9/3/2000 Reviews

September 3 Darien Lake Music Center, Darien Center, NY
Aiko Aiko > (Bobby, Bruce, and Mickey)
Rainbow's Cadillac
Jack-A-Roe (Bobby)
Only the Strange Remain (w/ Jorma Kaukonen)
Deal (w/ Jorma; Bob, Mark, and Alphonso acoustic, Bruce on piano; Mark vocals)
Weather Report Suite >
Let It Grow >
Tennessee Jed > (Bruce)
Supplication Jam >
Let It Grow
Samson and Delilah >
Drumz/Jam >
Terrapin Station > (Bobby)
Aiko Aiko (w/ Jorma)
E: Turn On Your Lovelight (w/ Jorma Kaukonen)

Hottttttt show tonite...the best I've heard since '95
Aiko,Rainbow Cadillac, Jack A Roe,Strang Remain,Weather Report,Let It Grow, Tennessee Jed, Weather Reprise, Samson, Drumz,Aiko Reprise E.Lovelight
The highlight for me was without a doubt...Weather followed by Samson.
Great to see(hear) Billy again.

--MPorter

* * *

Big ol' Aiko to start the show. It was hot from the first chord. Impressive. Mickey singing a verse, actually worked quite well. Into Rainbow's Cad. Great Bruce tune, got that China Cat feel to it. Alphonse take a great solo. Jack-A-Roe, nice, show is flowing well. Strange Remain, brings us back down a touch, the howling thing at the end, personally, I don't dig it. Jorma joins in, very tasty licks from him all night. Very very sweet Deal, acoustic, Mark sings, very well done. The opening of Weather Report Suite, people go bonkers. Into Let It Grow, big and powerful. Let It Grow wanders into a half time Tennessee Jed. Starts off so slow it took a few seconds to sink in. Soon they hit the groove and launch back into the stratosphere. Back into Let It Grow. Samson. The hottest, stankest, most out of control Samson I've ever heard. Just ripping solos everywhere. Into Drumz, Mickey moves to the back of the riser and instantly losses his earpiece monitor. Fully half of Drumz is gone before the techs got it fixed. You could see Mickey up there getting more and more upset. Drumz ends, some quiet noodling and you can tell they are building to something. They start playing notes around a melody, just playing with it, and everybody figures it out. Terrapin. They start really slow, introducing us to this masterpiece as if to say, "Yes, we are playing it so hang on". Terrapin builds and builds, starts to peak, and on the downside Bobby hits the chords to Aiko. Perfect. Instantly the place is just bouncing. Steamy, Bluesy Aiko, with Jorma again, reprise with one verse, and ends on a chord vap that sounds like NFA. They go off stage, and the crowd starts banging on the seats in the NFA beat. This breaks down, the boys come back out, and just tear the place apart with Lovelight. The perfect Encore to a great show.

--Marc Peterson

* * *

Well I saw the show at Darien Lake last night. I didn't decide to go until the last minute as I've become rather uninterested in seeing GD covers live these days and the whole GD rift issue just stinks too. Anyways.. TMOnline had 10th row available so I say "what the hell, hopefully Kimock will burn", and grabbed a ticket.

The scene: nice hot sunny day. Lots were far from full. I spoke with a woman at the GDM table who said they'd "presold 8600 and we're getting about 1000-1500 walk-up's a day". Pretty sparse crowd in a venue that holds 21,700. I can only imagine the crowds getting even thinner next weekend when Phish fall tour starts and both tours are close to each other for many east coast dates.

I heard Jorma was playing solo to open things and decided to enter at 5.30 to check him out. Well was really nice to be able to walk right up to front row center and watch the Original Scandanavian Sex Symbol all by myself for 45 min. Then must not have been more than 500 people in the whole place for much of Jorma. In fact I had the whole sec 100 to MYSELF for much of his set which was a shame cause the man played his usual killer set of acoustic blues and standards.

Ziggy Marley was next up and I decided to stay front row center for much of their set also. WOW is the word here. That band is HOT. They played an excellent set of hypnotic reggae that made me think it was actually Bob up on stage and not his son. I probably enjoyed this set as much if not slightly more than the TOO set that followed. The folks who stayed in lot and missed Ziggy missed a hell of an opening act.

TOO followed and played a show that was mostly a mixed bag. Some great moments,some train-wreck changes and sloppiness, but mostly well played GD material that never really approached greatness.

A tentative sounding Aiko started things off to a horribly muddy PA that led into a nice Bruce led Rainbows. Jack-A-Roe found Weir with lyrical amnesia (what's new?). OTSR followed (w/ Jorma) and actually
has a pretty catchy beat and a lot of room for jamming but Mickey Hart's "singing" just puts me right off this. Actually, the band howling like wolves at the end of the tune had me thinking if Jerry had a grave, he'd be rolling in it right about then. What followed was simply one of the coolest things I've ever heard from a post 8/9/95 GD configuration. The slow acoustic Deal sung by Mark Karan was AMAZING. Totally totally hot. Karan has an excellent voice too. He deserves more vocals IMO. WRS was played very tentatively with a HUGELY blown change to around the 3rd verse part that was painful to hear. Let It Grow let into a really different timed version of Jed that was interesting and found things going back into the final part of Let It Grow. A standard Samson led the Rythym Devils off into an excellent drumz segment. It was my first time seeing Billy behind the kit since summer '95 and it was very cool to see him. Terrapin led out of Drumz and was played decently if not, raggedly. It seemed everyone was being cautious as not to step on anyone else's toes solo wise and this in turn gave the tune a slightly disjointed feel. Terrapin led back into Aiko and Jorma once again made another appearance on stage. Jorma was out for the fun Lovelight encore also that featured a Weir rap and excellent solo work from Kimock. The lights came on and it was 10.22. Very strange as the show seemed to be less than 2 hrs and I've seen shows at Darien Lake that've got well past 11.

All said, I'd have to say this was a decent but mostly forgettable show. It was fun hanging with friends and socializing on a fine late summer day but musically speaking, I'm not going to be bugging my taper buddies for the DAT's anytime soon...

--Marcus Thunich

* * *

ONLY THE STRANGE REMAIN ... basically sums up the evening for the 9/3/00 Darien Lake show. Rather than create a song-by-song storyline review, I thought I would just make a few "observational summations."

There was such a great feeling of unity with all of the fans (ok, Deadheads) back together again to see the boys back up on stage ... the Shakedown scene was pretty hot and the usual fun vending was located every few feet. But once we found our seats under the pavilion, it was clear from the beginning with Aiko Aiko that this show just wasn't going to live up to the standards that had been set in the parking lot. OTSR with everyone howling at the end was just ridiculous. Of course it's a given for the tune - but it pretty much equates to being a Mickey tune. Drumz was definiltey the kicker for the show. Having Mickey and Billy together again seemed to fill the void in everyone who felt the rest of the gang was lacking musical unity. Let's just also say that Terrapin Station's "inspiration did NOT move me brightly...". Where was the great build-up that leads to the ultimate Terrapin climax?

This was not one of the better shows I've seen. The '96 and '98 Furthur's were great - but count this one out ... for this tour, anyway. As a whole, the sound system was poor, Bobby had a difficult time remembering lyrics, there was hardly ever a good "lead" sound emitting from the guitars, timing was off, and it seemed as though seguing into one song after another is a technique that has been forgotten about. With any luck the State College, PA show will bring my spirits and future plans for catching future Furthur shows back up.

--K.Castner

* * *

Bear in mind before you read this review, that I am ALWAYS thankful ANYTIME I get to see ANY member of the Grateful Dead onstage. I am critical by nature, and I will try to keep this short and sweet. So don't get PO'd because I didn't praise this show to death.

Whenever we go to ANY show, we have expectations. Expectations of how the band will play, expectations of the scene, and expectations of what the band will play.

The only one that was unfulfilled for me was the latter.

The music was pretty hot from the Weather Report Suite onwards. I do find it cluttered at times with three guitarists. Oddly enough, Weir was the most audible (to me) during rhythm portions of the songs. Bobby had a great night in my opinion. Kimock and Karan (who I had the opportunity to meet before the show in the lot) had their moments, but seem very laid back most of the time. Neither grabs the bull by the horns.

Highlights included: A SMOKIN' Samson, a GREAT Let It Grow Reprise, a rippin' and fun Aiko reprise (with Jorma guesting), and a happy and LOUD Lovelight encore.

I found this show really lacked on the setlist front. I am assuming there is some sort of compromise going on when they play a Mickey tune, but his tunes are SERIOUS bathroom breaks waiting to happen. There was a lack of KILLER tunes that Bobby and the guys could have pulled out. Where was a MAJOR jam vehicle? I would have liked to have seen a Dark Star, Playin, or Other One, St. Stephen -> 11, blah blah.

The other thing that bugged me (no, I didn't lose sleep over this) was WHY on earth would you close a show with a song you opened with? I was really hoping for a Bobby Rocker (i.e. Sugar Magnolia, Truckin' or even Good Lovin') to close the show. Oh well. At least it was hot.

The Terrapin was a mess at some points in my opinion.

All in all, I LOVE seeing these guys and have no regrets. But sometimes you expect (or hope for) some of what you want. Unfortunately, while the effort was there on the band's part, it left me with the desire to see another one of these shows, and that is not a possibility.

I still recommend that everyone support this tour so it can return once again.
Thanks

--Jon

* * *

Darien Show was uneven. The guitars are not tight and Garcia's presence was sorely missed. Despite all this, there were some nice highlights, including Lovelight and Tennessee Jed. The Rhythm Devils were great.

--smellbutt