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RUST NEVER SLEEPS…
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We were excited and a bit rusty tonight…everybody is a little nervous. This is shakedown day. After 3 weeks of rehearsal it’s show time and we are on the edge.
Saint Stephen is a good way to start the festivities, it sets the pace. The transitions between songs were hard to find. I think our excitement to get back to the music was overwhelming in the sense that we couldn’t quite relax and let the music fully happen on its own power, but great spirit and smiles all around. It was as if we were wrestling with the mighty beast again and the score was not in our favor totally. It was a split decision in my view. We now officially begin our road testing ritual. How to find the rhythm of the night, the pace, the flow. The conversation begins. You never really could rehearse Grateful Dead music as it was something that happened in the moment, and this is what we all look forward to, this is what it is all about.
The new guys include Jimmy on guitar, Rob on keys and Jeff on organ. I call him Jeff Sally, (I call him Sally because he can ride that b3 something fierce and that is his road name to me). They were feeling their way as well. They played with great sensitivity and passion. I feel that Billy and I are playing better than ever and the tractor beam is back in business, the rhythm devils are hungry and lookin’ for trouble.
A new treatment of Only The Strange Remain tonight with feed-back in the beginning and all through the solo middle section, then at the end as Bobby chants, “In the deep heart of silence, the strange remain, in the deep heart of silence the strange remain”. This is the way I have always imagined it, but never had been able to relate it o the others. Hunter loves it so much, he rushes into our dressing room after the set and gives me a big hug.
We use Viola Lee Blues as a jumping off point tonight. It keeps coming back every now and then. We run out of time at the end as the curfew closes in, so we drop Cosmic Charlie from the encore and save it for DC.
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