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| Phil Lesh @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The Warfield held a celebration for its first 100 years in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday as Phil Lesh & Friends played a thrilling, innovative two-night run that combined the venue’s birthday party with a Bay Area family reunion.
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| Phil Lesh & Friends @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Phil Lesh was born only 18 years after The Warfield opened and like the venue, he too defies his age and maintains every drop of relevance and dignity. Lesh is the last of the great barnstormers – putting together and leading a different band most every night and providing audiences with thrilling highlights and unique combinations. At an age where people issue congratulations to seniors who are “spry” or “still out there”, Lesh is fierce, powerful and an extremely effective ringmaster of a musical seven-ring circus. He directed his performers with an eyebrow raise, a smile or head nod and everyone knew their cues. Just in case anyone wondered if the power remained, he also delivered several floor-shaking, spine-tingling Phil bombs that challenged the engineering stability of the century-old performance hall.
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| Phil Lesh @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
For nearly a decade, Phil’s circus had a regular big-top home in San Rafael’s Terrapin Crossroads – a Marin County treasure revered equally for bringing large venue acts to its intimate environment and for the many short-notice surprise shows. A year later, many of the same regulars of that scene could be spotted twirling in the halls and grooving on the floor of The Warfield. For many, there was a wonderful feeling of getting back together with friends they hadn’t seen since the masked days of Covid and hugs, handshakes and slaps on the back were everywhere to be found.
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| Phil Lesh & Friends @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The cast of characters Phil had gathered for these shows was a true example of the combination of the parts leading to a far greater sum – with many of them having performed together back in October at The Capitol Theatre (Phil’s East Coast homebase in Port Chester, New York). Their cohesiveness and musical graciousness carried a much deeper level of comfort than a band with less than a handful of gigs together.
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| John Molo @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
John Molo, who Lesh has described as his “wingman” on drums, combined with Lesh to continually push the pace on songs and provide a combination of cool, steady rhythm with deftly dropped strokes of thunder. His drumming on a raging night two “St. Stephen” and a memorable “The Wheel” on night one demonstrated why Phil so often leans on Molo to drive the train from the drum kit behind him.
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| Rick Mitarotonda & Grahame Lesh @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
And then there was Grahame Lesh. Born into the jam band world as the boy king, Grahame’s constant commitment to playing live has resulted in him stepping well out of any shadows cast by his royal father and into his own spotlight as a frequent contributor in his father’s concerts, as well as with his band Midnight North. Grahame’s voice and guitar playing are at the top of the scene now and there seems to be no end in sight for his continued musical growth. He very ably fronted the band on songs like night two’s opening “Jack Straw” and seemed to serve as a bit of a musical shepherd to the visiting Rick Mitarotonda of Goose.
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| Rick Mitarotonda & Grahame Lesh @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Mitarotonda, whose band has reached its own level of scene supremacy, played both nights and the growth of his confidence in the setting was visible. His playing and singing were top notch on Dead classics like “Brokedown Palace”, “New Speedway Boogie” and the Bob Dylan cover “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” which was delivered at a nicely up-tempo that could be witnessed in the crowd’s swinging to a song more often delivered as a near-ballad. By night two, his guitar playing was strong and free with Phil often throwing a signal to solo in Mitarotonda’s direction.
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| Holly Bowling @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Keyboard duties were split on this run. Holly Bowling sat in on night one and stretched out on “The Wheel” – though her keyboard’s seemed a little faint in the house sound mix. Jason Crosby’s night two appearance saw a much more prominent role featuring frequent jamming with Grahame and Mitarotonda and Crosby delivering a much more prominent performance on songs like “Birdsong” and “Terrapin Station.”
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| Natalie Cressman, Jennifer Hartswick & James Casey @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Perhaps the most innovative portion of this run was the horn section – spotlighting three artists who combined high skills with their instruments with incredible lead vocal contributions. Trombonist Natalie Cressman, trumpeter Jennifer Hartswick and saxophonist James Casey added deeper depth and greater variety to both nights.
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| Natalie Cressman, Jennifer Hartswick & James Casey @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Cressman had many asking “Who’s that?” on night one with her soulful, emotional delivery of “Loser”. By night two, the audience’s anticipation was palpable when she grabbed the mic on the night’s second song and delivered a version of “He’s Gone” that set an early high bar for the night. Judging by the buzz about her in the crowd, Cressman will be high on everyone’s radar for future music and shows.
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| Natalie Cressman & Jennifer Hartswick @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Scene regular and Trey Anastasio Band trumpeter Hartswick brought her blend of soulful, higher level energy with night one’s rousing cover of Aretha Franklin’s “Rock Steady” that had the band morphing into a Detroit Motown revue with a great spotlight on both Hartswick’s substantial vocal range and the power of all three horn players on full blast mode. On night two she partnered with Grahame on a memorable “Morning Dew” in set two and earlier led a rousing “Scarlet Begonias” that featured Crosby engaging in call and response jams with both guitarists and then across stage with Casey.
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| James Casey @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
Casey, a fellow T.A.B. member drew the loudest ovations on both nights – first for “Eyes of the World” that featured his sugary sweet vocals and a sax interlude that brought memories of Branford Marsalis’ trips to the stage with versions of The Dead over the years. Night two saw Casey take on a soaring cover of The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” with wonderful harmonies by the horn section and a great exchange between Hartwick on trumpet and Cressman on trombone.
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| Phil's bass guitar @ the Warfield (Photo: Sean Reiter) |
The classic Deadhead crowd can act a wee bit entitled at times – whether it’s staking out their places along the rails with a flurry of spread jackets, blankets, etc. or the long-timer who mildly complained prior to night two’s show that when you subtracted the set break from the prior night’s show they had “only” played for 2 hours and 40 minutes. Dude, Phil Lesh played thundering bass for 160 minutes at age 82 and it wasn’t good enough??? The security and promotions team at The Warfield always does an incredible job of managing the Dead crowds – knowing when to tighten and loosen controls so the good times roll, but the place doesn’t burst apart at the seams. Kudos to them on yet another successful two-night run featuring more than five hours of fantastic live music – one that will live on in spirit and memory for quite some time.
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