Grateful Dead Music Forum

Great fun!

Set list and playing was inspired. I give special kudos to the band for their killer version of Cumberland Blues. They certainly didn't slow this one down - killer energy and groove (which fooled me - I thought they were going into Big River, not Cumberland). Not as the Grateful Dead played it but unique to Dead and Company.

Bob wailed at times, including playing some ripping leads. The closeups of the band members' faces on the venue's huge screens showed them smiling and engaging with each other throughout the show.

I especially appreciate how the venue and band combined to require proof of full vaccination and personal ID to get in. And also how Dead and Company, during the break, posted slides on its efforts to combat global climate change.

Set 1:

Cold Rain and Snow
Feel Like a Stranger
Mr. Charlie
Friend of the Devil
Dire Wolf
Liberty
Bird Song
Don't Ease Me In

Set 2:
Here Comes Sunshine
Cumberland Blues
He's Gone
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain (Oteil Burbridge on lead vocals)
Drums
Space
Black Peter
Sugar Magnolia

Encore:

Black Muddy River

1st pic is my daughter and me.

Seems when there is Dead music in the air, the skies respond accordingly. This is from the Fair Thee Well show in Santa Clara.

Bill, tgo

I’m anxious to catch up with the shows… I heard Cumberland and Black Peter were pretty stellar!

Sweet!! Cool that you are able to share that with your daughter.

Wrigley Field 9/18 will be my 3rd time seeing Dead n Co. Also saw the Fare Thee Well show at Soldier Field with Trey and Phil.

All in all, I’ve had a phenomenal time each and every show.

Edit: Fixed

I feel obligated to point out that Fare Thee Well was NOT Dead & Co.

A band with Phil Lesh is a different band than one without Phil Lesh.

Just as Further and The Other Ones without Jerry were not the same band as the Grateful Dead with Jerry.

As has often been stated: Lesh is more!

Bill, tgo

Phil Lesh is incomparable. To my ear, his bass playing is absolutely and uniquely special and no one else has ever, or likely could, come close.

This being said, there are aspects of Oteil Burbridge's bass playing that I think work better at times for the songs than Phil's did. The tradeoff is inventiveness and counterpoint for locked in and groove (not that Oteil isn't also inventive but Phil, as I noted, is incomparably unique).

The main reasons I don't miss Phil even more than I do are how many times I was fortunate to have caught him live and having all the all recordings to return to whenever we like. Dead and Company, as we all agree, never was, is, or will be the Grateful Dead. They're something else - something I dig a lot and am grateful we have today!