Phil Lesh and Friends performed a five-show run in May at San Francisco's fabled Warfield Theatre. After about 30 years of affiliation with Bill Graham Presents, the Warfield closed for renovations after these shows and will reopen under new management. I made it down out of the California mountains for the Saturday show, which found the band continuing its interesting novelty of performing entire Grateful Dead albums. While the group didn't try to mimic the albums note for note, it did make for longer songlists and fewer extended jams than Lesh's usual model, which I found refreshing. On this night, the band -- including Jackie Greene, Larry Campbell, Steve Molitz and John Molo -- performed the classic 1971 double live album "Grateful Dead" aka "Skull and Roses" as its first set, and followed that up with the 1981 live album "Dead Set," which was largely recorded at the Warfield. Guitarist Henry Kaiser and percussionist Sikiru Adepoju joined the band for the third set (and end of the album), which ended at 1:30 a.m. Next morning, a few blocks away, San Francisco's festive and fun Bay to Breakers, a massive traditional race through town, carried on outside of my hotel. I caught a bit of the action there as well. Enjoy!
Alan Sheckter/NorCalEdit@sbcglobal.net. Permission must be granted for re-publication.