06/03/09 Mike Gordon, Bill Kreutzmann and Scott Murawski @ City Winery, New York, NY

On the day off between Jones Beach shows, Mike Gordon celebrated his birthday at Tribeca's City Winery with an impromptu performance featuring Scott Murawski of  Max Creek and the Mike Gordon Band, and Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead and the 7 Walkers (who actually had a gig scheduled that night). The first set was reportedly short and sparsely attended, but as word spread, the crowd swelled (I drove in from Queens in record time!) and was treated to classics like "Quinn the Eskimo," "Express Yourself," Come Together" and "Peggy-O," as well as the debut of Page's gift to Mike - the fire bass, which would emerge sporadically at Phish performances of "Frankenstein" throughout the remainder year.

05/12/09 Chris Barron, John Popper, Mike Gordon & Joe Russo @ National Underground, New York NY

Acting on an tip from Phantasy Tour, I hightailed it to the Lower East Side and walked in just in time to see Joe Russo and Mike Gordon jam with Chris Barron of 1990s downtown jam darlings The Spin Doctors. Later on, John Popper of fellow radio-friendly jammers Blues Traveler sat in on the Doctors' ubiquitous "Two Princes." Not bad for a Tuesday night.

07/01/06 Phil Lesh & Friends/GRAB @ PNC Bank Arts Center, Homdel, NJ

Phil Lesh & Friends
Set 1: Jam> Truckin'> Cumberland Blues1 > Big River1 > Stagger Lee, Sugaree2
Set 2 : Playing In The Band> Eyes Of The World> Magnolia Mountain > Turn On Your Lovelight, Help On The Way> Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower3
Encore: Donor Rap/Intros, Going Down The Road Feeling Bad3
1with Mike Gordon (electric banjo)
2no Osby
3with Trey Anastasio (guitar, vocals)
Band: Phil Lesh (bass, vocals), John Molo (drums), Rob Barraco (keys), Greg Osby (sax), Joan Osborne (vocals), Barry Sless (pedal steel), Larry Campbell (guitar, fiddle, mando+)

GRAB
Set 1: Plasma, Drifting, Mud City, Trouble, Goodbye Head > Sleep Again, Get Back (The Beatles), Shine, Suskind Hotel, Coming Up Roses (Elliot Smith), Host Across The Potomac > Mr. Completely > Dragonfly, Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin)
Encore: Tuesday

This was a rare occasion when I was able to convince my friend to drive out to Jersey for a show.

Sadly, I remember very little of what went down due to another friend providing some Klonopin. If you ever want to not remember a show, take benzos.

From what I can recall, Trey and Mike with the Benevento Russo Duo was decidedly lesser than the sum of its parts. No Phish. Very little Duo. Mike and the Duo would've been much better. Later we would learn that Trey was on quite a bit of pills himself during this interstitial period.

I vaguely recall falling asleep on the lawn during Help>Slip>Frank and I have no recollection of any sit-ins.