A NIGHT LIKE FOREVER: Grahame Lesh & Friends Wrap ‘Unbroken Chain’ At Fillmore San Francisco [B.Getz on L4LM]

Photo: Gabriel Barkin. Unbroken Chain at The Fillmore, 3/22/26

originally published via Live For Live Music

On Sunday, March 22nd, inside the iconic Fillmore in San Francisco, Grahame Lesh & Friends uncorked the final night of the West Coast engagement of Unbroken Chain: A Celebration of the Life & Music of Phil Lesh. This trifecta of sprawling family jams served as a spiritual homecoming for the late Phil Lesh, lead bassist and pioneering co-founder of the Grateful Dead. Still grieving the October 2024 loss of his father, Grahame once again stepped into the spotlight to anchor a revelatory three-night run in the city that birthed the psychedelic revolution and its traveling house band.

Though the emotional weight of the moment remained palpable, Grahame carried it with the grace of a son who has long embraced a fundamental Truth. This sacred songbook and chosen family is a living, breathing, ever-evolving organism. The hallowed room was a swirling kaleidoscopic maze of hallway spinners, tie-dyed OGs wiggling slack-jawed, and a younger generation frozen in total awe.

An evolving assembly across the three-night engagement, Sunday’s electrifying ensemble unspooled a majestic journey across the space/time continuum and through the heart of town. The festivities made for a touching testament to the adoring community Phil helped build with every heart-swelling ballad and foundation-shaking bass bomb he detonated over the course of six decades playing in the band.

Two hours before the 7 p.m. doors, the queue was already wrapped around two streetcorners; a dense thicket of vintage tour swag that had collectively seen more highway miles than a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. There is a specific scent of anxious electricity that hums down the predictably slow Fillmore entrance line, creating a hybrid of high-stakes anticipation, impatient frustration, and random casual reunions. The logistics of getting 1,300 tipsy/spun/possessed souls through the doors, up the stairs, and into the dance always feels like an unnecessarily protracted endeavor, but on this oversold-out Sunday, the pace was particularly glacial.

It was a slow-motion procession of the faithful, punctuated by the occasional “miracle” seeker holding an index finger aloft into the brisk, foggy SF night. Once we’d finally gained admission, the renowned poster gallery of rock/pop venue history welcomed us to the jamboree, swiftly beckoned by the amber glow of The Fillmore’s trademark chandeliers glistening atop the general admission ballroom dancefloor.

Grahame’s collective for the evening was a murderer’s row of improvisational masters, including the ever soulful Oteil Burbridge on bass, Bay Area guitar hero Stu Allen flanking Lesh to his right, and decorated bandleader, producer, and guitarist Eric Krasno on the far left. Holly Bowling and “Q” keyboardist Rob Barraco shared duties on Hammond organ and pianos.

Late-era Phil Friend Karl Denson held court on the stage left wing, oscillating between tenor and alto saxes, flute, and the occasional percussion toy. Longtime Lesh family band beatkeeper Alex Koford held down the trap kit by himself, more than serviceably all night long. The always-divine Elliott Peck and Nicki Bluhm provided both lead and backing vocals throughout the show.

Grahame Lesh & Friends — The Fillmore — San Francisco, CA — 3/22/26 — Set One Video

[Video: Ted Silverman AKA TedToob]

The first set kicked off with the always-swaggering, exploratory bombast of early-era banger “Viola Lee Blues”, a selection that swiftly signaled this would not be a cursory stroll down memory lane. Framing the first set with this canon classic, “Viola Lee” provided a deep dive into the psychedelic trenches where Phil always felt most at home. The interplay between Grahame and longtime Lesh family axeman supreme Eric Krasno was particularly electric, as they effortlessly wove intricate webs of melody over a driving, rhythmic pulse.

“Cumberland Blues” provided a nod to the Bakersfield sound, chased by a funky romp through “That’s What Love Will Make You Do” with Kraz on lead vocals. From there, the band moved into “New Potato Caboose”, and ghosts of 1968 seemed to boogie among the crystal chandeliers. This was the avant-garde, STP Phil, the student of Berio channeled through a modern lens that refused to remain static or let the songs tread water.

Oteil dug into a haunting “Comes a Time” that brought a hushed reverence to the room, offering a moment of quiet reflection amid the Primal Dead cacophonic bliss. A sweet nod to Ronald “Pigpen” McKernan arrived in the rollicking, bluesy “Easy Wind”, featuring the divine Nicki Bluhm’s vocals reverberating into the heavens. Jaunty murder ballad “Dire Wolf” leaned into its Workingman’s Dead rustic overtones, beautifully buttressed by Ross “MF” James‘ mesmerizing pedal steel flourishes, reminiscent of Jerry Garcia’s on the Dead’s 1970 studio track.

Those three consecutive chestnuts provided a tacit reminder that, though some improv excursions may reach for the outer rings of Saturn, the emotional core of this music remains rooted in the human experience and its archetypes. The swollen, selfless contingent eventually would cool things down with a crystalline reading of “Candyman” and bulbous, mid-tempo “They Love Each Other” (complete with the “Viola Lee” reprise/coda) to close out the phenomenal first frame.

A psychedelic voyage into the cauldron, the sterling second set was where Grahame Lesh and his co-conspirators bravely embraced Phil’s adventurous modus operandi, and by proxy, truly manifested a collective incantation. Opening with a patient “Here Comes Sunshine” that saw Karl Denson tackle lead vocals, the band quickly dove into the deep end with a massive “That’s It for the Other One” suite that saw Burbridge hop on a second drum kit and Lesh take over bass; the segment included the full four-part monty: “Cryptical Envelopment”, “Quadlibet for Tenderfeet”, “The Faster We Go the Rounder We Get”, and an experimental jam calling to mind Tom Constanten‘s avant-garde “We Leave the Castle”.

Grahame Lesh & Friends — The Fillmore — San Francisco, CA — 3/22/26 — Set Two Video
[Video: Ted Silverman AKA TedToob]

Throughout the lengthy sojourn, Oteil unsheathed a number of low-end munitions that threatened to rattle the foundation of this famous venue, the ghost of Cowboy Neal’s glass hands at the wheel for a sonic excavation of the void left by Phil’s passing. Krasno, Allen, and second set addition Scott Law passed the peace pipe around the stage,  tastefully accentuated by the Diesel intermittently.

When the familiar opening bass notes of “Dark Star” finally emerged from the aftershocks, a collective gasp swept through the crowd. Soon, a lady in velvet rose from the ashes, levitating above us as the sprawling collective sizzled and soared, guitars and pianos and Denson’s woodwinds swimming synchronized into the starry night.

The transition from “Dark Star” into “Uncle John’s Band” was a warm embrace after a long journey through the cosmos. The vocal harmonies emerged bright and resonant, a beautiful symbolism of the filial connection that defines this community and songbook. This led directly into a spine-tingling “Terrapin Station” suite that bouldered and soldiered to a thrilling, heart-filling crescendo of symphonic proportions, complete with the Robert Hunter-penned rarity “Jack O’ Roses”, boldly belted by Grahame with an unabashed verve recalling his father.

After a rollicking run through the omnipresent “Not Fade Away”, the huge squad briefly left the stage before Lesh returned alone at first to deliver his dad’s trademark organ donor rap. Then all the members resumed their positions, and the familial faction launched into an ethereal, emotional rendering of “Unbroken Chain”, the weekend’s namesake number, and this writer’s favorite song by his all-time favorite band. Equal parts delicate and deliberate, patient and purposeful, the transcendental track lent itself mystically to the monumental moment. Likely to avoid ending on such a meditative, melancholic note, the whole krewe dialed up a brief, bustling “Ripple” to sing Phil Lesh back home one last time in the city that he helped make famous.

Proceeds from this trifecta of instant classic concerts went to the Canal Alliance, continuing the Lesh family’s long tradition of diligently supporting their Marin County community. It was a joyful weekend celebrating not just a legendary bassist, bandleader, father, and grandfather, but his unwavering philosophy of living life through music, making art that creates and maintains community, the physicality of the Phil Bomb, and the transformative power of a magical song. The spirit of Phil Lesh was very much present throughout the Fillmore ballroom and out onto the SF streets, vibrating in the floors and echoing in the hearts of every seeker who continues onward and upward, forever searchin’ for the sound.

Words: B.Getz

Below, check out some photos from night one of the Grahame Lesh & Friends Unbroken Chain San Francisco run by photographer Ryan Myers.

Setlist: Grahame Lesh & Friends: Unbroken Chain | The Fillmore | San Francisco, CA | 3/22/26

Set One: Viola Lee Blues (Cannon’s Jug Stompers) [1] > Cumberland Blues, That’s What ove Will Make You Do (Little Milton), New Potato Caboose > Viola Lee Blues [2], Comes a Time, Dire Wolf, Easy Wind, Candyman, They Love Each Other > Viola Lee Blues

Set Two: Here Comes Sunshine, That’s It For the Other One [3] > Dark Star > Uncle John’s Band, Terrapin Station > Jack O’Roses (Robert Hunter), Not Fade Away (The Crickets)
Encore: Unbroken Chain, Ripple

[1] First verse
[2] Second verse
[3] Grahame on bass, Oteil on drums for “The Other One” verse 2 and “Cryptical Envelopment” coda