History of Planet Waves~ chapter 2, tragedy

Sometime in early 2009, Brighton approached Maciel with the idea of starting a Bob Dylan tribute band. The SF Bay Area is not flooded with Dylan tributes, nay, there were no working Dylan tribute bands in this area at all at the time. Brighton had already met another guitarist hugely influenced by Dylan, and those two hit it off musically from the start. Oakland bassist Mike Kearney was recruited from Leadfoot Betty to round out the quartet.

The first incarnation of Planet Waves was Jimmie Brighton on lead guitar and lead vocals, David Maciel on drums and vocals, Mike Kearney on bass guitar, and Steve Edelson on rhythm guitar.

This version of PWs was busy at work in the rehearsal studio that summer and had played a few local under-the-radar gigs to work out live kinks. Imagine our dismay when we started tossing potential names around when we found a brand spankin' new Bay Area Dylan tribute band* comprised of well seasoned and well known Bay Area musicians.They even had one of the names we tossed into our name hat. No matter, we were playing well and determined to get this project off the ground. We were about to start actively booking for the fall of 2010.

On September 9th, 2010, tragedy struck. Steve was on vacation in Costa Rica. He took a short walk down the beach with his guitar and a small backpack with a book, a towel and a bottle of water in it. His girlfriend stayed at the hotel. He sat down under an almond tree and began to play his guitar when someone came up behind him and shot him in the back of the head. He died instantly.

The killer took only the backpack with nothing of value in it, leaving behind Steve's watch, ring and guitar. Planet Waves would not play again for several months.

RIP Steve Edelson

Justice for Steve Edelson and the town of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

* That band would be our good friends Ghosts of Electricity!

History of Planet Waves- chapter 1

David Maciel responded to a craigslist post in 2003 from Roadhouse, a Grateful Dead tribute band out of Petaluma, CA, that was looking for Marin and San Francisco venues to try and get in to. A comment about two drummer bands led to an audition, and the second drummer slot. Roadhouse was winding down after a grueling three year run, unable to find a replacement lead guitarist for Mark Mitchell, who had been commuting great distances to shows and rehearsals. The last Roadhouse show was in June of 2004.

Roadhouse was Tom Dibell's band. He left the area for a while, and when he came back in 2005, he called Maciel and got monthly Dead jam going at John Frothingham's Music Spectrum in San Rafael. After a couple of jams, they had a half decent working line up. After settling upon the name of Leadfoot Betty, they scored a gig at the Golden Gate Park Panhandle acoustic bandshell during the Summer of Love 40th Anniversary Celebration in 2007.

 

A couple of more changes would bring in Jimmie Brighton from Stackabones on lead guitar and vocals, and Mike Kearney on bass guitar and vocals.

The Grateful Dead tribute band scene in the San Francisco Bay Area is crowded to say the least, and competition to get into any venue is brutal, hence that band played mostly at private parties and had quietly disbanded by 2010, partly due to geographical dissonance.

But Brighton and Maciel still wanted to play, and still lived close enough to each other to make that happen.

Maggie's Farm, Ace Speakeasy 08.02.13