Furthur, the new Grateful Dead project featuring Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, has been nearly universally praised by deadheads for putting on the best live shows since Jerry Garcia’s passing. After five years apart with their bands Ratdog and Phil Lesh & Friends, Weir and Lesh reunited last spring with Grateful Dead drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart to tour as The Dead. Weir and Lesh rediscovered their love of playing music together, built on thirty years of constant touring with the Grateful Dead, and wanted to continue to play with one another after Dead tour concluded. With the drummers busy with other projects, Lesh and Weir decided to form a new band together, Furthur, and recruited guitarist John Kadlicek and drummer Joe Russo in addition to keeping keyboardist Jeff Chiment who has performed with Weir for years in Ratdog and been a member of several incantations of “The Dead.” After Furthur’s performance on Sunday at Coney Island, there was little doubt left in my mind that this band is the most exciting and captivating Grateful Dead experience since Jerry died.
For the first time, Phil and Bobby are playing in a band with a guitarist who has made a living by impersonating Jerry Garcia. Previous fill ins for Garcia almost all used different tones and took a very different approach to the music than Jerry did, which helped the bands reinterpret old Grateful Dead material in fresh and interesting ways but also leaving deadheads missing Jerry more than ever. Kadlicek channels Jerry just the right amount, capturing his tone and playing some of Jerry’s signature leads note for note, but he manages to use different paths to get to those places, and can lead the band off in new directions. In “Scarlet Begonias,” Kadlicek reached the familiar peak of the solo, a quick flurry of spine-tingling notes, but took an unusual path to get there, skillfully building his solo, and in the song’s closing jam, led the band into Ryan Adams’ “Magnolia Mountain” instead of “Scarlet Begonias” customary mate “Fire On The Mountain.” 
The addition of Kadlicek and drummer Joe Russo seems to have lit a fire under Lesh and Weir who both sound better than they have in years. Russo drums like an eight-armed madman, and shined on “Let It Grow” and “The Other One.” Jeff Chimenti is probably the most talented keyboard player Lesh and Weir have ever played Grateful Dead music with, frequently stole the show with his lightening quick fingers. The younger members are bring an energy that seems to have rejuvenated Lesh and Weir. Phil thundered his way through “Unbroken Chain” and “Fire On The Mountain,” dropping rumbling bass bombs everywhere. Unlike in Ratdog, Bob Weir doesn’t have to sing lead vocals on every song with Furthur, and as a result, his voice sounds stronger than it has in recent years. He roared his way through “The Other One” and delivered a classic vocal rap in “Good Lovin’” that delighted the crowd. Musically, this show sometimes sounded like vintage 1974 Grateful Dead, largely due to Weir’s angular and exploratory rhythm guitar playing and Phil’s full bass tone (which has been absent the past couple years while he’s played with a lousy, thin-toned bass… new bass makes an incredible difference). The second set in particular found Weir way turned up in the mix and engaging in some of the best rhythm guitar playing I have ever heard from him, pushing “Morning Dew” and “Eyes of the World” to stunning climaxes and even delivered a typically weird and jagged solo in “Fire On The Mountain.”
Phil Lesh may have turned seventy years old last March, but he and Weir are showing no signs of slowing down. They defy their age and night after night are still performing exciting and fresh marathon concerts. Even after forty years, they still perform Grateful Dead material in a fresh style, taking the songs places that you’ve never heard them go before and drawing from a greater catalogue of songs than the Grateful Dead ever drew from. Although some deadheads are skeptical that a band with a guitarist who has always been thought of as a Jerry Garcia impersonator could take the music “further,” this band is managing to do that. On some songs, like the “Morning Dew,” Kadlicek sounds so eerily reminiscent of Garcia that if you closed your eyes you’d imagine Jerry, but on others like “Unbroken Chain,” he does take the music further, leading the band into a closing jam unlike anything I’ve ever heard in the song before. Even though they’ve been together for less than a year, the band already gels like a well oiled machine, save for the trainwreck confusion at the end of “Eyes of the World,” and seem to be getting better with every show. We should all be grateful that Bobby and Phil are still alive and playing music, and it is truly incredible that they are still playing music that is this good and exciting after all these years. 
