Dead & Company Drop ‘Passenger’ Off Inside ‘Dark Star’ At Las Vegas Sphere

Dead & Company kept the second weekend of their 2025 Dead Forever residency rolling at the Las Vegas Sphere on Friday night. Sphere setlists for this year’s run have offered several surprises and shake ups, with show five featuring the second set arrival of “Passenger” inside “Dark Star.”

Dead & Company — Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart with guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Jay Lane – have recognized Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who died in October 2024, numerous times during this year’s Sphere run.

Lesh’s voice has been heard on a recording played at the end of some shows (the 1960s news report on the Dead was used Friday) with his silhouette projected above the band, they busted out Lesh’s “Box Of Rain” and debuted a cover of Robbie Robertson’s “Broken Arrow,” which Phil sang with the Dead.

“Passenger” is another song associated with Lesh. The bassist composed the music to “Passenger,” and it appeared on the Dead’s 1977 album, Terrapin Station, though sung by Weir and Donna Jean Godchaux. A former member of the U.S. Navy and ordained Buddhist monk named Peter Zimels, listed as Peter Monk, was credited as the song’s lyricist.

With Friday’s appearance, Dead & Company’s “Passenger” performances stand at seven attempts, after only being played once prior during last year’s Sphere run. As with previous Dead & Co. “Passenger” arrangements, Weir sang an extra set of Monk’s lyrics during Friday’s presentation.

“Passenger” was driven within the exploratory realm of “Dark Star,” sandwiched between the first and second verses. The visual programming during the first “Dark Star” verse mimicked early computer screen failures, appearing at first to be a glitch in the technology before transitioning to a retro-graphic game of blackjack.

The “Dark Star” into “Passenger” back into “Dark Star” sequence came after “Althea” opened the second set. Switching things up, a rare second set “Jack Straw” trailed the completed “Dark Star” and was followed by a standalone “Fire On The Mountain” featuring Hart’s proto-rapped verse.

Hart, Burbridge and Lane summoned the rhythmic controlled chaos of “Drums,” taking the Sphere audience on a propulsive percussive journey paired with equally expansive visual accompaniment. Hart’s time on The Beam built a transitory drone into “Space” as Weir, Mayer, Lane and Burbridge returned for the unstructured sequence.

A color-coded post-“Drums/Space” segment unfolded with the enthralling “Black Peter” placed before “Brown-Eyed Women.” An unexpected “Estimated Prophet” was then chosen to make an atypical late-second-set appearance. After the 1960s news report was played over the P.A., the familiar patter of “Not Fade Away” surfaced to punctuate the show.

Friday’s first set got rolling with “Let The Good Times Roll.” The six-song first half was built around subsequent takes on “Playing in the Band,” “Cold Rain and Snow,” “Dancin in the Streets,” “They Love Each Other” and “Casey Jones.”

Scroll on to see additional visual components of Friday’s concert, full show audio, the setlist and The Skinny.

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