Last night, Midnight North staged a hometown celebration at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall, and those in attendance were treated to a veritable Bay Area musical family reunion. As the band announced prior to the show, there would be a pair of “band parents” joining them in San Fran: Grahame Lesh‘s father and Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, as well as Alex Jordan‘s father Jay Jordan, who would lea the North Bound Horns on the trumpet. On top of that, honorary band uncle and Dead guitarist Bob Weir got in on the action, as did the band’s Twiddle brothers Mihali Savoulidis and Ryan Dempsey.

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After beginning the show’s first set with the band’s usual quartet (G. Lesh, A. Jordan, Elliott Peck, and Connor O’Sullivan), the collaborations began when the “Northbound Horns” emerged, and remained to back the band for the majority of the show. After Savoulidis and Dempsey joined next for a few joint songs, Weir emerged to lead the band through one of his solo tunes. Next, the older Lesh joined the stage to help the group through a run of Dead favorites like “The Music Never Stopped” and “Playing In The Band”. Finally, Dempsey and Mihali rejoined the stage for a set-closing “Franklin’s Tower”.

Set two continued the collaborative theme of the evening, with Mihali joining for the majority of the set (and leading a rendition of Twiddle sing-along “When It Rains It Pours”), and guitarist Ross James helping the crew through The Band‘s “The Shape I’m In”.

The show also featured a heavy helping of Midnight North’s own original material, with Lesh rejoining the band for “Greene County”, a track from their 2017 album, Under The Lights. As Peck explained in a recent interview with Live For Live Music, “We tend to stretch that ending as far as we want to take it. It’s a great ending we often use when we have guests come sit in with us…We kind of meander that one through the ending and just see where it’s gonna go.” The band did just that, leaving space for each of the talented musicians onstage to take their turn steering the ship.Finally, both Phil and Mihali returned with the band for their encore, an energetic strut through album title track “Under The Lights”.

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You can watch individual song videos of “Playing In The Band” with Bob Weir & Phil Lesh via Adrienna Monique and “Franklin’s Tower” with the whole gang below via Midnight North’s Facebook, or watch fan-shot footage of the full show (in 4 parts) via Deadheadland Films:

“Playing In The Band” with Bob Weir & Phil Lesh



“Franklin’s Tower” with Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mihali Savoulidis, Ryan Dempsey, & The Northbound Horns:

Watch full fan-shot video of the performance below, via YouTube user Deadheadland Films

Part 1/4

Part 2/4

Part 3/4

Part 4/4



[h/t – Relix]

[Cover photo via Instagram user whatuphomessf]