Well, this definitely feels like the least inspired I’ve felt on a tour with a band that consisted of members of the Grateful Dead alumni. I can’t say “I’m over it,” because just last year I had a great experience with a five night stand of Phil Lesh at the closing of the Warfield, one of my favorite venues to see the Jerry Garcia Band “back in the day”…

I’m just not feeling this music and it’s taking considerable effort to even convince myself that I should bother to find a ticket or go into the shows. The first three nights of the tour, I went into the venue. The past two nights, I’ve chosen to stay outside. The second night in Worcester, MA, I had one of the best experiences I’ve had on this tour just staying on Shakedown talking with an artist friend, Richard Biffle.

I think the bulk of my dissatisfaction gets unfairly lumped at Warren Haynes’ feet. I think Warren is probably a tremendous individual and I have nothing but respect for the guy. But I don’t like hearing him fronting the Grateful Dead. It doesn’t work for me. I read a review today that claimed he sounded like a bar balladeer and that pretty much sums up how I feel. He takes one of my all-time favorite songbooks, the Robert Hunter lyrics that were written for Jerry Garcia to perform, and makes them sound like a mediocre blues bar band. They are incredible musicians, so, of course, they’d dust any blues bar band on earth, but the sound still has that generic bar blues flavor to it. I’m not feeling it and I don’t care if I get into another show on the tour or just stay outside and vend.

At this juncture i wonder what surprises the Core Four have to offer. I want them to take chances. I want them to jump off musical cliffs and to chart terra incognito. But they did that for thirty plus years and if there is no more pioneering in them, at least they don’t sound like a “where are they now” band. I do feel like they need to mix it up or give it a rest, though, because the current formula just feels way too predictable. These are not guys that any of us want to see being booked the same way as, say, “Molly Hatchet live at the Chenango County Fair” along with the truck and tractor pull, but that’s sort of how this current line-up makes me feel.

So that leaves The Parking Lot… essentially one of the most tore-up nitrous tank strewn messes I’ve ever seen. These tours are played out. Strangely, I think Phish Tour will feel more upbeat and inspired because at least the preppy snotnoses who come out to see those shows are going to be full of vitality.

On the plus side, I have a lot of cool art that I’ve been displaying and I’ve gotten a tremendous amount of good, positive feedback from that. So I don’t feel like my life out there lacks purpose or direction. I’ve made some money and had some fun and seen some friends, I’ve just disassociated from any sense of feeling like I’m on anything that I could reasonably consider a “Grateful Dead Tour” experience. It’s not. Not by a long stretch.

I’m glad I found Burning Man when I did so that I don’t feel like one of those grumpy old men who felt that everything cool happened in the past and that all of the wells of inspiration on earth have run dry. I know better. And I know that good things can come of even tore up ghetto wookie lot scenes… As the bard once said, “Every once in a while you can get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.” It’s plenty strange and I’m looking hard, just not seeing much more than a glimmer through the cracks in the foundation.