25 Jan 2025 Terrapin Flyer
at Turf Club
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Terrapin Flyer
In 1999, Terrapin Flyer participated in a Grateful Dead jam night… and sound found themselves playing and touring with the legendary band. Throughout the years, they’ve supported various members
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The cover band sub-genre is a serious one, with some extremely talented musicians working in that space. Within cover bands, there are several that have spawned multiple cover artists: Johnny Cash and Led Zepplin come to mind. But perhaps no band has inspired more cover artists than The Grateful Dead. On a Saturday evening in St. Paul, the Dead cover band Terrapin Flyer took over for an evening at the Turf Club.
With no need for an opener, Terrapin Flyer started right off. This band has been at it for over 25 years, which is closing in on how long the Grateful Dead were a band (30 years). That history showed the deep familiarity with the music and Terrapin Flyer knows how to fall into the musical riffs and solos that made the Grateful Dead have such a tremendous live following. That musicianship was obvious by the second song, with an extended keyboard solo that was excellent. We also got several lead singers (both guitarist and the bassist took lead vocals at various points) by the third or fourth song, showing the versatility across the band. The crowd was singing along at several points, and it was clear the band built off the audience’s energy. A drink spill by the drummer slowed things down for a minute, but the band jumped back in quickly, playing a crowd favorite of Althea. The first set ended at 1 hour and 15 minutes in, which seemed exactly the right amount of time for this kind of jam band. The first song played over the PA being a Tom Petty song (a cover band target themselves) was a brilliant choice.
The second set brought some more of the recognizable Dead hits. It started with the much funkier Shakedown Street, which gave a different sound. Looks Like Rain was a good change of pace, making for a softer sound. He’s Gone kept the mood going, with the crowd fully involved, with a verrry long outro, including an extended drum solo (with the rest of the band leaving the stage!). That extremely long drum solo led to the band coming back for a far too long re-tuning. Finally getting going again, the next song just started to get the crowd back into the swing of things, just as we hit the 2 & 1/2 hour mark. The Wheel got a strong crowd reaction and gave the band some good solo opportunities. A cover by the cover band of Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower was well received, which ultimately transitioned into Throwing Stones. This quickly transitioned to Not Fade Away, with yet more of the expected extended instrumental solos. An unbelievable 3 hours plus, the Terrapin Flyer had blown past expectations and sent a happy crowd out into the streets.
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Terrapin Flyer at Turf Club (25 Jan 2025)
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