Dead & Company Conclude Penultimate Dead Forever Weekend At Las Vegas Sphere

On Saturday night, Dead & Company played the 27th show of their 30-date Dead Forever residency at the Las Vegas Sphere, completing the second-to-last weekend of the run. The band – Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart with guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Jay Lane – once again provided a musical and visual celebration of the music of the Grateful Dead within the rounded walls of the technologically enhanced venue.

As he has all weekend, Mayer played Saturday’s concert without the use of his injured index finger on his left hand, going with a three-finger approach to fretting his guitars. Mayer showed off his augmented technique on “Cold Rain And Snow,” which filled the role of first set opener for the third time at the Sphere.

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The virtual scaffolding flanking the band parted open for the Dead Forever journey from the Grateful Dead’s 1960s house in San Francisco to outer space to commence. The blast off from 710 Ashbury Street was soundtracked by “Shakedown Street” landing in the second slot at the Sphere for the fourth time.

Saturday’s first set continued with the Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter classic “Uncle John’s Band,” followed by the bluesy Hunter/Ron “Pigpen” McKernan co-write “Mr. Charlie.”

Weir then steered a sermonly rendition of “Samson And Delilah.” The lean, six-song first set came to a close with Mayer adding extra vocal emphasis to “Sugaree.”

Saturday’s second set started with “Scarlet Begonias,” which was the ninth performance of the song by the band at the Sphere. Of those nine renditions, only four have been paired with “Fire On The Mountain,” including last night. Burbridge sang the first “Fire” verse, Weir took the second and Mayer took the third, followed by Hart’s rapped bonus verses. The musical train then pulled up to “Terrapin Station,” which was steered into the evening’s “Drums” exploration.

Hart, Lane and Burbridge’s percussion party rattled around the spherical room ahead of Hart heading over to The Beam to explore its droning undertones. “Space” was then commenced by Weir, Chimenti, Mayer and Burbridge who used the free-form moment to formulate “Days Between.”

The latter-day Grateful Dead ballad serves as the title to the commonly referred to current time of year between Jerry Garcia’s birthday on August 1 and the anniversary of his death on August 9. Weir delivered a typically impassioned performance of the beloved Garcia/Hunter song.

“Brown-Eyed Women” kept the post-“Drums/Space” section of the set going. The newly premiered visuals accompanying “Brown-Eyed Women” were drawn from the artwork Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley designed for the Grateful Dead’s original Europe ‘72 live album and the album covers inspired by those designs created by Scott McDougall for the Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings box set.

The dancing/motorcycle riding Uncle Sam skeleton video backed the band for “U.S. Blues” and featured an updated ending. The visual experience began the descent from space to San Francisco via “Morning Dew,” with footage of Jerry Garcia playing guitar briefly displayed inside a circular spacecraft.

The 1960s news broadcast about the Grateful Dead’s home in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco that heralds in the final song of Dead Forever shows was played over the PA. Dead & Company then concluded the penultimate weekend of their Sphere residency with a heartfelt rendition of “Ripple.”

Dead Forever concludes with shows on Thursday, August 8 and on the anniversary of Garcia’s death, Friday, August 9, as well as one more Saturday night on August 10. Check out last night’s setlist via The Skinny and videos captured at the concert below:

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