Bob Dylan fittingly chose the Fox Theater in Oakland, CA as the place to bust out a cover of Grateful Dead‘s “Friend Of The Devil”. The show-closing performance on Saturday near the Dead’s Bay Area hometown was his first take on the American Beauty classic since July 19th, 2007, per Setlist.fm.
What made Saturday’s cover especially surprising was the fact Bob has stuck with the same setlist for the past 37 concerts, according to diligent fans on the Expecting Rain forum. For nearly the entire encore-less 17-song performance, it seemed like things were going to go that same way. Dylan worked his way through beloved classics “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine”, “When I Paint My Masterpiece”, “Gotta Serve Somebody”, and more.
As the show wound down, Bob covered Frank Sinatra‘s “Melancholy Mood” and was set to finish out the concert as usual with “Mother of Muses” and “Goodbye Jimmy Reed”. Then guitarist Bob Britt and Doug Lancio began the iconic chords to “Friend of the Devil” as Dylan sat at the piano. The Jerry Garcia/John Dawson/Robert Hunter classic was a setlist favorite for Dylan in the late ’90s before it appeared only twice in the 2000s, with the most recent performance nearly 15 years ago at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Listen to Bob Dylan perform Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” at Fox Theatre in Oakland on Saturday.
Bob Dylan – “Friend of the Devil” (Grateful Dead) – 6/11/22
[Video: OldHenry Lee]
Setlist: Bob Dylan | Fox Theater | Oakland, CA | 6/11/22
Set: Watching the River Flow [1], Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine, I Contain Multitudes, False Prophet, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Black Rider, I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, My Own Version of You, Crossing the Rubicon, To Be Alone With You, Key West (Philosopher Pirate), Gotta Serve Somebody, I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You, Melancholy Mood (Frank Sinatra), Mother of Muses, Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Friend of the Devil (Grateful Dead) [2]
[1] Bob on guitar
[2] LTP 7/19/07