Show Review

Following their headlining performance at the three-day-long 2nd annual Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where over 80,000 heads danced in tribute, the Virginia Beach crowd was much smaller, but it did its best to rise to the occasion along with the band. The amphitheater sold out its 7,500 seats and what appeared to be at least 75 percent of its rain-soaked, 12,500-person lawn.

Steve Winwood, of Traffic fame, warmed the crowd with hits like “Back in the High Life Again,” where he got to showcase his mandolin skills, and a delicious organ jam on “Dear Mr. Fantasy.” His voice was fine-tuned as always.

The pre-Dead set break buzzed with sunburned stories of Bonnaroo. Manchester, Tennessee demanded a 13-hour drive between the festival and the Virginia Beach show, but many dedicated fans rose to the challenge after a tiring weekend. Sometimes you have to have priorities. Coming from the the-stage-is-somewhere-on-the-horizon setting of Bonnaroo’s 500-acre expanse, to locking into Bobby and Phil’s eyes was the icing on the musical cake and made the long journey all worth it.

The Dead is not the Grateful Dead, but it’s close. Singer/guitar master Jerry Garcia died in 1995, ending any touring hopes for the Grateful Dead and their fans, the nicknamed Deadheads. The remaining members formed side bands to fill their time. Phil Lesh has Phil and Friends, featuring axe man Warren Haynes, and Bob Weir has Ratdog. Mickey Hart continued his world percussion exploration with Planet Drum and Bill Kreutzman backs The Trichromes. Though Dead fans came in groves to support their heroes’ side bands as well as the various incarnations of arena-sized The Other Ones, in 2002 the Terrapin reunion shows held at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin truly signaled that a new chapter was about to be written. In early 2003, the band adopted the name The Dead, in tribute to its time-tested career, the Deadheads themselves and the reincarnated form they live as.

Weir still plays rhythm guitar, Lesh provides the skipping bass lines and percussionists Hart and Kreutzman team to provide all of the bangs and crashes necessary to set the pounding rhythms. They haven’t lost a beat.

Standing in for Jerry Garcia at lead guitar is recent Phil and Friends and The Other Ones finger man Jimmy Herring. He has a few years under his belt now with the band members and the mesh seems to be complete. Yeah, he’s no Jerry, but then who is? Herring doesn’t sing and he’s less exploratory than Garcia, perhaps a conscious effort not to sound too much like Jerry or intrude on territory already marked. He’s an excellent guitarist though, who has the gift of hitting those crescendos during the band’s trademarked jams and plays the standard chord progressions for songs without a hitch.

Building off the welcomed addition of Susan Tedeschi last year, The Dead invited Joan Osborne and her soulful voice to the new mix. Joan’s singing and dancing have added spice to The Dead, culminating with the delicate intricacies of the dual keyboard role performed by Rob Barraco and Jeff Chimenti.

The first set at Va. Beach included crowd favorites “Jack Straw,” “The Wheel,” which Joan made her appearance for, and a sassy jazz packed interpretation of “Crazy Fingers” by Chimenti. Joan appeared timid at first, treading on sacred ground, though a brief glance into the grinning crowd loosened her up as she realized she was already accepted into the family. “Hang your heart on a laughing willow,” Osborne pleaded. Steve Winwood returned to the stage creating a three-man keyboard jam on “Luce Lucy” and on “Promised Land,” Hart stepped from his throne leaving Kreutzman to thump alone. The set finished up with the mind-blowing “Built to Last” and the live rarity “Mason’s Children.”

Rather than as a mid-section breather, the second set surprisingly opened with Hart and Kreutzman cranking out “Drums” that eventually morphed into it‘s typical partner “Space,” however this time without Joan scatting as she had in Tennessee. Weir, on acoustic guitar, easily transitioned into a soothing “Mountains of the Moon” where Phil sang his heart out over Herring and Chimenti’s duel. “Weather Report Suite Prelude” turned into “Part I” and then “Part II” with Weir slashing away at his acoustic all the way. He then traded his acoustic for an electric, while Herring’s guitar screamed and thrashed throughout. The series of songs finished with Phil sprinkling some funk into the air, until Joan walked back on stage and belted a twanged out “It Must Have Been the Roses” to which the crowd responded with a roaring ovation.

Continuing the disco era, the powerhouse “Shakedown Street,” got things really moving before Joan again took the vocals for “Rubin and Cherise,” another rarity. Phil’s ambling bass line reached a frenzy that shot Herring into rock-and-roll overdrive before bringing the rhythm back to a simmer, compared to its previous level at least, for “Uncle Johns Band.” Closing out the set, the band launched into the famous musical trilogy of “Help on the Way” leading into “Slipknot!” and “Franklin’s Tower.”

Mirroring the twirling Deadheads on the lawn, Joan came back on stage for the encore spinning what appeared to be a shirt above her head. A lengthy, jammed-out psychedelic “Aiko-Aiko,” that had the crowd shaking, ended the night. Hart even stood to sing a round.

Oh, to be a touring Deadhead. Safe travels people. Its cliché I know, but “keep on truckin’.” The Dead are back!

Top photo courtesy of Robert Massie