Dark Star Palace: January 2011

Artifacts of the Week: Furthur NYE Artifacts, Videos & 150+ Pix!

Tapes of the Week: 12/31/2009, 3/12/2010, 12/31/2010

Bill Walton/Father Time counts down to 1

the lightshow on new years vaporizing naughty audience members

This week at Dark Star Palace, we will be giving you a late Christmas present, an early Tibetan New Years present, and your 2011 Birthday present all at once... That's right! 3...count 'em... three posts in one! A Dark Star Palace New Years Spectacular! A holiday brownie, a Marin 'ot chocolate, and a good 'ole Grateful Dead treat all rolled into one!

Covering Pink Floyd's "Time"

For this special New Years post, will be looking back at some absolutely epic 2010 Furthur shows that were held at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. We'll start by ringing in '10 with the final show of '09, we'll stop by as Phil celebrated a whopping 7 decades of low end weirdness, and we'll cap it off as the last seconds of '10 rolled in 10 minutes early on NYE. Confused? Well, here's the breakdown for those who like organization:

12/31/2009 - New Years Show
3/12/2010 - Phil Lesh 70th Birthday celebration
12/31/2010 - New Years Show

bottom right: recognize this LED-spinning guy?

Dionysian Northern California at its best!

be grateful you weren't up on the high-wire

the amazing Phil Lesh Ritter Bass Birthday cake float

We are going to be matching those Tapes of the Week with a slew of photographs from these events that you could spend the rest of '11 taking your sweet old time to check out. And you should! We wanted to kick off the year by going just a little bit furthur than we've gone before....and, we hate to waste an image with taste by posting an ace in haste that was laced when it was placed with disgrace then misplaced by one who's spaced! HUH? Yeah, 2010 was a long, long year, right? Good to take it easy in '11.

King Kong presides over the band

So, our feeling at the Palace is that all of these Furthur shows had the magical glow of an old-time Grateful Dead concert. Yeah, yeah....there is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert. Well, I've got 3 shows here that might prove the old Jerry 4:20 bible quote wrong! These 3 Furthur shows are probably as close as anyone on planet earth is likely going to get to experiencing the uniquely Northern California Dionysian ritual that can only be described as...well, Grateful Dead. Since we have so many readers of DSP from outside the bay area (let alone outside the USA), we thought it would be nice to capture these shows with our camera lens, and via the tapers, so that those who were unable to attend the shows, could get a small dose themselves. No pun intended, of course!

Phil's giant birthday present...no, not a box of rain

Yes, words fail in these matters of actual experience...so instead of being heavy on the words and lame descriptions of how things looked/sounded/felt like, we are going to offer Dark Star Palace readers a plethora of sounds and images to help capture the vibe of these special celebrations..shows for new years, new birthdays and new beginnings.

the wizard offering a sound bath from his conch shell

And we're not going to go on the cheap here either! We are going to offer up ~150 of our favorite photos that our own Unterfunken was able to snap during these shows. Unfortunately, we were a bit late in our request to the Furthur organization to get press passes so that we could bring in our big fancy lenses... so we went low-fi and had to smuggle in our cheapie miniature camera that looks like it really belongs in a 14-year-old girl's purse while shopping for Hello Kittys at the mall...i.e. a cheesy little thing. Actually, the camera we used looks more like a disposable underwater camera...but whatever! We were able to snap up some shots and we hope you dig them!

Now, back to these shows being very much like a Grateful Dead concert. Of course, you can argue that it would get even closer to being "more Dead-like" by adding Mickey and Billy into the mix by putting them behind the drums...but take a step back. And take another step back. And take, yet another, step back. See, by adding the great marketing slogan of "THE DEAD!" onto the band/event you start to pull in a whole different crowd than what I was seeing during these shows at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. The folks at these shows sure had been to a LOT of Grateful Dead shows over the past 5 decades... I ran into several folks in the 300+ range and many a Head whose dreadlocks spoke of at least 100+. These were some seriously hard core Heads, and it was pretty fun to run around and see old friends, and to meet a whole 'nother set of new ones. In terms of characters at these shows, we had them in spades! From Chewbacca to the mad-hatter, from that Stanford guy who runs around shows with his LED-glow ball twirling (and who has been at almost every show I have ever been to doing just this!) to the Wizard with the giant conch shell who lets out the ocean-vibrations between songs, to the Hells Angels and Father Time, to men and women from the wild west and a whole lotta hippies, dippies, yippies and whippies, these shows had 'em!

In looking at the 2009 "The Dead" shows, I got the feeling that everyone was just trying to make the band/show seem like it was a Dead show come back to life...it somehow sounded contrived. I know, I know...I still loved the shows, but it just didn't feel all Mendocino organic. Whereas, with these Furthur shows, the old school Heads just seemed to make it so. Now don't get me wrong...I would love to see Billy and Mickey in the mix! But, I was pleasantly surprised to see what happened when it wasn't hyped as the end-all GD reincarnate band/experience.

All four of the shows we are documenting on this week's blog were held at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. According to wikipedia, "the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (formerly San Francisco Civic Auditorium) is a multi-purpose arena in San Francisco, California, currently named after promoter Bill Graham. The arena holds 7,000 people and was built in 1915. It hosted the 1920 Democratic National Convention. It was also the former home of the Golden State Warriors, of the NBA, from 1964-1966." Pretty impressive, right? Well wait, there's more!

The Grateful Dead played at this Auditorium a total of 10 times from 1983 - 1987. They did three 3-4 night runs here during the 80's... 2 were New Years runs ('83 and '84) and they did an additional 3 night run at the end of January in 1987. So, for many heads who attended these 3 sets of Furthur shows, their brain synapses were firing back in time to a previous GD New Years run. It was a lot like coming home in a way....

Jerry was out front for most of the evening

NYE 2009-2010:

Set 1:
Shakedown Street, Jack Straw, Mama Tried, Candyman, Loose Lucy, Viola Lee Blues > Truckin'

Set 2:
Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower, Cassidy, The Wheel > Jam > Dark Star > Time > Uncle John's Band, After Midnight

Set 3:
Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion) > Let it Grow > Cryptical Envelopment > Born Cross Eyed > Other One > Cryptical Envelopment > So Many Roads, St. Stephen > The Eleven > Not Fade Away

Encore:
Sugar Magnolia

Bill Walton chillin' in the sound booth

then...Bill Walton evolves into Father Time!

The spinning LED-light madman- known at every Dead show

baby new year arrives on the skull

NYE 2009-2010 was an eye opener! While the kick-off shows at the Fox in September were an amazing coming-out party for the band, this New Years run showed that the band could hit the stadium circuit with authority and style! They had 2 separate posters for this run, with the Pirate ship version being my personal favorite. You had to love the amazing New Year baby arriving on the giant glitter-skull, and who doesn't love Bill Walton chillin' at the sound booth greeting heads during the set break...before evolving into Bill Graham reincarnated as Father Time. Uncle Bobo would have been thrilled!

Looking back, it is interesting seeing Jay Lane in the mix at the '09-'10 NYE show, as well as having the debut of the Furthur backup singers. At this show, we saw the first of the classic rock NYE covers (Pink Floyd's "Time"! While this year, it was the Stone's "We Love You") and one hell of a New Year parade. EPIC!

Invitation to Phil's birthday bash...very 1975!

Phil Lesh's 70th Birthday Party:

Set 1: Ripple, Lazy River Road, Peggy-O, Two Souls in Communion, Brokedown Palace, A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, They Love Each Other, Mountains of the Moon, Attics of My Life

Set 2:
Scarlet Begonias, New Minglewood Blues, Easy Wind, New Speedway Boogie, Viola Lee Blues > High Time > Caution Jam > Viola Lee Blues > Hard to Handle > Viola Lee Blues > Like A Rolling Stone, Sugaree

Set 3:
Not Fade Away Jam > Happy Birthday Phil > Not Fade Away Jam, Playing in the Band > St. Stephen > The Other One > Jam > Elevator > Unbroken Chain, Comes A Time > Cream Puff War > Franklin's Tower

Encore: Johnny B. Goode

the new years parade en route

Phil's 70th Birthday-bash was a very special show. First off, can you believe this guy is 70?? Weird. He sure doesn't act or sound like it! I mean, he was throwing Philzone bombs left and right, he had a wicked grin on his face the entire night (so you know he was in the mood!), and he honestly hasn't sounded this good since '72! It was great to see the Ritter bass in effect for this show, and even better to see the giant Phil + Ritter bass float that came in along with a giant wrapped gift-float! Having Jackie Greene and Chris Robinson sitting in throughout the show gave the event a real party atmosphere, and added some great vocals. In particular, Chris's versions of Pigpen tunes stole the show for me.

Phil's birthday parade gets a giant foolish heart

Freaky!

NYE 2010:

1st set:
Alligator
Big Bad Blues
Caution
Wharf Rat
Sittin' On Top Of The World
High On A Mtn
Cumberland

2nd set:
Cassidy
Mountain Song
I Know You Rider
The Other One
Let It Grow
Stella Blue
Viola Lee Blues
The Golden Road

3rd set:
2011 Parade
We Love You
Sugar Magnolia
The Wheel
Uncle John's Band
Unbroken Chain
Terrapin (Complete)
Help/Slip/Franklin's
Truckin'

Encore:
One More Saturday Night

Tapers in effect. Dig those Neumanns!

Unterfunken meets a fellow Steal Your Facer

Deadheads storm the booth for the 3D NYE poster!

the 10 minute early 10 second coundown

psychedelic dreads in the house

set break party

a couple of workingmans time travelers from 1849

for those who don't know when to say when

for those who do know when to say when

For these 2010 New Years shows, there was one thing that set them apart from the other big shows of 2010.....the most amazing light show ever!! I hope you can get a sense of those lights from the pictures here, but really, you know you had to be there. Again, Bill Walton revived his role as Father Time and looked about 23 feet tall this time around... did he grow again? Or was that All-Star on stilts? We had the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic on site for those who don't know when to say when or whatever or wow and how and who and whoa! We also had the Wharf Rats back in the house, for those who did know when to say when! It sure felt like old times. We had the Grateful Dead's old King Kong (who I remember seeing hanging from the outside of Madison Square Garden for the 1990 run when Bruce and Vince made their first official double-keyboard lineup debut) towering up and behind the stage, arms in the air, mouth open as he is yelling "play DARK STAR you heathens, play Dark Star!!". And interestingly, I felt like Kesey was in the house for some reason. Someone must have spiked the punch. And Bear WAS in the house, though in the form of a giant dancing-bear-float that followed the trippy elephant and who-knows-what-it-was middle float. How do these guys keep putting on better shows?? Is Jill Lesh at work leading Santa's elves in the creation of these mammoth creations? You know it...

Chewbacca is known to spike his wookie cookies...beware!

And the poster! My god, a 3D carnival poster was the most coveted artifact of the run. They sold out an HOUR BEFORE the show, and only produced an edition of 700 of these amazing posters. If you are a collector, I would snatch one of these up now. I know...they only cost $30 at the show and now are going for $150 on ebay. Well, in about a year, I think these will be rare as hens teeth and be in the $300+ range. I got one for my sons' room and we plan to have it hanging in their psychedelic-carnival-zone as soon as we get it matted. Great work on that poster Mike D.!

whoa! baby new year 2010 arrives on the grateful skull

All in all, these shows at the Bill Graham were something to cherish. If you are an old Deadhead or a new Deadhead, I urge you not to slack in getting out to see this band ASAP. Nothing lasts, All things Must Pass, and even the Grateful Living Dead must move on at some point... so take advantage of this amazing music and experience while you can. If the Grateful Dead were a giant meteor flying through space (and the faster it goes the rounder it gets), then this band is a chunk of that same space rock that is able to illuminate the dark winter sky/night/mind/daydream. Yeah, let's call this a "Nighttime Daydream". See it before the glow becomes a show that future generations will never know... As the Tibetan yogi said, E MA HO!