Does your July 3 show here mean you won’t be headlining Vegoose for the third straight year in October?
We’ll be on the East Coast to share the wealth. Our Halloween show is always a special show for us and our fans, and it’s been Vegas for the last two years—we’ve done the big outdoor thing and then played [night shows at] Thomas & Mack or MGM—so we thought it would be nice to do Halloween on the East Coast this year.
When you played Vegoose last year, guitarist Jimmy Herring had just joined the band. What’s his progress been like, given the enormity of the repertoire he’s had to learn and the chemistry-driven jamming the band is famous for?
There are things that we learned when [former guitarist] George [McConnell] came into the band, and we put those lessons to use when it came to Jimmy, like trying not to lead them so much. It’s better to let a professional like Jimmy apply himself in the way that he’s most comfortable. He really did his homework, sat and listened to probably 150 songs and wrote charts out so that we were able to do three quick days of rehearsal and then walk onstage. Jimmy played with Aquarium Rescue Unit, which was an extreme musician’s-musicians kind of improvisational group, and then he did a tenure with the Allman Brothers, and then he was with Phil Lesh and The Dead, so he really understood three types of improv right there, which were different and unique in their own way. So he was fully prepared for how we do our thing. It involves a lot of listening, and sometimes there’s signaling and looks and flying by the seat of your pants for real.
The Grateful Dead’s Skeletons From the Closet best-of collection might be the most hated disc the band ever released. Are you concerned your impending Choice Cuts: The Capricorn Years 1991-1999 greatest-hits comp could inspire similar ire?
Some of our fans have already been comparing it to Skeletons, but it’s not something we chose to do. It’s funny how things come about—we haven’t been signed to Capricorn since 1999, but part of that deal was that they had the option on a greatest hits package, which they never bothered to exercise. Then Volcano bought the Capricorn catalog, and then Legacy acquired the rights to Volcano and all of a sudden ... But they were very nice to give us some say-so into the song selection and the artwork. So perhaps it can be a sampler for someone new. If I was going to recommend a couple of records for a newbie, I’d say buy that and buy [live album] Light Fuse and Get Away. Oh, and download the new one. –Spencer Patterson
With The Crystal Method (DJ set). July 3, 7 p.m., $36-$40. Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts, 785-5055.