Phil Lesh & Friends Pay Tribute To 1983 Grateful Dead At Terrapin Crossroads

Phil Lesh & Friends continued a series of shows honoring each year of Grateful Dead last night at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, California. The Grateful Dead bassist and his band used the same setlist the Dead did at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre on May 13, 1983 for Thursday night’s performance.

Phil and his band plucked the setlist from a Bay Area show for the third time in a row as Lesh’s tribute to 1981 saw the group re-create a Berkeley Greek performance from that year, while a recent tribute to 1982 was a re-creation of a Grateful Dead gig in San Francisco. Phil Lesh’s band on Thursday night featured guitarists Stu Allen and Grahame Lesh, keyboardist Scott Guberman and drummers Ezra Lipp and Alex Koford.

Grahame Lesh handled vocals on the Bob Weir songs, while Stu Allen sang lead on Jerry Garcia tunes. Phil led a rendition of “Box Of Rain” – a song that wasn’t performed on May 13, 1983 – as the encore last night. There was no encore at the Greek on that evening in 1983 due to curfew constraints. As usual, the show started with a discussion about the year between photographer Jay Blakesberg and Phil Lesh. The bassist was frank in talking about guitarist Jerry Garcia’s drug usage and health issues. He also revealed that Jerry once told him the Dead didn’t perform “St. Stephen” after 1983 because Garcia didn’t want to sing the bridge (which Phil helped write) anymore. Lesh also discussed how the Dead came up with the setlist each night.

Stream audio of last night’s show including the Phil/Jay discussion captured by Quinfolk:

https://soundcloud.com/quinfolk/sets/txr1983

Setlist

Set One: Cold Rain & Snow, Greatest Story Ever Told, West L.A. Fadeaway, Hell In A Bucket, Loser, Little Red Rooster, Bird Song, Let It Grow

Set Two: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider > Estimated Prophet > Eyes Of The World > Drums > Space > Throwing Stones > The Other One > Wharf Rat > Around & Around > Good Lovin’

Encore: Box Of Rain