Set 1
The final show of the tour, on a gloriously beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest. It’s with a sense of relief but also dread that the tour ends, everyone exhausted but satisfied with the music, and a fun quotient that is as high as it’s ever been for these guys, and for the 15,000 (or more) people who came out every night. This show was a late addition to the tour, and it was a very welcome addition, especially those dwellers north of the Bay Area. A sold out concert, with two opening acts (including the omnipresent Warren Haynes) bodes well for a good party to end the tour. Opening with The Music Never Stopped is such an appropriate way to start things out, and with a Sirius XM audience listening along, this show will be reaching 23,000 at The Gorge, and countless others across the satellite airwaves. Loose Lucy and Crazy Fingers take us on a short trip through the mid-1970s era Dead, and then comes the surprising mid-first set Dark Star, always great to hear, especially Phil playing in and out of the guitar parts. Nice. Dire Wolf follows, a surprising choice out of Dark Star, but I suppose little is surprising on this tour. Tom Thumb’s Blues (a tour first? Zomby?) comes next, always great to hear Phil sing a Phil song from back in the day. Goin’ back to San Anselmo, I do believe they’ve had enough… Into the Mystic and Women Are Smarter (another tour first?) end things nicely, with a gorgeous sunset setting the stage for the tour’s final set.
Set 2 The second set opens with two great Weir rockers (ok, one was written by Phil), Passenger and Hell in a Bucket, of which have been ripping on this tour. I love Jerry’s slide playing on Passenger, in which he plays with some really raunchy tones (Phil’s intention in writing the song), but Warren has been doing a nice job with it. Donna, and later Brent, always sang such great high harmony background vocals on this, and Warren’s voice suits this just fine. Following two Weir tunes come two Garcia-Hunter tunes, Althea and Eyes of the World. Certainly no complaints here with those two songs back-to-back. Mickey and Bill’s final trip through the cosmos of the tour (they were GOOD this tour; check them out closely if you bought the CDs or the downloads) during Rhythm Devils ventures, of course, into Space, followed by Days Between. The Dark Star reprise from the first set is somewhat expected with this band, and is greeted very happily by the masses. One More Saturday Night, of course, ends things off with Bobby rocking the house (or the desert/Columbia River Gorge) one last time on the tour. An encore of Box of Rain is a fitting way to send people home after what is up there with the 1998 Other Ones tour as the finest tour these guys have done since 1995.
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