Phil Lesh and Friends kicked off a three-night run at the Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas. It’s been rare to see Phil perform outside of Terrapin Crossroads or the Capitol Theater in a while, so the change of scenery was exciting in and of itself.

The big attraction to this opening show though was Phil recreated the two of the best known Grateful Dead albums, back to back. American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead contain so many classics, it’s hard to pick out the highlights from the albums, because literally every song is a classic to Deadheads.

What’s really remarkable about these albums is that they mark one of the most fruitful recording periods of the Dead’s career. Workingman’s Dead was released on June 14, 1970 and less than 5 months later, American Beauty was released on November 1. Both albums went on to go platinum and have songs that are played at nearly every dead show since then.

Phil’s line-up for the show included the better-half of Chris Robinson Brotherhood including guitarist/vocalist Chris Robinson, guitarist Neal Casal, keyboardist Adam MacDougall and drummer Tony Leone as well as guitarist Ross James. This lineup is especially potent with Chris Robinson and Neal Casal who are Grateful Dead members in another dimension of space and time.

Set One: Workingman’s Dead
Uncle John’s Band
High Time
Dire Wolf
New Speedway Boogie
Cumberland Blues
Black Peter
Easy Wind
Casey Jones

Set Two: American Beauty
Box Of Rain
Friend Of The Devil
Sugar Magnolia
Operator
Candyman
Ripple
Brokedown Palace
Till The Morning Comes
Attics Of My Life*

Encore: Truckin’

* with Grahame Lesh

Thanks to our old friend Quinfolk for the great HD audio capture.

Photo credit: craigasher