The Dead (formally The Greatfull Dead) at the Shoreline last night. The excitement from 'the community' at the bands emergence from death, near death, royalties, and Bobby, was well worth being there even for the shallow fan that I am.
Regardless of all that baggage Phil Lesh has always been a huge point of interest. I'm especially taken by Bass playing with a pick, something I'm more than horrible at. Aside from the pick I've admired Phil's stage tone from day one, and in stereo later on. For me his tone reached phenomenal quality last year (or was it the year before) at a Phil & Friends show at the Greek Theater UC Berkeley. Using Eden electronics and a couple of Meyer Sound Labs 2-18" and a 12"+ high frequency horn. Effortless low B fundamental blending richly up the Modulus' fingerboard at an outside venue void of boundary effect, room loading, and forgiving of the inability of many of todays sound reinforcement personal to provide quality sound beyond their own seat. In short a nice show.
The new Lesh, new instrument, and new cabinets, playing those familiar community favorites. An interesting all black instrument with a Prince like upper horn that is at least a foot long. A body shape so radical it needs a squared off portion pass the bridge just to stand up in a stand. Now using four 4-10" Eden cabinets that low B fundamental has vanished. On the other hand the tone in second position on up has better clarity.
As a connoisseur of the fundamental below 40Hz I'm saddened by this change. All was not lost last night as my low frequency jones was filled by none other than Mickey Hart. That once boring drum solo now comes with choreographed Polynesian flame dancers and Mickey's collection of exotic drums took the reinforcement system seemingly to it's limit. A true audiofest of the first order with low distortion and very high SPL. Nobody left the drum solo for the first time in my long memory with the Dead. Not only that but the applause for the solo was only bested by the round at the end of the show.
All in all it's been my contention that every non California native be required to attend at least one Dead show to simply smile a lot and chill the puck out.
Regardless of all that baggage Phil Lesh has always been a huge point of interest. I'm especially taken by Bass playing with a pick, something I'm more than horrible at. Aside from the pick I've admired Phil's stage tone from day one, and in stereo later on. For me his tone reached phenomenal quality last year (or was it the year before) at a Phil & Friends show at the Greek Theater UC Berkeley. Using Eden electronics and a couple of Meyer Sound Labs 2-18" and a 12"+ high frequency horn. Effortless low B fundamental blending richly up the Modulus' fingerboard at an outside venue void of boundary effect, room loading, and forgiving of the inability of many of todays sound reinforcement personal to provide quality sound beyond their own seat. In short a nice show.
The new Lesh, new instrument, and new cabinets, playing those familiar community favorites. An interesting all black instrument with a Prince like upper horn that is at least a foot long. A body shape so radical it needs a squared off portion pass the bridge just to stand up in a stand. Now using four 4-10" Eden cabinets that low B fundamental has vanished. On the other hand the tone in second position on up has better clarity.
As a connoisseur of the fundamental below 40Hz I'm saddened by this change. All was not lost last night as my low frequency jones was filled by none other than Mickey Hart. That once boring drum solo now comes with choreographed Polynesian flame dancers and Mickey's collection of exotic drums took the reinforcement system seemingly to it's limit. A true audiofest of the first order with low distortion and very high SPL. Nobody left the drum solo for the first time in my long memory with the Dead. Not only that but the applause for the solo was only bested by the round at the end of the show.
All in all it's been my contention that every non California native be required to attend at least one Dead show to simply smile a lot and chill the puck out.
