Dark Lone Star: Dead & Company Brings Fall Tour To Austin – Videos & Setlist

Texas hosted Dead & Company for a second night in a row as the band featuring Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann along with John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti and Oteil Burbridge moved from Dallas to Austin for a show at the Frank Erwin Center. Saturday’s performance saw more nods to the Lone Star State in the first set and a second set locked into the Dead’s vintage material.

A gentle start to “Jack Straw” eased the band into the first set, with the location getting a nod through the Weir-sung lyrics, “Leaving Texas, fourth day of July.” Mayer helmed the subsequent “Cold Rain And Snow,” while Weir got back to namechecking the area via the lyrics “Well I’m a wanted man in Texas, busted jail and I’m gone for good” and adding “right here in Austin” during a swampy take on “New Minglewood Blues.”

Mayer kept the blues flowing with a romp through “Next Time You See Me” that saw Chimenti given an extended organ solo. Chimenti showed off his piano playing talents on the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter-penned favorite “Ramble On Rose” and Oteil led the second offering of the sweet Garcia/Hunter rarity “If I Had The World To Give,” which D&C played for the first time earlier in the tour at their stop in Columbus. “Sugaree” was Mayer’s chance to lay out an elaborate, tension filled solo during the set one closer.

The second set was structured around songs from the Grateful Dead’s late-1960s and early-1970s output, launching with the classic coupling of “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know you Rider.” Heavy doses of psychedelic improvisation were woven into the ensuing 25-minute “Dark Star” > “The Other One” sequence. More jams followed as Burbridge once again joined The Rhythm Devils drummers during a multidimensional “Drums” segment that spilled into an otherworldly “Space.”

Out of the “Space” darkness came the light of “Uncle John’s Band” that opened up into more patiently developed Mayer-led jamming. The pairing of “St. Stephen” > “Morning Dew” put a cap on the old-school feel of the second set, the staples of the Dead’s repertoire each stretched beyond the 10-minute mark. Saturday night’s encore in Austin was the probable “One More Saturday Night,” drawing an end to the band’s two-night Texas run of shows.

Dead & Company next heads to New Orleans for a show on Tuesday, December 5. A webcast is available via livedead.co.

Watch pro-shot videos from Saturday:

[Jack Straw]

[China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider]

Here’s audience-shot video footage from Austin:

[Ramble On Rose | Captured by atexas]

[Sugaree | captured by Mark Purcell]