Dead & Company reached the halfway point of their 2025 Sphere residency on Saturday with their ninth of 18 shows. This latest weekend closer coincided with the 82nd anniversary of Dr. Albert Hoffman‘s famed bicycle ride on the first-ever LSD trip—an occasion celebrated in the psychedelic community as “Bicycle Day.” Whether you decided to turn on or not, there was no better way to celebrate Hoffman’s influence on American musical culture than seeing the Grateful Dead offshoot at Sphere.
Live video feeds of Bob Weir, John Mayer, Mickey Hart, Oteil Burbridge, Jay Lane, and Jeff Chimenti appeared on Sphere’s scaffolding innards for the “Dancing in the Street” opener before the hangar retracted and the crowd took off from 710 Ashbury St. on “Truckin'”. Recent addition “Lay Down Sally” made its second-ever appearance, following the Jerry Garcia Band-favored Eric Clapton cover’s debut on the second night of the 2025 Las Vegas residency.
A slow waltz through “Tennessee Jed” revealed a veritable garden of begonias on the world’s largest LED screen, setting up an onslaught of Grateful Dead iconography dancing across the immersive venue during “Jack Straw”. By the time the band started shoveling coal into a locomotive “Casey Jones” first set-closer, Sphere’s interior became cloaked in laser projections—the kind of thing that’d be more at home at Pink Floyd planetarium shows of old.
As the band returned for the second set, an illustrated history of ticket stubs and bootleg tapes flashed onscreen to the gentle bob of “Scarlet Begonias”. Bassist Oteil Burbridge got his moment in the spotlight on “Fire on the Mountain”, as he was projected onto the Great Pyramid of Giza while taking lead vocals. Even Mickey Hart got a turn on the mic to spit the “Fire on the Mountain” rap that has become a regular inclusion for Dead & Company, before the band wandered through the cosmos to the tune of “He’s Gone”.
Once the band got to “St. Stephen” the Sphere interior transformed into a liquid light show—a fitting homage to the Dead’s ’60s roots, soundtracked to the fan-favorite relic of raw psychedelia. After the band welcomed opera singer Renée Fleming for a unique “Drums” on Friday, Dead & Co returned to the (dancing) skeleton crew of Hart, Lane, and Burbridge for the improvisational perussive odyssey.
For the post-“Space” ballad slot, Bobby offered up a reflective reading of The Beatles‘ “Dear Prudence” before Mayer picked the energy back up with “Brown-Eyed Women”. As the skeleton Uncle Sam hopped on his hog, Deadheads enjoyed the ride with “Hell in a Bucket”. The energetic slingshot then pulled back with the tear-jerking “Brokedown Palace” before turning potential energy into kinetic on the climactic “One More Saturday Night” closer.
Check out some fan-shot videos from Dead & Company at Sphere on Bicycle Day. The band will return for another three-night run this weekend, April 24th–26th. Find tickets and a full list of dates here.
Dead & Company — “Dancing In The Street” (Martha Reeves And The Vandellas) — 4/19/25
[Video: billzlose]
Dead & Company — Sphere — Las Vegas, NV — 4/19/25 — Full Audio
[Audio: Stella Dew]
Setlist: Dead & Company | Sphere | Las Vegas, NV | 4/19/25
Set One: Dancing in the Street (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas), Truckin’, Lay Down Sally (Eric Clapton), Tennessee Jed, Jack Straw, Casey Jones
Set Two: Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain, He’s Gone > St. Stephen > Drums > Space > Dear Prudence (The Beatles), Brown-Eyed Women, Hell in a Bucket, Brokedown Palace, One More Saturday Night