Back to Barton Hall

Photos by Justin Zoll, text by Luke Z. Fenchel

“Thanks for helping us out and helping us celebrate this place one more time, it’s quite an experience,” Furthur’s Phil Lesh told a thrilled sold-out Barton Hall audience late Sunday night. And judging by the large pockets of dancing, near constant cheering and active attention the band received from the audience from start to finish, what went on at the concert clearly exceeded everyone’s expectations.

Lesh and Bob Weir first visited with The Grateful Dead in a now famous 1977 concert co-promoted by The Cornell Concert Commission and John Scher, and the Dead returned in ’80 and ’81. But when Lesh and Weir brought Furthur, their current band, to Ithaca Sunday, February 14, they made it abundantly clear to the sold-out show that they were aiming for the rafters, and not for posterity. Barton Hall never sounded better.

The concert began at 7:39pm with a funky revisiting of “Midnight Hour,” and didn’t wrap up until about that time, with an audience favorite “China Cat Sunflower,” the late Jerry Garcia classic “Standing on the Moon” and an 11-minute long “I Know You Rider” that built steadily as if the song were one long crescendo, until Furthur turned it into a harmonic a cappella break nine minutes in, essentially bringing vast waves of the crowd to musical ecstasy. The entire show was broadcast live on Sirius XM’s Grateful Dead channel and is available in its entirety at archive.org.

The set-list drew from many great moments in The Dead’s history, and Furthur performed with an intensity that rivaled an arena rock group or a great metal band (at moments, the band sounded like both). Furthur served up Lesh’s “Peaceful Valley,” Ratdog’s “Ashes & Glass,” and as entrees a poignant “Peggy-O” > “Looks Like Rain,” a swinging “Sugaree” and “Good Lovin,’” a jazzy and spacey “Unbroken Chain,” a well-received “Uncle John’s Band,” reprised “Morning Dew” from the legendary ’77 Barton Hall show, and offered and a ten minute “Samson & Delillah” as dessert.

Some members of the audience looked like they were at Barton with Lesh for the ’77 show. “There were obviously a large contingent of folks who followed the Dead back in the ‘60s ’70s and ‘80s, but there was definitely also a large number of college age students, and a younger contingent as well,” said Joe Scaffido, Cornell’s Assistant Dean of Students for Student Activities. Scaffido confirmed that of the 5,000 tickets sold, 1,197 went to Cornell students, and the general public purchased 3,803.

The students who helmed Sunday night’s show deserve no less recognition than the band. The Cornell Concert Commission’s Executive Board arrived at Barton Hall at 4:34am, and did not leave the scene until 3:30am Monday morning, according to Production Director Prithvideep Singh. When asked if he could rest easy once the show began, Singh broke out into loud laughter.

“We cater to other people,” CCC’s Aministrative Director Iona Machado said in between supervising the hospitality crew. “We’re trying to put on as many genres as possible but choose the leaders in those genres.” Judging by the audience’s response, Furthur was the perfect Valentine for a community of 5,000.

“I actually remembered what this place looked like when I got inside; hasn’t changed much in all the years since we first came here,” Lesh said before the encore. By then, the whole of Barton Hall knew Furthur, and would miss them come Monday morning.

Tagged as: Barton Hall, Bob Weir, Dead, Furthur, GratefulDead, Phil Lesh, Valentine's Day