On September 25, Raising The Dead performed an awesome show at the Oddly Specific Gathering in Jerome, Michigan.  The 3-day camping festival  hosted by our friend Gracie featured amazing home-grown food, vendors with all sorts of goods, a big bonfire, lots of super-kind people, and a great lineup of musicians keeping the groove all weekend long.  

On that Saturday night, we took the stage after the fourth set that weekend by the extraordinary Full Cord Bluegrass.  The temperature was about 60 degrees when we took the stage, and steadily declined through the night, dipping down into the 40s.  But the air was still, and we heated things up with a jam-filled show to remember.  

The setlist, written by our drummer Joseph Waldecker, featured only songs whose lyrics were written by Robert Hunter.  Our show was preceded by a reading of the complete Terrapin Station Suite poem by our friend Bonnie.  Inspiration moved us brightly, and we played late into the night as the crickets and cicadas sung along.  Check it out below. 

On August 21, Raising the Dead performed an epic show for the patrons of the Cadieux Cafe in Detroit.  Our second set was so special, we decided it deserved to become our first official album release.  Starting today, “Terrapin Stations & Other Ones: Live at the Cadieux Cafe” is available to stream on all major services (links below), and available for download purchase on platforms that support it (We will actually make some money on this, so please consider purchasing it!)

The album consists of our second set from that night, conceived by our keyboardist Max Katz (with a little help from his friends), who took some of the Dead’s most commonly played song segues and mixed them up inside each other, and then wrapped them in the Terrapin Suite, which we’d premiered Hippies at the Village on July 31, and played again at the Cabbage Patch on August 1st. 

Help>Slip>Frank, Dark Star>St. Stephen>The Eleven, and Cryptical Envelopment>The Other One are all encompassed in this set, but not in the way you might assume a typical Dead tribute would play them.  

We open with Lady With A Fan, and as soon as the first solo section comes in, we segue into Help On the Way.  Help gives way to Slipknot, as you would expect, but we don’t finish the jam, saving the return for later.  Instead, Dave plays the familiar chords of Dark Star, and we take a long detour through space, landing on St. Stephen.  We nest the musical matryoshka once again, and Matt leads us into Cryptical>The Other One.  (If you listen to just one song, we recommend The Other One!)  Next, we slide back into Terrapin Station to finish the song - or so you think.  Once the refrain has built and released (and built and released), Joe stabs his cymbal for the second half of the Suite.  Terrapin Transit and At a Siding are interrupted by Bill's bass bombs harkening “The Eleven” and then, finally, Slipknot finishes, and Laurie's harmonies roll away the dew at Franklin’s Tower.  Our next Terrapin station is the completion of At A Siding and Terrapin Flyer featuring insane drum breaks and frantic back and forth soloing between Max and Matt, finally returning home for the Refrain and the end of a one hour, thirty-nine minute psychedelic voyage.  

Rhythm guitarist Dave Martin took the multitrack soundboard recordings and lovingly mixed and mastered the show, making sure you wouldn’t miss a note of Deadly goodness.  The band is self-financing this release, and has purchased the rights to publish these songs from the copyright holders.  We’re very excited to give you this snapshot of our state of the band, and we hope you’ll be inspired to share it with Deadheads from Detroit and beyond.  

Raising The Dead finished off a busy summer of great gigs with some of our biggest yet.  Here's some recaps, setlists, and videos to tide you over until our performance at the Oddly Specific Gathering on September 25.  

On August 21, we played an epic show at the Cadieux Cafe in Detroit.  The show was so special, we decided to do something we've never done before with the recording - and you'll know what that is on Tuesday, 9/20.  So stay tuned!  This show was also our first time playing songs by Furthur - more to come on that front! Check out the second set, especially: 

Cadieux Cafe Detroit, MI 8/21/21
Set I: Werewolves of London, Picasso Moon, Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again*, Brown-Eyed Women > Black-Throated Wind > Mountain Song, Victim or the Crime > Fire on the Mountain
Set II: Lady with a Fan > Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Dark Star > St. Stephen > Cryptical Envelopment > The Other One > Terrapin Station > Terrapin Transit > At A Siding V1 > The Eleven > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower > At A Siding V2 > Terrapin Flyer > Refrain
E: Broken Arrow*
*first time played

Our next performance was one we'd looked forward to all summer: Arts Beats and Eats in Royal Oak.  We were jazzed to be the headlining band on the Soaring Eagle Rock Stage Saturday, September 4th. When we arrived, we were greeted by the music of Frame 42, an awesome, high energy teenage combo from LaPeer working through 70s and 80s hard rock and metal.  Starship was playing on the main stage, and the House of Dank stage not far from ours was blasting beats.  There was Dancin' in the streets everywhere you looked!  

Our set was fun and energetic, with premieres of that motown classic, and a tribute to the recently departed Charlie Watts with our version of Dead Flowers.  Here's the show for you to check out: 

Arts Beats and Eats Soaring Eagle Rock stage, Royal Oak, MI 9/4/2021
Feel Like a Stranger, Dead Flowers*, Estimated Prophet > Eyes of the World > Dancin' 77* > Samson and Delilah
E: Not Fade Away
*first time played

Less than a week later, we returned to Otus Supply to provide support for Dave McMurray, the Detroit saxophonist we'd first become aware of when he played with Bob Weir and Wolf Brothers at the Fillmore in Detroit in March of 2019.  Dave had assembled a combo and released the album "Grateful Deadication" with his distinctive, sax-led Detroit style take on some of the Dead's most immortal songs.  We couldn't wait to hear them tear the place down, but before they did, we had a job to do.  Our set was rockin' and we met some new fans that night.  You can see it all for yourself in this multi-cam video live streamed by The Funk Shop.  The audio on this video is a matrix of the soundboard and an audience recording, so it's like you're in the room. 

Otus Supply Ferndale, MI 9/9/21
Liberty > Big Bad Blues > Easy Wind, Pride of Cucamonga, Here Comes Sunshine* > Cumberland Blues, When I Paint My Masterpiece
*unfinished