Dead & Company Hit Their Stride, Enlist Sturgill & Grahame On Night Two In Golden Gate Park [Photos/Videos]

Dead & Company returned to San Francisco, CA’s Golden Gate Park on Saturday for their second of three massive shows celebrating 60 years of the music of the Grateful Dead.

After Billy Strings and his bluegrass outfit served as the opening act on night one, Sturgill Simpson, the country singer Johnny Blue Skies, the rock and roll band got night two in San Francisco started with over an hour of sound, fury, connoisseur nuance, and outlaw grit.

Never one to waste seconds or mince words, Sturgill made his mission clear as soon as he strapped on his guitar: “What’s up, San Francisco? We’ve got 75 minutes. I’m not gonna waste a single one of them talking, let’s go.”

True to that promise, Simpson and his band floored it into Sound & Fury‘s “A Good Look” and never relented, making sure the music never stopped as he cycled through 11 songs from his eclectic catalog and beyond. With invigorating distortion, patient rumination on distorted rock grooves, and a number of crowd-pleasing homages (a little Smashing Pumpkins “Cherub Rock” here, a Rage Against The Machine “Bulls on Parade” jam there, traces of “China Cat Sunflower” DNA throughout), ~~Johnny Blue Skies~~ Sturgill Simpson captivated tens of thousands of Deadheads for over an hour in the middle of the afternoon—and surely earned a boatload of new fans in the process.

San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie took the stage for a short and sweet introduction (yes, the mayor introduced Mayer) before Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti, and Jay Lane manned their positions.

While Dead & Company often use their first set to ease into the evening, it seemed the opening shot of Johnny Blue Skies espresso was as much warm-up as they needed. After taking the stage with a Weir-led run through Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour”, the sextet threw it to Mayer for a “Bertha” sing-along. A gorgeous, extended “Jack Straw” ebbed and flowed with palpable emotion thanks to Chimenti’s piano work, which the Mayer harnessed for a few brilliant moments of inspiration.

Next, the outfit channeled the late Brent Mydland for one of the show’s many highlights, a “Dear Mr. Fantasy” > “Hey Jude” that melted into a slow-burn blues sizzle featuring the best sub-plot in the Dead & Co canon: the undeniable creative chemistry between Jeff Chimenti and John Mayer.

After hammering a mystifying take on Phil Lesh-penned Terrapin Station classic “Passenger” with Weir at the helm, Dead & Company threw it back to Mayer for an excellent “Brown-Eyed Women” that pushed out into some attentive and responsive Burbridge-led interplay.

With the makings of an exceedingly strong first frame already in place, Weir stepped to the mic before the set-closing tune to seal the deal: “Does Sturgill want in?” he asked.

With that, Simpson joined the fray to lead a gorgeous, sprawling “Morning Dew”, his sterling vocals carrying the song’s weighty emotion with breathtaking gravitas. Read more about Dead & Company’s Sturgill Simpson-led “Morning Dew” in Golden Gate Park (and the notable context surrounding it) here. The short version: Wow.

The line between the persistent cloud cover and the setting sun blurred as the band retook the stage for set two just after 8 p.m. with an “Uncle John’s Band” that quickly launched from cool breeze into jazz dissonance into a rumbling flirtation with “The Other One”, an endlessly creative Burbridge leading the chase on his Jerry Garcia-inspired “Dire Wolf” bass as tension mounted.

After luring the jam into near nothingness, Dead & Company re-emerged from the void with a standout “Help on the Way” > “Slipknot!” > “Franklin’s Tower” with more than a few layers of note, from a spell of novel funkiness during “Help” to a snippet of the “Ghostbusters Theme” during “Slipknot!” to a wink at “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and a soaring guitar peak during “Franklin’s”.

From there, for the second night in a row, Dead & Company welcomed Grahame Lesh, the son of late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, to the stage with his father’s famous “Big Brown” axe for what may have been the high point of set two: a fearless “St. Stephen” that tiptoed through tender reflection before plunging into untethered psychedelia as Grahame ably lent his father’s essence to the odyssey, guiding the band into a brief “The Eleven” jam before returning home. Powerful, powerful stuff.

Following Mickey & Co’s nightly percussion expedition to the cosmos (featuring shimmering hints of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”), the rest of the band trickled back in via “Spanish Jam” en route to a moving “Days Between” that seemed to carry the weight of time, life, love, and loss within Weir’s vulnerable vocals.

The “Truckin'” that followed was relatively unremarkable in the shadow of such a strong performance, but it offered some sing-along catharsis (what a long, strange trip, indeed) before pouring into an unusually late-in-the-show “Cold Rain and Snow” and, finally, a delicate “Brokedown Palace” to round out a thoroughly memorable night.

These shows are trending upward, to be sure, and tonight’s guest is one who has ample experience creating memorable moments out of the timeless GD canon, Trey Anastasio (Phish). Tune in for tonight’s finale with a pay-per-view stream via nugs and get a complimentary 60-day All Access subscription. [Editor’s note: Live For Live Music is a nugs affiliate. Purchasing your Dead & Company Golden Gate Park livestreams via the links on this page helps support our work covering the Dead and the rest of the live music universe. Thank you for reading!]

Below, check out the setlists, videos, and full audience audio recordings of Dead & Company and Sturgill Simpson in Golden Gate Park on Saturday, August 2nd, as well as photos by Alive Coverage, Jay Blakesberg, and Bob Minkin.

Dead & Company — “In the Midnight Hour” (Wilson Pickett), “Bertha” > “Jack Straw” — 8/2/25

Dead & Company, Sturgill Simpson — “Morning Dew” (Bonnie Dobson) — 8/2/25

[Video: MVP Presents]

Dead & Company, Grahame Lesh — “St. Stephen” — 8/2/25

[Video: nowiknowuryder]

Dead & Company — “Brokedown Palace” — 8/2/25

[Video: nowiknowuryder]

Setlist: Dead & Company | Golden Gate Park | San Francisco, CA | 8/2/25

Set One: In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett), Bertha > Jack Straw, Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic) > Hey Jude Coda (The Beatles), Passenger, Brown-Eyed Women, Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson) [1]

Set Two: Uncle John’s Band [2] > Help on the Way > Slipknot! [3] > Franklin’s Tower, St. Stephen [4] > Drums > Space > Spanish Jam > Days Between > Truckin’ [5] > Cold Rain and Snow (Traditional) > Brokedown Palace

[1] with Sturgill Simpson on lead vocals, guitar
[2] with The Other One jam
[3] with Ghostbusters teases
[4] with Grahame Lesh on Phil Lesh’s bass, included “The Eleven” jam
[5] with The Other One jam

Dead & Company – Golden Gate Park – San Francisco, CA – 8/2/25 – Full Audio
[Taped by Eric Lugassy]

Setlist: Sturgill Simpson | Golden Gate Park | San Francisco, CA | 8/2/25

Set: A Good Look > All Said and Done > Long White Line (Moore & Napier) > One for the Road > Welcome to Earth (Pollywog) > It Ain’t All Flowers [1] > Best Clockmaker on Mars [2] > A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum) > Brace for Impact (Live a Little) [3] > You Don’t Miss Your Water > Fastest Horse in Town

Notes: [1] with Smashing Pumpkins “Cherub Rock” teases; [2] with Rage Against The Machine “Bulls on Parade” teases; [3] with Grateful Dead “China Cat Sunflower” teases

Sturgill “Johnny Blue Skies” Simpson – Golden Gate Park – San Francisco, CA – 8/2/25 – Full Audio
[Taped by Z-Man]