23rd Psalm Majordomo

Nice to have you back boys

Two nights ago I had the fortune thanks to lifetime Eagles fan, season ticket holder and Curly R reader/lurker Wilbert Montgomery to attend the Dead show at MCI Center Verizon Center in downtown Washington DC. We got prime parking right down the block and took in the sights and sounds of the nearest thing to a Grateful Dead show in Washington since RFK in 1995.

It was great, a departure from a classic Dead show, I guess that is not surprising since it is almost fifteen years later, the energy in the venue ebbed at times and the stage set and sound were not what I would have expected from a show back in the day.

There were some interesting moments, the show starting the minute the boys took the stage without as much as a tuneup, Warren Haynes' vocals sounding eerily like Brent Mydland's, the acoustic mini set, Space and Drums being inverted and separated, and some songs the Grateful Dead never or rarely played in their time. The show can be streamed or downloaded from the Archive here. Before the show the band met with president Obama at the White House, dose anyone else wonder what they talked about?

Oh and Frank Zappa rolled over in his grave when none other than Tipper Gore came out and played percussion with the band near the end of the show. If you have no idea what I am talking about then you are too young to remember the PMRC. The setlist:

First set
Cassidy
Passenger
Pride of Cucamonga
Easy Wind
Lazy River Road
Alabama Getaway
Big Railroad Blues

Second set
Peggy-O (acoustic)
Glory Road (acoustic)
A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall (acoustic)
Space >
Dark Star (first verse) >
King Solomon's Marbles >
Drums >
Come Together >
Dark Star (second verse) >
Sugar Magnolia / Sunshine Daydream

Encore
Uncle John's Band >
Ripple


Thanks to Wilbert Montgomery for a great evening. I miss Jerry Garcia.



Photo by me.