Dead & Company Debut ‘I Fought The Law’ Cover At Penultimate 2025 Sphere Show

The penultimate show of Dead & Company's 18-date Dead Forever 2025 residency was performed last night at the Las Vegas Sphere. As they have several times this Sphere run, Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart, alongside guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Jay Lane debuted a new cover song, this time taking on “I Fought The Law.”

Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” made its first Dead & Co. setlist of 2025, filling the opening slot of a show for the first time for the band. The visual excursion from Haight Ashbury in San Francisco to the deep depths of space and beyond was joined by “Playing In The Band.”

Mayer steered his bandmates through “Althea” before handing the reins back to Weir for “The Music Never Stopped.” A faster paced “They Love Each Other” came next, followed by the loping “New Speedway Boogie.” The set ended with a song made for Vegas, as “Deal” ushered in intermission.

After set break, Dead & Co. started set two with their first performance of “I Fought The Law.” The song written by The Crickets’ Sonny Curtis and popularized by fellow Texas-based band The Bobby Fuller Four was performed by the Grateful Dead over 30 times between 1993 and 1995.

Weir sang lead on “I Fought The Law,” which joined “Gimme Some Lovin,” “Lay Down Sally,” “Broken Arrow,” “The Harder They Come” and “Tangled Up In Blue” as 2025 Dead & Co. cover debuts.

With the cover premiere behind them, Dead & Company stirred up “Dark Star” for its second Sphere appearance this year. Elements of the “Spanish Jam” surfaced as the expansive “Dark Star” unfolded.

The sprawling “Dark Star” gave way to Mayer playing the familiar guitar line that introduces “St. Stephen.” The band maintained the exploratory feel throughout the “St. Stephen” jam and picked up steam while accelerating toward “Sugaree.”

Once the Mayer-led “Sugaree” was complete, the mid-set “Drums/Space” piece was put in place. Hart, Lane and Burbridge put on a display of their collective percussive prowess, drumming for several minutes matched with intensifying visuals. Hart shifted to The Beam to initiate the drone transition into “Space.”

The full band reassembled on the Sphere stage and called up “Stella Blue” to lead into the post-“Drums/Space” portion of the set. The band went from Weir’s passionate leading of “Stella Blue” into Mayer taking charge of a revved up “Cold Rain And Snow.”

“Morning Dew” brought the visual story back to the final chapter and a return to the Grateful Dead’s former house in San Francisco. The nightly Dead Forever replaying of a 1960s news broadcast about the Grateful Dead teed up the “In The Midnight Hour” finale.

One more Saturday night Dead & Co. Sphere concert is in store for the final Dead Forever show of 2025. The band is expected to participate in a Grateful Dead 60th anniversary event at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on August 1 – 3.

Scroll on for the setlist, The Skinny, videos and audio from Friday’s Sphere concert.

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Audio (Taped by Hunter S II)