Terrapin Flyer feat. Melvin Seals & Mark Karan 2.10.16
Nectar Lounge
Seattle, WA
Words By Coleman Schwartz
Photos By Scott Shrader (J. Scott Shrader Photography)
The music of the Grateful Dead has long been known to heal the human mind, body and spirit. For this reason, Deadheads love any excuse to gather and rejoice in the wonderful memories that the music evokes. Although the Dead may no longer tour in full, many groups are doing their part to carry on this great legacy. Terrapin Flyer stands out as unique among the plethora of existing Dead-tribute projects, due to the involvement of Melvin Seals and Mark Karan. Seals was the longtime organist for Jerry Garcia Band, while Karan worked extensively with Bob Weir in Ratdog. Each musician is a great in their own right, but their intimate familiarity with the original artist’s intentions sets these two apart, in this context.
At Seattle’s wonderful Nectar Lounge, Terrapin Flyer performed a full two-set show for an eager crowd of Deadheads on a Wednesday evening. The Merry Pranksters were in tow, bringing along their tripped-out bus and transforming Nectar’s balcony into a beautiful “hippie trap,” featuring dreamcatchers, day-glo, face painting, bean bags and plenty of blotter art for sale.
From the second they took the stage, it was clear that the band had the full attention and respect of their audience. A first-set “Loser” tugged at the crowd’s heartstrings. This song’s Robert Hunter-penned lyrics poetically describe a character so nefarious he doesn’t even get a real name. “Stop That Train” featured plenty of bluesy shredding from Karan, and the set closed with an excellent “Feel Like a Stranger.”

The second set got more into the segue action that the Dead made so famous. It began with a scorching “Scarlet Begonias” > “Fire on the Mountain.” These two classics saw the largest crowd of Nectar patrons at any point in the evening absolutely tearing up the dancefloor. This segment of familiar tunes was helpful for me to get an idea of how Karan’s playing compared with Garcia’s. I think that he is heavily inspired by Garcia, but not as derivative in his playing as other most other players would be in his situation. He has a very distinct style and you can hear other influences in his playing, such as Duane Allman.

Set One: Jack Straw, Hey Pocky Way, Me & My Uncle, Loser, Easy Wind, Stop That Train, Feel Like a Stranger
Set Two: Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain, Beat it on Down the Line, Don't Let Go, Drums > The Other One > Not Fade Away > Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad > Not Fade Away
Encore: Wang Dang Doodle
Scott's Photo Gallery
www.terrapinflyer.net
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