Pretty Lights has been earning rave reviews from fans through six shows on the recently launched Soundship Spacesystem Tour. The three-night comeback run at Denver, CO’s Mission Ballroom followed by another trio of shows at Dillon, CO’s Dillon Amphitheater represent the DJ/producer’s first live shows in five years and—judging by the streams and audience reactions—they have been well worth the wait.

A mutually satisfying musical crossover moment happened at the mid-run Friday show in Dillon, where Pretty Lights closed out his show with his remix of the Grateful Dead‘s “Shakedown Street”. The revamped take on the title track to the Dead’s 1978 album has been in the producer born Derek Vincent Smith‘s rotation since well before his hiatus, but it never fails to elicit a positive reaction from fans of Dead and fans of dance alike. During a breakdown, Pretty Lights dropped a sample of the lyrics to “Scarlet Begonias”, “Once in a while, you get shown the light / In the strangest of places if you look at it right.”

While Pretty Lights was away these past five years focusing on his health, another DJ by the name of LP Giobbi took the jam scene by storm with her remixes of Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia classics. The rising millennial producer, born to avid Deadhead parents, recently updated her references by collaborating with Goose for a remix of the indie-groove outfit’s song “Arrow“.

The Colorado run was only the beginning of Pretty Lights’ (to put it lightly) highly-anticipated comeback tour. The producer clearly waited for the punch as he returned with a fully revitalized live show featuring new music. Along with him is his live band consisting of Chris Karns (turntables), Alvin Ford Jr. (drums), Borham Lee (keyboards), and Michal Menert (production).

Pretty Lights wrote in a pre-tour update,

The whole squad has been in Denver for the last two months vibing, rehearsing, building, programming, producing & buttoning up the ‘soundship spacesystem’ for tour. …

We are super excited to debut tons of new music and next level new visual/lighting techniques.. and all in a way that stays alive and is real time and in the moment. That’s definitely one of the things that makes these shows unique,. the fact that the whole thing is designed to evolve and change with every night.

Related: Pretty Lights Details Three-Day Music Festival At The Caverns

The Pretty Lights Soundship Spacesystem Tour will make its next landing at Atlanta, GA’s The Eastern for a three-night run on August 24th, 25th, and 26th. For a complete list of upcoming Pretty Lights tour dates, head here.

Pretty Lights – “Shakedown Street” (Grateful Dead) – 8/11/23

[Video: Ben Mecha]