The festivities have begun in San Francisco, as Deadheads from around the country begin to gather together to celebrate the Grateful Dead‘s 60th anniversary. The main event, of course, is Dead & Company‘s three-night run at Golden Gate Park with opening acts Billy Strings, Sturgill Simpson, and Trey Anastasio Band, but last night, the weekend kicked off with Grahame Lesh & Friends‘ star-studded The Heart of Town blowout at San Francisco’s Pier 48 in Mission Rock.
Lesh took the stage with his all-star band—featuring Sam Grisman on bass, John Molo and Dawes‘ Griffin Goldsmith on drums, Taylor Goldsmith on guitar, Holly Bowling on keys, and Elliot Peck and Nicki Bluhm on vocals—and opened the show with “Uncle John’s Band”. Before the first verse, Stephen Stills joined the ensemble, jamming along on guitar and vocals. Stills stayed on for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young‘s “Teach Your Children”, “Althea”, and “For What It’s Worth”, from his Buffalo Springfield days.
As Stills left the stage, Eric Krasno joined in on lead guitar for “The Music Never Stopped”. He stuck around as Pete Sears subbed in on bass for Sam Grisman for the standard pairing of “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider”.
Grisman returned to the stage along with guitarist Garrett Deloian and Maggie Rose, who sang “Row Jimmy” and “Sugaree”, the latter of which featured moe.‘s Al Shnier on guitar alongside Krasno. Moonalice leader Roger McNamee then emerged along with drummer Alex Koford and Pete Sears and dedicated “Dire Wolf” to Phil Lesh and the whole Lesh family. Garrett Deloian returned to sing lead on a swampy “Alligator” and the set concluded with Andy Frasco singing “Turn On Your Love Light”.
When the band returned for set two, they were joined by another very special guest, Peter Rowan, as well as The String Cheese Incident‘s Bill Nershi for Old & In the Way‘s “Midnight Moonlight” and Rowan’s “Panama Red”. Nathan Graham took over on drums alongside John Molo as Nershi led the band through “Friend of the Devil” and “Cold Rain and Snow”.
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Melvin Seals then joined in on keys along with his JGB bandmates John Kadlecik, Jeremy Hoenig, and John Paul McLean for “Cats Down Under the Stars” and “Mission in the Rain”. Dumpstaphunk‘s Ivan Neville and Tony Hall sat in on a cover of Robbie Robertson‘s “Broken Arrow”, with Neville sharing the keyboard rig with Seals as he sang lead vocals, and they stayed on as Al Shnier returned to help finish the set off with another classic pairing, “Scarlet Begonias” > “Fire on the Mountain”, with Hall singing lead on the latter as well as the set closer, “Shakedown Street”.
Grahame Lesh thanked the crowd and, in the spirit of his father, encouraged them to become organ donors before welcoming Frasco, Krasno, Grisman, Shnier, Bowling, Molo, and Graham to start a two-song encore with Wilson Pickett‘s “Midnight Hour”. Rowan and Nershi returned to help close the show, and the first night of what is sure to be an unforgettable weekend in Grateful Dead history, with an upbeat rendition of “Ripple”.
The Heart of Town will continue with two more nights of Grahame Lesh and lots of friends on Friday, August 1st and Saturday, August 2nd, which will be available to stream live and on demand via nugs on August 5th and 6th, respectively.
All three The Heart of Town streams are available for nugs All Access subscribers to watch at no additional cost. Not a subscriber yet? Get started with nugs All Access here to access theses streams as well as the rest of nugs’ vast audio and video archives and nightly livestreams from various other artists and events for no additional cost.
Below, watch a selection of videos from the opening night of The Heart of Town and view and extensive gallery of photos from the event via Dave Vann.
Grahame Lesh & Friends With Stephen Stills – “Uncle John’s Band”, Teach Your Children” (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), “Althea” – 7/31/25
Grahame Lesh & Friends With Stephen Stills – “Althea” – 7/31/25
Setlist: Grahame Lesh & Friends | The Heart Of Town | Pier 48 | San Francisco, CA | 7/31/25
Set 1: Uncle John’s Band (with Stephen Stills), Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) (with Stephen Stills), Althea (with Stephen Stills), For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield) (with Stephen Stills), The Music Never Stopped, China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider (Traditional), Row Jimmy, Sugaree (Jerry Garcia), Dire Wolf, Alligator > Turn On Your Love Light (Bobby “Blue” Bland) (with Andy Frasco)
Set 2: Midnight Moonlight (Old & In the Way) (with Peter Rowan), Panama Red (Peter Rowan) (with Peter Rowan), Friend of the Devil, Cold Rain and Snow (Traditional), Cats Down Under the Stars (Jerry Garcia) (with Melvin Seals & JGB), Mission in the Rain (Jerry Garcia) (with Melvin Seals & JGB), Broken Arrow (Robbie Robertson) (with Ivan Neville), Scarlet Begonias > Fire on the Mountain, Shakedown Street
Encore: Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett) (Blue Sky (The Allman Brothers) tease in solo), Ripple
