Pre-Q: Watch Phil Lesh Quintet Members Share Stage Together For 1st Time In 2000

Last week, Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh assembled the Phil Lesh & Friends lineup known as the Phil Lesh Quintet or simply “The Q” for the first time since 2021 to play a pair of shows at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York that began a run celebrating his upcoming 84th birthday. “The Q” is Phil’s most beloved and longest-running post-Jerry Garcia ensemble.

While the group initally toured in the fall of 2000, the five musicians first shared the stage together earlier that year at The Beacon Theatre in New York City. High-quality fan-shot video footage of nearly the entire April 18, 2000 show recently surfaced on YouTube and can be viewed below.

Phil started Phil & Friends as an opportunity to play with a variety of musicians and put together various lineups that played runs of shows together in 1998 and 1999. Guitarist Steve Kimock was the one constant. Lesh embarked on a co-headlining tour with Bob Dylan in the fall of 1999. Kimock departed the band abruptly mid-tour.

The bassist wound up settling in a lineup that saw him accompanied by guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, keyboardist Rob Barraco and drummer John Molo for 11 of the trek’s last 13 shows. Legendary Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen was the group’s sixth member on November 15, 1999 at Barton Hall in Ithaca, New York — a venue that hosted arguably the most famous Grateful Dead concert of all-time on May 8, 1977. Kaukonen replaced Derek Trucks in the group at the final two shows held in Durham, New Hampshire and Amherst, Massachusetts.

Phil Lesh returned to the road in April 2000 for a 14-show, four-city tour that marked the biggest trek of his own through that point. Lesh’s “Friends” that month were guitarists Jimmy Herring and Jeff Pevar along with Molo on drums and Barraco on keys. Herring, best known at the time as Aquarium Rescue Unit’s founding lead guitarist, won over Grateful Dead fans with his work in Jazz Is Dead, a tribute act formed in 1998. He would go on to join The Allman Brothers Band for their Summer Tour 2000. Herring eventually found stability as Widespread Panic‘s lead guitarist beginning in 2006 and continuing through the present.

The gig in Phil & Friends was the biggest yet for Rob Barraco who had spent 10 years performing in The Zen Tricksters. Molo also started a new phase of his career by performing with Phil after Bruce Hornsby dissolved The Range. Jeff Pevar was a highly successful touring and session musician. Pevar had toured with Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Marc Cohn, Donald Fagen and a variety of David Crosby’s projects.

Phil Lesh, Jeff Pevar, Jimmy Herring, Rob Barraco and John Molo pulled into The Beacon Theatre in New York City on April 17, 2000 to start a seven-show residency at the venue. The five-piece had already played one night in Wallingford (Connecticut), four in Boston and three in Philadelphia to start the tour.

Warren Haynes was Phil Lesh & Friends’ special guest on the second night of the Beacon residency on April 18, 2000. Haynes sat-in with the five musicians for their entire second set. It may have been the first time Haynes, Lesh, Barraco, Herring and Molo shared the stage together but it would be far from the last.

Jeff Pevar was an vital member of the April 2000 Phil Lesh & Friends member thanks to his stellar skills on guitar, lap steel and mandolin. Pevar also sang occasionally. However, when Warren Haynes took the stage with the group, there was magic in the air. The chemistry was undeniable. Phil Lesh recruited Haynes to take part in his Fall Tour 2000 at which point the rotating lineup was done.

The Phil Lesh Quintet was sealed and toured constantly through 2003, when the bassist reunited with his Grateful Dead bandmates as The Dead. Phil continued to reunite “The Q” on several occasions over the decades that followed leading up to last week’s shows at The Cap. Now, fans have a chance to see the birth of the lineup via the footage below filmed on April 18, 2000.

A mere 13 songs were played by Phil Lesh & Friends during the second night of the April 2000 Beacon residency. Most of the show was devoted to jamming in a way that paved the path currently blazed by Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. Both sets started with jams. The raucous crowd reacted excitedly to the beginning of each tune and went berserk when Haynes emerged as the band took the stage for their second set. Warren was tapped with singing “Low Spark,” “Just A Little Light,” “Sugaree” and “Turn On Your Lovelight.” Haynes and Herring’s otherworldly interplay remains a spectacle to behold all these years later.

Phil was in fine form and did such a great job leading the troupe and directing traffic. He fronted the band on a number of songs including “Broken Arrow,” “Pride Of Cucamonga,” “Morning Dew” and the evening’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” encore. A particular highlight of the night was a wild rendition of John Coltrane’s “Blue Train” between “Low Spark” and “Pride Of Cucamonga” during the second set. Haynes, Herring, Barraco and Pevar each had a chance to shine and made the most of their opportunities.

Sadly, the “Turn On Your Love Light” that closed the second set and “Tom Thumbs” encore are both missing from the clips recently posted on YouTube. However, the videos below are a stellar and wonderful document of a historic night in Phil Lesh/Grateful Dead history. Watch the footage below thanks to “Tom P” and Raygunner:

Setlist (via Philzone.com)

Set One: (8:10) Jam > (8:30) Uncle John’s Band > (8:45) Jam > (8:48) Broken Arrow > (9:00) Cosmic Charlie, (9:11) Jack-a-Roe > (9:15) Tennessee Jed (Rob)

Set Two with Warren Haynes on guitar: (10:00) Jam > Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys (Warren) > Blue Train > Pride of Cucamonga > Just a Little Light (Warren) > Morning Dew > Sugaree (Warren) > Turn On Your Lovelight (Warren)

Encore: Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues

The Band: Phil, John Molo (d), Jeff Pevar (g), Jimmy Herring (g), Rob Barraco (k)