Dead's trip has fans grateful for return

Before The Dead roll into the Bay Area this weekend for two shows at Shoreline Amphitheatre, it’s worth considering the last few weeks of their long, strange trip.

There was the Oval Office chat with President Barack Obama, complete with White House scarlet begonias. The handful of free warm-up gigs in Manhattan. The reunion with saxophonist Branford Marsalis at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.

In Washington, D.C., Tipper Gore hopped onstage to play percussion to “Sugar Magnolia.” In Chicago, the band paid homage to Howlin’ Wolf.

Five years after the last tour, the latest incarnation of the Grateful Dead — core members Bob Weir on guitar, Phil Lesh on bass and percussionists Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, of Sebastopol — is complemented by guitarist Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule and The Allman Brothers Band, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti of Ratdog.

Before rehearsals, they buried personal differences that plagued the band after Jerry Garcia died in 1995.

“If there had been any of that kind of tension, I would have blown the whistle on it,” Lesh told Newsday, “because I won’t tolerate it anymore.”

Rebirth is shining through onstage, note for note, noodle after noodle, as they retread the cross-country trails they’ve beaten so many times before. Concert reviews have been nothing short of love poems.

Rolling Stone summed it up this way: “Missing their Captain or not, the Dead made creating an honest-to-goodness great Dead show seem as effortless and unforgettable as attending one had long been.”

In Philly, a reviewer wrote: “Even after three hours, it seemed that the Dead could’ve carried on all night.”

When the New York Post called it “the night of the living Dead,” it was intended as a compliment.

Even the swarms of graying, tie-dyed fans are under the microscope. Here’s how a Slate reviewer sized up the adoring audience: “After a rousing rendition of ‘Bertha,’ the Dead went on to play two perplexing sets, rewarding fans still spry enough for hallucinogenics while straining the good will of the crowd’s many graying boomers, whose sensory perceptions were altered, at best, by a Bud Light and a Flomax.”

On www.dead.net, one fan posted a Top 5 list for spotting “old” heads:

1. Instead of patchouli — Bengay.

2. Before dropping that hit, you consider its interaction with your meds.

3. You pass up that bean burrito in the parking lot.

4. Don’t need those hearing aids at a show.

5. Instead of the VW bus — the RV.

Whatever prescription you’re on, it might be worth dialing it in for the long haul. This latest spring tour may be only a hint of stranger things to come.

“My expectation is by the time we get the tour done, assuming it goes well — and it’s starting to pretty much look that way — my guess is that we’re probably going to want to get back to it before it gets away from us again,” Weir told Billboard magazine.

Or as Lesh likes to say: “We’ll continue to make music until we drop.”

You can reach staff writer John Beck at 521-5300 or john.beck@pressdemocrat.com.