Last night, Electric Hot Tuna opened a two night stand at New York City’s Beacon Theatre. The weekend’s shows also double as a 70th birthday celebration for Jorma Kaukonen and a number of guest musicians joined in to mark the occasion. Acoustic guitarist Happy Traum was the first bonus player, as he appeared on “Sportin’ Life Blues” five songs into the first set. A bit later John Hammond joined in for “I Can Tell.” The set eventually closed out in climactic fashion as Warren Haynes, Larry Campbell and former Commander Cody bandmate Bill Kirchen guested on “Come Back Baby.” Hot Tuna is currently working on a new studio album with Campbell in Levon Helm’s Woodstock stuido.

“As I said last night at the show, a long, long time ago in a parallel universe when I was in the Jefferson Airplane Bill Kirchen was in Commander Cody’s Lost Planet Airmen,” Jorma wrote on his blog. “Bill is such a good friend and of course he teaches frequently at the Fur Peace Ranch. The cat was really out of the bag now. Larry Campbell came up for Bill’s ‘Talkin’ ‘Bout Chicken and stayed up for ‘Come Back Baby’ joined by the master musician, Warren Haynes. This first set was over but the evening had just begun.”

The second set opened with Byron House addeing bass to “Water Song” and “99 Year Blues.” Larry Campbell then stepped back out for “Genesis” before Haynes returned for “Bowlegged Woman.” Campbell next moved from guitar to fiddle as Bruce Hornsby appeared on dulcimer during “Children of Zion.” Hornsby then switched to piano for “I Know You Rider.” Chris Smither later appeared for ““Step It Up And Go,” before the set closed out with Haynes, Campbell and Kirchen lending hands during “Rock Me Baby,” and Hornsby joining these players for “Funky # 7.”

Night two of the birthday celebration is set for this evening.