Furthur On Up The Road At Radio City Music Hall

The Furthur bus, driven by the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, pulled in to Times Square's Radio City Music Hall for a two night party in the middle of their mammoth Winter Tour. These were highly anticipated shows for me and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Furthur consists of Weir and Lesh joined by Ratdog alumni Jeff Chimenti on keyboards and Jay Lane on Drums, Joe Russo (Trey Anastasio Band, Russo Benavento) also on drums, Jerry Garcia sound alike John Kadlecik (Dark Star Orchestra) playing Garcia's part on guitar and vocals, and backup singers Sunshine Garcia Becker and Zoe Ellis.


Let me start out by saying that, as usual, I've been downloading and listening to this whole tour, as well as catching those two shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom back in December, and this band is indisputably the closest sounding band to the Grateful Dead since Jerry's untimely exit from this world in 1995. Kadlecik definitely brings that big Garcia sound to Furthur and alongside the authentic Grateful Dead members of Weir and Lesh and the other great musicians who are more than familiar with the repertoire you've got an incredibly potent dose on your tongue of the Grateful Dead. Kadlecik isn't the second coming of Garcia but he does play with a Jerry kind of sensitivity and his voice sounds uncannily like Garcia's. And by the looks of things, Furthur is built to last, with more shows recently announced for this summer at festivals (Nateva Music and Arts Festival, All Good Festival) and on their own at amphitheaters and minor league baseball parks like what Bob Dylan did last summer. After this winter tour and the summer tour under their belt Furthur will continue to develop, which is something that never happened with 2009's The Dead with Warren Haynes and the GD's core four; they only played that one spring tour and couldn't get anything back together because Haynes is too busy with the Allman Brothers Band and Govt Mule, differences with Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann wanting to go back to stay in Hawaii. Bobby and Phil seem to get along really well now, at least musically. They're clearly the leaders of this band and Furthur just really sounds great. It's a reflection of them and the seasoned professionals they are, and hopefully this lasts a while so Deadheads new and old can enjoy the great American experience that is The Grateful Dead.



The two Furthur shows February 23rd and 24th, 2010 at Radio City Music Hall were both great shows. In the next couple of posts I'll review each show. If you were at these Furthur shows or downloaded them and want to share your opinion please leave a comment. I'm really enjoying listening to this tour and am looking forward to the two shows coming up this June at Coney Island.

Download the Furthur Shows Here