The Only Game In Town: Dead & Company Bust Out ‘Passenger’ At Sphere

The 10th and final weekend of Dead & Company’s Dead Forever residency at the Las Vegas Sphere commenced on Thursday night with the 28th show of the 30-date engagement. Following an improvisation-heavy first set, the second set began with the Grateful Dead (and Dead & Company) rarity “Passenger” making its first Sphere setlist.

Dead & Co. – Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart with guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Jay Lane – opted for “Iko Iko” to start the first set, marking its third time opening a Sphere show.

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After the virtual scaffolding parted open, “Eyes Of The World” accompanied the visually impressive journey from the Grateful Dead house at 710 Ashbury in San Francisco to the depths of outer space. “Eyes” produced a lengthy jam, one of several the band would deliver across the night’s first and second sets.

Mayer, still performing without the use of an injured index finger on his left hand and forced to use a three-finger approach to fretting his guitars, led the band on a subsequent “Mr. Charlie.” The recently added visual display 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, was paired with “Mr. Charlie.”

Another consistent jam vehicle, “Playing In The Band,” brought about more first-set improvisation and saw the recently debuted silhouetted dancing Deadheads visual accompaniment paired with the virtual falling flower petals. Mayer then helmed a sauntering roll through “Brown-Eyed Women.” An expansive “Let It Grow,” making just its second Sphere setlist, capped the six-song first set.

The second set started with the unexpected selection of “Passenger,” which was last played by Dead & Company on June 20, 2018, marking a 160-show gap between performances. Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh composed the music to “Passenger,” the third track on the band’s 1977 album, Terrapin Station. U.S. Navy veteran and ordained Buddhist monk, Peter Zimels (Peter Monk), wrote the lyrics to the song played by the Dead around 100 times between 1977 and 1981. Thursday’s performance of “Passenger” was the sixth time Dead & Company tackled the rarity.

Sphere staples “St. Stephen” and “Uncle John’s Band” propelled the band into the depths of the second set, lengthy jams developing out of both songs. Hart, Lane and Burbridge then surveyed the array of percussion instruments at their disposal for the “Drums” segment of the night. Hart brought The Beam to life with droning undertones, summoning the emergence of “Space.”

The mournful “Black Peter” pulled the band out of “Space” with Weir howling through the heavy Workingman’s Dead tune for the third time at the Sphere. Switching from ballad to boisterous rocker, “Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad” came paired with the updated skeleton Uncle Sam visual motif. Weir’s evocative “Throwing Stones” spun around the Sphere as the scenes inside showed the journey from outer space back to Haight Ashbury in San Francisco.

The 1960s news report about the Grateful Dead played over the PA and prompted the final song of the night as the band rode “Casey Jones” to a rollicking conclusion.

Two Dead Forever Sphere shows remain. Check out last night’s setlist via The Skinny and videos captured at the concert below:

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