On March 13, 14 and 15, Phil Lesh will celebrate his birthday at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y., along with a surprise roster of Friends. Who will join Lesh on stage for his birthday will not be revealed until the curtain rises for each show.

“The best things in life seem to happen when you don’t expect them to happen. So, we thought it would be fun to have a Phil & Friends show where you don’t find out who is in the band until the show actually starts,” said Peter Shapiro, who is presenting the show (and is also the publisher of Relix).

“You couldn’t really do this for most ticketed shows given that people usually like to know who they are buying a ticket for, which does make sense [laughs],” he continued. “But, Phil can pull it off and we felt his 80th Birthday at The Cap was as good a moment as we will probably ever have to put on a show where the band isn’t announced. We’re excited to reveal the surprise ‘friends’ each night featuring a mix of first timers and familiar faces.” 

Lesh recently recovered from back surgery, but the bassist is already back on the horse, as he’s with two shows in the Bay Area on Jan. 1 and 2.

Tickets to Lesh’s 80th birthday celebration will go on sale on Jan 3 at 12 p.m. ET. Additionally, everyone who held onto their Philoween tickets will be able to use them for these shows, in order of date (for example, night 1 from Philoween can use their tickets for night 1 of the birthday shows). For more information, visit thecapitoltheatre.com.