Dead & Company Launches Grateful Dead 60th Anniversary Weekend With Billy Strings & Grahame Lesh

Dead & Company's celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead began on Friday at Golden Gate Park, a short distance from the house at 710 Ashbury, where the legendary band resided in San Francisco in the 1960s.

A massive crowd gathered for the weekend’s first of three shows, which featured opener Billy Strings sitting in with Dead & Company, who were also joined onstage by Grahame Lesh, son of late Grateful Dead co-founding bassist Phil Lesh.

Dead & Co. guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart, who were members of the Grateful Dead, found themselves back on familiar territory at the historic Bay Area gathering spot on Friday night. Numerous Grateful Dead performances occurred at Golden Gate Park between 1966 and ‘69 (including the Great Human Be-In in January 1967), where they also performed in 1975.

Golden Gate Park was also the site of the memorial event held for Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia after his death on August 9, 1995, one month after the Dead’s final concert at Soldier Field in Chicago. Dead & Company’s first concert outside of the Las Vegas Sphere since 2023 coincided with what would have been Garcia’s 83rd birthday. Jerry’s daughter Trixie Garcia was at Golden Gate Park on Friday and introduced Dead & Company before their show.

Weir, Hart and their Dead & Company bandmates – guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Jay Lane – took the stage together after an opening set by Billy Strings.

Strings brought a bit of bluegrass to the weekend, building his set out of originals and choice covers. Several songs played by Strings and his bandmates were part of Jerry Garcia’s solo repertoire as the guitarist offered up takes on “Shady Grove,” “Pig In A Pen” and “Dreadful Wind & Rain.” Strings ended with “Thunder,” a song he wrote using lyrics written by late Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

After the stage changeover, Dead & Company got their first set cooking with “Feel Like A Stranger.” A tour of U.S cities followed within the Motown classic “Dancing In The Street” landing in the two slot.

The geographical survey continued as “Dancing” dissolved into “Tennessee Jed,” followed by “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” and a city-hopping trip down the Mississippi River via the band’s first take on Johnny Cash’s “Big River” this year.

Mayer took the reins for the final song of set one, delivering a fierce solo as “Althea” capped the first half of the show.

When Dead & Co. returned from set break, Grahame Lesh joined them onstage, replacing Burbridge. Grahame’s father Phil Lesh died in October 2024 at age 84. Grahame is in the midst of hosting the three-night The Heart Of Town concert series at Pier 48 in San Francisco.

Weir, Hart and former Dead & Co./Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann revealed they had planned to reconnect with Phil Lesh this year to celebrate the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary. Phil Lesh last performed with Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann in 2015 at the five “Fare Thee Well” concerts marking the Dead’s 50th anniversary.

Playing his father’s “Big Brown” Alembic bass guitar, Grahame sang lead while steering Dead & Company through his dad’s signature Grateful Dead original, “Box Of Rain.” Grahame then switched to his father’s “Mission Control” Alembic bass ahead of “Playing In The Band.”

Burbridge assumed his spot on stage as Lesh exited before the standby pairing of “Estimate Prophet” into “Eyes Of The World.” Burbridge was the MVP of “Eyes Of The World,” which showcased his newly acquired Dire Wolf bass designed by renowned luthier Doug Irwin of Irwin Guitars, who built several instruments for Jerry Garcia – including his Wolf guitar that Burbridge’s new bass was modeled after.

Mayer and Chimenti established a spirited back-and-forth interplay during “Eyes,” carrying the camaraderie over to the subsequent “Terrapin Station.” The huge crowd roared in response to Weir’s hearty “Inspiration, move me brightly” delivery and again at the arrival at “Terrapin.”

The momentum carried over into the prevailing “Drums” segment. Hart, Lane and Burbridge built various rhythmic shapes out of the vast arsenal of percussion instruments at their disposal. The pulsating excursion was bolstered by Hart’s Random Access Musical Universe (RAMU) database of sounds, which he employed along with his done-inducing instrument The Beam.

Weir, Mayer, Chimenti and Burbridge emerged from the depths of The Beam drone for the unstructured “Space” portion of the set. When “Wharf Rat” began to materialize out of “Space” the full band reassembled, along with Billy Strings.

Strings, who previously appeared onstage alongside Weir (and played with Kreutzmann’s Billy & The Kids outfit), dropped Grateful Dead covers from his live repertoire in recent years, while sharing a harsh assessment as the reason behind his decision. One of the Grateful Dead songs Strings used to cover regularly was “Wharf Rat.” Strings sang lead on “Wharf Rat” with Dead & Co. and ripped multiple blistering solos on electric guitar.

Strings split as the familiar beat of “Not Fade Away” signaled the arrival of the last song of the second set. The crowd continued singing along to the familiar refrain throughout the brief encore break. For the encore, Dead & Company came back out to complete the concert with Bob Dylan’s sentimental “Knocking On Heaven’s Door.”

Dead & Company’s Grateful Dead 60th anniversary celebration continues today (with Sturgill “Johnny Blue Skies” Simpson) and tomorrow (with Trey Anastasio Band).

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Dead & Company and opening sets from Golden Gate Park livestreams are available via nugs.

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Audio (Taped by Oren Levy)

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