It’s that time of year again: the Golden State Warriors are in the NBA Finals, and Dead & Company is performing at the Hollywood Bowl.
It’s a fitting overlap given the Grateful Dead’s deep connections to basketball in the band’s native Bay Area and beyond. The Dead first formed in 1965, the same year the Warriors drafted the legendary Rick Barry. The Marin, California outfit came back from a nearly year-long hiatus in 1975, mere months after Barry led the Warriors to their first championship in Golden State.
Over the years, the Dead’s hooks to hoops have been more than incidental. The band sponsored the Lithuanian men’s national basketball team, tie-dye shirts and all, during its run to the bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Nowadays, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart can often be seen at NBA playoff games—this year, in Portland and Oakland—sitting with Bill Walton, an avowed Deadhead since the Basketball Hall of Famer was a high school hoops star in San Diego.
Dead & Company bears its own parallels to the basketball world. This Dead iteration, featuring John Mayer on guitar and vocals and Oteil Burbridge (formerly of the Allman Brothers Band) on bass first formed in 2015, after the Dead played their “Fare Thee Well” shows with Phil Lesh, Phish’s Trey Anastasio and Bruce Hornsby in Santa Clara and Chicago—after the Warriors’ recent run of five straight Finals appearances first began. In 2017, Dead & Company played its first shows at the Hollywood Bowl, while Kevin Durant was en route to Finals MVP honors at the start of Golden State’s current push for a three-peat.
Dead & Company know a thing or two about adding all-time talent like KD to their team. While Bobby, Mickey and Bill Kreutzmann will always be the OGs—the Dead’s equivalent of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green—there’s no denying how gifted and fitting an addition John Mayer has been to this lineup.
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer (and youngest Dead man, by far, at 41) continued to invigorate the 54-year-old band with his soothing vocals and wailing guitar throughout a winding three-plus hour stroll down Shakedown Street in front of a packed house of 17,500. His axe work and his voice were particularly poignant during a stirring rendition of “Sugaree”, featuring a guitar solo that had the audience howling into the smoggy Los Angeles night.
But John, of course, isn’t the only addition to the Dead who shined. Oteil Burbridge was once again brilliant on the bass, and showed off his smooth voice while singing the Dead & Company debut of “High Time”. Jeff Chimenti is far from a newcomer; he’s been playing with Bobby since RatDog in 1997 and has manned the keyboard with several other iterations of the Dead—including the Other Ones, Phil Leah and Friends and Furthur, and Fare Thee Well—over his two-plus decades in the GD universe. Still, he played with a quiet fire on the keys all across the setlist, with some standout ivory tickling on “Iko Iko” and “Not Fade Away”.
All the while, the Dead’s OGs were every bit as reliable (if not spectacular in their own right) as their Golden State counterparts have been in these playoffs.
Bobby sounded just as rejuvenated at the Bowl as he did during his last appearance in Southern California when he led the Wolf Bros in a headlining set at the inaugural BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach. Mickey and Bill did their part to keep the beat and splash around during “Drums” and “Space” in the second set.
Through it all, Bill Walton stood tall in the pit, and got supersized on the screens during “Franklin’s Tower” and an encore of “Terrapin Station”. Odds are, he will be back at the Bowl on Tuesday, as any dedicated Deadhead would be.
Nor would it be all that surprising to see “Big Red” with the Dead on Wednesday, though it won’t be at a show that day. Instead, keep an eye out for Bobby, Mickey, and Walton at Game 3 of the 2019 Finals in Oakland before the band plays on through a three-night stint at the Gorge in Washington starting Thursday.
Check out a few videos from the show below:
Dead & Company – “Cold Rain and Snow” [Pro-Shot]
[Video: Dead & Company]
Dead & Company – “High Time”
[Video: Still Dead]
Dead & Company – “Iko Iko” [Pro-Shot]
[Video: Dead & Company]
Dead & Company – “Sugaree”
[Video: Still Dead]
Dead & Company – “Stella Blue”
[Video: Still Dead]
Dead & Company – “Lady With A Fan”/”Terrapin Station”
[Video: Still Dead]
For a full list of Dead & Company’s upcoming tour dates, head to their website here.
Setlist: Dead & Company | Hollywood Bowl | Los Angeles, CA | 6/3/19
Set One: Cold Rain And Snow, Hell In A Bucket, Easy Wind, Mississippi Half-Step, High Time, Jack Straw, Bird Song, Don’t Ease Me In
Set Two: Iko Iko, New Speedway Boogie, Sugaree, Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower > Drums/Space > Stella Blue, Not Fade Away
Encore: Lady With A Fan > Terrapin Station
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