It got fiery on the bayou last night as Oteil Burbridge, bassist for Dead & Company and The Allman Brothers Band, joined George Porter Jr., Ivan Neville, Papa Mali, Ian Neville, and a stage full of funk stars for an extended take on the Grateful Dead classic “Eyes Of the World” at New Orleans’ Howlin’ Wolf. On hand during the evening were also DJ Logic, Barry Sless, Kris Royal, Terrence Houston, Terence Higgins, and a number of other special guests.
Last fall, when John Mayer became ill, Dead & Company was forced to cancel a few dates toward the end of their tour, including their highly anticipated New Orleans show. With Dead & Company’s rescheduled NOLA show going down tonight on February 24th, in the true spirit of “the show must go on,” local promoters threw together a wild replacement show last night with several of the musical mecca’s best players to give visiting Dead fans something to do.
On Friday night, BenJammin, Silverback Productions, John Phillips, and The Howlin’ Wolf decided to throw “Busted Down On Tchoupitoulas St., Part II.” The show partially functioned as a fashion exhibit, with a mix of the latest in officially licensed Grateful Dead apparel modeled by runway veterans—plus artists, including Oteil—and some incredible jams by a number of all-star musicians. The event also doubled as a fundraiser for the New Orleans Musicians Clinic, which provides much needed medical attention to members of New Orleans incredibly talented performing community.
We’ll have a full review of the show, including pictures of the fashion and more videos of the incredible music for you tomorrow. For now, Live For Live Music’s own videographer at Rex-A-Vision managed to get the spectacular footage of Oteil’s sit-in during “Eyes of the World”. Check out the melodic mayhem below!
Â