he just sing it normally?” was her exasperated comment as the tune ended. My guess is that he was “trying on” Dylan's recent croaky style just for the heck of it.

The Other One featured Phil's less obvious approximation of the same vocal style, coupled with half-time delivery – as has been his wont of late. Jordan seemed a little flummoxed by the three against four rhythms – seemed to me that he kept shifting his beat to try and catch up (or fall back) into sync when the whole point is to create tension by staying out of sync 11/12 of the time. Or maybe I'm just being picky and over-analytical. Whatever. It was OK; would have benefitted from at least one rumbling bass run or a bit more screaming guitar. Following up with The Harder They Come was a great choice – it's nice to see Phil continue to appropriate tunes from the JGB repertoire – but listening to the final segue into the Scarlet Begonias coda was like watching a train wreck in slow motion: First you noticed the obstruction and said “Holy Crap!” Then you noticed the consternation on the faces of the folks driving the train (in this case, Phil, looking kinda pissed, and Jordan, first looking flummoxed as he missed change after change, then terrified, as if he thought Phil might be planning to whack hip upside the head with his custom Ritter carbon fiber bass billy club. Lebo and Ross seemed to take this all in with amusement, but I'll ding them both for laying back instead of chiming in with a lead of some sort to better establish where the beat was headed. Complaining again, no not really, just yacking about the show… I'm sure I'll be back for more soon enough!

Back to the previous event ☸ Back to the 2014 yearbox ☸ Back to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!