Weir this past December – photo by James Martin

Bob Weir returned to the stage for the first time in over a month last night. The Grateful Dead/Furthur guitarist performed at a Marin Academy benefit held at Mill Valley, CA’s Sweetwater Music Hall. It was Weir’s first solo performance since Furthur cancelled its BottleRock Napa Valley show after announcing that “Bob Weir, is unable to perform in any capacity for the next several weeks.”

Weir opened the night with an acoustic set consisting of “Easy To Slip,” “Loose Lucy” and “Peggy-O.” Then, Assembly of Dust’s Jason Crosby (violin, keyboards), RatDog’s Robin Sylvester (bass) and Assembly of Dust’s Dave Diamond (drums) joined Weir on “El Paso,” “Playin’ In The Band,” “Easy Love,” “To Love Somebody,” “Friend of The Devil,” “Truckin,” “Cassidy,” “Birdsong” and “Jack Straw.” Leslie Mendelson also sat in with the ensemble for the latter portion of their set. All the musicians returned for the evening’s “Not Fade Away” encore. “Easy to Slip”‘s lyrics seemed particularly appropriate ("It’s so easy to slip/It’s so easy to fall/ And let your memory drift/And do nothin’ at all/All the love that you missed/All the people that you can’t recall/Do they really exist at all").

Weir will host a Weir Here event at Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads on Wednesday, June 12.