Dead & Company Brings Out North Side Skull & Bone Gang At New Orleans Jazz Fest

Dead & Company headlined Saturday’s action at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The band withstood a rainstorm that led to a delay in the opening of gates earlier in the day and delivered a lengthy set at Jazz Fest that featured local flavor via NOLA’s own North Side Skull & Bone Gang carnival group joining in the “Drums” segment.

Two weeks after it was revealed Bill Kreutzmann was leaving the band due to a “shift in creative direction,” drummer Jay Lane was in the seat next to Mickey Hart. Hart, Lane, guitarists Bob Weir and John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti opened the first Dead & Company show since January with “Truckin’.” Both the “Too close to New Orleans” and “Busted, down on Bourbon Street” lyrics elected huge cheers from the rain-soaked crowd.

“Truckin'” gave way to an expansive “Shakedown Street” sung by Weir and Mayer as the clouds cleared out. Next came a rollicking “Brown-Eyed Women” helmed by Mayer before the sextet linked “He’s Gone” and “Cumberland Blues.” From there, Weir led the group on an adventurous “Playing In The Band” that eventually landed on “Uncle John’s Band.” Once again John Mayer and Bob Weir shared lead vocal duties on the well-jammed 14-minute version. Mayer weaved together psychedelic-tinged riffs while Burbridge offered counter melodies underneath, Weir fit in chunky rhythms and Chimenti focused on electric piano stylings.

Mickey Hart started the “Drums” section by strumming the Beam after the instrumentalists left the stage following “Uncle John’s Band.” Hart and Lane were joined by Big Chief Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes and the North Side Skull & Bone Gang during “Drums.” The ensemble was founded in New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood in 1819 and was resurrected in 2003. The tribe, some of whom were dressed as skeletons and one on stilts, sang their introductory song and another about “living right.”

The New Orleans troupe vacated the stage and the instrumentalists returned for “Not Fade Away.” Dead And Company left “NFA” unfinished as they transitioned into “The Other One.” Weir sang both “The Other One” and the Hunter/Garcia ballad “Standing On The Moon” that followed. Dead & Company picked up where they left off in “Not Fade Away” for their set closer at Jazz Fest.

Watch fan-shot video from Saturday’s set below:

Dead & Company takes the stage tonight at Cornell University’s Barton Hall on the 46th anniversary of a legendary Grateful Dead show at the same Ithaca, New York venue. There are multiple ways to follow the action including a nugs.net video livestream.

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Photos by Susan Weiand