Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008
Slow Foods Rock festival, San Francisco

The reviews that I heard were really positive about Phil’s show at Slow Foods Rock. Heard from a couple of old Dead heads that really thought the show was “right on.” I wasn’t there, because I was covering the Metal Masters show the same day down at Shoreline. That wasn’t a bad trade off, but I would have gladly traded in Judas Priest for Phil. Maybe not Motorhead, though. Here’s what I missed:

Set list:
Playing In The Band
Bertha
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Deal
China Cat Sunflower
I Know You Rider
Sugaree
Uncle John’s Band
Jam
Help On The Way
Slipknot!
Franklin’s Tower
Sugar Magnolia
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One of the best things about the Outside Lands festival- perhaps the single best thing, actually - is how strongly it draws from local acts. And I’m not talking about the usual suspects, acts like Neil Young, Carlos Santana and Phil Lesh (though, mind you, I wouldn’t mind seeing any of those at next year’s Outside Lands, especially Neil).

I’m talking about newer/less-established Bay acts like singer-songwriter Jackie Greene, college-crowd rockers ALO, hip-hopper Lyrics Born and Rupa & the April Fishes, who received rave reviews from their set on Saturday.

On Sunday’s bill, among many others, was Sila and the Afrofunk Experience. I caught a tiny bit of the San Francisco band’s mix and enjoyed what I heard. The group is often compared to Fela Kuti and its most recent Afrobeat offering, “Funkiest Man in Africa,” (a tribute to Kuti), received some strong reviews.
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My buddy, the great photog Jay Blakesberg, will be webcasting the huge 10,000 Lakes music festival this weekend. So, if you want to watch Phil Lesh and Friends, Flaming Lips, Michael Franti and so many others (including, best of all, Medeski Scofield Martin and Wood), then tune into this free webcast at www.iclips.net.

The complete list of artists playing the festival is as follows:
Phil Lesh and Friends
The Flaming Lips
Michael Franti and Spearhead
Mickey Hart Band feat. Kimock & Porter
Leftover Salmon
George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic
Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood
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(Official press release:)

PHIL LESH AND FRIENDS TO HEADLINE SUNDAY, AUGUST 31
AT SLOW FOOD ROCKS MUSIC FESTIVAL IN SAN FRANCISCO

ADDITIONAL CONFIRMED ARTISTS INCLUDE GNARLS BARKLEY, OZOMATLI, THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS, G. LOVE & SPECIAL SAUCE AND OTHERS

San Francisco, CA - July 16, 2008 - Festival Network is proud to announce that the legendary Phil Lesh and Friends will headline Sunday, August 31, at the Slow Food Rocks music festival, which will be held during Slow Food Nation, the largest celebration of American food in history, taking place in San Francisco over Labor Day Weekend.. In a rare hometown appearance Phil Lesh and Friends will play on an outdoor stage at The Great Meadow at Fort Mason overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, the second day of a two day music festival. Other artists include Grammy-winning Gnarls Barkley, who will headline the event on Saturday, August 30 with Ozomatli, The New Pornographers, and Medeski Martin & Wood. Joining Phil Lesh and Friends on Sunday, August 31, are G. Love & Special Sauce and the John Butler Trio.
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It’s a pretty dead weekend for live music around the Bay. The place to be this weekend, musically speaking, would be the Rothbury Festival.

That festival features such awesome acts as Trey Anastasio, Dave Matthews, Phill Lesh, Modest Mouse and Medeski Martin and Wood. It also features such less-than-awesome (but still pretty good) acts as Widespread Panic, Thievery Corporation, John Mayer and Slightly Stoopid. No stinkers in the bunch, though.

If you’re like me - staying by the Bay for the Fourth - you might want to check out the video web stream of the Rothbury Festival. If you only have time to watch one artist’s set, make sure it’s Trey Anastasio’s. Trey’s a true guitar champion. Indeed, those who know music call Trey “the guitar hero equivalent of the Oakland A’s.”

Tune into the festival, July 3-6, by visiting www.iclips.net.

If the wind seemed to smell a bit more strongly of patchouli in recent days, and your local Whole Foods felt a tad more crowded on your last visit, there’s definitely a good reason _ the hippie vibe has been very strong in the Bay Area lately.

In a single nine-day period _ May 13-21 _ fans had the chance to see nine concerts performed by local hippie-music legends in San Francisco. There was the five-night stand by the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh at the Warfield, which featured the Dead’s Bob Weir for much of the run. There were also two shows by Hot Tuna _ a band led by Jefferson Airplane vets Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady _ at the Great American Music Hall.

To top it all off, Bay Area guitar legend Carlos Santana kicked off a two-night stand at the Fillmore on Tuesday. Although Deadheads might disagree, the Santana gigs are, by far, the biggest of the tie-dyed bunch.

The reason is simply supply and demand. On the rest of his world tour, Santana is visiting mammoth arenas and amphitheaters. Yet _ in a bit of welcome hometown favoritism _ the 60-year-old guitar great chose to perform at the 1,100-capacity Fillmore. It was a treat to see him play such an intimate venue, and one that will seem all that more decadent when Santana returns to the Bay for shows on Oct. 11 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View and Oct. 12 at Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord. (See www.livenation.com for on-sale dates and other information.)

Santana played two lengthy sets _ the first of which was far superior to the second _ in what amounted to more than three hours of music. He was leading his regular 10-piece Santana Band, which has greatly benefitted from the return of San Mateo vocalist Tony Lindsay.
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Phil Lesh & Friends
May 18, 2008
Warfield Theater
San Francisco, California

For the final night of the run, Phil and Friends broke from the established pattern (playing full-length albums during each set) and embarked on a night of just plain good ol’ songs. I got the setlist from music buddy Erik, who passed it along from philzone.org. Here’s what I hear that the played:

1st Set

Come Together
Dark Star
Loose Lucy
West L.A. Fadeaway
Wheel
Not Fade Away

On All-Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, John Molo
Joining during West. L.A.-Jeff Chimenti, Larry Campbell

Set Break

Mini Acoustic Set w/Larry Campbell & Jackie Green

Deep Elem Blues
?????
Good Night Irene

2nd Set
Phil Lesh, Larry Campbell, Jackie Greene, Steve Molitz, John Molo
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Phil Lesh and Friends
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Warfield Theatre, San Francisco

The band’s epic run continued on a hot night in the City By the Bay. As blog followers know, Phil and pals have been performing entire Grateful Dead albums during their run in SF. They’ve played one album per set (two sets per night). They started out with the Dead’s first album and have been working chronologically ever since.

On Saturday night, the group performed the 1971 eponymous double live album. (Although it’s officially known as “Grateful Dead,” heads call it “Skull and Roses” and another name that I can’t mention in my blog.)

Here’s the songlist for the first set:
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Phil Lesh and Friends Friday, May 16, Warfield Theatre, San Francisco:

Well, based on the Tues/Wed shows, everyone was expecting that Friday would be the night. That Phil and Friends would play what everyone seems to agree are their two finest studio albums - “Workingman’s Dead” and “American Beauty.”

And that’s what reportedly happened.

Since the band has been going in order with the records, kicking off the whole thing with a first set on Tuesday of the Dead’s first album, that meant that “Workingman’s” was to be played first. Both “Workingman’s” and “Beauty” came out in 1970, but the first was released in June, while the latter hit in November.

Thus, first set was:
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Phil Lesh and Friends Wednesday, May 14, 2008, Warfield Theatre, San Francisco:

OK, from reports, Phil continued along the same path he started on Tuesday. In the first set, the band played the entire Aoxomoxoa album (the Dead’s third studio album, from 1968). That means the first set looked like this:

“St. Stephen”
“Dupree’s Diamond Blues”
“Rosemary”
“Doin’ That Rag”
“Mountains of the Moon”
“China Cat Sunflower”
“What’s Become of the Baby”
“Cosmic Charlie”

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