One More Saturday Night In Vegas: Dead & Company Hit On Show 21 Of Sphere Residency

The seventh weekend of Dead & Company’s Dead Forever residency at the Las Vegas Sphere coincided with the band landing on show 21 of the 30-date engagement. Digging into last night’s setlist, Saturday’s concert at the visually gripping venue provided notable highlights and idiosyncrasies across the evening’s two sets.

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 – got Saturday’s party in Sin City rolling with the celebratory “Iko Iko” serving as the opener for the second time during the Dead Forever run.

The virtual scaffolding that introduces the visual experience accompanying Dead Forever shows split open to reveal the Grateful Dead’s 1960s house in San Francisco located at 710 Ashbury Street. The realistic video was paired with Burbridge’s rumbling bassline initiating the launch into “Shakedown Street” and the scenic ascent to outer space.

Weir then led his co-write with John Perry Barlow, Sphere first set staple “The Music Never Stopped.” Mayer was then tapped to engineer the Sphere debut of “Big Railroad Blues,” a song by Noah Lewis that dates back to the Dead’s early repertoire. Mayer then steered the band through a loping “Row Jimmy” as an underwater scene enveloped the dome leading to the arrival of the Grateful Dead pirate ship (of fools).

Mayer remained at the helm for the subsequent “Sugaree,” blasting a fiery solo. Set one on Saturday ended with Weir’s fitting rocker “One More Saturday Night.”

The recently revived “Greatest Story Ever Told,” whose songwriting credits include Weir, Hart and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, kicked off set two, marking its first time opening a Dead & Co. second set. The red, white and blue flower petal graphic introduced on the Fourth Of July stacked up around the band during “Greatest Story Ever Told.” Mayer’s blues chops came into play on the subsequent “Mr. Charlie,” which was only the fourth time D&C played the Dead original written by Hunter and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan in a second set, including once prior at the Sphere.

While Sphere setlists have often deviated from frequent song pairings, Saturday’s fulfilled the classic connection of “Estimated Prophet” into “Eyes Of The World.” The improvisation drenched “Estimated” into “Eyes” segue was followed by one pair that has yet to be broken up at the Sphere, the free-form sequence of “Drums” into “Space,” linked by Hart’s deep drone from The Beam.

A pair of songs from the Grateful Dead’s outstanding 1970 album, Workingman’s Dead built out the post-“Drums”/“Space” section of the second set as “Uncle John’s Band” preceded “Cumberland Blues.” A revved up “Hell In A Bucket” cued the dancing/motorcycle-riding Uncle Sam skeleton animated featurette that kept the American flag and fireworks initially added for the Fourth Of July weekend.

“Morning Dew” held down the penultimate slot of the set as the visual journey returned to outer space. Vintage video of Jerry Garcia playing guitar flashed over real-time footage of Weir belting out the emotionally charged song. The 1960s Grateful Dead news report played over the PA as the visual story made it back to 710 Ashbury. The weekend came to a close with “Sugar Magnolia,” the show’s sixth song co-written by Weir.

Only nine Dead Forever shows remain. The residency continues this Thursday, July 11. Scroll on for The Skinny and videos from Saturday’s Dead & Co. Sphere concert below.

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