The greatest American band, reincarnated with an adjusted lineup, came to Denver last weekend, playing a show at the Ogden Theater in Denver on Thursday and three nights of shows at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield Friday through Sunday. I saw Furthur’s show on Saturday, and was impressed by the tremendous energy and stamina the band still has.
Furthur consists of Grateful Dead founders Bob Weir on rhythm guitar and Phil Lesh on bass. John Kadlecik is the new lead guitarist, joined by Jeff Chimenti on keyboard, Joe Russo on drums and Sunshine Becker and Jeff Pehrson singing backup vocals. This new lineup is not the Dead, but the evolution of the original band; it is not better or worse, but different.
The people who’d come to see the mythic band were thrilled from the get-go. Lesh walked briefly across stage to raucous applause. Weir popped his head from behind a curtain as if to tease.
Their first set opened strongly. They played “The Music Never Stopped,” a funky Dead classic from the 1970s, to the delight of the crowd. During the chorus of the song, it felt like the audience became a part of the band; Weir would hold off on singing a few words in the chorus so the audience could chime in.
With Weir playing supporting guitar and Lesh jamming on bass, the audience was pulled between the two engines, the heart and soul of this group. If the two oldtimers are the engines of this train, Kadlecik is certainly the madman conductor: his solos in the first set brought the music to another dimension.
The audience, who danced slowly to “Looks Like Rain,” was electrified by the fast-paced Kadlecik solos. It feels as if Kadlecik, as the new lead guitarist, will lead the band into the next generation. Lesh and Weir once stood aside Garcia; in 20 years Kadlecik will stand beside another two players and the band will be an unbroken chain.
The songs of the Dead, and now of Furthur, have taken on another dimension and new meaning as time passes. For example, “Touch of Grey,” one of the Dead’s most popular songs from the 1980s, took on new definition when Furthur sang it to round out set one. It was as if the band acknowledged their age, but said, simultaneously, “We will survive.”
Throughout the first set, though, the band seemed to be plagued by equipment issues. Weir continually fussed with his amp and looked offstage for assistance. A technician also came out during the first set to make some adjustments. However, even during Weir’s momentary malfunction, Kadlecik came through and carried the remainder of the song. It speaks to the synergy of the group that they know each other well enough to be able to do that. It was also fascinating to watch how the band communicated between songs. Instead of stopping to chat about what came next, they would start to jam, each adding a bit of coal to the train’s engine. Lesh would play a well-known bass riff to suggest his song come next. Kadlecik would look at Weir and play a lead riff. This went on throughout the early part of the second set. Ultimately one would prevail and the train would slowly cross the jam-bridge and pass into the vail of the next song. The second set, opening with “Help on the Way” morphed into a freeform, nebulous jam for which Furthur is famous. The hypnotic rhythm progressed into the 1960s ethereal ballad “Mountains of the Moon.” The song, on which Lesh sang lead, seemed to have no beginning and no end.
During the Weir-led song “Let It Grow,” the band and the crowd joined in what was a poignant and existential expression; the refrain, repeated three times: “I am.”
The second set ended with four well-played fan hits that the crowd loved. This power-run started with “I Know You Rider,” which was missing its normal companion song “China Cat/Sunflower.” The audience erupted louder than at any other point when the band sang the lyric, “I’d shine my light through the cool Colorado rain.”
They went on to play “Uncle John’s Band,” a feel good classic, and ended the night with a fast-paced, rock-and-roll encore: “Franklin’s Tower” followed by “One More Saturday Night.”
Anyone who entered the 1stBank Center as anything other than a Deadhead certainly left as one. The energy of Lesh and Weir is truly impressive, considering that they have been touring for nearly 50 years. They showed no signs of slowing down—despite the thick cloud of hazy smoke constantly getting puffed up from the audience. The bands’ stamina was the only thing higher than the people in attendance.
Furthur proved, through their dynamism, energy and unrivaled musicianship that even at more than 70 years of age, and with Kadlecik as the new conductor, the music and the legacy of the Dead will endure for future generations. The train has never stopped and Furthur’s music has the ability to cross both space and time.
