Love Fills Fenway Park: Dead & Company Dusts Off ‘Comes A Time’ At Final Boston Concert

Dead & Company closed out a two-night stand at Fenway Park in Boston on Sunday. The last East Coast show of The Final Tour included the return of “Comes A Time,” a 1973-style “They Love Each Other,” the conclusion of “The Other One” started the previous night at the home of the Red Sox and other memorable moments.

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Bob Weir led the sextet through the biblical tale “Samson & Delilah” to begin last night’s show as the adaptation of the traditional song has appeared at all three Sunday concerts this tour. The Sunday sermon opener came ahead of a rollicking “Cold Rain & Snow” featuring impressive interplay between guitarist John Mayer and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. Dead & Company followed the high-energy pairing with the more tender “Jack Straw” co-helmed by Weir and Mayer. Next up was the run’s sixth “Althea,” the tune that turned Mayer into a Deadhead, and as always the guitarist delivered a solo filled with fretboard fireworks.

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Dead & Company has kept their repertoire tight over the first two months of The Final Tour. Weir, Mayer, Chimenti, bassist Oteil Burbridge and drummers Mickey Hart and Jay Lane have yet to add any new songs to the catalog and stuck to Grateful Dead classics they had played last summer. The second trend finally changed on Sunday when the sextet rolled out “Comes A Time.” The Jerry ballad sung in Dead & Co. by Oteil hadn’t been trotted out since September 10, 2021 until it filled the five-slot at Fenway on Sunday. Burbridge did a fantastic job fitting plenty of emotion into his vocal delivery.

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The biggest “original” bust out of the tour was followed by “Mr. Charlie.” Mayer fronting a Pigpen song in the first set has been a dependable highlight of opening frames this run and last night was no exception. The guitarist reeled off potent blues licks during his fiery solo. Dead & Company then treated fans to an expansive “He’s Gone” that included the most adventurous jamming of the set. The six-piece went on to close the opening stanza with “Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad.” Bob Weir sang the first verse, Mayer the second, Burbridge the third and Jeff Chimenti providing a rare lead vocal on the fourth verse of the set closer.

Dead & Company kicked off their final set on the East Coast with the 1973 arrangement of “They Love Each Other.” Using the upbeat version to launch the frame was a crowd pleaser and the audience again roared when the band then lit into “Playing In The Band.” The 15-minute “Playin’” saw the group focus on jazz-fusion jamming. From there the sextet continued the focus on fan favorites with “Help On The Way.” Mayer and Chimenti helped Dead & Company expertly navigate through the complex “Slipknot!” transitions.

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Just when it appeared the group would drop into “Franklin’s Tower,” as they had each of the four previous times this tour they played “Help” and “Slip,” the last notes of the instrumental “Slipknot!” faded to a few seconds of silence. Then, Burbridge kicked into the “Fire On The Mountain” bassline and his bandmates followed along. Oteil had his second turn on lead vocals fronting the song that typically is paired with “Scarlet Begonias.” Mayer put his auto-wah effect to use in turning in a stellar solo filled with Jerry-esque licks. The instrumentalists vacated the stage after “Fire” as did Lane with Mickey Hart starting “Drums” alone on stage.

Hart strummed out a few drones on The Beam and let one ring out before moving over to drum world. Mickey was soon joined by Oteil Burbridge as Lane did not contribute to “Drums” on Sunday. The fairly short drum duel was followed by Hart returning to The Beam, where he acceented the drones with samples from his massive collection of sounds. Burbridge, Weir, Mayer and Chimenti came back for one of the best “Space” segments of the tour. The guitarists, bassist and keyboardist focused on blissful progessions including an anthemic sequence based on a beautiful pattern Chimenti worked into the mix. Mayer came up with variations of the pattern as the four musicians patiently jammed on the interstellar progression.

Jay Lane and Mickey Hart took up positions back at their kits as the instrumentalists continued improvising on the majestic pattern Chimenti created. The drummers propelled the jam for a few otherworldly minutes that showed with Dead & Company is capable of when it comes to free-form improvisation. The sextet then ran through “Playin’ Reprise” to the delight of the Boston faithful. This wouldn’t be the only song they’d concluded as they went on to take another run at “The Other One” started on Saturday. Weir sang the second verse before “The Other One” reached its majestic finish.

The endings of “Playin’” and “The Other One” were followed by Weir belting out “Standing On The Moon.” Bobby did the Garcia ballad justice as there was powerful emotion in each “be with you” he sang. Mayer strung together one compelling lick after another urged on by Chimenti to preface Weir’s final round of “be with you”s. Dead & Company then chose “Not Fade Away” to close Sunday’s second set in Boston. A raucous version ensued with the crowd keeping the “you know our love will not fade away” going while the sextet vacated the stage for a brief encore break.

The six-piece delivered a rare double encore at Fenway Park last night. First up was a cover of The Band’s “The Weight.” In similar fashion to “GDTRFB,” the members of Dead & Company shared vocal duties with Weir, Mayer, Burbridge and Chimenti each having a turn fronting the band. A fully electric “Ripple” brought the show to a close.

Dead & Company’s Final Tour resumes in Noblesville, Indiana tomorrow, Tuesday, June 27. View livestreams of Dead & Company’s last show in Noblesville and the remainder of The Final Tour via nugs.net

Audio (Taped by Eric Lugassy)

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Source: JamBase.com