Full Show Video: Phil Lesh & Friends Honor Bowie & Celebrate Law’s Birthday

On Friday night, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh assembled a version of his Phil Lesh & Friends ensemble to perform at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California. The show came in honor of guitarist Scott Law’s 50th birthday and includes a tribute to the late David Bowie.

Phil Lesh and Scott Law were joined by a core band of guitarists Ross James and Stu Allen as well as keyboardist Scott Guberman and drummer Ezra Lipp on Friday night. Terrapin regulars Grahame Lesh, Alex Koford and Danny Eisenberg guest at various points of the show. The band opened with an inventive “Help On The Way” > “Slipknot!” > “Shakedown Street” sequence and later brought out Koford on lead vocals for the Phil Lesh debut of “Young Americans” by David Bowie. Law was featured throughout the night as he fronted the band on many tunes including “Help On The Way” and “Althea.”

The band honored Scott specifically with a cover of Sonny Curtis’s “I Fought The Law” to open the second set. Phil has only performed “I Fought The Law” a few times since Jerry Garcia’s passing after it was a regular Grateful Dead encore between 1993 – 1995. Grahame Lesh came out to add guitars and vocals to “Jack Straw” towards the middle of the closing stanza, while keyboardist Danny Eisenberg lent a hand on a Ross James-led cover of “Sweet Jane” by Velvet Underground. The second set came to a conclusion with a meaty “Eyes Of The World”/”Terrapin Station”/”Not Fade Away” sequence, while “Uncle John’s Band” served as the encore.

Watch pro-shot video of the entire show from Friday at Terrapin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o13qJXDLEPs

Setlist

Set One: Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Shakedown Street, Easy Wind, Cumberland Blues, Althea, Cassidy, Young Americans*, Mississippi Half-Step

Set Two: I Fought The Law, Box Of Rain, Jack Straw#, Sweet Jane@, Eyes Of The World, Terrapin Station, Not Fade Away

Encore: Donor Rap, Uncle John’s Band*

* – w/Alex Koford, # – w/ Grahame Lesh, @ – w/ Danny Eisenberg