Dead & Company Launch 8th Dead Forever Weekend At Las Vegas Sphere

The final July weekend of Dead & Company’s Dead Forever Sphere residency started last night following a hot day in Las Vegas Thursday. The cool comforts inside the technologically enhanced venue were again filled with the music of the Grateful Dead and accompanying imagery reflecting and celebrating the history of the legendary band.

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 – kicked off their 22nd Sphere show with Weir’s bluesy “I Need A Miracle” taking the opening slot for the third time on the run. Fans outside the Sphere looking for a miracle ticket to the show did so with temperatures topping a scorching 110°F.

After the Weir-led opener, which he co-wrote with John Perry Barlow, the remainder of the first set was devoted to songs written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. Following the same script from their June 15 Sphere show, the visual blast off from the Grateful Dead’s 1960s house at 710 Ashbury in San Francisco to outer space was paired with “Eyes Of The World” taking the second song position.

Next up were back-to-back Mayer-led Sphere staples, “Ramble On Rose” and “They Love Each Other.” The earlier expansive performance of “Eyes” was not the only healthy dose of jamming in the six-song first set as “Bird Song” returned to the Sphere for the first time since the opening night of Dead Forever. The soaring and spacey “Bird Song” led into a fun rumble through “Casey Jones,” which punctuated the first set.

During set break, Mayer posted on his Instagram stories that he planned to play one of Fender’s replica Jerry Garcia Alligator Stratocaster guitars during the second set. After only using the instrument during the “I Need A Miracle” that opened the show, he posted a follow-up story explaining, “I forgot that the output on this guitar is *hot* and my rig wasn’t dialed in for the unbridled fury of Jerry’s guitar tone.”

Just as Thursday’s first set shared the same two-song first set opening sequence as the June 15 show, the second set Thursday also shared the same two-song second set opening sequence in the form of the long paired duo of “China Cat Sunflower” into “I Know You Rider.” This was the eighth “China/Rider” at the Sphere and the fifth time they opened a second set.

Next came two songs on the opposite ends of the band’s songwriting spectrum able to generate prolonged jams. First was the campfire sing-along “Uncle John’s Band” and its accompanying bite-sized improvisation. Second was a segue into the psychedelic standout “Dark Star” and its prevailing journey into the depths of deep spontaneous composition.

The well-jammed early part of the second set bled into the freewheeling “Drums” extravaganza of pulsating rhythms and kaleidoscopic imagery. Hart, Lane and Burbridge cycled through various percussive textures leading to the Mickey & The Beam droning skyway to “Space.” The latter-day Garcia/Hunter ballad “Standing On The Moon” once again fittingly emerged from the otherworldly sounds that preceded it.

Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” sauntered in next and bled into its typically paired partial “Hey Jude” coda. The final Grateful Dead original of the night, the biographical rocker “Truckin” rolled through the Sphere. Bob Dylan’s wistful “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” cued the visual dissent from space to earth and back to 710 Ashbury for the playing of the 1960s news broadcast about the Grateful Dead that brings Dead Forever shows to a finale.

The finale on Thursday was the Weir-led romp through the blues classic “Turn On Your Lovelight,” which steered the concert to a joyful conclusion.

D&C’s Dead Forever residency continues this tonight, Friday, July 12. Scroll on for The Skinny and videos from Thursday’s Sphere concert below.

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