no other songs tucked into it between verses). And yes, gentlemen, I do “thank you for a real good time,” once again! “Viola Lee Blues” was a nice late-set surprise, and unlike most of the versions I’ve seen in recent years, this one was self-contained (i.e. I thought the “Loose Lucy” dragged a bit because of Bob’s insistence on stretching out the spaces between each vocal line, but once it got to the choruses, it soared. handled “Candyman” nicely (though I can’t say he made me truly believe “that the Candyman’s in town”). The “Shakedown” was solid and funky the “Jack Straw” was beautifully developed in the middle I love the more Merl Haggard-ized “Mama Tried” they’ve been playing for a while and John K. For my money, they could have been turned up much more in the mix, ’cause this group, great as it is, still needs help in the vocal area, and these women are ready, willing and able to provide that support. And they sounded great, filling out the group’s vocal sound on most songs-when you could hear them. I called the “Shakedown” opener (thank you, thank you) and immediately my eyes were drawn to the right side of the stage (do we call it “the John side” now?) and… WTF? Somehow, in the reports of the previous night’s show, my friends had neglected to tell me that there are now a pair of ladies singing with the band! Wow! Their names are Zoe Ellis-the sister of original RatDog sax ace Dave Ellis and a veteran of the Phil & Friends lineup featuring Jorma Kaukonen a million years ago-and Sunshine Garcia Becker, no relation to either Sunshine Kesey or Jerry Garcia. I’ve seen it more crowded, for sure-in fact I’ve seen it obscenely crowded-but this definitely looked like there wasn’t room for many more to squeeze in there comfortably. The place filled up slowly, but considering the show started 40 minutes late ( tsk, tsk), by the time the music started, it was packed from the side of the floor up to the rafters. Man, I can remember stressing over trying to save something like 16 seats for my crowd at Dead shows now we’re down to a Power Trio? Oh well, their loss. I managed to land a nice spot for my group of three in the back row of the loge, behind the soundboard. The weather gods were with us this year-it was cool but clear both nights no rain in sight, and people seemed remarkably easy-going from what I could see (which is not always the case on New Year’s Eve, to say the least). Photo: Dave Clark / © 2009 I did hear about the Furthur show on the 30th from friends who attended, and every report was glowing, so I didn’t go into New Year’s with the completely blank slate I’d hoped to-but all the better to not wish for “Scarlet-Fire” and “China Cat-Rider” and a few of the other great songs they played at that show. The New Year comes in at the Bill Graham Civic in SF. That’s right, I also didn’t go to the show on the 30th, opting instead to see Jackie Greene and Jemimah Puddleduck (featuring Mark Karan) at the intimate Great American Music Hall that night instead-an awesome show as it turned out. Now, I did something I’ve almost never done since the early ’80s-I intentionally didn’t follow what the group played on the East Coast or the Masonic Hall because I thought it would be more fun to be surprised when I got to Civic on New Year’s Eve. Playing a handful of well-received dates on the East Coast during early and mid-December, then tuning up for New Year’s with a couple of “stealth” shows at the tiny Mill Valley Masonic Hall, the band went into the Bill Graham Civic shows with a good head of steam-it’s great to see everyone looking so relaxed and happy, and speaking for myself, it’s delightful to see the group playing in smaller venues than the mega-halls that The Dead played in last spring. This band has got the goods, for sure, and they definitely seem to be on a roll. OK, I think we can officially say that the “show me” phase of Furthur’s trial period is over.
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