Truckin’ in Jerusalem

September 7, 2008 - 9:21 AM by David

Even the seasoned sound and technical staff at the venerable Jerusalem music club The Yellow Submarine don’t know what to make of it.

Tie dye is abundant, as are the combination of pony tails under colorful kippas. Pot smoke is noticeable everywhere, and the mass of 200 or so dancers are doing… this weird free form shuffle, a combination of haredi shuckling and Woodstock tripping. And it’s all in Jerusalem!

Must be the second annual Grateful Dead tribute concert featuring the great homegrown band The Elevators, a largely religiously observant band led by veteran Carlebach-inspired musician Aryeh Naftali, and featuring the amazing guitar work of Lazer Lloyd Blumen, leader of Jewish blues rocker Yood.

“Ehhh, do you mind taking the ceegarette outside?” asked staffers of the revelers, to little avail, in a classically delicious case of irony – Israelis asking Americans to stop smoking!

The ecstatic crowd was filled with a few old timers who might have seen the Dead in their heyday, but mostly consisted of some very enthusiastic 2nd and 3rd generation Deadheads in their 20s who were attempting to generate an authentic hippie experience. And the band did their part, with stellar versions of Dead staples like “Jack Straw”, “I Know You Rider”, and featuring Naftaly on some nifty steel guitar – “Dire Wolf” and “Ripple.” Blumen, especially was dazzling in bringing songs to jamming crescendos in which you thought the room was going to start vibrating by the intensity.

The band also played almost the entire Blues for Allah album, including the downright weird and inaccessible title track which closed the show, and left everyone walking out scratching their heads, but delighted and exhausted by what came before it.

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