Playa Luna Presents' PITS '23! featuring Dead & Company
Moon Palace Beach Stage
Carretera Cancun - Chetumal KM 36.5, Cancún, QROO 77500 MEX
5:00 PM, Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

PITS 23 promo poster

[5:16 PM] {performers out}

1. [5:17 PM] Cold, Rain, and Snow (JM)
2. [5:26 PM] Cassidy (BW)
3. [5:41 PM] High Time (OB)
4. [5:50 PM] Mississippi Half-step Uptown Toodle-oo (BW)
5. [6:04 PM] Sugaree (JM)
6. [6:18 PM] the Wheel » [6:32 PM] »
7. [6:35 PM] New Speedway Boogie (BW+JM)
   [6:46 PM] {set ends}

[7:38 PM] {lights down, performers out, noodling away; Jay Lane out instead of BK, no MH either. Weird!}

1. [7:40 PM] China Cat Sunflower (BW) » [7:45 PM] {add MH} » [7:47 PM] {swap BK/JL} » {BK sparks a new, higher energy jam} »
2. [7:49 PM] I Know You Rider »
3. [7:59 PM] He's Gone (BW+JM) > (Jay Lane back in for BK; missed the swap cuz I was dancing with my eyes closed) » [8:13 PM] {BK back in; JL over at JC's organ bench for a minute, then off} »
4. [8:14 PM] Help on the Way (JM) » [8:18 PM] Slipknot! »
5. [8:28 PM] Franklin's Tower (JM) [8:38 PM] {full stop}
6. [8:38 PM] Drums » {add AT right away; MH & BK swap back rigs} » [8:40 PM] {MH at beam briefly, setting up a loop or two, then back whomping on the back rig} » [8:41 PM] {add OB at BK's kit briefly; OB off to gather drumsticks, then back on again} » [8:43 PM] {MH leaves in a snit – waving angrily at sound tech a few times, then heading off stage) » [8:44 PM] {MH back on stage again} » {with everyone pounding on the big drums together, it's getting very loud!} » [8:46 PM] {all off but MH; MH back at beam} » [8:50 PM] {MH off, the beam drone goes 3D, swirling around us; add front four performers} » Space » [8:55 PM] {BK ready to launch, hanging at the bottom of the steps to his kit} » [8:56 PM] {BK in the saddle, MH back soon afterwards} » [8:56 PM] The Other One jam (very s-l-o-w) » {OB comes in with a bass blast!} »
7. [9:02 PM] the Other One » [9:07 PM] {1st verse, half time delivery} » jam » [9:13 PM] {2nd verse} »
8. [9:14 PM] Standing on the Moon (BW) >
9. [9:25 PM] Not Fade Away
   [9:34 PM] {band off, aud chants for awhile, then loses the thread; set ends}
   
   Encore
   [9:35 PM] {everone back for more; teasin'}
10. [9:36 PM] U.S. Blues (BW+JM)
    {Stop for JM to negotiate with BW!}
11. [9:42 PM] Sunshine Daydream (BW) »
12. [9:48 PM] Brokedown Palace
    [9:53 PM] {show ends, line up photos, fireworks over the water along the beach}

Dead & Company

• Oteil Burbridge: bass, lead & harmony vox;
• Jeff Chimenti: piano, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards, harmony vox;
• Mickey Hart: drums;
• Bill Kreutzmann: drums;
• John Mayer: guitar, lead & harmony vox;
• Bobby Weir: guitar, acoustic guitar, lead & harmony vox.
• Ben Atkind: drums, percussion;
• Jay Lane: drums, percussion.

For today's lottery: 314 bands handed out; 286 wins… That makes me #56, yay!

[2:56 PM] All lined up and ready to pass ticketing & security.

[3:26 PM] Done with entry protocols, now queuing on the sand. More waiting!

[3:45 PM] We're in the spot: dead center, about 10 feet back. Perfect! Probably could have gotten a wide rail spot, but I'm not much interested in being outside the center zone established by Mayer on one side and Burbridge on the other. There are four of us in the 'first' wave in: Tracy, Mira, Tamar and myself, and we quickly set up a two-person wide rectangle stretching backwards far enough to accomodate the other four folks who will join us once the rest of the line has been admitted. Goal!

[4:20 PM] Time to celebrate good friends! Where's David and Kaila?

[4:30 PM] Between the light breeze and the shade created by folks standing up around us, my preshow experience is very fine today. Brian and I enjoy chatting. Seems like a mellow crowd around us.

[5:00 PM] Time for a piss break! I'm worried when I stand up that I'm starting off too late, as I notice Oteil standing off on side stage, but satisfaction of the quest is more important than being inside for the first note! My journey begins!

[5:05 PM] Back in the spot, whew! Mission accomplished. The natives are getting restless now, whistling and hooting when anyone shows up onstage. I think I'm gonna sit back down since we have space.

[5:13 PM] The rowdies in the crowd make an attempt at building a sustained chant: “Bobby, Bobby, Bobby…” when Weir appears. Their hollering is disrupted when Billy appears on stage and waves as he takes his throne in the drum rig. The crowd goes wild and roars in greeting back to Bill.

While it might be well-matched to the calendar for January shows, Cold, Rain, and Snow is less well matched to the benign weather we've been having here in Cancun for the past few days. High around 80 F, lows in the 60's, and light breezes? Hard to knock that!

[5:25 PM] Full stop. Feedback from somewhere or something had come and gone several times during the opener, but we don't see any obvious move to get it fixed onstage. Chimenti looks annoyed… maybe it's been screeching through his in-ear monitors too?

Cassidy is delivered as a positively torpid pace. 'Flight of the sea birds'? Birds trying to fly that slow would plummet like stones from a sling shot on Mars. More faster next time, please!

[5:40 PM] Another full stop. The feedback is all gone now, that's good!

High Time is also really slow, but that's more on par with my expectation, and I'm happy to hear Oteil singing another song this weekend. Half-step isn't too slow, but the pacing remains languid, like the lazy river-oh.

[6:03PM] Yet another full stop. It's turning out that this is one of those shows.

Sugaree is a welcome jolt. It's not fast today, but Mayer brings more energy to the song, and as a crowd favorite, that energy helps too. At thirteen minutes duration

[6:17 PM] And another stop. Bob swaps guitars (was playing a gold ?Les Paul? or Ibanez? Now he's on a brown telecaster. What'll it be boys? The Wheel? Sweet, even if it's paced lethargically. Much more interesting when they veer into a reggae jam on the way out.

Tempo-wise, New Speedway Boogie is a nice step up and the crowd singalong at the end is a good way to wrap up today's first set. Must be time for tacos and margaritas!

Ting surprises me with a chocolate-carmel-dipped ice cream bar, wow! Makes my fish taco dinner a paltry second choice in the what-do-I-ear-first contest! This dessert is possibly the best thing I've eaten the whole weekend. Yum!

[7:22 PM] The crowd is getting thick again. Hopefully the energy stays good. I'm not interested in being a border patrol agent or policeman for folks who don't know how to behave.

Eventually the band reconvenes for set two. Within a few seconds it's clear that China Cat Sunflower will be the opener, but Jay Lane is on Billy's throne, and Mickey is missing too. What's going on with our drummers? The rest of the guys keep teasing, and eventually settle into a very languid pace for the opener. Mickey arrives about five minutes later – nice of you to show up for work today sir! Billy shows up a few minutes later and executes a suave on-the-fly seat-swap with Jay. Wonder if they practiced that before. Bill immediately injects a bit more energy into the tune, elevating our flow on into I Know You Rider.

Billy and Jay perform their swap trick twice more during He's Gone. I'm dancing with my eyes closed at this point, and the transition is seamless enough that I don't notice Bill is gone until I happen to look up. Good work, I guess. Bill is back a few minutes later, and this time, instead of walking off stage, Jay squeezes himself onto Jeff Chimenti's B-3 bench, joking as if he's going to start playing there before he departs when the tune ends. Too funny!

What's this? They're going into Help on the Way? Hot damn! Unfortunately, the pace has been dialed back again, and Slipknot! ends up being a timing exercise – stay in sync everyone – instead of a blazing run of wonder.

[8:38 PM] Franklin's Tower ends with a full stop after the usual coda. Guess the old guys need a breather, even though the previous run wasn't particularly rapid. I'm alright with that: no need to induce cardiac arrest!

When Space begins, the groove very quickly morphs into a very s-l-o-w jam on The Other One. Not a Spanish jam, more of a slinky, mysterious space. For me it was an effective aural sculpture of something that will soon tremble and explode … the explosion being Oteil's bass run that kicks off the Other One proper. Note to pedants: Oteil didn't play the classic Lesh riff, but something different.

It was kind of funny to see Bobby posing and looking up at the dark night sky during Standing on the Moon because the moon wasn't visible at the time of performance. Nonetheless, Bobby's theatrics were effective enough that it got audience members turning around too!

Like other tunes this weekend, Not Fade Away was delivered at a plodding tempo. I'm sorry guys, but it's no fun if you can't actually dance: can we get a bit more energy from y'all?

While it wasn't much surprise to get Sunshine Daydream, the extended encore was a nice treat: I'd consider both U.S. Blues and Brokedown Palace as unexpected treats (given that I figured they were angling to end on SSDD. Thanks guys!

Might as well start with a gripe: whoever decided that shooting off fireworks over the beach so that you need to leave the stage area to watch is an evil genius.

[10:20 PM] Enjoying the parade of freaks in the Sunrise lobby while we sort out our post-show plan. It turns out that Ting is trying to meet up with a jewelry vendor she's met through Facebook. The buffet is overflowing with hungry folks, and the bar area is similarly filled with a loud and thirsty crowd.

David and I parley, and quickly decide that a retreat to the pool bar outside will be better for casual conversation. We get drinks, then retire to poolside lounge chairs.

Kaila announces that she'd like to take a swim, and we end up moving to the huge diamond hot tub area where the water is a trifle warmer. Eventually the staff come by to tell us that the pool is closed, but not before David and Kaila finish their evening splash.

Good times!! Hopefully we'll have similar adventures in the future.

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!