Furthur played CMAC in Canandaigua, N.Y. on July 6, 2012. Former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh have thankfully carried on the Dead’s long tradition of extensive touring and incredible musicianship. Though it was their second show in as many years, the band didn’t repeat a single song from last year’s performance.
They opened the first set with the blues rocker “Alabama Getaway.” The eight-song set featured fantastic Dead classics like “New Minglewood Blues,” which segued into “Brown Eyed Woman,” and a few later-period songs like “Feel Like a Stranger” and “Just a Little Light,” but the highlight might have been their cover of Bob Dylan’s rambling “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again.” They closed the set with “Crazy Fingers” > “Mason’s Children.”
After the short set break, the band’s tuning turned into a five-minute jam, and they never stopped playing. The entire second set was connected. The jam led to 15 minutes of “Estimated Prophet,” followed by Lesh’s “Colors of the Rain,” one of the new songs Furthur has been playing.
From “Colors” came an absolutely incredible pairing of the classic “Scarlet Begonias” and “Eyes of the World.” Keyboardist Jeff Chimenti (also of RatDog) flew through a furious solo during “Eyes” that rivaled some of jazz’s greatest players.
They followed that with “The Eleven” > “Let It Grow” and ended the set with “Comes a Time” > “Viola Lee Blues” and an encore of “Touch of Grey.”
After almost 50 years, the Grateful Dead songbook still holds up, especially in a live show. Even with a new set of musicians, Lesh and Weir retain that original quality that sparked such a rabid fanbase that’s still growing. If you can’t find a reason to like the Dead, look no Furthur.
Listen to Steven Weld‘s audience recording on Archive.org and see the setlist after the jump (via deadheadland)
