blombekr

very cool. thanks.

I saw Further at the Auditorium again last night. I am still getting chills thinking about this show. This may sound like I'm aggrandizing a little bit, but this is the finest post-Dead show I've seen. I've seen Dark Star like 20 times, pretty much all the Phil and Friends lineups, Ratdog, The Dead a bunch, The Other Ones, all of them. Last night, though, was the finest of them all. The first set was remarkable. Eyes, Jack Straw, Wharf Rat, UJB, China Cat Rider. All in a row, all in the first set, and all played superbly. Wharf Rat had to be the highlight for me - John just gets to the core

I saw Further last night at the Auditorium. It was a "Bob Night", opening with three straight Bob tunes, with a good deal more mixed in throughout the night. Got off to kind of a slow start, but it picked up towards the end of the set, with "Greatest", "Liberty", "Doin that Rag", and a pretty smokin "Lovelight". I am a big supporter of "Liberty"; Bob does it justice. The second set rocked. In keeping with the Bob theme, "Cassidy" opened and featured a tight jam and glorious reentry into the chorus. "Dear Mr Fantasy" and "Speedway Boogie" got the crowd going, "Let it Grow" was played the way

They nailed it! Obviously Brendan is no Tweedy, but I thought they killed it.

I'm a not a huge fan of the Brent tunes (but I can get into Easy to Love You now and then), but I'm a huge fan of Brent. Without his energy during the low points in the '80s, things would've been a lot uglier. Some of my favorite recordings are from '87-'90, when a post-coma Jerry got his act together, the Dead found a spring in their step, and Brent was ripping his organ. My order (based on preference for the keyboardist, not the era in which they played) goes Brent, Hornsby, Pig, Keith, Vince, TC. Vince wasn't THAT bad.

No he signed it, it's just the handwriting wasn't legible. Different strokes indeed. Plus, I'm Franz's father.

He was on everything but Almost Killed Me, easily their weakest album. Listen to Separation Sunday, Boys and Girls, and Stay Positive, and imagine all of those songs without keyboards.

To say the Hold Steady can survive without a majorly kickass keyboardist like Franz is blasphemy. And that man did kick ass. A LOT of ass. He gave meaning to the term "rock keyboardist". His parts were pure joy: "Sequestered in Memphis", "Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night", "Chips Ahoy", "Stuck Between Stations", "First Night", "The Swish", "Slapped Actress", the list goes on. I can't put it in words how much this guy inspired me. From his chops, to his look, to his stage presence, he was what The Hold Steady is all about - creating pure joy out of thin air. His quote in the A Positive Rage DVD

Yeah, John's not leading, but he's causing them to step back a bit. Same kind of thing that happened when Hornsby was with the Other Ones in '98. And I agree that's been the best post-Dead project to date. But I have high hopes for Further.

I myself am a fan of John Kadlicek ("Fake Jerry") and cannot be happier that he's playing with Phil and Bob in Further. For Phil and Bob to be Phil and Bob, they need to be led. What's often been wrong with Phil and Friends and Ratdog has been that they each try to lead their respective bands, while neither made a name for himself by being a leader. One is a bass player, one is a rhythm guitarist. I remember seeing The Dead in 2003, when they had Jimmy Herring and Warren Haynes onstage together. Everyone would look to Bob during the jams for Bob's little hand signals, and the result was a

set list from what i remember... Someone Else's Song Wrote a Song for Everyone (CCR cover) Passenger Side Gun-table song Remember the Mountain Bed -ts Reservations - ts Sin City impromptu i think there was another one or two table songs in there (Feed of Man)?... Impossible Germany was between Remember the Mountain Bed and Reservations (no Feed of Man). Jeff made a joke about how he didn't know the solo. A note on Remember the Mountain Bed: it was paid for by a Second City cast member (Tammy, I think); she was bawling by the end of it. Beautiful song.

I ran into Connie Nielson at the Red Rocks show

2 floors for sale for Monday, $45 each, which is slightly less than face. I live in Lakeview. Karl 847.922.4717 krblomberg@gmail.com

Thanks. Keeping my fingers crossed for Phil-sung Sunken Treasure in Chicago