Further Festival, The Other Ones, Deer Creek Amphitheater, Noblesville, IN, 7/15/1998

After 16 pretty fun and decent shows, I think the band hit their stride with this show. 

This was my second visit to Deer Creek, the first being the Further Festival the year before with Ratdog, MIckey, Bruce, Arlo Guthrie, Robert Hunter (He played Terrapin!), and the Black Crowes. Someone dosed me at the show and I lost my mind for a couple of days. 

So I made my valiant return, getting to Noblesville a day early after a 5 hour drive from Michigan, and we setup camp in a farmers corn field. In those days, there was nothing but beautiful Midwest farmland and sunny skies surrounding Deer Creek. Hung out with some dudes listening to Garcia Band and Reconstruction in the parking lots. 

The day of the show I heard them sound checking Let it Grow as I walked in the fields outside the venue. That gave everyone quite a buzz about what to expect. Finally, after days upon days of rigorous travel of 4-5 people shoved in a car, walking all day in the hot sun and eating very little, my adrenaline kicked in as the band opened with Shakedown Street. We all danced in the concrete path between the lawn seating and the pavilion seating, and due to the quality of the music, the lack of food etc, we all locked into an ecstatic dance where every one of us felt each other's thoughts simultaneously -and I was absolutely sober! It gave me chills. 

I'm not sure how, but this is my favorite version of Easy Answers-the breakdown and buildup of the jam really did it for me. Bruce brought out the love of Garcia with his tasteful and soulful singing on Ramble on Rose. We tolerated Mickey's song, Phil's version of Mountains of the Moon was surreal and growing on me-I still remember the summer breeze blowing on my skin while he sang it. Bobby did a great job on Queen Jane....the very soft playing by Dave Ellis and the band was gorgeous as they slowly started playing Lost Sailor. The Sailor kicked off the meat of the show, the whole sequence after that was non stop amazing, Phil's launch of the Other One before drums, including the drums where Mickey every night was pulling out the talking drum and battling it with the audience in tow. The Let It Grow emerged-and it was amazing, especially the end jam. 

Back at the campsite, I was glowing, and lucky to camp next to guy who taped the show, and his copy was amazing. I ended up with a copy before anyone I knew. We ended up spending another night after our people in our car had a long argument about hitting up the Chicago show the next day. Those of us for it lost that one (I suspect lots of other people on the tour also skipped Chicago) so we slept in Noblesville and then made our way to St. Louis. 

Here's video 1 of the show (Shakedown through The Way it Is): 
https://youtu.be/CN874lplMXQ?si=59Il882oB8CESq65  

Here's video 2 of the show (Let it Grow>Uncle Johns Band):
https://youtu.be/VbzKEjkLjz0?si=8R88TQwkWDdKptCV 

Further Festival, The Other Ones, Deer Creek Amphitheater, Noblesville, IN, 7/15/1998 

Shakedown Street > Easy Answers, Ramble On Rose, Down the Road, Mountains of the Moon, Queen Jane Approximately, Lost Sailor > Saint of Circumstance > The Other One > Drumz/Space > The Way It Is > Let It Grow > Uncle John's Band

(First "Let It Grow"; First "Queen Jane Approximately")