Hard to Handle on the panhandle

[Drunk Monk]

A free show in the Haight? Why yes, I’ll be there.

Scored a good parking space on Clayton, a block from Haight.

Got there early and paid a visit to my dear friend Michael (my former dealer) who lives next to the Dead house. He’s an invalid now, under caretakers in his home. I haven’t seen him in a year and the last time, it felt like the last time. But he’s strong - still lucid and engaged as much as he can be. It was good to reconnect.

Went down to the panhandle just in time for China Cats. They played well but not their best. Ran into friends and ended up hanging with my old Den of Geek editor who left the company last year to work on a doc on Stan Lee and his GF. We had a grand time.

It was a gorgeous day - T-shirt weather - and a kynd crowd. Happy deadheads. Only mildly obnoxious. Mostly joyous.

They played on the back of a flatbed - old skool hippie style. 

Graham Lesh’s band began with some strong bass and I was struck by how much I miss Phil and how no one even approached him but the first 2 songs were solid and reminded me. The bass was way up. Then they descended into a jug band sound - Cumberland, uncle, etc - with that bum bum bum-ba-bum bass thst came off flat. If you’re going to turn up the bass that much, it needs more dynamics. It was drowning out the keys which was where the action was - a fake Hammond = keyboard and one of those spinning subwoofers. I luv a Hammond but the fake ones just don’t have that punch. For second set, we moved to behind the stage truck in line with the keys and it was much better. The last few songs were good.

A delightful day. Well worth the trip.

[Drunk Monk]

Grahame Lesh and Friends Revive Free Panhandle Concert Tradition With Flatbed Truck Show Honoring the Grateful Dead
March 9, 2026 


Photo: Jay Blakesberg 

The Relix Channel

On Sunday, March 8, Bay Area musicians performed a concert in the spirit of the Grateful Dead. The free afternoon event took place in San Francisco’s Panhandle, where the artists involved played songs from the back of a flatbed truck equipped with the necessary instruments to induce an audience trance in the tradition of community-fueled exchange. The show honored the original band’s 1960s free concert legacy and its enduring commitment to creating a spectacle for its fans. Notably, the gig occurred on the 53rd anniversary of Ron “Pigpen” McKernan’s passing.
Billed as Hard to Handle, the event took place at Ashbury and Oak Street at the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle, with featured players Grahame Lesh, Danny Luehring, Garrett Delonian, Brian Rashap, and Danny Eisenberg, as well as guests Alex Koford and Connor Kennedy. 
As expected, the contents of the event flexed each player’s affinity for the Grateful Dead songbook, and ranged from expected originals to associated covers with historic ties to the location. For the group’s initial number, they opened the show with fan favorite “Scarlet Begonias,” complete with its sister song, “Fire on the Mountain.” The initial two-part suite came before beloved covers of the John Phillips original, turned Bobby Weir-sung “Me and My Uncle,” merged with Johnny Cash’s “Big River.” 
On the other side of the proverbial water’s ledge, Koford assisted the group by leading “Cumberland Blues.” Set one included the Dead’s late ‘60s trippy track, “Alligator,” which ran into Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle.” The aforementioned cover was a staple of the band’s early live sets, 1969-1971. Eventually, they resolved into a “Franklin’s Tower” finisher, as the last piece of set one. 
Returning for the second half of the outside concert, the group played through “Truckin’,” “Bird Song,” “The Other One,” and a haunting rendition of “Wharf Rat.” “Jack Straw,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Morning Dew” made up the performance’s later additions. 
The event successfully honored the Grateful Dead’s 1960s legacy, delivering live concerts in their native city. Notably, the gig arrived after Grahame Lesh announced the Bandcamp release of his 2024 album Let The Mountain Be My Home. Writing about the experience, which included fellow instrumental support from Damian Calcagne, Adam Minkoff, Nathan Graham, and Justin Mazer, Lesh says: 
“We didn’t have any real plans, only that we had just worked up my dad’s song ‘Equinox’ to be performed live for potentially the first time ever, and wanted to make a studio recording of it. ‘Equinox’ was written by my dad for Jerry to sing in the 70s to go on Terrapin Station, but was too long & complex for the Dead to record and to fit on the album. There are a couple [of] rehearsal tapes of it, but that’s it.”
He continues, “In the process of working up this long-forgotten Dead song & recording it, the idea of what GLAF could become musically started to take shape. I wanted to highlight and resurface some of the more forgotten music that my family had been involved in – music by my dad, songs by my brother Brian, my own compositions, and things we’d all written together. Much in the same way that early Phil Lesh & Friends lineups brought back songs that the Grateful Dead hadn’t performed in decades (St. Stephen, or Viola Lee Blues, for example!) I wanted to bring back Phil & Friends songs that my dad maybe hadn’t played in a while, Furthur originals, and more.”
Notably, Saturday participant Alex Koford recently showcased the acquisition of Phil Lesh’s gifted material, through Robert Hunter’s lyrics that comprise the track “Mercury.” Watch a clip and experience the song here. 
Read more and order Grahame Lesh’s Let The Mountain Be My Home.