Weir, Lesh United
For Surprise Performance
By: Brad Kava
San Jose Mercury News Pop Music Critic
Published June 13, 2001
You couldn't miss the symbolism as former Grateful Dead band mates Bob Weir and Phil Lesh joined Sunday night on the former Youngbloods hit "Get Together."
They traded vocals on the lines, "Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another, right now."
The pair, who hadn't played together in three years, performed for more than three hours for 200 people at Sweetwater, a Mill Valley club. They were backed by Lesh's touring band -- drummer John Molo, guitarists Jimmy Herring and Warren Haynes (who played only on the encores), and pianist Rob Barraco.
Given some of Weir's recent shaky performances and hints in interviews that Lesh was less than impressed with the musicianship of his former band mates, the two long sets were surprisingly tight and musically challenging.
Weir's vocals added something Lesh's band has been missing, a tie to the Dead; Lesh's powerful band gave Weir what he was missing.
Deadheads alerted to the band's tricky name, "Crusader Rabbit and his Stealth Band," began lining up at 11a.m. for the 10 p.m. show.
They got their $20 worth as the duo ran through "Truckin'," "Friend of the Devil," "Smokestack Lightning," "The Eleven," "Brown-Eyed Woman," "The Music Never Stopped," "Cassidy," "China Cat Sunflower," "Viola Lee Blues," and the rarely played "Mason's Children," a song left off of the 1970 album, "Workingman's Dead." Encores were "Promised Land," and "I Know You Rider."
Lesh hosts three jam nights at the Berkeley Greek Theater at the end of June and plans a Midwest tour with Weir's Ratdog.