By: David Schultz

In their glory days, a multiple night run of Grateful Dead shows at Madison Square Garden used to change the landscape of New York City. Deadheads from all over would flock to the City in droves and throw a tie-dyed gloss over the entire area. The days of the Dead may be a thing of the past but the spirit lives on with Phil Lesh & Friends, who are currently in the middle of a ten night residency at Times Square’s Nokia Theater.

Hardly content to rest on his laurels as the Dead’s bassist, Lesh has become a classic rock Godfather of sorts, keeping the Dead’s sizable catalog vital by assembling first rate musicians to serve as his Friends. If fans come for a nostalgic trip with Uncle Phil through “Sugar Magnolia” and “Uncle John’s Band,” they are leaving with a new found awareness of the musicians guiding their way. In bringing Larry Campbell, Jackie Greene, Steve Molitz and John Molo together for this current tour, Lesh has put together a band that is the perfect mix of veteran musicianship and young blood.

The two week long residency has just passed its midway point. As Phil & Friends hit the homestretch of the New York run that will close out their seven week long U.S. tour, some short and possibly scattered thoughts and observations.

Larry Campbell has become a true caretaker of classic rock. In playing with Bob Dylan, Levon Helm as well as Lesh, the smooth-playing guitarist has been entrusted with a sizable share of treasured riffs and leads. He is also just as capable with the violin, pedal steel, mandolin and practically anything else with strings.

“Jackie Greene is just like a young Bob Dylan,” says Maggie Campbell with confidence. Larry’s mother knows her stuff; plus, she once accompanied Dylan to the Grammy Awards, so I’m going to give her opinion quite a bit of weight. Wearing a fedora style hat and playing with his guitar slightly askew, the 26-year-old consistently justified Mrs. Campbell’s belief in his unlimited potential. On Monday night, Greene simply made “Sugaree” his own, offering a staggeringly powerful first set closing version that left people awestruck at the young guitarist’s maturity.

The success of keeping Ryan Adams’ guest appearances a secret arose from the fact that hardly anyone knew he was coming until he arrived at the theater. Since jamming with Lesh on “Wharf Rat” at the 2005 Jammys, Lesh and Adams have formed a bit of mutual admiration society with Adams keeping “Wharf Rat” in his repertoire and Lesh often inserting an Adams song or two into his setlists. His inclusion provided some wonderfully improvised moments as well as a couple confused ones. To Adams’ credit, he ran through “Eyes Of The World” with Greene backstage only minutes before taking the stage and handling the song like he’d known it all his life.

On Friday night, Molitz was an iron man. After nearly four hours on stage at the Nokia, Molitz hustled a few blocks south to meet up with Particle for an after-hours gig at the Highline Ballroom. None the worse for wear, Molitz shifted gears and entered into full bore jamtronica mode and helped guide Josh Clark from Tea Leaf Green through his first full gig with Particle as they played well into the night. Originally believed to be a one-off gig, Particle announced that Clark would be joining them for the majority of their month long winter tour. Particle’s show also featured an appearance from Marty Ylitalo, New Monsoon’s former drummer. Fresh off his first appearance with the Blue Man Group, the newly bald drummer came onstage for a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Young Lust” and remained onstage sharing the drums with Darren Pujalet for the lengthy jam that ensued.

One thing that makes Phil & Friends shows so much fun is that Lesh doesn’t limit the set lists to Dead songs. Although Lesh cobbles his set lists primarily from the Grateful Dead catalog, he is quite expansive with them. Friday night included an electric version of “Midnight Rider,” an acoustic run through “Dead Flowers” and with Teresa Williams and Amy Helm providing the proper disembodied vocals, Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse.” On Monday, with Molitz and Greene providing a double keyboard assault, Campbell belted out a fantastic version of The Band’s “Chest Fever,” establishing that someone other than Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson actually knows the words to the song.

For a bunch of thoughts on the first half of the Phil & Friends residency, Phil Lesh’s name seems undermentioned (as is John Molo’s, who deserves more than the casual mention I’ve given him). It’s emblematic of the fact that Lesh has surrounded himself with musicians who are every bit equal to the task of keeping up with one of the forefathers of improvisational rock and roll. Even though his name is above the ampersand, Lesh exhibits not one shred of ego, graciously allowing his star to provide light for his Friends to shine.

Labels: Jackie Greene, Larry Campbell, Live Reviews, Particle, Phil Lesh, Ryan Adams