In the tradition of Kevin H - here's a quickie review of some of the most recent live music I've been able to catch. I spent the weekend at the Vegoose music festival in Las Vegas - it's kind of nice when a big event like that happens in your hometown. I got to see a lot of music, but I'll focus mostly on Phil & Friends and Mickey's and Billy's project the Rhythm Devils. Let me start by saying that I have seen Phil and Friends many times - his latest DVD release is on it's way to my door as I type - I have numerous soundboard recordings from as early as 1999 and I can't remember a sloppier performance. To be fair Phil sounded great and dropped many bombs, John Medeski also sounded spectacular and was the consummate professional as was John Molo. Larry Campbell might have been good if he could have been heard over the usual cutting distortion of Trey Anastasio's guitar. Now, I'm not a big Phish phan, but I think in the right context Trey is a very skillful guitarist, and he has played some great shows with Phil in the past. Sunday night at Vegoose was not one of those nights. They opened with a loose but passable Shakedown Street and things fell apart from there. Row Jimmy was a complete train wreck and Birdsong was positively anemic. The handful of Trey songs they played were okay, but didn't do much for me. They played a decent Help on the Way > Franklin's Tower with Medeski stoking some sweet fire throughout but overall Phil and Trey (as it was billed) was a big disappointment. I'm happy to report that the other GD alums were in very fine form. The Rhythm Devils with Steve Kimock on guitar, Mike Gordon on bass, drum master Sikiru Adepoju, and Jen Durkin on vocals are carrying the Grateful Dead mantle with pride and great skill. Armed with fresh lyrics from Robert Hunter and incredible energy this unit blew away the crowd that was fortunate enough to check them out at their 3:00 PM time slot. Mickey and Billy were as tight as ever and Gordon with his Modulus sounded excellent. Kimock did his usual fiddling with his gear but blew the place into orbit on the pulsating rhythms of the devils. Fire on the mountain was amazing and included several new verses provided by Hunter and The Other One definitely achieved lift-off. If you had a chance to catch any shows on their short tour, I'm sure you know what I mean. If not, let's all hope they pull this band together for some more dates. Other notable performances were Yonder Mountain String Band, Praxis, Medeski Martin and Wood, and The Meters. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers also played a great set in the cold late hours of Saturday night. I?m looking forward to next year. Peace, Tom A few pix of the Rhythm Devils.
