Photo Credit: Chloe Weir
After taking a week to rest their bones, Dead & Company returned to Las Vegas’ Sphere venue to resume their ongoing Dead Forever residency. The initial show, July 4, brought forth a festive bust out and other USA-tinged pulls that alluded to the Independence Day holiday. Friday’s display featured residency-specific debuts, touching on jazz and blues classics before the band’s Saturday close-out, which trickled in more locational-performed firsts.
As a fitting start to Dead & Company’s July 4 performance, the ensemble, Bobby Weir, Mickey Hart, John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane, worked into the Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter co-write “Liberty,” which represented a bust out, last played on July 5, 2022, effectively ending a 58 show gap in performances. The initial set consisted of seasoned plays, an active motif throughout the coming weekend.
Thursday’s second set touched back on the holiday at hand, with red, white and blue flowers cascading down the state-of-the-art screens during “Scarlet Begonias” and later, a direct hit on the occasion with “U.S. Blues.” A virtual fireworks display and a skeleton of Uncle Sam complimented the evening. Friday, July 5, functioned as a continuation of classics from the Grateful Dead catalog and beyond, including residency debuts of Junior Parker’s “Next Time You See Me” and a Chimenti-led siege of Miles Davis’ “Milestones” into the breakup epic, “Looks Like Rain.”
The band’s July 5 stand also included a dance-focused rendition of “Fire on the Mountain,” complete with Hart’s rapped lines, touching on early-70s archetypes of the fortified favorite. Political heavy-weight “Throwing Stones” represented the final song before news clips engulfed the screens, leading to the final number, “Not Fade Away.” Dead & Company’s seventh weekend ended after Saturday’s stand, with more fan favorites and residency debuts, including “Big Railroad Blues.”
Notably, the band placed an expected Saturday number at the tail end of set one (as opposed to its typical encore slot), with “One Saturday Night” merging into the set break. Weir’s Ace originator “Greatest Story Ever Told” brought the crowd to their feet for the final frame of the weekend, conjuring more seasoned picks down to the last minutes, conceiving their conclusion after “Sugar Magnolia.”
With week seven in the books, Dead & Company will resume their Sphere residency on Thursday, July 11. Tickets remain on sale.
Dead & Company
Sphere – Las Vegas
July 4, 2024
Set I: Liberty, Franklin’s Tower, Jack Straw, Big River, Friend of the Devil, Feel Like a Stranger, Althea
Set II: Scarlet Begonias > St. Stephen, Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Terrapin Station > Drums > Space > Wharf Rat, Going Down the Road Feelin’ Bad, U.S. Blues > Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Enc.: Casey Jones
Dead & Company
Sphere – Las Vegas
July 5, 2024
Set I: Cold Rain and Snow, Truckin’ > Bertha > Good Lovin’, Next Time You See Me, Cassidy, Deal
Set II: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider > Playing in the Band, Dark Star, Drums > Space, Looks Like Rain, Brown-Eyed Women, Fire on the Mountain, Throwing Stones
Enc.: Not Fade Away
Dead & Company
Sphere – Las Vegas
July 6, 2024
Set I: Iko Iko+, Shakedown Street > The Music Never Stopped, Big Railroad Blues%, Row Jimmy, Sugaree, One More Saturday Night
Set II: Greatest Story Ever Told, Mr. Charlie, Estimated Prophet > Eyes of the World, Drums > Space > Uncle John’s Band, Cumberland Blues, Hell in a Bucket, Morning Dew
Enc.: Sugar Magnolia
Notes:
+ With a snippet of “Man Smart, Woman Smarter”
% Residency debut
The post Dead & Company Weekend Seven: Independence Day Pulls, Residency Debuts and Bust Outs appeared first on Relix Media.
