Terrapin Crossroads presents Terrapin Nation Hanukkah Party featuring Phil Lesh and the Terrapin Family Band with Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz
2014-12-16
the Grate Room at Terrapin Crossroads
100 Yacht Club Drive, San Rafael, CA
5:30 PM, Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2014 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

• [5:00 PM] hanging out and socializing
• [5:40-ish PM] candle-lighting and blessings
• [5:46 PM] Phil reads the Hanukkah story
• [5:52 PM] challah blessing

• [our table goes first, yay!]
• red wine
• challah
• Roast chicken
• Slabs of beef brisket
• Garlicky finger potatoes
• Sweet Kugel
• potato and root vegetable latkes with sour cream and applesauce
• jelly donuts dusted with powdered sugar
• [6:45 PM] table-clearing … time for the show!

• [7:10 PM] Phil out to noodle for a few minutes
• [7:30 PM] band onstage and getting ready … the house is half-full at best
• [7:34 PM] lights down

Time for some rock & roll!

1. [7:36 PM] I Need a Miracle (RJ) »
2. [7:45 PM] New Speedway Boogie (GL)
3. [8:00 PM] Just a Little Light (L)
4. [8:11 PM; +JF] Light One Candle (JF)
5. [8:16 PM; -JF] Mountains of the Moon (PL) (Hanukkah, O Hanukkah tease from Lebo)
6. [8:27 PM; +JF] Let it Ride (L) »
7. [8:34 PM] This Little Light of Mine (L/JF)
8. [8:38 PM] Hallelujah (JF)
9. [8:43 PM] Liberty (GL)
10. [8:50 PM] (Turn On Your) Lovelight (RJ) (Caution tease from RJ)
    [set ends 8:59 PM with thanks and band introduction from Phil]

Over to the bar, walk in during a cover of the Coaster's classic, Searchin'

1. [9:12 PM] Think (SL)
2. [9:17 PM] You Don't Mess Around With Jim (DM)
3. [9:24 PM] Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms (SA)
4. [9:30 PM] Rosalie McFall (SL)
5. [9:34 PM] “lie down in your way” (DM)
6. [9:40 PM] Winterlude (SL)
7. [9:48 PM] Sitting on Top of the World (SA)
8. [9:53 PM; -RJ] That's What Love Will Make You Do (SL)
9. [10:03 PM; +RJ] ?“Get too high”? (Bo Diddley beat, can't really make out the lyrics) (RJ)
10. [10:10 PM] Mexicali Blues (SA)
11. [10:17 PM] Russian Lullaby (SL)
12. [10:26 PM] The Music Never Stopped (RJ)
13. [10:37 PM] ? “It May Sound Crazy” “Leaving Over You” (SL)
14. [10:43 PM] Santa Fe (DM)
    [show ends 10:47 PM; band introduction, then packing things up]

• Jeannette ?Ferer?: lead and harmony vox;
• Ross James: guitar, lead and harmony vox;
• Alex Koford: drums, harmony vox;
• Dan "Lebo" Lebowitz: acoustic guitar, lap steel guitar, vox;
• Grahame Lesh: guitar, vox;
• Phil Lesh: bass, lead and harmony vox.

• Steven Rue Adams: bass, lead and harmony vox;
• Ross James: guitar, pedal steel guitar, lead and harmony vox;
• Scott Law: guitar, acoustic guitar, vox;
• Ezra Lipp: drums;
• Dave Mulligan: guitar, vox.

Another fun night at Terrapin Crossroads! This was my first ever Hanukkah celebration, and I appreciated the attempt to add ceremony and ritual to the TXR community. The buffet was an appropriately festive affair, if a bit heavy on carbs and proteins to the exclusion of greens;I think the consensus favorite was the garlicky finger potatoes.

It was especially nice to have time to stand around and mingle in a more relaxed setting than the usual show atmosphere. Made it seem more like a house party than a concert!

As the dinner cleanup began, the usual suspects made a rush for the rail, but there were sui few folks competing for those dots that it seemed to me that everyone got more out less what they wanted. I know I was happy with the space staked out by Ting and Paul… guitar town! Straight out from Ross and Lebo; yee haw!

Somehow the setlist got switched between the time that Paul and I first got a peek and the time the show started – must have been our penalty for looking! The theme seemed to be 'light', an appropriate choice given the holiday, and it made for a fun listening sequence.

What with the relatively small crowd, the energy of the show took quite awhile to build up, but the second half, from Let It Ride on out was darn good listening. Makes me even more glad that I came!

Because the concert portion of the event started rather early and only ran about 90 minutes, it was still plenty early when they quit, so we headed over to the bar to enjoy another 90 minutes of music from tonight's side show entertainment, the Broken Terrapin Gamblers. The bar set was plenty of fun, with lots of fools taking advantage of the extra space up behind the band on Stage Left to twirl. Made for a happy scene!

Scott's choice of the Dylan tune, Winterlude was a seasonally appropriate surprise, and his covers from the JGB repertoire were powerfully good fun. Ross James' led the band on a supermassive interpretation of the Music Never Stopped -, another inspired selection, though at this point I'm with Ting in asserting that his sing-sprach approach is getting a little overworked. How hard could it be to sign at least one or two tunes normally, eh?

Anyways, just as our energy was staying to flag, Scott announced that we'd reached the penultimate tunes. So we stepped ourselves for Not more dancing and boogie on through to the end of the show. Happily, tonight's rain had blown away, so we had an easy drive back home–one more thing to be thankful for!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2014 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2014 event list! ☸ On to the next event!