Nothing was going to stop Dead & Company from properly ringing in what would’ve been Jerry Garcia’s 82nd birthday—not even a potentially debilitating injury that left John Mayer with the use of only nine fingers. One week after accidentally slamming his left index finger in the door of his truck, the 46-year-old guitar savant put on a performance for the ages during a spectacular August-opening show at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
John’s shorthanded guitar work was excellent throughout, but especially during a second-set cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower.” Mayer invoked Jimi Hendrix‘s iconic rendering of the song, as he handled the legendary solo from his all-time great forebear with aplomb. All the while, the Sphere took the audience on a journey from the “Wall of Sound” to Rainbow Road en route to the rings of Saturn.
That track was one of many classic covers to grace the Thursday night setlist, the totality of which read as a fitting tribute to Jerry. The first set saw the band jam out to a delightful rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)”—a debut for this post-Garcia permutation of the Dead.
Dead & Company — “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” (Holland–Dozier–Holland) — 8/1/24
[Video: Sojahsey1]
That debut came two songs after an evening opener of King Radio’s “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” (perhaps a nod to recent developments in American electoral politics) inside a rocket hangar, and two songs before John Phillips’ “Me and My Uncle,” which has been part of the Dead’s repertoire since the 1960s but had only appeared one other time during the Dead & Co’s Sphere residency.
Related: Dead & Company Sphere Setlist Snapshot: A Look At The Numbers Through Eight Weekends
The second set saw the band lead the descent through the stars and back to Earth to the tune of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, before closing out the proceedings with The Crickets’ “Not Fade Away” against a photo montage of the Grateful Dead. In both cases, John’s versatile guitar work was masterful, no matter how many fingers he did (or didn’t) have at his disposal. But John’s excellence in Jerry’s honor wasn’t the only big takeaway from the night.
In addition to the aforementioned Marvin Gaye cover, the second-to-last Thursday of the band’s residency at the Sphere brought a second Dead & Company debut by way of “Lazy River Road”, one of the last great Garcia/Robert Hunter ballads which didn’t enter the Dead’s lexicon until 1993.
Rarer still, Bob Weir led that debut with just his voice, his guitar, and a bit of Mickey Hart’s percussion (in front of a simple blue backdrop), on the heels of another awe-inspiring “Drums” and “Space”. Throughout the song, there seemed to be an added quiver in Bob’s voice, as though he was having emotional remembrances of his own about Jerry, nearly 29 years since his friend’s passing.
Dead & Company — “Lazy River Road” — 8/1/24
[Video: Steve_Avers]
That same emotional thread strung through the entire show, from a stirring first-set closer of “Althea” to a touching version of “He’s Gone” that was backed by sweeping views of snow-capped mountains that gave way to a trippy vortex composed of rainbow-colored Dead iconography. “Playing in the Band” brought with it a deep, extended jam that was both heavy on bass and explorative in a manner reminiscent of Jerry’s heyday.
Even “I Know You Rider” took on added emotional weight. The journey through famous Grateful Dead venues—from the Winterland Ballroom and Cornell University’s Barton Hall to Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, and Hampton Coliseum—evoked many a memory of Jerry’s indomitable presence inside those hallowed halls.
As brilliantly familiar and emotionally evocative as those visuals were, Dead & Company also trotted out some new tricks for the home stretch of their run in Sin City.
The second-set opener of “Franklin’s Tower”, featuring some adventurous work by Jeff Chimenti on keys, came with neon-colored people dancing, swimming, and flying across the Sphere from every available corner and crevice. During “China Cat Sunflower,” the dome of scarlet begonias—a fairly frequent “screen saver”—was rendered in yellow.
The now-beloved visual of undead Uncle Sam riding through a psychedelic landscape got an update for August, as well. As the band rocked out to “Truckin’”, the millions of LEDs inside the Sphere lit up with images of the costumed skeleton launching off a ramp into a tie-dyed sky filled with formations of skulls, alien spaceships, flying whales, parachuting bears, a colorful Furthur bus, and a jumbo jet labeled “Dead Air”.
For most of that new addition to the ride, Uncle Sam was joined by a red-haired skeletal Lady Liberty, who landed on the motorcycle with the help of a parachute. Ultimately, Uncle Sam’s drive ended as he rode under a giant, rose-crowned skeleton and into a rising tunnel of other cycling skeletons, their headlights revealing a room-wide ramp decorated with an American flag.
These new visuals are in line with what Mayer told Variety during a mid-residency interview.
[Some visuals] were still being finished [when the run started]. I think some things we were holding onto just to have some differentiation. But there were other things that the computer was still rendering, and so we were able to put those in over weeks two and maybe three. There are still pieces coming. They’ll be slow to come out for a moment, and then there will be a bit of an update in August. So we’re working on that right now just to keep it as exciting as possible for everyone. Because I know that there are people coming every weekend who are seeing this for the first time, who should catch up with what this show already is, but in an effort to make sure that people who are coming repeat times still get some surprise, there will be some things that we will add into the show around August, just to really make something of those last six shows.
What Jerry would’ve made of this or any of the jaw-dropping displays put forth on his birthday is a guess best left to the heavens. What’s clearer is that this particular performance—which also included Garcia staples “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”, “He’s Gone”, and “Ramble on Rose”—will go down as one of the great tributes to the iconic late frontman of the Grateful Dead.
Not a bad way to kick off the penultimate weekend of Dead & Company’s extended stay in Las Vegas.
Dead & Company — “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” — 8/1/24
[Video: Steve_Avers]
Dead & Company — “Ramble On Rose” — 8/1/24
[Video: Steve_Avers]
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Setlist: Dead & Company | Sphere | Las Vegas, NV | 8/1/24
Set One: Man Smart, Woman Smarter (King Radio), Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) (Holland–Dozier–Holland) [1], Jack Straw, Me And My Uncle (John Phillips), Ramble On Rose, Althea
Set Two: Franklin’s Tower, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider (Traditional), Playing In The Band > Drums > Space > Lazy River Road [1] [2], All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan) > He’s Gone > Truckin’, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan), Not Fade Away (The Crickets)
[1] FTP
[2] Bob Weir & Mickey Hart only
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