The crowd thinned out to about 30 of the faithful for the second set that went back to where Table Rasa left off - a deep Crimson exploration...
Before they settled into Crimson, they took a request from a local who must have wandered into the wrong bar. While talking to Mark after we came back in from set break, this very drunk guy was going on about Mark playing a song for him - La Bamba - and how he could play any instrument... so let him sit in for the song, he can play bass! Always the most gracious musician, Mark deals with all this and then proceeds to the stage and works out the arrangement with the guys and bam - Good Lovin', no, no, La Bamba! And damn if Gus doesn't know the words in Spanish! (or he's faking it well since most of us can't understand it anyway
Now the guy isn't satisfied with their honoring his request, he's got to go up and try to teach Gus how to play it!!! At this point, I think Tim flew from the crow's nest over the heads of the dancers and intercepted him for some lessons on the finer points and limitations of fan appreciation!
La Bamba naturally segued into Good Lovin' which this time I'm pretty sure Gus didn't remember all the words, but it didn't matter to the DeadHeads in the audience who greeted the cover warmly and sang along as usual...
I enjoyed the second set more than the first because the crowd thinned out and we got nice, juicy renditions of some of my favorite songs. The Crimson->Northern Lights->PWAVE touched all the right buttons for me... flashes of Alaska - as the Northern lights ripple... I climbed Chugach mountains... rode out of town, through the valley of fire (10000 Smokes). And to finish it off after Gus's crowd pleasing Will It Go Round In Circles, we got knocked into the stratosphere again with the pairing of Into Tomorrow->Open Road, reminding us that you can't stop the magic!
Will can get very animated when he's into a jam and seemed to enjoy the night as much as we did!
I had to laugh when Will and Mark got together and did a heavy metal, hair band, guitar jam dance at one point. Now if we can get Will to let his hair grow and Mark to undo his pony tail, they could work on that faceless, hairy head bobbin' move...
Here's a video clip of the beginning of La Bamba...
And the end of PWAVE...
