by Jean-Paul Forestiere

Steve Winwood and his band started at 5pm on June 17th at the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheatre, complete with his moog organ, mandolin, and songs from his brand new CD, About Time, and, of course, hits from his Blind Faith, Spencer Davis and Traffic days. He brought the right people to tour with him and hasn't skipped a beat in all these years. Winwood's band was not defeated by the sparse crowd and really fired up the audience with "I'm A Man." Even The Deadheads told me, "Man, this guy is good." As the crowd began to grow, The Dead, not the Greatful Dead, opened their first set with "Jack Straw," and for a man who hasn't seen this band in eleven years, it was like I never stopped going to the shows. Joan Osborne came on stage and proceeded to sing a fantastic rendition of an all time favorite Dead tune, "The Wheel." This took the crowd by surprise. Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Rob Barraco, Jeff Chimenti and Jerry's replacement, Jimmy Herring, who as one fan put it, "fills in sweetly" performed above and beyond expectation. Steve Winwood returned to the stage and played "Thank You," where his vocals added soul and blended excellently to the entire band. Another person in the crowd, who I later found out had never seen The Dead, said, "Bob Weir and company are incredible." What really shocked me was all the children at the show. Not just children, but babies in strollers and wagons with their very young parents, who were not born when The Dead first started this never ending concert back in 1967. The band played a lot of the crowd pleasers like "Okaree", "Uncle John's Band", but the most intense song of the evening had to have been "Franklin's Tower." I must have seen them do this song twenty-five times, but never with so much emotion. If I didn't have a good job right now, I would have climbed right on that bus and hit the road. In my opinion, these guys need to keep doing what they do best, play live music. "Something was lost, but something was gained."