Continuing on their fall tour, Dead & Company hit Nationwide Area in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday night, offering up the debut of “If I Had The World To Give”—a rarely played Grateful Dead tune penned by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter that made its way onto 1978’s Shakedown Street.
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While last night’s first set was solid (the show-opening “Cold Rain & Snow” and beloved “Althea” sung by John Mayer were stand-outs), the true heavy lifting came during the extended second set, which rang in at just under two hours including encore and encore break.
“Cold Rain & Snow”
“Althea”
[Video: eric5469]
“St. Stephen” opened set two, which was exploratory and showed particularly bluesy playing on the part of Mayer, though a few moments of confusion arose in the middle of the song, as Mayer and Bob Weir seemed unsure of who was supposed to sing the song’s slower, lyric bridge. Despite this misstep, the band still commanded the song, eventually making a triumphant charge to the song’s finish primarily led by Mayer and bassist Oteil Burbridge. In contrast to the whimsical set-opening “St. Stephen”, the band contrasted this triumphant tune with a gorgeous rendition of “He’s Gone”, later picking up the pace with “China Cat Sunflower”.
“St. Stephen”
Eschewing the traditional format of a “China/Rider” combo, Dead & Company offered up the live debut of “If I Had The World To Give” immediately after “China Cat Sunflower”, and, much to the delight of fans, letting Oteil Burbridge sing lead on the rarely played tune off Shakedown Street. From there, the band launched into a galloping “I Know You Rider”, finishing out the classic pairing before the show’s extended drums and space portion. For the rest of the set, Weir took charge, leading the band through “Stella Blue”, a take on Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower”, and “Sugar Magnolia” before the show-ending, semi-acoustic encore of “Ripple”.
“All Along The Watchtower”
[Video: tony robinson]
You can check out a gallery of photos from last night’s show below, courtesy of Phierce Photo.
Setlist: Dead & Company | Nationwide Arena | Columbus, OH | 11/25/2017
Set One: Cold Rain and Snow, The Music Never Stopped, Row Jimmy, Me and My Uncle, Cumberland Blues, Althea, One More Saturday Night
Set Two: St. Stephen, He’s Gone, China Cat Sunflower, If I Had The World To Give, I Know You Rider, Drums, Space, Stella Blue, All Along The Watchtower, Sugar Magnolia
Encore: Ripple
