Nathaniel Rateliff made the most of his Friday evening soiree at LA’s Kia Forum with a number of special guests including Grateful Dead guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir, brothers Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes, and singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius.
Bob Weir was the first of the evening’s guests to take the stage. Following a take on South of Here cut “Time Makes Fools of Us All”, the Grateful elder strolled out in familiar cowboy-chic fashion with a Stratocaster in hand to accompany Rateliff and the band for sing-along takes on Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train”, which Dylan and the Dead performed together on tour back in ’87, and The Crickets’ “Not Fade Away”, a longtime Grateful Dead live staple and universally adopted idiom in the Deadhead community.
Related: A Cosmopolitan Evening With Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats [Videos]
This marked the latest in a growing string of onstage collaborations between Nathaniel Rateliff and Bob Weir, whether that’s Bobby sitting in with Rateliff or vice versa.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats w/ Bob Weir – “Slow Train” (Bob Dylan, partial) > “Not Fade Away” (The Crickets) – 2/22/25
[Video: 1bionicleking]
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats w/ Bob Weir – “Not Fade Away” (The Crickets) – 2/22/25
[Video: Todd Norris]
Later in the show, Rateliff and company welcomed out the Lucius vocalists to add volume and texture to four songs from across their catalog: two from 2015’s Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (“Howling at Nothing” and “Wasting Time”), one tune from the most recent record, 2024’s South of Here (“Heartless”), and one from 2021’s The Future (“Face Down in the Moment”).
Finally, to close the body of the single-set show, Rateliff welcomed both the Lucius girls and Dawes’ Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith to assist on a cathartic cover of Bruce Springsteen classic Dancing in the Dark”.
Watch a full, crowd-shot video (segmented by song) from Friday’s Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats show at Kia Forum featuring Bob Weir and members of Dawes and Lucius below.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats are on the road throughout this year. Find out where you can catch them near you here. Lucius has a similarly busy schedule of upcoming tour dates, while Dawes is set to mount a run of live shows in April. Bob Weir, meanwhile, will head back to Las Vegas next month to begin another extended run of Sphere shows with Dead & Company.
Nathaniel Rateliff w/s/g Bob Weir, Lucius, Dawes – Kia Forum – Full Video – 2/21/25
[Video: Dy-No-Mite Dragon]
Setlist: Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats | Kia Forum | Inglewood, CA | 2/21/25
Set: David and Goliath, I’m on Your Side, Survivor, Look It Here, Intro, I Need Never Get Old, Time Makes Fools of Us All, Slow Train (Bob Dylan) [1], Not Fade Away (The Crickets) [1], A Little Hones, You Worry Me, Howling at Nothing [2], Wasting Time [2], Heartless [2], Face Down in the Moment [2], Get Used to the Night, Slow Pace of Time, And It’s Still Alright, Remember I Was a Dancer, South of Here, Hey Mama, I’ll Be Damned, Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen) [3]
Encore: S.O.B., Love Don’t
[1] with Bob Weir (Grateful Dead)
[2] with Lucius
[3] with Dawes and Lucius