Dead & Company Drop ‘Dark Star’ On Las Vegas Sphere

On Friday night, Dead & Company launched the second weekend of their 24-date residency at the Las Vegas Sphere. The first night of this three-show run featured the highly anticipated arrival of “Dark Star” in the second set.

Dead & Company — Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart, alongside guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Jay Lane – took the Sphere stage with scaffolding imagery that’s greeted fans at the start of each show. Weir led his cohorts through an opening “I Need A Miracle,” marking its first time opening a D&C show.

Bobby kept the band going into “The Music Never Stopped” as the scaffolding opened to bring the audience to the Grateful Dead’s 1960s house at 710 Ashbury in San Francisco ahead of the enthralling blast off to outer space.

Next came the Mayer-led “They Love Each Other,” the loping arrangement paired with swirling tie-dye and Dancing Bears. A rare first-set take on “The Weight” got Burbridge and Chimenti into the lead vocal mix as the verses were passed around the stage. Skull & Roses imagery flanked the band while they performed The Band classic.

The rainforest transformation occurred during the subsequent “Cassidy” and Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” got the Bobby “Ace” Weir cowboy Western film motif treatment. Set one came to a close with Mayer leading a charge through “Althea” while the dome was wallpapered with Grateful Dead posters, ticket stubs, backstage passes and other ephemera.

Isolated lyrics from Grateful Dead songs were again shown on the Sphere throughout the set break. Dead & Co. went to a staple second set opener for Friday’s restart, blasting off with “Playing In The Band.” Towering virtual stage curtains parted to unveil a massive Steal Your Face that projected the band in place of its typical thunderbolt.

Of all the songs in Dead & Company’s repertoire, the Grateful Dead standout “Dark Star” is perhaps the most fitting for pairing within the Sphere. The sprawling, jazzy, psychedelic jam vehicle and otherworldly lyrics match perfectly with the extra-planetary feeling the Sphere often suggests. “Dark Star” was accompanied by a stunning visual landscape that looked like a Salvador Dalí painting come to life.

The band took “Dark Star” deep into improvisational realms before segueing into “St. Stephen,” which along with “Althea” were the only repeats from the first weekend at the Sphere. The liquid light show effect consumed the dome during “St. Stephen,” which eventually transitioned into “Let It Grow.” The virtual Wall Of Sound assembled behind the band while they played “Let It Grow,” collapsing into itself and evolving into a rainbow highway in outer space.

Hart took lead of the prevailing “Drums” excursion as the dome projected a circle of spiraling drums and kaleidoscopic effects. Hart transitioned to The Beam, building a bridge of drone to the free-form “Space.”

The haunting “Days Between” developed out of “Space.” The band was shown above the stage in black and white video and a real-time projection of the moon was shown “live from a crazy camera right outside” the venue while Weir belted out “Days Between.”

The metallic, Stealie-adorned virtual disco ball came out as the band moved into Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and continued spinning around the Sphere for the frequently tacked-on “Hey Jude” tag.

The animated skeleton Uncle Sam danced and hopped on his motorcycle as Dead & Co. road through a lively “Sugar Magnolia” and then brought things back down audibly and visually with “Brokedown Palace” accompanying the journey through space and back to 710 Ashbury.

Dead Forever’s call back to a 1960s Grateful Dead news broadcast played over the PA before “Touch Of Grey” brought the evening to an end as a virtual scrapbook, infused with video of the band members performing on stage projected around the band.

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Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzlOKqnkX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyPCTvTVtoQ

Audio (Taped by Rainbowtoez)

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