The voices rang out, some from the stage and tens of thousands more from the audience, joining forces with conviction on the lyrics to the traditional blues song and Grateful Dead concert staple “I Know You Rider.”
“I know you, rider, gonna miss me when I’m gone.”
Ain’t that the truth.
So, the best course of action is clearly to make the most of the time we have remaining together, which is exactly what fans are doing as they attend the final three concerts by Dead & Company this weekend.
The popular Bay Area jam band — currently consisting of vocalist-guitarists Bob Weir and John Mayer, drummers Mickey Hart and Jay Lane, bassist Oteil Burbridge and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti — kicked off this last stand in memorable fashion with a two-set, 19-song offering that ran three-hours-plus in front of 40,000 fans on Friday night (July 14) at Oracle Park in San Francisco.
The run marks the culmination of what has been, by far, the most successful of the Grateful Dead offshoots. The group got its start in 2015, rising from the ashes of the Fare Thee Well concerts at Soldier Field in Chicago and Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, and then went on to become an arena, amphitheater and, eventually, stadium touring force in its own right.
Along the way, the group established a deep relationship with its fans — one that was certainly tied to the Grateful Dead and, most certainly, its songbook, but also one that existed on its own plane as well. That connection has been made evident by the success of this farewell tour, with tickets being gobbled up at (Taylor) Swift speed by fans who want to catch the band as many times as possible while its still an option.
The three-night Oracle stand — in the hometown area of the Palo Alto-born Grateful Dead — is completely sold out. The band sold a staggering 120,000 tickets for the run, which continues through Sunday. Granted, that probably breaks down to 120,000 tickets sold to some 45,000 fans, the vast majority of whom will likely be attending multiple shows.
Weir — the only founding member of the Grateful Dead left in the band, now that Kreutzman bowed out of this final tour — sounded fairly strong on vocals in the first of the concert’s two sets, especially during a slowed-down, un-funked version of the disco-rock anthem “Shakedown Street.”
Mayer, the singer-songwriter-guitarist known for such Grammy-winning soft-rock hits “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” “Daughters” and “Waiting on the World to Change,” took his turn on the microphone for such first set offerings as “Cold Rain and Snow” and “Brown-Eyed Women.”
Overall, it was kind of a mellow, though efficient first set of music, with the jams feeling more perfunctory than inspired. Mayer, an ace guitarist, led the way more often than not, but he plays like he sings — very smoothly.
The group immediately ratcheted it up into a higher gear in Round Two, kicking things off with a nicely spacey “China Cat Sunflower” that, as per Grateful Dead tradition, powered right into “I Know You Rider.”
Chimenti, who has been playing alongside Weir in various Dead-related band projects since the late ’90s, was in tremendous form as he grooved through such gems as “Scarlet Begonias.” Combine what he was doing with the work of Burbridge — who also sang lead vocals on “Fire on the Mountain” — and fans were really in for a funky treat. Hart, who joined the Dead in 1967, and Lane served as the engines behind pretty much everything played.
Weir’s voice seemed like it was on its last leg by the time the group reached the touching ballad “Standing on the Moon” — which makes sense given all the singing he’s done, both with Dead & Co and his own Wolf Bros outfit — yet he was somehow able to summon up just enough to bring the song to a powerful conclusion, with ample help from Mayer’s most poignant guitar work of the night.
The group then charged right into “Casey Jones” in a fashion that, quite simply, they hadn’t managed at any point earlier in the night. Yet, they played this well-known favorite like they were absolutely aware that it would be the very last time they’d ever play the song — and they wanted to make it count.
And mission accomplished.
Here’s hoping that they take that same sense of urgency and conviction into the last-ever Dead & Company show on Sunday night.
Setlist (7/14/22)
Set 1:
1, “Not Fade Away”
2, “Shakedown Street”
3, “Cold Rain and Snow”
4, “Ramble On Rose”
5, “Brown-Eyed Women”
6, “New Speedway Boogie”
7, “Wharf Rat”
8, “Don’t Ease Me In”
Set 2:
9, “China Cat Sunflower”
10, “I Know You Rider”
11, “He’s Gone”
12, “Scarlet Begonias”
13, “Fire on the Mountain”
14, “Drums”
15, “Space”
16, “Standing on the Moon”
17, “Casey Jones”
18, “U.S. Blues”
19, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
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