Live Dead and Brothers at Ponte Vedra: Stealing Our Collective Peach
[Words and photos wired to us from PS Russell, author of “A Beginner’s Guide to Electricity.”]
Last night at the newly renovated Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, sporting a new state-of-the-art sound system that could open your coconut by mistake, Live Dead and Brothers took another ride on the bucking bronco that is the hybrid songbook of The Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers Band.
Berry Oakley Jr. played his legendary father‘s famous “tractor” bass all night and led the band through raging versions of “Hot ’Lanta” and “Whipping Post.” Les Dudek fronted two songs on which he had harmonized with Dickey Betts in the studio, “Ramblin’ Man” and “Jessica.” Scott Guberman‘s “Birdsong” seemed like a view through stained glass in a sunset window, and Big Gabe stepped out from behind the monitor desk to belt some authentic Pigpen on “Mr. Charlie,” “Hard to Handle,” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”
During a GD-approved drumspace interlude, the band followed Mark Karan and Pete Lavezzoli and cast a hushed spell across the hall that would have pleased Owsley and scared the children. Guberman’s keys were MIDI’d to all sorta sonic mayhem, and Berry clearly has been through some storms.
My hands looked funny…
But it was two cross-pollinated pieces that Stole Our Collective Peach:
Blue Sky > Franklin’s Tower > Jessica
and
China Cat Sunflower > Midnight Rider > I Know You Rider
On to the Midwest and New York; stand back!
THE PREGAME
