Dead & Company Wrap 2nd Dead Forever Weekend At Las Vegas Sphere

Dead & Company wrapped the second weekend of their residency at the Las Vegas Sphere on Sunday night. The setlist presented four songs that had not yet been played at the state-of-the-art venue, including another beloved Bob Dylan cover.

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 – are in the midst of their 24-show Dead Forever run at the Sphere. Sunday’s concert was the sixth show of the residency that runs into July.

Weir set the stage by delivering a Sunday sermon “Samson & Delilah” to get the show rolling. An unusually placed standalone “Franklin’s Tower” landed in the second slot as the excursion from Haight Ashbury in San Francisco to the vast expanse of outer space set off the night’s visual journey.

“Jack Straw” came next with psychedelic space storms and lava lamp-like visual effects. A pair of Sphere first-timers, “Friend Of The Devil” and “Ramble On Rose,” followed in back-to-back succession. A swirling tie-dye and Dancing Bears flanked the band during “FOTD,” while “Ramble On Rose” was the soundtrack to the recreation of the Dead’s 1978 concerts at the pyramids in Egypt.

The six-song first set was capped with the first song the band played at the Sphere, the opening night opener “Feel Like A Stranger,” which ushered in set break as the dome became a wall of Grateful Dead ephemera built of posters, ticket stubs, backstage passes and photos.

“Scarlet Begonias,” the subject of the latest episode of the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast podcast, kicked off the second set as virtual flowers fell and stacked to cover the dome. The band completed the common coupling of “Scarlet” with “Fire On The Mountain.” Hart once again rapped an extra third verse of “Fire,” harkening back to the original demo he recorded in 1972. The paint-by-number landscape filled in during “Fire” as a drawing of Jerry Garcia once again appeared sitting on the porch of an animated cabin.

Dead & Company followed with a spirited take on “All Along The Watchtower,” driving a brisk pace while charging through the Bob Dylan classic. The musical and visual journey continued with a blast to an otherworldly outer space and arrival on a surrealist planet. After transitioning to “Terrapin Station,” the journey then plunged underwater and led to the sailing in of the Grateful Dead pirate ship.

Hart commanded the propulsive “Drums” segment that followed “Terrapin.” Accompanied by Burbridge and Lane, the trio surveyed the massive array of percussion instruments at their disposal while the dome went kaleidoscopic. Hart built the drone path to “Space” with The Beam before the re-emergence of Weir, Mayer, Chimenti and Burbridge for their free-form jam.

The first “Wharf Rat” played at the Sphere surfaced out of the depths of “Space.” The haunting ballad was trailed by an energetic “Cold Rain And Snow” and, fitting for the holiday weekend, “U.S. Blues.” A cool ocean-at-night with the Northern Lights motif was shown during “Cold Rain” and the animated skeleton Uncle Sam rode his motorcycle past GD icons for “U.S. Blues.”

The nightly return from outer space to the Dead’s old house at 710 Ashbury coincided with a the powerful crescendo of “Morning Dew.” The 1960s news broadcast about the Grateful Dead teed up the night’s final song, “Not Fade Away,” as a virtual scrapbook of photos of the legendary band was projected above the performers below.

Dead Forever resumes on Thursday, May 30 with the first show of another three-night run. Scroll on to view The Skinny and videos from Sunday’s concert.

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Audio (Taped by Rainbowtoez)

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