Furthur 2000 with Ziggy and Marley & the Melody Makers and The Other Ones

September 4, 2000

Pine Knob Music Theatre

Clarkston, MI

Last night I went up to Pine Knob Music theatre to catch the band, the Other Ones which is essentially what the Grateful Dead morphed into when Jerry Garcia died in 1995. Despite my infatuation with the Dead, I had gone over three years without seeing any Dead member perform and it had been a long dry spell for me. I really missed the unique feeling you get at a Dead family show. From the parking lot scene to being lost in the middle of some huge cascading jam. I had real high hopes for this show and I had been looking forward to it for months.

I showed up at Pine Knob early to check out the parking lot and soak up the scene. It had been a chilly day. All week had been hot and sticky, but when I woke up Labor Day morning, the heat had broken and there was a hint of the autumn that is just around the corner. I started walking around the lot and I couldn't help but smile as I was immediately offered a beer for sale. I accepted and walked around checking out the food, jewelry, t-shirts and other various wares for sale. I passed an enormous drum circle on my way to the gate. There were probably 30 drummers playing drums of every size and shape with a huge crowd gathered around them. Overall the scene was a lot smaller than the Dead's scene at its peak, but one of the problems with the Dead scene near the end was that had gotten too big. This seemed about right and had a great spirit to it.

I got into the theatre, stopped at the Grateful Dead Mercantile booth to pick up the new Steve Kimock Band album and then found my seat. I had lucked out and was in about the 14th row, right in the center with a great view of the stage. My excitement was mounting as the opening act Ziggy Marley and the Melody makers took the stage. Ziggy had about 10 or 11 people up there with him including some of his siblings and they started right into "Small Axe" which is a great, but relatively unknown Bob Marley tune. Ziggy and Company conjured the spirit of Bob up, but still made the song their own. I love that tune too. "If you are the big tree, then we are the small axe, sharpened to chop you down". Definitely, revolution music. The crowd was small at first, but soon the pavillion filled up and everybody was on their feet dancing. Ziggy turned out to be a great warm up for the main attraction. There is a huge cross over between reggae fans and Deadheads and Ziggy got everybody moving in the cool evening air. The band was tight and Ziggy shared vocals with his brother Stephen and both of them look and sound so much like their father that it is eerie. They had three back-up singers who were really awesome too. They had handled the back-up and occasional lead vocals beautifully and had some fly dance moves and outfits to boot. They worked their way through a set of songs including "Uncle Sam", "One Good Spliff" and "Could You Be Loved". At the end of the set about five Marely grand kids came on stage and danced around the band. One kid in particular who was about 7 or 8 was mugging the spotlight and looks to be the next heir to the Marley throne. The band left the stage too soon to a wave of applause and good vibes. I hit the bathrooms in preparation for what I knew would be a long set by the Other Ones.

At about 8:00 the band meandered on stage quietly. That is one thing I always loved about the Dead. They didn't drop on to stage on ropes wearing capes or blowing fire out of their mouths. They just sort of appeared on stage one by one and picked up their instruments. The band started tuning up. When Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann climbed up on the drum riser behind their huge complex of percussion instruments, the crowd went wild, ecstatic about the return of the Rhythm Devils to the concert stage. Kreutzmann had been laying low in Hawaii for the last five years since Garcia died and this tour marked the return of the Hart-Kreutzmann one-two punch.

Keyboardist, Bruce Hornsby played a crazy little ditty at top speed on piano to warm up his cold fingers. Soon rhythm guitarist Bob Weir looked around at the band to signal the beginning of the opening song which was "Truckin". The band ripped into the groove of this archetypal Dead song and the crowd went nuts, Bobby hit most of the lyrics in time with Hornsby and guitarist, mark Karan sharing the back up vocals. The crowd was now a familiar sea of dancers. There is something so gratifying about singing "What a Long Strange Trip it's Been" at the top of your lungs with 8,000 other people. As the band entered the jam at the end of "Truckin'" it was obvious to me that this was really a band and not just a collection of musicians thrown together. They weaved around the "Truckin'" rhythm for awhile with guitarist, Steve Kimock hitting some sweet notes. Soon the music evolved and grew darker and more ominous sounding. Weir and Kimock began throwing the distinctive beat of "The Other One" into the mix. At one point Kimock walked behind Karan and bassist, Alphonso Johnson to get closer to Weir and lock eyes with him to create their musical palette. The jam reached a fever pitch with everybody wailing and then Weir went into the first verse, "Spanish Lady Come to Me…"

The crowd was going crazy at this point and after the first verse of "The Other One" and a bit more jamming the band slowed down, executing a perfect segue into "Loser", A Hunter/Garcia tune about an outlaw gambler, now sung by Bruce Hornsby. This has always been one of my favorite Dead songs and Hornsby really did it justice. The jam in the middle was great with both Karan and Kimock taking turns soloing before the band finally brought the song to a huge finish leaving the crowd gasping for breath.

Next Mickey came up t o the front of the drum riser as Kimock and the rest of the band began playing Mickey's ode to fallen heroes "Down the Road". Kimock played a cool introduction on slide guitar that was reminiscent of something you would hear on an Allman Brothers album. Mickey sang/rapped the Robert Hunter penned lyrics about the legacies of Robert Kennedy, Joe Hill, John Lennon and Jerry Garcia. I originally saw Mickey play this tune with his band Mystery Box and it became a favorite of mine right away. The last verse about Garcia always gets me too, no mater how many times I hear it. As they ended the song, Hornsby led them into a great vocal jam based around the chorus of the song. Mickey, Mark and Bob all joined in the gospel rave-up. This part of the show really reminded of some vocal jams I had seen Phish do in the past. It was obvious that the bad was having a really good time here too.

Next up Weir started into the intro to another Hunter/Garcia chestnut, 'Shakedown Street". This comes from the late seventies and is a disco/funk work out that always gets the crowd going. The band pulled it off very well. Kimock and Karan relished the funky leads and Weir laid down lots of cool wah wah-like rhythm. I am constantly impressed by Bob Weir's guitar playing. He just plays so uniquely and creatively. The crowd sang along to all the verses of "Shakedown Street" and was dancing hard as Bobby pulled off another great segueway into "The Music Never Stopped" which drove the crowd to another peak of excitement. The band nailed the changes and the jam was inspired and tight. This song is so symbolic of the Dead and their whole scene and I found myself getting goose bumps during "The Music Never Stopped" line.

Next up, everybody left the stage except for Weir and Karan who both strapped on acoustic guitars. Weir looked over at Karan mischievously and began to strum the intro to his cowboy polka, "Mexicali Blues". It was cool to see this song in an acoustic setting. Weir's voice was strong and he nailed the lines perfectly. Karan can play really cool country licks and he shined throughout the song. About halfway through Hornsby came back on stage with his white accordion and played a solo or two. Next Alphonso came back out to play his big, red, stand-up bass and Billy got back behind his drum set for a very Bluegrassy "Friend of the Devil" which featured a great solo by Mark Karan.

The rest of the band came back to the stage and went back to electric instruments as Hornsby played the intro to his eighties hit, "The Way it Is". I had been a fan of this song before I even heard of the Dead so it was weird to see it played in this context. I had always wondered how the Dead would have treated this song during Hornsby's tenure in the band, but they never tackled it. Now I found out. The song was given a more powerful arrangement and the guitar players led a huge psychedelic jam with hints of "the Other One" in it during the middle of the song. The band was clearly improvising and listening closely to each other. Hornsby was stretching the song out as much as he could and him and Kimock really locked up during the jams. At one point it looked like Bobby was trying to bring the band into something else, maybe a full scale "Other One" reprise when Hornsby pulled them back into "The Way It Is".

As the jam wound down, Billy and Mickey beat out an aggressive rhythm signaling the beginning of "Drums". Alphonso stayed out while everybody else except the drummers left the stage. The rhythm section was obviously having a great time jamming and Alphonso was all smiles as he also left and gave way to the Rhythm Devils. The drums segment was very intense for me. It was good to hear these two men who are sort of like Siamese twins of drumming back together. They took the percussion really far out there this night and the crowd was into to it. I realized that the Hart /Kreutzmann rhythm is with me always, setting the beat for my stride, pushing air in and out of my lungs and pumping my heart. I have listened to these guys play so much that I have internalized their beat and it has become part of my own personal rhythm. Sounds goofy I know, but I swear it is true.

As drums wound down, Bruce and Alphonso came back out, Billy left and Mickey came up front with a hand drum. Hornsby and Alphonso played a beautiful piano/bass duet for awhile before segueing into Bruce's song about faith, "Preacher in the Ring". Mickey beat out a subtle rhythm, while Alphonso played the bass lines and Steve Kimock joined too, playing some understated slide guitar. It was a cool moment seeing the band breakdown into smaller components.

The rest of the band came back out and they all started some free form jamming that Weir brought into "The Wheel". It was great to see this one live again too and the band played a nice version of it that melded back into an intense "Other One" reprise featuring the second verse. The jam out of this one got pretty crazy too with Alphonso taking a cool bass solo right before Weir started playing the chords to "Sugar Magnolia". The crowd was into this one too and the band played it very loud. Karan had some great leads on this one and everybody was singing as it led into the "Sunshine Daydream" ending. I actually saw Bruce play his piano with is right foot during this part. The song came to an explosive ending and the band left the stage to huge applause. I think they were fighting the curfew because they came right back on and Bruce started playing the intro to "Black Muddy River". This is the last song I ever saw Garcia sing and it was the last song he sang in public. It has been five years since I saw that last Dead show at Soldier Field and over 10 years since I saw my first Dead show. I had no idea how much either of those events would change my life.

I came to this show hoping to recapture some of that old feeling. If you have been there and "got it" you know that it is the best feeling in the world. The Grateful Dead world has been in some turmoil since Garcia died, but the Grateful Dead or whatever you want to call it is bigger than Jerry, Bob, Mickey, or Bill. It's bigger than Phil or Alphonso. It's bigger than Bruce or Vince. It's bigger than the Zen Tricksters, the Dark Star Orchestra or even Phish. It is an underground beast that enters our dimension when conjured by the right shamans. It's pure energy and it's like catching lightning in a bottle. I came to the show to see if the beast was still alive and I am happy to say that, yes, it is still alive and I think that it kicked a hole in the stable door last night.