Brotherhood Revives Dead
By: Paul Liberatore
Marin Independent Journal
Published: June 15, 2001
When Phil Lesh and Bob Weir stood on stage at Sweetwater this week and sang “Get Together,” the ‘60’s anthem about brotherhood, it was a sign that the wounds are healing in the Grateful Dead family.
Sunday night’s “secret” Sweetwater show, advertised as “The Crusader Rabbit Stealth Band,” was the first time Lesh and Weir have played together in three years—since the Other Ones tour in 1998.
Truth be told, they haven’t even spoken to each other in that time, estranged by an internecine feud over business dealings that hasbeen festering in the post-Grateful Dead aftermath of Jerry Garcia’s death.
The long silence was broken a few days before the Sweetwater gig when Weir rehearsed with Lesh and his masterful Friends band—drummer John Molo (Bruce Hornsby), keyboardist Rob Barraco (Zen Tricksters), lead guitarist Jimmy Herring (Jazz is Dead), and singer-guitarist Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers).
“Bob and I have had our differences and some of those differences still exist, but that doesn’t preclude our playing music together,” Lesh told me. It was good for the (Grateful Dead) community to get the whole relationship between Bob and me on a higher plane, which is musical interaction.”
Lesh begins his summer Odyssey tour with an L.A. show June 27, followed by three dates at Berkeley’s Greek Theater—June 29 and 30 and July 1. Weir and his band, Ratdog, will join the tour for 7 shows in July in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Since he’ll also be sitting in with Lesh’s band at those concerts, he and Phil needed an icebreaker before then, hence the Sweetwater show.
At the homey Mill Valley club, the former band mates were side by side for two full sets and an encore, playing until 1:30 in themorning. With Weir adding his quirky rhythm guitar and Lesh leading the way on bass, it was a quintessential Grateful Dead-style improvisational evening. Canonical Dead songs like “Truckin’,” “Friend of the Devil,” “China Cat,”and “The Eleven” morphed into one another, punctuated by hyper -extended instrumental jams, unpredictable tempo changes and inventive modulations that produced more than one telepathic moment, pasting smiles on the faces of the musicians and thrilling to the wall-to-wall crowd.
The 61-year old Lesh, the grateful beneficiary of a life-saving liver transplant three years ago, came off the bandstand exultant.
“Big fun, man,” he beamed. “Big fun”. Though he didn’t play, original Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann was in attendance, looking pleased.
During the show, Lesh’s wife Jill, and Weir’s pregnant wife Natashsa, bent close together beside the stage, chatting over the din of the music.
Between sets, Lesh and Weir, who have known each other for 36 years, hung out downstairs catching up on each other’s lives.
“It was like family that hasn’t seen each other for awhile," Lesh said. “For Bob and me, it was powerful.”