Furthur on..

There I was, back in that familiar place, the floor at a Furthur show at the Bill Graham Civic off Market street in San Francisco. After a day of walking and hanging around we were back. I always go to the same area, off to the left if your looking at the stage, right in the corner, you can’t really see much of the band but thats were the dancing goes down, my favourite part. The familiar faces and friends began to flow in, the Santa Cruz crew, my buddy from Tahoe, the dancers. I only see them here, after 47 years Bob and Phil still bring us together, pretty special, celebrating this music, Grateful Dead music. I don’t care much for any other of the ensembles of former members or any other of the jambands so this is my one and only place to gather with these people, the last bastion of communal gathering for deadheads, old and new. We all know it too, we connect and chat after the months between shows and we almost always touch on how we’re happy to be here and when its time to go we walk out of the hall not knowing if we’ll ever see each other again. I think about that stuff a lot, how were all here for a little while, we make our way through life, riding the highs and lows. I am feeling my age, I got tired dancing, my back started to hurt, I watched Bob Weir bend over to twist his dials as he always does and can see how he tires and is worn.. shit, after 47 years man, thats a long time on the road. So the lights went down, the amp lights flickered and blinked and the show began just like it always does. I have been in that particular space hundreds of times now, I feel like a old veteran after 27 years of my own personal grateful dead history and there are many there much older than me, then I looked up at the stage and watched Phil Lesh throw his bass strap over his head like he has now for almost 50 years, running his hand up and down the neck, playing a lick or 2, pushing his deep tone out of his amps and into my ears, god I love him, his unmistakable style and feel pouring over me, I take it in. When I get to a place in the show where some distraction takes me away from estatic dance I can just focus on him, he always brings back onto the moment, back right into the present now. There he is, there they both are, Weir and Lesh, still playing to us. I am so grateful to be here, to have tickets, to see them again.