Bobby Weir has been playing in bands for some 60 years.
Yet, the Grateful Dead legend has probably never played in one in the Bay Area quite like the one on Sunday night at the Frost Amphitheater on the Stanford University campus.
The 76-year-old San Francisco native, who was raised in Atherton and has long called Marin County home, was joined onstage by an enormous number of people for this two-set show that drew a full house to one of the most beautiful concert settings in all of California.
First off, he was accompanied by his regular Wolf Bros band — with the supersized lineup of Don Was on double bass, Jay Lane on drums, Jeff Chimenti on keyboard and Barry Sless on pedal steel guitar. There was also the Wolfpack, the string and brass quintet of violinist Mads Tolling, cellist Alex Kelly, trumpeter Brian Switzer, trombonist Adam Theis and multi-instrumentalist Sheldon Brown.
Yet, surrounding Weir and his Wolf men on three sides was the mammoth Stanford Symphony Orchestra, the acclaimed collegiate orchestra featuring a membership of 115 undergraduate and graduate students. Leading the way throughout the evening was the dynamic conductor Paul Phillips, who is the Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies and Associate Professor of Music at Stanford.
They would combine forces to deliver a dramatic reinterpretation of some of the Grateful Dead’s most beloved tunes during a 3½-hour benefit concert for the Stanford Symphony Orchestra.
The evening marked the West Coast premiere of Weir’s ongoing symphony project, which had previously stopped in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. (Deadheads will love to hear to — in true jam-band tradition — the setlists have differed for all three of these symphony shows.)
And Weir says he’s not even close to being done with this project, which features such wonderful orchestration work by Stanford’s own Giancarlo Aquilanti.
“This is an ongoing process,” Weir told the crowd on Sunday. “We are going to be at it for a very long time.”
Following an overture from the symphony, the Wolf men took the stage, followed — at last — by Weir, who wore a suitcoat for the occasion. The rocker then strapped on an electric guitar and 10 rows worth of string players helped him belt out the Grateful Dead classic “Jack Straw” in a way that most Deadheads would’ve never seen coming.
The song got the crowd moving, as fans turned to each other and shared great grins of approval — conveying joy, for sure, and perhaps even a little relief. It felt like one big collective moment where the audience realized that, yes, this thing was indeed going to work.
Weir, who has gone from the role of Jerry Garcia’s young sidekick to becoming one of the most respected elder statesmen in the Bay Area rock community over the decades, was in great voice — even stronger than during the Dead & Company farewell shows at Oracle Park in San Francisco back in July — as “Playing in the Band” rolled right into “Uncle John’s Band” and “Lost Sailor” melded into “Saint of Circumstance.”
The highlight of the first set — where the synergy of the rock act and the symphony reached its greatest heights — was during “Weather Report Suite,” which shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the highly ornate composition that runs some 13 minutes — and includes “Let It Grow” — on Side 2 of the Dead’s sixth studio album, 1973’s “Wake of the Flood.”
Set 2 kicked off with “Shakedown Street,” which lost a bit of its original 1978 disco vibe in the orchestral arrangement but still provided enough of a groove to get people to move. What followed was a gleefully trippy rendition of “China Cat Sunflower,” a true gem from 1969’s “Aoxomoxoa,” which would eventually wind its way to meet its longtime partner — the traditional “I Know You Rider.”
The Dead’s legendary “Dark Star,” somewhat surprisingly, was a bit of a dud on this night. Maybe the band should’ve jammed the tune into “Your Body Is a Wonderland” to spice things up a bit. (It sure worked for Weir’s former Dead & Co. member John Mayer recently.)
The jaw-dropping moment of the second set — and indeed the entire show — came when the Wolf Bros left the stage and Weir put down his guitar to sing a tender version of “Days Between.” At that point, he didn’t resemble Bobby Weir the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer as much as he did Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett or Bobby Darin as he crooned through the verses with confidence and poise, accompanied by dozens upon dozens of string players.
It was one of those, “Oh, I didn’t know he could do that” moments. And it’s one that will likely stick with these Deadheads for years to come.
In all, the show was an absolute triumph on so many levels. It was a triumph for Aquilanti’s orchestration work, for these amazing student musicians in the symphony and for Weir, who continues to emerge from Garcia’s long shadow and establish himself among the all-time greats.
It was also a triumph for the Grateful Dead songbook, which just keeps on showing its versatility and longevity.
Bay Area fans have a couple more opportunities to experience that songbook in concert this week, as Bill Kreutzmann brings his Billy and the Kids band to the Mountain Winery in Saratoga on Oct. 31 (mountainwinery.com) and Phil Lesh and Friends performs Nov. 3 at the Fillmore in San Francisco (livenation.com).
Setlist:
1. Overture
2. “Jack Straw”
3. “Playing in the Band”
4. “Uncle John’s Band”
5. “Lost Sailor”
6. “Saint of Circumstance”
7. “Weather Report Suite”
8. “Let It Grow”
Set 2:
9. “Shakedown Street”
10. “China Cat Sunflower”
11. “I Know You Rider”
12. “Dark Star”
13. “The Other One”
14. “Days Between”
15. “Terrapin, Part 1” ( at least most of the suite)
16. Reprise
