Last weekend I decided that I had heard enough of the recordings of this tour to know that I wanted to be in the fold of what was happening. John Mayer was playing great and was using a warm early 70s Jerry tone. Weir seems rejuvenated by this project. I was able to talk Craig into going so I was with the same person I went to GD50 4th of July two years ago. We got tickets for $95 including fees. It's still hard to stomach paying that much for one concert.
The weather was ideal on Saturday with temperatures in the 80s and clear skies. I worked on Friday so I decided to only go the second night. I was happy with the decision with the way the setlists played out. Traffic could have been much worse given the circumstances. We found a parking spot in Wicker Park and had Big Al's for dinner before taking the Blue Line down to the Red Line. At the transfer there was several black guys with a guitar and drums. They played excellent versions of Althea and Scarlet Begonias. They must have seen that evening's setlist. Talk about playing to your audience. It was cool to see the renovations on Clark St. That was all under construction last year for Phish. There was an empty lot on Waveland that became a de facto Shakedown Street. There was vending all along Waveland and Sheffield Ave. We walked around the entire ballpark and then headed inside. The metal detectors are an annoyance. I bought the event hat and the shirt. Our actual seats were behind home plate on the first level. We spent the first set down the right field line. It gave us a better view of the ballpark while the sun was still out. The crowd was almost comical in the fact that it was three generations.
Mayer was on top of his game with the blues rock numbers such as Cold Rain and Snow. Jack Straw saw him trading off the vocals with Weir like the song calls for. Tennessee Jed isn't one of my favorite numbers especially with Bobby singing it. That was the tour debut of Ship of Fools. I liked Oteil getting into the vocal mix. I could have done without the acoustic interlude. The energy was lacking at that point. Dark Star was the second verse with them having started it the night before. This led into Friend of the Devil which became a huge sing-along. The final two numbers of the first set Althea and Casey Jones were in Mayer's blues wheelhouse.
We moved back to our real seats for the second set. Bobby kicked things off with Sugar Magnolia. Next was Dancing in the Street which was the highlight of the whole show for me. Mayer used a late 70's disco Dead Mu-Tron effect with great success. This Martha Reeves and the Vandellas cover was over 13+ minutes of funky dancing in Chicago. I was also impressed with Mayer's playing in Playin' in the Band. He was nailing the Garcia parts. This led into an emotional version of Comes A Time sung by Oteil. Scarlet > Fire was what I came for. After a spiritual Drums that shook the old ballpark to its core we saw a Space that saw them toy with Stella Blue territory before settling into The Other One. The latter day Garcia/Hunter number Days Between slowed things down more than I would have liked in that slot. However, the Chuck Berry cover Not Fade Away closed out the final set of the tour with an appropriate ethos. The encore was a good call with them playing in a renovated 100+ year venue. Brokedown Palace was followed by the Sunshine Daydream end portion of Sugar Magnolia. This was accompanied by fireworks. I was really impressed by the crowd energy at the end of the show. Instead of dealing with the red line madness we Uber'd it back to Wicker Park. The drive was uneventful. With us grooving out of the city listening to 102.7 we were able to get home around 2:30 am.
