“Friday October 1 at 7 p.m. and the doors open at 6 p.m. in the Biergarten at the German-American Society of Trenton in Hamilton,” proclaimed Rainbow Full of Sound founder Waynard Scheller as he and his group prepare to take the stage for the second of 21 individual shows from a bygone era.
What bygone era is that you ask? Well, you see, Waynard and his “Revolving” cast are taking on the task of recreating the entire Grateful Dead “Europe ‘72” tour in which they will perform each show from that tour just as the Grateful Dead performed them originally. Now, if you think that you are going to see just any old tribute band, Waynard says that you better think again.
“There is a little bit more to it, we are traditionally a Grateful Dead tribute band but the variables are; this tour, I came up with this idea to create an entire tour,” he began enthusiastically. “So, we started in 2012 when I came up with the idea to recreate the Radio City Music Hall Tour from 1980 and we did that, it was an eight show run and it was really great and I said, alright, let’s keep this going. So, then about two years ago I came up with this other idea to recreate the “Europe ‘72” live album and the tour. So, if you’re familiar with The Dead; I don’t know if you’re a big fan or just somewhat of a fan but in 1972 they went to Europe and did 21 shows all across Europe and it was kind of a historical moment for the band. We are recreating that entire tour, we’re doing a 21 show tour and we’re doing each show that they did in Europe one show at a time here in the United States; not in Europe as some people think. We’re not just recreating the live album, we are recreating the entire tour from start to finish.”
This seems like a lot of work; 21 separate shows? Waynard says that it is more like a labor of love for him as his connection to The Dead extends back to his youth and continues to flourish each day.
“My interest in the Grateful Dead goes back to when I was a teenager. I was like 10 or 11 years old and started out playing guitar and I was into Neil Young and Dire Straits and all of these different bands and when I was around 12 or 13 I heard the Grateful Dead and my brother had a bunch of albums and I borrowed some of those and started listening and really liked it and ever since then they’ve been my favorite band. I started playing keyboards and then started a Grateful Dead tribute as a teenager and then I went off and did other things somewhere in the middle and learned a lot of different styles; Blues, R & B, Country, Reggae, I’ve worked with a lot of different groups, including Motown. I just tried to make a living as a musician but the Grateful Dead have always been my favorite group and I’ve seen them a couple of hundred times and over the past five or six years I’ve worked with a couple of the members of the band. I was fortunate to end up on stage with Bob Weir a couple of different times and Donna Jean a couple of times, TC who was one of the keyboard players in the early days, I worked with him and Hot Tuna. So, yeah, they have always been my favorite band and when people ask me; who is my favorite band? I say, well, the Beatles are my second favorite band (laughs); I kind of set them up because then they say; well, who is your first? It is definitely The Dead. It was pretty amazing that after all those years of being a fan and then getting to meet them and actually perform music with them was an amazing opportunity and experience for someone like me. Sometimes I still say, wow; did that really happen?”
Such as with most events in 2020, attempts at entertaining were not easy for anyone or any venue and they were especially rough on musicians who rely on live performances to pay their bills and survive. Rainbow Full of Sound also was affected by this; Waynard explains that this current tour is actually “Take Two” but this time it’s a bit more far reaching.
“I live here in New Jersey and most of the band are from the tri-state area so we launched it in Sea Bright, New Jersey on September 28; we did a tour launch party with a beachfront concert at Donovan’s Reef. The tour itself actually runs through 11 states, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and here in New Jersey and it’s spread out over eight weeks. We have one leg where we do like 10 nights in a row and then there are a couple others where we do three shows in a row but it is not like a full scale tour where we’re doing 21 shows in like three weeks; we’re doing 21 shows over eight weeks and it’s pretty exciting considering we were barely able to perform at all for 18 months. We’re really re-launching this tour, we launched our first tour with this theme in 2020 and we got half-way through the tour when COVID shut us down because the state shutdown. When the state shutdown we were right in the middle of our first tour and we had to take a year and a half off and we regrouped and here we are re-launching the tour.”
OK, what about the group itself? Surely such an undertaking must require dedicated players who are willing to travel, put in long hours of practice and learn 21 separate shows; does it not?
“That’s the unique part about this group; it’s a 23 member cast; there are 23 players but I’m the only member and all of the other players are revolving. So, we have a lot of talent in the group and every show that we do is usually a different line-up; it’s a revolving cast which is the really unique approach that we take. For instance, we often work with double drummers but this tour in ’72, it was a one drummer era; Mickey Hart had stepped out for a year or two and when they went to Europe they only had Bill Kreutzmann. So, we are doing our tour as a one drummer line-up.”
The Grateful Dead were notorious for lengthy performances and “Europe ‘72” was no different; so what can one expect from each show beginning with the one at The Biergarten?
“We are doing the shows in their entirety, we usually do a 90-minute set and then a two hour set but it varies show to show because when they were in Europe some of the shows were longer because they jammed longer. They did a lot of improvising and deeper jams in the ’72 era so, the shows were generally a little bit longer than; for example, now with Dead & Company they may do two 75-minute sets whereas back in ’72 they were doing 90-minutes and two hours. So, we need four hours minimum to be able to do a show because we have to take a break; the Biergarten show will be the one from April 8, ’72 from Wembley in London.”
Opening all 21 of their performances is one of the aforementioned dedicated players; James Dalton. Dalton has his own successful solo career and is no stranger to Rainbow Full of Sound. Waynard laughed when recounting a story from his and Dalton’s past which has le to their current long friendship.
“James Dalton will be kind of my right hand man on this tour and he’s going to be opening every show solo on this tour. I’ve known him since he was 19 years old when we became friends. We actually snuck him in the back door of a club we were playing because he was 19 and he actually sang his first song with my group, which I think was “Hard to Handle” and then we snuck him back out and kept playing (laughs); James is a great guy and really talented.”
The Biergarten is located outdoors at the German-American Society of Trenton located at 215 Uncle Pete’s Road in Hamilton, NJ with plenty of room for social distancing on its vast expanse. Club magnate Don Warner always runs great events from this space and this one shall be no different. Ticket sales are brisk and time is running out to obtain yours; cost is $20. Waynard says that all but one of their performances require a ticket for entry.
They are all ticketed shows except the Hard Rock Cafe, that’s free. We have four shows in the New Jersey area; Donovan’s Reef, The German-American Biergarten show on October 1, October 15 in Philadelphia and then the Hard Rock show on October 16 in Atlantic City.”
To discover more about Rainbow full of sound and this tour, please visit www.rainbowfullofsound.com.
That's it for this week! Please continue to support live and original music and until next week....ROCK ON!
