Kenny Chesney became the first-ever country artist to play Sphere on Thursday, and as videos pour in from Las Vegas, some of the visuals look a bit familiar. Some of the video sequences on the 160,000 square foot screen resembled those from Dead & Company‘s two-year Dead Forever residency.
The similarities start from the very beginning of the show, as Kenny Chesney audiences begin their Sphere journey on a deep-sea adventure. Floating past sunken pirate ships, the scene looks similar to the underwater sequence that would accompany Grateful Dead songs like “Lost Sailor” and “Ship of Fools” during Dead & Company’s Sphere run.
After the crowd surfaces and flies by a spherical venue, Chesney bursts on the stage to “Beer in Mexico” alongside a barrage of skulls. Now, the Dead obviously don’t own a patent on skulls (well, not all skulls), and these ones are closer to the traditional Mexican calaveras sugar skulls of Día de los Muertos than to anything Owsley “Bear” Stanley designed.
The resemblances continued on the following “Keg in the Closet” as Chesney and his band appeared on a stack of vintage TV sets, which was similar (albeit much less psychedelic) to a stack of TVs motif Dead & Co used throughout its Sphere run.
However, the most striking similarity of the show came during “Reality”. As Chesney sings wistfully about the urge to sometimes escape from reality and all the fun-in-the-sun ways he does it, the Sphere travels through a tunnel of ticket stubs, backstage passes, and tour laminates from shows past. This sequence looks nearly identical to Dead & Company’s regular journey through the box of ticket stubs, providing the same rush of nostalgia to fans who have been on the bus (or on the beach) for years.
Also, is it just me, or does this A-frame beach bar look really similar to Barton Hall at Cornell University?
Treatment Studio designed the visuals for Dead & Company and U2‘s inaugural run at Sphere. Bono was quoted in an interview as saying it cost approximately $400,000 per visual, per song, though granted, U2 started from scratch as the first band to play Sphere. With previous runs from U2, Phish, Dead & Company, and Anyma in the rearview, there could be a well of graphics for Sphere’s next artists to pull from. This would certainly lessen the already substantial financial commitment required to animate an entire concert at Sphere.
Kenny Chesney will continue his 16-show Sphere residency tonight, May 24th, and Sunday, May 25th. Find tickets and a full list of dates here. Check out some of the Kenny Chesney Sphere visuals yourself in the videos below.
Kenny Chesney — Sphere — Las Vegas, NV — 5/22/25 — Partial Video
[Video: Vicki M]