One Last Saturday Night: Dead & Company Play Penultimate Show Of Final Tour

And then there was one. Dead & Company played the second-to-last show of The Final Tour on Saturday at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

Saturday’s concert, the middle night of a three-show run at the home of MLB’s San Francisco Giants, was highlighted by several songs closely associated with guitarist Bob Weir. The Weir trifecta of “Cassidy,” “Playing In The Band” and “The Other One” anchored the penultimate performance of the band’s final tour.

Layered up due to the chilly San Francisco weather, Dead & Co. caught a groove and “Let The Good Times Roll” to open Saturday’s concert. Weir’s irreverent “Hell In A Bucket” sizzled in the second slot.

Guitarist John Mayer then brought the blues to the Bay by laying into “It Hurts Me Too.” Mayer’s affection for the blues is apparent each time he plays one of the blues standards the Grateful Dead played with late keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan singing lead. Jeff Chimenti delivered an impassioned organ solo within “It Hurts Me Too.”

The set kept on rolling with “Jack Straw.” The band eased into the song featuring Weir and Mayer’s tandem vocals. Drummer Jay Lane, looking sporty in a Final Tour letterman jacket, propelled the band through the summertime classic. Mayer then steered a punchy “Big Railroad Blues,” once again laying into hefty blues licks.

Weir’s “Cassidy” gave the guitarist some struggles getting through the lyrics but the ensuing jam made up for any initial stumbles. Especially throughout The Final Tour, “Cassidy” has been a catalyst for sharply focused, jazz-fusion-derived jams and Saturday’s presentation continued the impactful trend.

A brisk “They Love Each Other” came next, its twangy choogle emphasized by Chimenti’s nimble piano playing and bassist Oteil Burbridge’s robust low end. A jubilant “Turn On Your Lovelight” brought the first set to an end.

“Y’all hang loose, we’ll be right back,” Weir said before set break commenced.

The second set of the second-to-last show of the tour opened with “Deal.” Mayer went all in, delivering a ferocious attack, jumping up and down between fiery runs. After the opener came one of Weir’s signature songs, “Playing In The Band.” As it often does, “Playing” progressed into a sprawling jam, starting out patiently and deliberately before intensifying at the behest of Burbridge’s pulsating bass notes.

The band then took a collective shift into a looser, spacey realm, pulling back into the depths that would lead them into “The Other One.” Burbridge deftly hinted at the ensuing segue well before the transition took place, subtly injecting flavors of what was to come while Weir and Chimenti vamped around Mayer’s angular guitar lines.

Lane and drummer Mickey Hart locked into the rumbling rhythmic pattern of “The Other One” as the full band prepared to dive in. Mayer and Chimenti went back and forth within “The Other One” jam, excitedly exchanging and reacting to each other’s passages.

Before venturing too far into improvisational space, Dead & Co. steered their way toward “Terrapin Station.” The band swiftly made their way through the song’s various sections, Mayer (who appeared to be dealing with sound issues) once again engaging Chimenti in a spirited dialog. Weir’s delivery of the triumphant “Inspiration move brightly” lyrics was met with a roar from the capacity crowd and the momentum was carried through the song’s climactic conclusion.

The evening’s “Drums” excursion followed “Terrapin.” Hart started by engulfing the baseball stadium with the deep drone of The Beam. The percussive jam continued with Lane and Burbridge accompanying Hart as the three surveyed the massive array of drums at their disposal.

Hart was back to The Beam to build a dreamy bridge for Weir, Mayer, Chimenti and Burbridge’s return to launch into “Space.” Avoiding structure in favor of free-form weirdness, “Space” was of the “out” variety on Saturday night, an impressive feat to hold the attention of a baseball field full of people while breaking completely free of typical musical form.

A concise “Uncle John’s Band” emerged to usher in the back half of the set. Dead & Co. then revisited earlier parts of the set by reprising “Playing In The Band,” which segued back into “The Other One,” bringing both songs to a proper conclusion.

Weir guided the end of the set with a poignant “Morning Dew” set closer. The song’s typically dramatic ending made for a thrilling end to the second set.

Saturday’s encore (somewhat surprisingly not “One More Saturday Night) was “Ripple.” The tender American Beauty gem featured Mayer on acoustic guitar and Burbridge on acoustic bass, while Weir went electric.

Dead & Company final show of The Final Tour takes place tonight. A livestream is available via nugs.net.

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Audio Taped by TJ