Bob's Bday

Happy Birthday today to Robert Hunter! How about a show of his!

Robert Hunter 4-5-03

Barrymore Theatre
Madison, WI

1st Set
Box of Rain, Over The Hills -»
So Many Roads -» Peggy-O -»
Dire Wolf -» Peggy-O -» Dire Wolf -»
Peggy-O -» So Many Roads,
Cruel White Water, Silvio, Loser,
Sugaree, Stagger Lee

2nd Set
Standing On The Moon,
I Used To Work In Chicago, The Wind Blows High,
Easy Wind -» Mr. Charlie -» Easy Wind,
Into The Blue, Mission In The Rain,
Tales Of The Great Rum Runners,
Wharf Rat, Aim At The Heart,
The Song Remains -» Scarlet Begonias

Encore: Deal, Ripple, Boys In The Barroom

I almost hate to lodge a complaint about such a fine show but I'll get that out of the way first -- Box of Rain is not a good opener. It's done beautifully here but Deadheads have become so used to somethin' rockin' to start things off! Oh well. It does set the tone for the evening. What follows is just a man and his guitar, a few comments here, some reflection there, a great evening of tunes!

The 1st Set seemed to fly by in nothing less than enjoyable fashion. Hunter cranks out each song in his own arrangement with his own vocal styling. We're treated to plenty of Dead but at the same time it's not the Dead. So Many Roads, for example, sounds nothing at all like what Jerry gave us. This is, in a way, the GD stripped down, all the way down, to its core, to its very heart and soul before the band got a hold of the words and turned them into part of an album and part of a show. If you're one who loves a full band sound, this isn't for you. Like I said, this is just a man and his guitar.

One funny moment came between songs late in the 1st Set where a few members of the audience tossed out a suggestion or three trying to get Bob to bite at one for what he should play next. Harking back a few years, one guy says an audibly enough, "Alligatorrrr." That wasn't to be and it had Bob saying, "Oh boy, we've got a lot of 'em tonight." Then after what seemed like a legit request from someone kind of up close and in a clear voice -- "Attics Of My Life" -- Bob commented, "That one tends to haunt me..." Wow. That one line about Attics helped bring a connection between this man, the music, and us. It was ever so momentary and the music kicked right back up again, but thanks to this recording it's there forever. We can so easily feel that this guy on that stage isn't just playing songs to help pay the mortgage and for his daughter's college education in a few years, he's not just singing for the love of playing music, he's up there holding together this whole post-Jerry thing that we don't want to end. Being that Attics tends to haunt Bob, as he told the crowd, we see the connection between him and Jerry and that almost eight years later, some things are still painful. But the music does goes on and Mr. Hunter closed out the 1st Set with a really nice Sugaree and Stagger Lee (and being that I don't believe they were ever played back to back like that by the Dead, it sounds weird saying them together -- Sugaree and Stagger Lee.)

Anyway, a spectacular Standing On The Moon kicked off the 2nd Set. Just a slice of Heaven on Earth, man. It might not even be the best version ever but still so great to hear! Another truly sentimental moment came after the amazing Easy Wind -> Mr. Charlie -> Easy Wind. That was without a doubt the highlight of the show for me and afterwards Bob gives a low, quick (reflective?) laugh and goes on to say, "That's one you don't hear all the time. Yeah... good old Pig." [some crowd applause...] and he goes on to say that Pig made his mistake when he put his guitar down and picked up that B-3 organ. "That's a boy who should've stuck to that guitar 'cause he had a lot of talent for it. He was, he was the best of us back then, back, back when we were first hanging out together. Pigpen was the most professional, you know; the rest of us were just, just learnin'. Pig, Pig always knew how to do that stuff, and he did it good. Yeah... [short inaudible semi-transitional mumble.] He was, he was the first of our, of our, uh, group to check out, and uh, ohhhhh, that hurt so bad," he said half under his breath and slower than the rest of the words that he'd been speaking, as if the words were emotionally painful to say... but he immediately continued, "that hurt so bad, it was so unbelievable, of all people." Wow. What a freakin' moment. I mean, for those of us who feel a deep connection to the band that was the Grateful Dead, that was... I just don't really have words for it. I'm sure what a moment for Bob, too, remembering his long ago dearly departed friend. What a ride it's been.

With still quite a ways to go, the 2nd Set cruised along to a fine ending some thirty or forty minutes later. Along the way, Mission In The Rain seemed to be for me the sweetest of them all, perhaps because it was primarily a Jerry Band song and the only song of the night that really means Jerry and not GD. Closing the set with Scarlet Begonias got the biggest cheer and the crowd was grateful. Three great encores later and Robert Hunter was on his way home to California, a short eight show tour done and in the books. I don't know if this was the best show of those eight but I do know this was a beauty. Without Jerry we get along and life goes on... but with Robert Hunter playing a show or two here or there, with these recordings, he helps, for sure, to fill in some of that big black hole, that ever-absent piece of life that so many of us miss so dearly. Robert misses Jer (and Pigpen, too) and he shares that with us while sharing these tunes and all we can and we should do is say to Mr. Hunter -- thank you.

Listen Here courtesy of Sugarmegs.org...
and/or: in one long .wma file,
Right Click to Dload: 4/5/03
(links no longer work)