Reckoning Plays The Tuning Fork, 8-22-24

The Grateful Dead’s music is proving to have a life far outside the band, which is a wonderful thing for those of us who are big fans, because the band exists no longer, and the most we can get is one or two members playing at a given show. And who knows how much longer we’ll have even that? The future of the music lies with other groups, other musicians, like the group Reckoning, who performed as a trio last night at the Tuning Fork in Studio City. It was their first time playing at that venue, and my first time seeing them. Like the Dead, they played two sets.

They opened up the first set with “Deep Elem Blues,” a song the bluegrass band The Guesthouse had covered at the same venue two days earlier. They delivered a nice rendition, the trio not shying away from jamming in the very first song of the night. “Deep Elem Blues” is a song that the Grateful Dead included on the 1981 live acoustic album Reckoning, from which I assume the band takes its name. They followed that with another song that was included on Reckoning, “On The Road Again.” That album, by the way, was re-issued as For The Faithful in the mid-1980s, but subsequent re-issues have used the original title. The first song the band played last night that was not included on that album was the Bob Dylan song, “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” a song that Grateful Dead played quite frequently in the late 1980s and 1990s. The guys then joked about tuning at the Tuning Fork, when the bass went out of tune. The rest of the first set was made up of all songs included on Reckoning.  “Bird Song” was particularly good, with some interesting touches on bass, played with a bow, early on, and developing into a good, jazzy jam, featuring some great stuff on guitar. They let it unravel just a bit toward the end, so as to build it again as they returned to the song’s theme. The first set concluded with one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs, “Cassidy,” and during the jam it started to grow and breathe fire. The first set ended at 8:58 p.m.

The band was back on stage at 9:15 p.m., opening the second set with “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo.” They followed that with “Mama Tried,” “It Must Have Been The Roses” and “Black-Throated Wind,” the two guitarists trading songs like Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir so often did. For one brief moment I had the perverse urge to shout “We want Phil,” but the bass player did not have a vocal microphone. The biggest treat of the show, to my ears, was “Wharf Rat.” They delivered a fantastic and moving rendition, featuring strong harmonies. Really, everything just completely clicked on this song. It’s wonderful to know that the special magic of these songs can exist apart from the Grateful Dead, for the band truly has an incredible body of work, with songs like “Stella Blue,” “Cassidy,” “Ripple” and “Wharf Rat” among the standouts. Last night “Wharf Rat” led straight into “The Music Never Stopped,” which featured some really nice jamming toward the end. They wrapped things up with “Jack Straw,” an interesting choice, for the Dead often opened shows with this one. The show ended at 10:07 p.m.

Set List

Set I

1. Deep Elem Blues
2. On The Road Again
3. Dire Wolf
4. When I Paint My Masterpiece
5. Jack-A-Roe
6. Dark Hollow
7. Bird Song
8. Cassidy

Set II

1. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
2. Mama Tried
3. It Must Have Been The Roses
4. Black-Throated Wind
5. Wharf Rat >
6. The Music Never Stopped
7. Jack Straw

Tuning Fork is located at 12051 Ventura Place in Studio City, California.