Three weeks into rehearsals for this year�s Furthur Festival, the Other Ones are fine-tuning a blend of Grateful Dead standards and a smattering of new songs.

It's less than two weeks before the 2000 edition of the Furthur Festival kicks off, so it would be reasonable to expect that the Other Ones would be single-mindedly focused on honing their chops, too busy to have any fun. Instead, on a break between rehearsing "Rambling Rose," and "The Music Never Stops," singer-guitarist Bob Weir is doing his best Axl Rose imitation, screeching the "Welcome to the Jungle" line "You�re gonna die" over and over, much to the amusement of his five bandmates on hand.

Seated on stools and swivel chairs and dressed in t-shirts and shorts, only drummer Bill Kreutzmann is on stage in the massive Marin County, Calif., warehouse where the Other Ones practice. Tech call is at 10, and by the time the band members begin trickling in two hours later, racks of Gibson, Gretsch, Fender and Ibanez guitars stand at the ready. Four full drum kits are miked on the stage. A soundman is on hand to monitor the volume level of the individual instruments and the overall mix. Three white boards full of slightly altered Grateful Dead song titles like "Jack Flaw" and "Sugar Granola" stand side-by-side in full view from the stage.

The practice begins with a spontaneous jam session by Johnson and Kreutzmann. Like athletes loosening up for a game, the two try out ideas on each other and adapt mid-flow to the improvised twists and turns of the lengthy jam. Hornsby finishes a burrito, hops in, and gradually the free-form play evolves into a slightly more structured practice as the other members join in.

Like the Grateful Dead before them, the Other Ones thrive on jams, but in practice, it�s the details that the band focuses on, taking time out to work on an a cappella ending for "Rambling Rose" and to hash out exactly where the instruments should stop and the closing three-part harmony should begin.

The current incarnation of the Other Ones features original members Weir and drummer Kreutzmann, percussionist Mickey Hart, keyboardist Bruce Hornsby [ tickets ], bassist Alphonso Johnson and guitarists Steve Kimock and Mark Karan. Kreutzmann hasn�t played with the Other Ones on their previous Furthur Festival outings, and hasn�t played much music in the five years since the death of Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia, but as he said, "I had an overwhelming desire to come back and play."

Kreutzmann said the latest line-up has gelled over the last few weeks and is ready to get road-tested. "I think the band is really great. We play from our hearts. It�s fun playing with a different bass player and rhythm section We had a long marriage with the other guy..."

"The other guy," longtime Dead and Other Ones bassist Phil Lesh [ tickets ], has opted to focus on his work with Phil Lesh & Friends since a disagreement with the surviving original members over the concept of bringing in outside financing to help digitize the Grateful Dead vault. The project has not yet begun, but Kreutzmann said it will eventually go forward despite the dispute. "We haven�t started that yet--it�s a monster process--but we�re going to do it."

Hornsby took a philosophical bent in explaining Lesh�s absence from this year�s festival. "There has been some dissension in the ranks, some disagreements about things, but it boils down to this in my mind: Phil wanted to have his own group...I don�t begrudge him that at all. I understand what it�s like to have your own band. I�ve had my own band for 15 years. And there�s a certain wonderful aspect of that situation where you�re just really expressing yourself and you have this apparatus yourself that�s allowing you to express yourself completely musically without answering to anyone else�s desires."

Based on lessons learned from earlier tours, Hornsby said the Other Ones will focus on Grateful Dead songs with some of his own numbers mixed in.

"Frankly, on the first two Furthur Festivals, we featured various people with their own groups. The crowd would just sit there when Los Lobos was playing their fantastic set--playing all these great songs with David Hidalgo singing his ass off, and [the crowd] would just sit there. And then they�d play [Grateful Dead song] �Bertha,� and [the crowd would] go nuts, so you tell me. Anyone who would argue the point wasn�t there, because it�s very clear. That�s why we�re only doing a few of my songs."

The Other Ones [ tickets ] will be joined on the Furthur Festival by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers for a month-long outing that kicks off on August 23 in San Diego and runs through a Sept. 24 show at the Lakewood Amphitheatre in Atlanta.

After this year�s Furthur Festival, the Other Ones don�t have any concrete plans for the coming year. But if Kreutzmann has his way, arrangements will soon be made for next year�s Furthur Fest. "I�m not back for just one gig," he said