Dead & Company returned to New York, NY’s Citi Field on Wednesday for their first of two shows this week at the home of the New York Mets, but as this era of the greater Grateful Dead story winds down with The Final Tour, it’s hard not the think of Citi Field as an honorary home of Dead & Co, too.
Last night’s show marked the band’s tenth performance at the Queens ballpark, and virtually all of them have produced memorable highlights and notable storylines. On Thursday, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti, and Jay Lane will push the all-time Dead & Co tally at Citi Field up to 11, making it the most-played venue in the band’s eight-year run (that is, until Boulder’s Folsom Field takes over that honor next month).
There is genuine Dead & Company history out on that field. We’re gonna miss this annual tradition when it’s gone. Even in the shadows of so many remarkable moments, however, Wednesday’s show provided a wealth of new material for the metaphorical Citi Field scrapbook.
As fans filed in from a buzzing Shakedown Street outside the stadium (pandemonium!), Dead & Company greeted them with a “Shakedown Street” of their own before diverting into “Bertha”, a nimble opening one-two punch that portended greatness to come.
Bob Weir led the way into “Ramble On Rose” next, matching a faint sprinkle of rain and the requisite hometown howls for “just like New York City” with the magnitude of his towering yet gracefully understated stage presence. Tampa Red‘s “It Hurts Me Too”, one of the high points of set one, beckoned Mayer and Chimenti into a blues showdown, enforcing a dynamic between the guitarist and keyboardist that has become one of Dead & Company’s most notable calling cards over the course of their tenure.
A tastefully restrained “Dancing In The Street” shifted the mood from blues to disco-funk, Lane and Burbridge digging deep into the pocket before spilling its contents on the dresser for an extended poke-around.
John Mayer sings and plays “Althea” like he was born for the job, and the rendition he mustered on Wednesday joins a long line of sterling Dead & Co takes on the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter favorite. As the last rays of sunset slipped from the city skies, the band embarked on a set-closing trip through “Let It Grow” that toiled and teetered in dissonance but never lost its way as it barreled to a climactic conclusion.
When the band took the stage for set two, Mayer strode to his usual spot and settled into a desk chair. “So, I threw my back out yesterday,” he explained to the curious crowd. “I have a feeling I’m talking to some people who’ve thrown their back out before. But it’s my fault, because I sat, and then I got up, so it’s me. But, I’m gonna sit for this set, so thank you for understanding. I feel great. Someone gave me a white pill, and I took that. And then someone else gave me a blue pill, and so I took that. And I think it’s gonna be great, so thank you very much.”
This is probably where we should make a joke (i.e. “Of all the people in this band to injure themselves via regular bodily motion…”), but that brief moment of humor from the band’s youngest member was the second set’s only laughing matter. From the moment the began to play, Dead & Company were in peak form—bodily injury notwithstanding.
Dead & Company – John Mayer Injury Intro, “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider” [Pro-Shot] – 6/21/23
It would be a disservice to Wednesday’s second set at Citi Field to refer to it in song-by-song, play-by-play parlance. What stuck out about the frame was its cohesion, its flow. This was one long, lucid dream, a winding odyssey befitting of the sprawling stadium that played its host. From an opening “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider” (a pairing as cathartic as ever) to a steamroller “St. Stephen” (perhaps the deepest improvisational expedition of the night) to the chameleon “Uncle John’s Band” that started rootsy and closed cosmic, the songs themselves seemed to fade into the background as the collective creativity of the sextet remained the primary takeaway.
The Drums/Space portion of the evening featured yet another surprise as drummer Joe Russo (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Furthur) quietly joined Hart, Burbridge, and Lane on Mickey’s spacious riser to punch his honorary Rhythm Devils membership card. As Space returned to Earth, the sunny sounds and complex meter of “The Eleven”, “St. Stephen”‘s historical sparring partner, got the call to bookend the mid-set voyage as a cool wind whipped through the stadium. A gorgeous “Stella Blue” cushioned the landing, Weir holding tens of thousands of hearts in the palm of his hand as he squeezed every ounce of emotional juice from the classic ballad.
It seemed that “U.S. Blues” was meant to close the set, but with the guitarist’s mobility notably in question, the band opted to skip its encore break and move straight into the evening’s final number: a spectacular “Black Muddy River” that could have brought a tear to a glass eye. Mayer commanded the stage from his humble perch, his trickling lead guitar lines and wistful voice paving the way for one final, explosive release.
As John Mayer sang from his humble perch tucked in among his bandmates, buzzing from a stiff cocktail of whites and blues and a stadium full of energy and seven years’ worth of Citi memories, it was easy to imagine him back home after this tour is over—strolling solo along some hazy creek in Big Sky country, reflecting on this Grateful Dead dream that became his reality for eight years. While the time has come to close the book on his Dead chapter and refocus on songs of his own, the emotion draped over each and every note left no doubt that his next musical “life,” whatever that may look like, will forever be imprinted with the timeless spirit of the Dead.
Dead & Company return to the stage in New York on Thursday night to round out their final trip to Citi Field. Below, check out the setlist from night one as well as a gallery of photos via Maggie Miles and a selection of videos from the performance.
For a list of remaining Dead & Company dates this summer, head here. If you can’t attend in person, head to nugs.net for information about nightly livestreams of The Final Tour.
Dead & Company – “Shakedown Street” > “Bertha” [Pro-Shot] – 6/21/23
Dead & Company – “It Hurts Me Too” (Tampa Red) – 6/21/23
Dead & Company – “Althea” – 6/21/23
Setlist: Dead & Company | Citi Field | New York, NY | 6/21/23
Set One: Shakedown Street > Bertha > Ramble On Rose, It Hurts Me Too (Tampa Red), Dancing In The Street (Martha and the Vandellas), Althea, Let It Grow
Set Two: China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider, St. Stephen > Uncle John’s Band > Drums/Space [1] > The Eleven > Stella Blue, U.S. Blues, Black Muddy River
[1] featuring Joe Russo
