By Blair Jackson

And on the Third Night they really became a band.

I’m underslept, my head is still buzzing and my feet ache from three nights of non-stop dancing (first time I’ve hit three consecutive shows since ’95), but I still have the ecstatic glow of last night’s show to keep me going (until I crash… later).

The Sunday Furthur concert was one of those shows you hit every once in while where it’s clear from the first second that it’s going to be a great night: sound in the hall is fantastic, the parts are all fitting together smoothly—the band balancing itself, like a great orchestra—everyone looks happy and relaxed onstage and in the crowd, and any and all doubts fall away in the face of undisputable evidence that this music—this band—is really happenin’.

It all started with drums— Joe and Jay, all smiles, Jay jumping around his setup like he was on springs— and it was a minute or so before it became clear that, no, this was not going to be an actual drum solo, as it soon headed into that old Sunday favorite, “Samson and Delilah.”

The band was totally on from the get-go, Phil and Bob perfectly in sync, John firing short bursts of notes, Jeff adding organ sustain as a bed beneath. (Yes, I could finally hear Jeff—all night!) We all sang along lustily on the choruses, even though none of us wants to tear that old building down! The party had begun. “Casey Jones” was next—a total surprise to me—with John handling the lead vocals very well. This seemed like a pretty normal version until the “driving that train” chorus kept going on and on, getting faster and faster, until it was practically a blur (one of my old Dead Head pals, who hadn’t seen any post-GD lineup in several years, noted that he’d never heard the Grateful Dead play that fast!)

It was on the third song of the night, though, that I had my own personal epiphany about this group. I mean, I’d been digging it from the outset, for sure, but on this particular “Mississippi Half-Step,” John Kadlecik’s solo on the closing jam was so amazing, passionate, inspired, so… throw in your own adjective here, and the band had to keep going higher and higher just to keep up with him; it was truly that old familiar feeling in a new guise. That may have been my favorite tune of the whole three-night run.

Bob and John traded vocals on “Sugaree,” which started out slowly but picked up steam when Jeff took a huge solo that began deliberately, like climbing a tall spiral staircase, and just built and built until it crashed to a satisfying climax before the next verse. John later added his own marvelous solo construction on the tune, and before the final verse there was a great musical group-grope, as everyone played parts that interlocked like a giant mechanical wheel threatening to spin off its axel.

“Pride of Cucamonga” was one of two or three songs this weekend that let John put his toe into pedal steel territory (Saturday, "Friend of the Devil" was another)—it's uncanny how much he is able to capture that sound on a regular electric guitar, and it was perfect for this tune, of course. The verse parts of the song were as perky and bouncy as the crowd’s “up” mood, and the bluesy middle passage went into some unexpected realms. But one of the most interesting jams of the night came directly after that song. While I was listening to it last night, there was a part of my brain that was saying, “Remember what they’re doing here so you can describe how cool it is,” but needless to say I had lost that thought in the next second and now I have no memory at all of what was great about it—except that it was great. I’ll be anxious to hear that again when I have a moment. Somehow, though, the jam ended up at “Throwing Stones,” which shocked the hell out of me. I hadn’t heard it in a coon’s age, and it was a truly powerful version—again, as he had on “Half-Step,” John took the jam toward the end of the song so far and with so much energy, it was a joy to behold. This guy is extremely impressive. He really speaks this language well; like a native! I thought “Passenger” was a great choice as the set closer. Bob and Jay did the vocals together and the whole band was cookin’. John didn’t go as far on his slide solo as I’d hoped he might (three nights, and I’m already gettin’ greedy on the guy!), but it was still rip-roaring fun. What a set. And you could feel it in the hall that almost everyone agreed. Sometimes it’s that obvious. You can’t miss it.

Set Two jumped out of the gate with a terrific “Viola Lee Blues” (verses one and two, to start), then went into another giant jam—John, Bob and Phil tearing it up on the front line—and eventually that moved quite naturally into “Cumberland Blues,” a song that is always great (really, I’ve never seen a bad one). At the conclusion of that speedy ride (it’s kind of like Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland), Phil led the charge right back to “Viola Lee Blues” and we got the final verse (though no big second jam). Phil’s fabulous but very rarely played instrumental opus, “King’s Solomon’s Marbles” (from Blues for Allah), followed, and that was another personal highlight. The band seemed to have no trouble at all negotiating the song’s myriad twists and turns and rhythmic shifts—indeed, it sounded like they’d been playing it their whole lives.

I now remember that when the aforementioned “Pride of Cucamonga” ended and the big jam after it began, I initially thought that it was going to go right into “Cassidy.” Wrong again! But they did play “Cassidy” in this second set, and it was a warm and heartfelt version with yet another astonishing jam. A bona fide “space” jam followed, with strong hints of “Dark Star” and then “Dark Star” itself—another test for the new kids, and they passed with flying colors. Jay and Joe really threw themselves into this, mixing power-drumming with delicate shadings as the moment required (Jay had the shaker goin’), and needless to say, John was totally in his element on this tune, stretching out easily, driving the jam to this odd place and that.

And then… What the?... Out of the deep recesses of space, a chord sequence starts to appear, a melody, and all of a sudden we’re in a new song! Now, that was unexpected! Titled “Welcome to the Dance,” words and music by Phil, it was kind of hard to grasp on first listen. I couldn’t make out the words at all, and you know how those Phil tunes are with their unusual chords and rhythm changes… But I liked it, and the band seemed confident playing it, and its easy to imagine it becoming a real powerhouse tune, because the jam near the end was spectacular—sort of one part “Uncle John’s,” one part “Good Lovin’,” a dash of that almost waltz-time lead-in to “The Eleven” (on Live Dead), blended and stirred and mixed in with some other new secret ingredients. Pretty cool. Always fun to hear new stuff!

That drifted back to “Dark Star”—short but sweet flowing into the second verse—and then it was “Uncle John’s” and a sing-along for 3,500 very happy people. That could’ve ended the show and I would’ve been totally satisfied, but Bob tossed in a dynamite “Sugar Magnolia” to close. Wow, that place was jumpin’!

They had one more curve ball for us: A “Cosmic Charlie” encore, played as a rubbery shuffle; a neat way to end a fantastic set of shows.

Whew. This band is for real. Keep an open mind. And don’t miss ’em if they come to your town!

9/20/09, Fox Theatre, Oakland
Samson and Delilah, Casey Jones, Mississippi Half-Step, Sugaree, Pride of Cucamonga > jam> Throwing Stones > Passenger

Viola Lee Blues (v 1 and 2) > Cumberland Blues > Volia Lee Blues (v 3), King Solomon’s Marbles, Cassidy > space > Dark Star (v 1) > Welcome to the Dance > Dark Star (v 2) . Uncle John’s Band > Sugar Magnolia / Cosmic Charlie