Photo Credit: Dino Perrucci

Last night, March 17, Grahame Lesh & Friends put on the final Unbroken Chain: A Celebration of the Life and Music of Phil Lesh concert. The show occurred after three previous evenings of pensive performances showcasing an expansive group of friends and family paying homage to the Grateful Dead bassist’s associated songs and originals. 

Night four represented the final lineup shift, which was assembled to reflect the Phil Lesh Quintet: Warren Haynes, Jimmy Herring, Rob Barraco, John Molo, and special guest Brian Rashap. Notably, it also served as the first time Herring performed outside of Widespread Panic since undergoing treatment for stage 1 tonsil cancer. 

For keen-eyed fans and those in attendance, there was a striking similarity to last year’s PLQ concerts at The Capitol Theatre, considering the recurring musical participants and the material they chose to perform that piggybacked off the 2024 offerings.

The onset of the concert harnessed itself to a rocket, blasting off into spacey instrumental territory that eventually popped with recognizability and emerged as “Dark Star” crashing. The ensemble followed up with just the first verse of “Viola Lee Blues” in what would appear as a series of song-specific musings parsed throughout the night.

Next, they reached deep into the Dead’s bag of originals, seizing an Aoxomoxoa inclusion and trailed off the under-appreciated poetics of “Doin’ That Rag.” The band clicked into the Phil-penned instrumentals of “Passenger,” effectively nodding to the 2002’s There and Back Again cut recorded with Haynes, Herring, Barraco and Molo, after its heyday as a feature of Grateful Dead live shows. 

Garcia pulls arrived and were presented as “Bird Song” and “The Wheel,” followed by “Viola Lee Blues” verse two in continuation of the slow and thoughtful turnout. There and Back Again, the quintet delivered a pair of pulls off the LP, including “Rock and Roll Blues” and “Liberty,” functioning as added acknowledgements of their time under the helm of Phil’s musical direction. 

Following set break, the members of PLQ picked up a longtime feature of the Dead’s archive, “Mason’s Children,” before igniting the concert’s second frame by pairing “St. Stephen” and “The Eleven,” which sandwiched a tease of Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times,” and eventually found its way back to “Dark Star.” The pulse “New Speedway Boogie” preceded “Terrapin Station,” which emerged as one of the concert’s centerpieces due in part to its expansive composition and jam vehicle status.

Returning to material off There and Back Again and the player’s interconnected history as bandmates, they presented “No More Do I.” Eventually the group thundered the third verse of “Viola Lee Blues,” in a second set continuation of the broken up number. Fittingly, the group performed the event’s namesake tune, and the Phil-penned “Unbroken Chain,” an emotive move that paid homage to a great bassist. 

For the concert’s encore, the group nodded to the aforementioned 2002 album one last time, conjuring embroidered memories via “Patchwork Quilt.” The last song of the event, “Box of Rain,” brought forth a final pull of the heartstrings, an entrance into a dreamlike state, evoking the sense of “a dream we dreamed one afternoon long ago.” 

Scroll down to view Monday night’s setlist and additional content. 

Grahame Lesh & Friends 

The Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, N.Y. 

March 17, 2025 

Set I: Dark Star, Viola Lee Blues+, Doin’ That Rag, Passenger, Bird Song, The Wheel#, Rock and Roll Blues, Liberty 

Set II: Mason’s Children, St. Stephen > The Eleven > Dark Star Reprise, New Speedway Boogie, Terrapin Station, No More Do I%, Unbroken Chain 

Enc.: Patchwork Quilt, Box of Rain 

Notes:

+ First verse 

# Second verse of “Viola Lee Blues”

% Third verse of “Viola Lee Blues”