The Grateful Dead was resurrected in Syracuse last night.

Phil Lesh and Friends, a band formed by former Dead bassist Lesh and four other talented musicians, performed for almost four hours at the War Memorial at OnCenter.

While Lesh himself was the only original member of the Grateful Dead present, the entire concert had the distinctive feel of a performance by the famous jam band. The songs, mostly well-loved tracks from the Dead’s catalogue, averaged 10 minutes in length, complete with extended guitar and drum solos and flawless transitions.

The concert opened with a practiced ‘Ripple,’ a classic from the well-known Dead album ‘American Beauty.’ Lesh’s ‘Friends’ proved quickly they were more than just a back-up band as the song had everyone warmed up and excited for the show to come.

Halfway through the first set, the band played an extended ‘Sugaree’ with the youthful Jackie Greene on vocals and guitar. Throughout the concert, Greene acted just as much like the frontman as Lesh, with his commanding guitar and vocals true to the classic sound.

Patrick Smally, a resident of Buffalo who claims to have seen the Grateful Dead more than 300 times, said, ‘He could keep them alive another 60 years.’

Smally also has seen Phil Lesh and Friends more than 50 times, and says this is the strongest group yet.

They ended their first set with ‘Cosmic Charlie’ after a long jam intro. The song featured solos by every member of the five-piece band.

The first set was strong, but a little laid back. As Smally said, that can mean one of two things.

‘It sometimes means that they’re tired, and the whole show will be that way,’ he said, ‘but sometimes it means that they’re waiting for a really strong second set.’

It meant the second one.

Opening with ‘The Golden Road,’ a song from the Grateful Dead’s first album, Phil Lesh and Friends jumped in with high energy and a willingness to do the song right. By the set’s third song, ‘Going Down the Road Feeling Bad,’ everybody in the War Memorial was on their feet dancing to the jam.

The second set also included ‘Saint Stephen,’ but it certainly wasn’t the first time Al Dozoretz had heard it.

Dozoretz, a Buffalo resident who boasts more than 35 years of Grateful Dead fandom, first heard ‘Saint Stephen’ when the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra invited the Grateful Dead to play with them. This was 1971, and Dozoretz, now balding, had hair like mushroom clouds coming out of his head, he said. He’s been a ‘Deadhead’ ever since.

‘It’s not necessarily the classic band,’ he said, ‘but it’s definitely the classic sound.’

‘Saint Stephen’ flawlessly transitioned into a strangely fast-paced ‘Terrapin Station.’ Normally a slow song, it was sped up and given more of a rocking feel to make it fit better with the rest of the set. The version of ‘Terrapin Station’ did not disappoint.

After a strong ‘Fire on the Mountain’ that had the audience singing so loud you almost couldn’t hear the band, the band left the stage. However, Lesh didn’t want to keep his grateful audience waiting too long, and he returned for the encore in only two or three minutes.

Lesh ended with a relaxed, extended performance of ‘Brokedown Palace,’ another Dead staple. The softer song helped cool down the excited audience, and for a while, it seemed as though everyone was swaying in unison. It was clear enough that the crowd was all there for the same purpose: listening to their favorite Dead songs.

Before the encore, Lesh delivered his trademark appeal to the audience to become organ donors. A recipient of a liver transplant himself, he asked concertgoers to give the same gift of life that he was lucky enough to receive.

‘All it takes is to tell someone you know that if something happened to you, you’d like to be an organ donor.’ Lesh said.

Smally has continued following Phil Lesh and Friends after beating cancer.

‘My wife loves that I can still get to do this,’ he said. ‘This is something I love, and (with the current lineup) it’s the way I remember it from years ago.’

Published on October 21, 2007 at 12:00 pm