A noticeable feeling of anticipation fills the air...Help/Slip is the proper release and a hard, tight jam leads to a rousing Franklin's Tower...Rooster sears the brain, alternating hot liquid slides with hammer blows, straight and true...Loser speaks directly to the soul, "Put your money where your luck is, baby........" Tom Thumb gives Phil a chance to exhibit his resurgence as a vocal presence in the overall scheme. He now sings on just about all the major chourses...Let it Grow starts small, builds to an amazing peak, then in a beat is brought down to ground zero...the musical dynamic control is now beyond mere craftmanship...true real-time artistic inspiration..... .....The special feeling continues during halftime, as the house lights are left low and a sea of lit candles appears, casting an ethereal glow over the proceedings.......... Scarlet cranks up and we get down to serious business...Fire is monumental, the riffs splitting the air like volcanic blasts...Truckin explodes in an outburst of mass mania...the Strange Trip has just crossed yet another threshold and continues its long journey into the Unknown...Spoonful brings on Gary Duncan once again and provides an opportunity for some big-time blues jamming...Dark Star appears seemlessly from the flow and a cold shiver shakes the spine...images and memories start flashingaround the inner space as the probing strains illuminate dark corners and hidden meanings previously unexplored...Ken Kesey appears and begins the eulogy - - - bereaving, ranting, pleading, then finally ending with "So...what do you think of your blue-eyed boy now Mr. Death??"...the drums begin an orchestrated jam that is more composed and focused than usual, at least until Mickey ends up thrashing the Beam with his arms and feet in a frenzy of released anguish...Dark Star comes again, absorbing and dissapating the life force with its process of spiritual recycling...this is a ritual known since The Start, having many forms but unchanged in its essence, truly befitting a Great Warrior of our tribe...Last Time provides the chance to shake it up and continue the sendoff in high style...Jerry shifts the perspective with Standing on the Moon and everyone experiences the heartfelt "...I'd rather be with you..." Throwin Stones is emphatic, direct, and solid, reaching a level of consequence that strengthens the resolve and determination to carry on in spite of increasingly adverse conditions...the full power of the occasion is brought to bear on Not Fade Away...the pyre is lit and the ship cast off to its final destination beyond the horizon...the Love is Real and the feeling is joyous...we have lost a leader and friend, but we have gained the Power of Memory...it is now up to us to put it to good use. So long, Bill...Happy Trails