This past Friday night God Street Wine guitarist Aaron Maxwell and bassist Dan Pifer were Reid Genauer’s guests as part of the AOD front man’s venue-opening run at Garcia’s in Port Chester, New York. The bar, which is part of the Capitol Theatre, is named after Jerry Garcia and features Captain Trips memorabilia. Reid was performing with members of Assembly of Dust as well as special guests, which on Friday were Maxwell, Pifer and Yahuba Garcia of the Ryan Montbleau Band.

[All Photos by Andrew Blackstein]

At one point during the second set, AOD (and GSW) multi-instrumentalist Jason Crosby teamed up with Aaron, Dan, Garcia and a drummer for fun takes on God Street Wine’s Waiting For The Tide and Mile By Mile. Video of Waiting For The Tide has surfaced thanks to Joe Madonna…

Here’s more photos from Friday night thanks to Andrew Blackstein…

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Just over four years ago we launched our recurring God Street Wednesdays column with an article titled “Bring Back God Street Wine” begging for the band’s return after ten years of retirement. Unbelievably, we’ve since seen God Street Wine go on to play 17 shows at a variety of venues that include a cruise ship and venues owned by Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. We’re extremely grateful that once again we’ve got a God Street Wine gig in our future, August 3rd at The Capitol Theatre, and with that in mind we’ve brought God Street Wednesdays back.

For today’s God Street Wednesdays post, we set the HT Time Machine for the date August 9th, 2012. On that fateful evening, Winos from around the globe tuned in to watch GSW perform at TRI Studios. When the band took the stage with Princess Henrietta followed by Mile By Mile and Nightingale, a pattern started to emerge. As Thirsty came next it was clear God Street Wine was replicating the track list of their major label debut – $1.99 Romances. GSW tackled their most well-known album song-by-song until they had played the entire 14-track LP. As if that wasn’t enough of a treat, Bob Weir emerged towards the end of the set for Grateful Dead classics Candyman, Feel Like A Stranger and Cassidy as well as a cover of And It Stoned Me featuring Van Morrison’s daughter Shanna and God Street Wine original Epilog.

A few months back TRI Studios shared video of the complete 142-minute performance…

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As previously reported, improv rockers God Street Wine will play The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York on Saturday, August 3rd. GSW guitarist Aaron Maxwell announced the show from stage when he sat in with the John K. Band at Mexicali Live on April 13th. Maxwell also revealed that the John K. Band, featuring Furthur guitarist John Kadlecik, will open the show.

[Photo by Cory Schwartz]

Today, the God Street Wine / John K. Band show at The Cap has been officially announced. Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 26th, at 12PM EDT. GSW last played the historic venue in 1995.

Furthur has been holding court at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York since Monday night as the band is in the midst of a nine-show residency at the venue. Former Furthur member, and current Primus drummer, Jay Lane has a residency of his own nearby at the Copacabana restaurant in Port Chester during the run for a series of aftershows dubbed “CapToTheCopa.”

[Photo of Aaron Maxwell and Bob Weir via GSW FB]

Promoters promised plenty of surprise guests at the CapToTheCopa series and a few showed up last night when Furthur’s John Kadlecik and Bob Weir stopped by to perform with Jay Lane and Friends. Weir and Kadlecik joined God Street Wine guitarist Aaron Maxwell, Jay Lane, Kenny Brooks, Lizzy Friel, Paul Kates and Josh Kates for renditions of Bird Song and Sugaree by The Grateful Dead as well as One Way Out by the Allman Brothers Band. Kadlecik stuck around for China Doll and a cover of Cissy Strut.

As for Furthur, here’s a look at what they played last night…

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Last night at Mexicali Live in Teaneck, NJ God Street Wine guitarist Aaron Maxwell sat in with Furthur guitarist John Kadlecik’s John K. Band. From the stage Maxwell announced that God Street Wine will play The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York on August 3rd along with the John K. Band.

More details, including ticketing information, will be revealed soon.

Our pal and God Street Wine tour manager Michael Weiss has dug deep into his archives and came up with a gem of a performance. In the summer of 1996 GSW opened a series of shows for the Allman Brothers Band and at a July 31st, 1996 gig at Riverbend Amphitheatre in Cincinnati, Ohio the group was joined by ABB guitarist Warren Haynes for a pair of songs.

Haynes sat in on a cover of Sweet Little Angel by B.B. King and stuck around for the God Street Wine original Get On The Train. Weiss has shared professionally shot video of the guest spot. While the clip suffers from audio static at points, it’s still well worth a view. Take a look…

God Street Wine w/ Warren Haynes – Sweet Little Angel, Get On The Train

Mike also shared a clip from the same show of Mile By Mile and Princess Henrietta…

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Four years ago today we launched our recurring God Street Wednesdays column with the title of “Bring Back God Street Wine” begging for the band’s return after ten years of retirement. It’s been unbelievable that since the launch of the column the original members of the group have played a total of seventeen shows and performed with the likes of Leo Nocentelli, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. The last of these performances took place last night at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, Calif. where GSW and Phil and Friends finished a three-night stand of West Coast Rambles.

[Photo by Michael Weiss]

As had been the case on previous nights, God Street Wine opened with a short set before Lesh teamed up with members of GSW, John Kadlecik and Jeff Chimenti for an additional two sets. God Street brought out Kadlecik for Fortress of Solitude during their seven-song set. Lesh, Chimenti, Kadlecik and GSW’s Tom Osander, Aaron Maxwell, Jason Crosby and Lo Faber – as well as Jon Bevo on occasion – stuck to classics from the Dead’s repertoire for the majority of the show with a few exceptions. In the second set, the ensemble covered Won’t Get Fooled Again by The Who which GSW covered last summer. For the encore, the group dusted off I Am The Walrus which Phil performed with The “Q” last April.

• Previous West Coast Rambles: Night One, Night Two

We’ve compiled a few tracks from last night for your streaming pleasure. Thanks to Quinfolk of the PhilZone community for the captures. Check out Epilog from GSW’s opening set, Aaron Maxwell singing Sugaree and Lo Faber leading I Am The Walrus…

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The first round of West Coast Rambles at Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads venue in San Rafael, Calif. continued last night where once again God Street Wine kicked off the show with an opening set before members of the band filled out Lesh’s lineup for two additional sets.

[Photo by Michael Weiss]

GSW started things off with oldies but goodies God Street and Light My Candles before tackling Wall from their 1997 self-titled album. From there, the jamband treated fans to three classics from their mid ’90s hey day: The Ballroom, Epiphany and Bring Back The News. For the set-closing combo of Hey Joe > Get On The Train, the band welcomed guests Jeff Chimenti on keys and John Kadlecik on guitar.

Phil Lesh closed the show with two sets that saw GSW’s Tom “Tomo” Osander on drums and contributions from guitarists Aaron Maxwell and Lo Faber as well as the bassist’s Furthur band mates Chimenti and Kadlecik. Faber handled vocals on He’s Gone, Simple Twist of Fate, Casey Jones and Hey Pocky Way while the Maxwell-led numbers included It Must’ve Been The Roses. Maxwell and Faber teamed up to sing the Phil Lesh debut of Late In The Evening by Paul Simon. The ensemble finished the Help > Slip > Frank’s trio they started the previous evening when they opened the second set with Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower. They also used the final set of the night to split Scarlet Begonias and Fire On The Mountain by working the aforementioned Paul Simon cover, The Wheel, Uncle John’s Band and The Other One in between Scarlet and Fire.

Here’s the setlist from last night at Terrapin Crossroads…

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The first West Coast Ramble of 2013 took place last night at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, Calif. where the venue’s owner Phil Lesh was joined by God Street Wine and surprise guest Bob Weir. GSW kicked off the show with a set of their own featuring the five original members of the band and multi-instrumentalist Jason Crosby. For the second set, Lesh teamed up with members of God Street Wine as well as Furthur members John Kadlecik and Jeff Chimenti. Weir unexpectedly came out for the final set of the evening and stuck around for the whole closing stanza.

[Photo by Michael Weiss]

Phil dedicated the show to Poughkeepsie native and Phil and Friends’ tour manager Kathy Sunderland, who passed away recently. Lesh and God Street filled the final two sets of the evening with staple Dead tunes, Beatles gems and a few other classic rock covers.

Here’s a look at the setlist…

God Street Wine: Waiting For The Tide > Driving West, Chop*, Borderline*, Call It Love, Crazy Head > Goodnight Gretchen

* – w/ Jeff Chimenti

Phil & Winos Set One: Here Comes the Sun, Dear Mr Fantasy, Into The Mystic, Let It Be, So Many Roads, Here Comes Sunshine, Ripple

Phil, Bobby & Winos Set Two: Help On the Way > Slipknot!, Golden Road, Bird Song > Days Between > Golden Slumbers > Not Fade Away, Eyes of the World > China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, Sugar Magnolia

Encore: Box of Rain > The End > Imagine

[via Mike Weiss and Ratdog.org]

The God Street Lesh Rambles continue tonight at Terrapin Crossroads.

The first West Coast Rambles of 2013 kick off tonight at Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, Calif. For this series of three shows that runs through Saturday, HT faves God Street Wine will open and then members of GSW will team with Lesh, John Kadlecik and Jeff Chimenti for additional sets.

For those of us that can’t make it to Terrapin, the venue will webcast all three shows, as well as Sunday’s “Hoedown,” for $7 a pop. Head over to Terrapin’s Webcast Store to make your purchase.

On January 24th – 26th, Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads venue in San Rafael, Calif. will host the first West Coast Rambles of the year. Lesh will team up with Furthur cohorts John Kadlecik and Jeff Chimenti for the main sets, but the big news is who will open and augment Phil on his sets – God Street Wine!

[Photo by Michael Weiss]

All five original members of the band and multi-instrumentalist Jason Crosby will take part in the Rambles both as the opening act and as part of Phil’s sets. God Street Wine last played this past August when they completed a cross-country run with a three-night stand at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On August 9th, the band visited Bob Weir’s TRI Studios for a webcast and later that night performed with Lesh at Terrapin Crossroads. Tickets are on sale now via the venue’s website.

In between God Street Wine’s two reunions members of the band played a number of shows together with the exception of drummer Tom “Tomo” Osander who lives in Europe. Most performances featured guitarists Aaron Maxwell and Lo Faber while a handful also included bassist Dan Pifer and keyboardist Jon Bevo. When the foursome and old pal Jason Crosby teamed up to play Vibes in 2011 they had a secret weapon behind the kit  to add firepower to the end of the set – Joe Russo.

[Backstage Photo by Michael Weiss]

Russo was at the festival with headliners Furthur and didn’t have much prep time with the band before starting his guest spot. In fact, when they got together with Joe before the show, it was the first time most of the members of GSW had met him. Thankfully Russo was familiar with God Street Wine even responding something along the lines of “it’s cool dude, I have Bag [God Street's debut album]” to a query from Faber about his familiarity with a section of certain song. From the moment God Street Russo took the stage it was clear this was a good fit. “I remember feeling a collective nod from the guys when Joe hit that drum fill on the intro of Fortress of Solitude. I also remember looking back at Joe during Waiting for the Tide, and he was singing the Whoa, whoa, whoa…behind the kit. If I knew, I would have set up a mic for him!” GSW stage manager Michael Weiss told us.

Recently the Gathering of the Vibes YouTube channel was updated with a pair of videos from the performance. Check out Fortress of Solitude and Hammer & Spike…

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HT faves God Street Wine used every tool at their disposal including fan favorites, rarities, guests and fun covers to cook up three outstanding shows at NYC’s Gramercy Theatre this past weekend that the band’s legion of devoted “Winos” won’t forget any time soon. The ’90s jam act never had the biggest following in the world, but those who were passionate about the band’s music formed a tight-knit community that never wavered in their devotion. Winos kept in touch throughout GSW’s long layoff and came together in hopes of reuniting the group that meant so very much to them. This devotion has paid off with a Coast-To-Coast reunion that lived up to all expectations and left the fans satisfied while still hoping for more in the future.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

Following Thursday’s impressive opening show, GSW upped the ante on Friday and then went for gold at Saturday’s finale. Each performance started in a different fashion with the band members arriving on stage to the Seinfeld theme on Thursday, poet Frank Messina introducing GSW with a poem on Friday and a video from GSW’s earliest days preceding Saturday’s first song. Like the best tour guides, God Street Wine not only showed us the major points of interest from their repertoire over the the course of the three nights but they also shined a light on those tunes that were off-the-beaten-path yet worth exploring. It was hard to think of a classic tune that wasn’t played during the run.

• Previously: God Street Wine Brought Back…Again
• Videos: Girl On Fire, Home Again, Late In The Evening, Wendy, Dirty Little Secret, Thirsty, Won’t Get Fooled Again

The five original members of GSW were augmented by many additional musicians at the Gramercy. Percussionist John Wood of Native, former member multi-instrumentalist Jason Crosby and outstanding vocalist Lizzy Friel backed the original five for most of the run. Strangefolk guitarist Reid Genauer emerged at the end of the first set on Saturday and absolutely slayed the vocals on GSW original Borderline, while a three-piece horn section helped out on two of the songs from Saturday’s epic first encore – Paul Simon’s Late In The Evening and Into The Mystic by Van Morrison. GSW also varied the lineups as while most of the run featured the OG five with Crosby, Friel and Wood; they performed some songs as the original five, others with just Crosby at their side and even offered a Maxwell/Faber duet on the Thirsty that opened Friday’s second set.

God Street Wine w/ Reid Genauer – Borderline

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God Street Wine @ Gramercy Theatre, August 16

If you’re a band that tours regularly, having the word “nostalgia” attached to your concerts isn’t a compliment. But in the case of God Street Wine, an act that called it quits in 1999 and has only played a handful of shows since, it’s a good thing. Last night at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City the band took the stage for only the 10th time since 2001 and acted as a musical time machine for a sold-out audience of mostly fervent followers who appreciated the opportunity to relive the band’s glory days at the first of three shows that brings this latest reunion to a close.

[All Photos by Jeremy Gordon]

God Street Wine had multiple types of crowd members to please: the die-hards who want to see songs the group hadn’t played the last time around in 2010, those familiar with their best-known material and those who never saw the band before but wanted to see what the hub-bub was about. By delivering two lengthy sets filled with classics, rarities and choice covers; the band did their part in satiating all three types of Winos and potential Winos.

Setlist…

Set One: Nightingale, Vanity Street, Mile By Mile > 615, Ballroom, Electrocute, Stranger, Weird Dream > Imogene

Set Two: Molly, Hungry Again, Stupid Hat, Wendy, Silver, Cheap Utah Blues, Hellfire > Strange as it Seems, Warm in Here, Bring Back The News

Encore: Without You* > Twin Peaks Theme > Upside Down-Inside Out-> Crosseyed and Painless, Get On the Train

* – First Time Played, Harry Nilsson Cover

When the audience entered they noticed more setups than original band members. For the majority of last night’s performance the five-piece was augmented by multi-instrumentalist Jason Crosby (a former member of the band who played with them last week in California), vocalist Lizzy Friel and percussionist John Woody. This “God Street Wine Orchestra” added depth to the tunes, though at times it was hard to pick out Woody and Friel’s contributions. GSW opened with perhaps their most well-known song, and certainly their most catchy original, Nightingale. While the energy in the room was nowhere near the frenzied response to the NYC based band’s return after nine years on July 9, 2010 there were still plenty of hugs, high-fives and knowing glances exchanged when the reality of the situation kicked in. Just three years ago Winos never thought they’d see this day, let alone for a tenth time.

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As we did yesterday, we’ve rounded up setlists from a number of HT faves who were in action last night ranging from the Allman Brothers Band and moe.’s performances at their own festivals to the final night of God Street Wine’s West Coast run and Umphrey’s McGee’s return to Connecticut.

Umphrey’s McGee @ Klein Memorial Aud – Bridgeport, Conn.

[Photo via @bizarchive]

Umphrey’s celebrated Brendan Bayliss’s birthday throughout last night’s show in Bridgeport. A cake was brought out for the guitarist at the end of the first set which was accompanied by the signing of the traditional Happy Birthday song. For the encore, UM debuted Bennie and the Jets by Elton John to fulfill the request of the birthday boy before concluding the Nothing Too Fancy they started in the second set. Next up for the Chicago based sextet is a return to moe.down, where they will be joined by guitarist Stanley Jordan during this afternoon’s set in Turin, New York.

[Audio by Teefs at bt.etree.org]

Set One: Nipple Trix > 2nd Self, Miami Virtue > Words, KaBump > Passing, 2×2, Happy Birthday

Set Two: Gurgle > 1348 > Plunger > Regulate* > Plunger, Nothing Too Fancy > Ocean Billy, Partyin’ Peeps, Wappy Sprayberry > Jimmy Stewart** > Wappy Sprayberry > 1348

Encore: Bennie and the Jets*** > Nothing Too Fancy

* – w/ Andy Farag on vocals
** – w/ lyrics
*** – First Time Played, Elton John; Bayliss’ birthday request; Echoes (Pink Floyd) teases

[via The Bort]

God Street Wine @ Sweetwater Music Hall – Mill Valley, Calif.

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