On Friday evening, Phil Lesh & Friends continued their weekend run of recreating well-known Grateful Dead concerts from over the years with the second of three shows as part of their “On This Day In Dead History” series. Last night’s performance featured Lesh and his rotating band dialing back the rock clocks to play the entire two sets and encore from the Dead’s November 16th, 1978 performance at Chicago’s Uptown Theater in honor of the show’s 40th anniversary. The concert from inside the Grate Room at Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads venue in San Rafael, CA on Friday took place just two nights after he recreated a Grateful Dead show from 11/14/87 on Wednesday, so expectations were high for what the band would deliver this time around.
Similar to their performance two nights prior, Lesh once again took the stage alongside guitarists Anders Osborne and Stu Allen, keyboardist Steve Molitz and Nathan Graham on drums, along with the addition of Elliott Peck on vocals for the night. The show began with some early Dead favorites in “New Minglewood Blues” and “Dire Wolf” as per the original setlist from 1978, before going into “Me & My Uncle” > “Big River”. The show continued with the band moving through updated versions of “They Love Each Other”, “Looks Like Rain”, and “Brown Eyed Women”, before eventually closing out the lengthy 11-song set with energizing renditions of “Dancing In The Street” > “Deal”.
Phil Lesh & Friends – “Dancing In The Street” – 11/16/18
[Video: nowiknowuryder]
Set two would begin with Phil & Friends diving right into the timeless pairing of “Scarlett Begonias” > “Fire On The Mountain”, with Stu Allen and Elliott Peck sharing vocal duties on the first tune. It’s worth noting that the performance of “Fire On The Mountain” during the original 1978 performance took place just after it appeared on their then-newly-released Shakedown Street LP, which arrived in record stores just one day prior to the Chicago concert. “Fire” would be the only song from Shakedown Street played during the show, as they continued with “Samson & Delilah” and “He’s Gone” before heading into the psychedelic-friendly “Drums” > “Space”. The set would ultimately conclude with “Black Peter” > “Truckin'” before they returned for a one-song encore of “U.S. Blues”.
Phil Lesh & Friends – Terrapin Crossroads – 11/16/18
[Video: Nugs.net]
Fans can tune into the audio recorded by a taper during the Dead’s original 1978 performance to see how Phil Lesh & Friends’ show on Friday stacked up in comparison. Lesh has yet to reveal which famous Dead performance he and his friends will be revisiting when they close out their history-based series on Sunday night. There are a few options for which November 18th show they might want to pick from, including a now well-known concert from the Hofheinz Pavilion in Houston, Texas in 1972, which was later released as an official album on Black Friday in 2014.
Grateful Dead – 11/16/78 – Full Audio
[Audio: Uploaded by Jonathan Aizen]
Setlist: Phil Lesh & Friends | Terrapin Crossroads | San Rafael, CA | 11/16/18
Set One: New Minglewood Blues, Dire Wolf, Me & My Uncle > Big River, They Love Each Other, Looks Like Rain, Brown Eyed Women, Beat It On Down The Line, Stagger Lee, Dancing In The Street > Deal
Set Two: Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain, Samson & Delilah, He’s Gone > Drums > Space > Black Peter > Truckin’
Encore: U.S. Blues
[H/T JamBase]