Grateful Dead - Fare Thee Well - Saturday, 6/27

[dfung60]

I attended the Saturday show in Santa Clara.  Phil was played the Alembic the entire night. I'm not a Deadhead, but attended with Geoff Gould who built Bob and Phil's Modulus Graphite instruments from 1982 through the 1990s.  The sound for the drums and bass was amazing from the first note - powerful and very natural.  To me the guitars did not sound great during the first set (intentional fuzzbox city), but sounded better in the second.    The joint was packed.  First set started around 7:40 or so, went for an hour, then there was a long intermission until the sun had set.  Fireworks show too, at the start of the second set.  Levi's Stadium is fairly unrestricted on cameras, so I got some nice shots.  Unfortunately, the image size limit here means you can't see much detail.  David Fung  

 

 

 

 

    (Message edited by davehouck on June 28, 2015)

[ed_too]

This looks like the short scale - no?

[echo008]

Double post
 
(Message edited by echo008 on June 28, 2015)

[echo008]

Honestly I dont know who this person is (BUT Thank you!), there are a ton of great hi def videos from last night, you can hear and see among other things Phil's Wonderful Alembic up close and personal.
https://www.facebook.com/martin.singer.58511/media_set?set=vb.100000252133799&type=2

[mica]

Yes it was Phil's new Series II 6 string short scale version. He picked it up on May 8th. Both basses were made from the same board of Coco Bolo I'd been hoarding for years so they have a similar look.  
 
How to tell the difference...Short scale 'Belarion' has black hardware, LEDs are blue with red at 12th & 24th. Medium scale 'Khaleesi' has chrome hardware with LEDs red with blue at 12th & 24th.

[hieronymous]

I think seeing and hearing Belarion (and Phil of course!) is the most exciting thing for me about going to this show!

[lbpesq]

Short review:  Loved the show!  Can't wait to go back tonight!    Longer Review:  THE SCENE:  I have to start by admitting that I wasn't expecting much.  I'm not a big Trey guy and the ticket prices and other costs put me off a bit - was this just a money grab?  Even the parking was $60!  Then a good omen:  it turns out my son's girlfriend's father works at Levi's and got me parking passes to the VIP garage next to the stadium.  (After all these years of putting money into raising this kid, he's finally paying off!)  Someone handed me a long stem American Beauty Rose as I entered (They gave out roses to the first 45,000 attendees).  Food and drink was absurdly expensive, as one expects at a stadium these days.  Regular American beer was $10.25.  Water $5.75, etc.  T-shirts were $40 and a ball cap was $35 (yea, I bought one and will be getting a couple of T's tonight - but I'm not the only sucker).  THE SHOW  My seats were in the second level, on the opposite end of the stadium as the band, dead center.  A LONG way away but we could easily see on the giant screens.  The guys came on around 40 minutes late (Stoner Standard Time).  They opened with Truckin'.  At the beginning the sound was just plain bad - way too much bass (I know that's almost sacrilege around here), but by the end of the song the sound was dialed in and pretty darn good considering the size of the venue and where I was sitting.  Then, (and I couldn't make this up), a rainbow appeared above the stage!  

  Truckin' was followed by my all-time favorite Dead song, Uncle John's Band.  Then they pulled out a bunch of old material:  Alligator, Cumberland Blues, Born Cross-eyed, Cream Puff War, and Viola Lee Blues to close out the first set.  The second set started with another oldie, Cryptical Envelopment.  Then they played the first three sides of Live Dead: Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Turn on Your Love Light.  This was followed by drums > What's Become of the Baby > Space > The Other One.  They ended with Morning Dew and encored with Casey Jones.  Trey fit right in without being overbearing or being a Jerry clone.  And it was very cool seeing that big hunk of cocobolo a hundred feet long all night.  

  I'm in the pit tonight for a more up close and personal experience.  I not sure I can stand that long without chemical friends anymore, but I'm going to give it a try.  For the Chicago shows I'll be comfortable on my couch with pay-per-view, free beer, and no bathroom lines.  lol  Bill, tgo

[mavnet]

David - thanks for posting the pics, and Tom, thanks for the link to the videos.  
Anyone know Phil's current signal path - what's he playing through here?

[StephenR]

Here's a link to a video of the complete first set.  
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oibbsUVOyR0

[David Houck]

Thanks Stephen!  The sound wasn't synced with the video, but it was still very enjoyable.  Glad I got to see it.

[elwoodblue]

second set!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWd9PLlp6J0

[hammer]

Argh!!! In Poland and India for work and have poor and slow internet service. No chance of streaming and it took 30 minutes to download the first part of Truck'n. I'll be hoping both video and audio will be available when I return.

[David Houck]

Second set was wonderful!  Thanks!

[rv_bass]

Hi Mavnet,
It's a Meyer Sound Lab rig similar to the one Mike Gordon uses and describes here:
 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8NDxginP3fk

[David Houck]

Nice mention of our Edwin in part 2 of Mike's rig rundown video!