Everything was awesome, the effects, the fireworks, the presentation of him and I Prevail was amazing too!
The Fans.Live cameraman was right in the way of the VIP side of the stage. There were complaints that the obstruction should have been on the basic ticket fee side of the midfield barrier.
The performance by Phil & Friends was delightful. The strong mix from the sound engineers with the bass, was appropos... the distance between Stu Allen, Grahame Lesh and Nels Cline could have been closed, to enable them to play off of one another, trading leads. Oh yeah, it's Phil's show, not about extraordinary jamming guitar players. 🙄
The doubled up speaker arrays appeared to be a bit of overkill hanging from the side scaffolding. No big side screens like the Dreamfield stage, left viewers/listeners at the back of the audience wondering what was going on, onstage.
Chimenti was sizzling on the keys, Mr. Molo was holding the beat well, in sync with the rest of the rhythm players. Even a short session, giving him a drum solo, an homage to Drums followed by letting Jeff kick it up a notch with some knobs and effects, a lá Space, would have been a treat.
From Dire Wolf's opening to the closing vibrations of Ripple, it was a set for fans to absorb. Box of Rain could be Phil's Anthem, but it wasn't on the card in Bridgeview.
The other Jeff, Tweedy, and Nels Cline, from Wilco, brought their A game. The lap steel guitar was a very nice little distinction showcasing Nels talents. The contributions from Tweedy's acoustic guitar, seemed out of place, but were woven in to warm and soften the melodies, adding Americana to the roots of the roots. For Tweedy to let Grahame Lesh cut loose with fuzz, stepping on his melodious "Via Chicago" actually demonstrated a hearty sense of humor and self-deprecating approach to what could have been too serious a rendition for the Dead fans to appreciate. Keep up the good work. Karl killed it! In a good way. He was clearly having fun, and stretched round from trills on the flute, to rockin' jams on Sax, stealin' the lead from anyone and everyone else. Well orchestrated Phil.
The audience missed the explanation that is ever more important, to commit to organ donation, with a deeply seated, "Thank you Cody!" The story still needs to be told!