Bob Weir with My Morning Jacket on 1/26/14 via MMJ Youtube

My Morning Jacket returned to the stage this weekend. The group had been off the road since late May and is playing only select dates this summer before an appearance at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in October followed by an extended run at San Francisco’s Fillmore.

However, the band just made two festival appearances, first at FloydFest on Saturday, followed by a performance at the Great South Bay Music Festival in Patchogue, NY, which closed out the four-day event.

Midway through the band’s Great South Bay performance the band offered a nod to Bob Weir (who had been celebrated earlier that day at the event) with a Sunday night take on “One More Saturday Night.”

My Morning Jacket shared the shared with Bob Weir on multiple occasions over the years. After Weir passed in January, the group offered the following thoughts:

Bob Weir was friendly. Bobby was mysterious. Bobby was full of wisdom, wit, and humor. But no matter what, Bobby was always ready to dive right in.

We first met him on tour opening for @bobdylan together and he was always ready to jump up and improvise with us – no matter what song, no matter what time – whether it was “I Know You Rider,” “Brown Eyed Woman,” “Dear Prudence,” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” or anything in-between… Bobby was always game in his wild wizardly way to give it a shot without an ounce of fear or pretension.

When we played our festival, @mmjobh, in Mexico one year, he stuck around from his festival the weekend before to hang and play with us. I encountered him randomly on the beach one day before a show, and he asked – “You ever snorkel?”

“Haha. Naw man, I have never snorkeled,” I replied. “I’ve always been a little afraid of the ocean.”

“Wanna learn?”

I was hesitant, but knowing his fearlessness onstage, I let some of that seep into me and followed him out into the water.

It was a miracle, watching him majestically soar through the waves with the ease of the manta rays and other fish swirling around him… while I coughed, gagged, and spit up water out of my mask just trying to stay afloat. Remember this, I thought… this is quite the lesson.

Thanks for showing us and so many others how to swim, Bobby. How to ride the waves, make friends with the fish, go with the flow, and immerse ourselves in the healing waters of rock and roll.

So grateful we got to spend some real quality time together.

A video of the performance appears below, followed by a classic performance of Weir with MMJ at the One Big Holiday event on 1/26/2014..