John Kadlecik earlier this summer- photo by Julia Rickert
It was Ken Kesey’s 75th birthday and the Heads gathered in Eugene to celebrate with Furthur, appropriately enough. Driving down from Portland was a very wet ordeal with heavy rain the entire way. However, as we pulled into a gravel parking lot near the venue, we noticed that the rain had stopped completely. Walking by Autzen Stadium, we looked back to notice a rainbow on the horizon. As I was standing in the beer line minutes before the show, I thought to myself, “Here Comes Sunshine would be a fitting opener.” Ask and ye shall receive, they say. As the opening notes of “Here Comes Sunshine” rang out, we quickly hustled into the little bowl known as the Cuthbert Amphitheater and found some space in the back lawn by the stairs. Smiles were everywhere and the first set opener turned into a joyous sing along. Next up was “Truckin’,” another fitting tune for the special occasion. Knowing smiles and nods were in abundance as the band and fans sang the chorus heartily. I thought I heard some “They Love Each Other” teases, but the band abruptly shifted gears and played a straight ahead version of “On The Road” without too much improvisation next But yet another very fitting song choice considering it was Kesey’s 75th.
Then we embarked on the first set jam centerpiece, “Estimated Prophet” and “Passenger.” “Estimated” was played tightly, with only two tasteful vocal wails and no screeching by Bob before the jam segment. And the jam section was stellar. It meandered and grooved, sped up and slowed down, all while exploring some very interesting musical spaces. The “Passenger” rocked pretty hard, but I’d have to give the version played in Portland last spring a slight edge over this one. Then it was “Lost Sailor” > “Saint of Circumstance” up next, which slowed things down a bit. I love both of these tunes, but these were not the best or highest energy versions. During the “Saint of Circumstance” chorus section at the end (“I sure don’t know what I’m going for, but I’m gonna go for it for sure”), Bob was singing over the chorus and not singing in the empty space after it as usual. It felt awkward and was not conducive to building up the end of song energy as is customary. The power came roaring back, however, when the band closed out the first set with a raucous version of “The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion).” Delightful high energy jams made this a very fresh take on a decidedly 1960s sounding tune.
Bob apparently knew more than us with his prediction during “Lost Sailor” > “Saint” of the rain falling down, because it started raining quite a bit during the set break and never let up. “Scarlet Begonias” was the happy, fun, upbeat tune everyone seemed to be craving and was jammed nicely. While “I Know You Rider” was teased, the jam took a left turn and cruised into a nice, exploratory “Bird Song” instead. Next up was the group sing-along of “Uncle John’s Band” with thoughtful lyrics for all to ponder…where does the time go, indeed?? The new tune “The Mountain Song” was played next and was well-received by the Northwest crowd with the chorus about letting the mountains be my home. A personal highpoint of the evening was played next, the entire “Terrapin Suite.” The band nailed all the changes and Joe Russo was going off on all the intense drum sections. This was an incredible and extended piece of music and when it ended the band kept it cranked to 11 by busting into everyone’s favorite, “St. Stephen.” A powerful “Sugar Magnolia” to end the set was icing on the cake. And if that weren’t enough, after the donor rap Phil let us know the band had one more to play for us, then Bob raised two fingers in the air and Phil stood corrected. The first encore was “Playin’ Reprise,” but it could have easily been labeled “Jam” > “Playin’ Reprise” as the exploratory instrumental section was a good 5 to 10 minutes before they sang the lyrics. The second encore of “Touch of Grey” was a bit of a let down since the band also encored with that tune in Portland last spring, but it’s still always an uplifting tune to hear. Overall, this was a tremendous show and was quite fitting to honor the memory of Mr. Ken Kesey.
