In October there was a rally at a home in DC to support the freedom of speech, in this particular case an old VW bus painted 60's style. I've lifted the description from the Facebook Event invite.
A colorful, engine-less VW microbus stationed in the Kaplan-Allen family’s Palisades front yard since May is slated for removal by DC Department of Public Works (DPW). On September 16, DPW declared the bus “dangerous,” threatened to remove it by the end of October and fine the family up to $1000. The Kaplan-Allens brought the Peace-Mobile to their yard last spring when it ended its run as a set piece for the Georgetown Day School theatrical production of “Pippin.” Its peace signs, rainbows and hearts are not only entertaining but remind us of a more idealistic time, when, as a Pippin song says, “we all could spread a little sunshine.” All summer, passersby stopped to take photos with their cell phones and celebrate in that spirit. Now, DPW threatens to censor and shut down the display.So a rally was held and of course we went. Musical entertainment was provided by John Kadlecik and
On the Bus. John is the former lead guitar player for Dark Star Orchestra and was recently given the ultimate promotion to play with Furthur (Phil Lesh and Bob Weir's band). On the Bus is a great Dead cover band that plays in the DC/MD/VA area, we've seen them several times and they always put on a good show.
John played acoustic guitar and a variety of songs (including some Dead songs). One that I really liked was "Down to Eugene" which was made popular (I guess) by David Gans. John was really putting his heart and soul into performing these songs for the 20 - 40 people gathered in a DC backyard on a fall afternoon, it was a nice musical moment. And it struck me that in a few weeks I would being seeing this same musician on a big stage in front of thousands of people playing with the founders of the Grateful Dead.
John stayed around to perform with On the Bus and they did a full set of Dead tunes. It was good times, despite the fact that half of the PA system failed. And there was a happy ending to the Battle of Bus as one of the band members decided to take it to his Maryland farm and give it a complete restoration. You can see lots of pictures and comments about this event on Facebook, just search for "On the Bus" and scroll down to the October time frame.
So sure enough a few weeks later we saw John at the Baltimore Arena playing with Furthur . Furthur consists of Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead), John Kadlecik, Jeff Chimenti (Dead/Ratdog), Joe Russo (Benevento/Russo Duo), and the just added Sunshine (Garcia) Becker and Jeff Pehrson. We've seen Furthur plenty of times before, this set started out interesting because the first 4 songs were not Dead tunes. Opening with "Revolution" (Lennon/McCartney), "Smokestack Lightning" (Muddy Waters), "Crossroads" (Robert Johnson), and then back to "Smokestack Lightning" again. In the second set they also covered "Hard to Handle" (Otis Redding) and a really cool "Dear Mr. Fantasy" (Traffic) that morphed into "Hey Jude" (Lennon/McCartney). They were actually performing both songs at the same time for a while.
I like the Baltimore Arena (officially named "1st Mariner Arena"), as arenas go it's easy to get in and out and it's relatively small. But not as small as that backyard in DC!
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