Mother Nature’s Masterpiece: Dead & Company’s Final Tour Drops Into The Gorge

Dead & Company brought The Final Tour to The Gorge in George, Washington on Friday night to launch a two-night stand at the scenic venue. The sextet delivered a relatively kicked back first set including the first “When I Paint My Masterpiece” in over a year and offered a host of Grateful Dead favorites in the second set along with a fitting “river song” to close out night one perched atop the mighty Columbia River gorge.

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Friday was Dead & Company’s first time back at The Gorge since 2019, marking their 5th appearance at the stunning venue since debuting there in 2016. D&C kicked off night one at The Gorge with “The Music Never Stopped.” Guitarist Bob Weir got a rise out of the audience with the “mosquitoes on the river” line. The sextet then jumped into the dreamy sequence with drummers Mickey Hart and Jay Lane dropping the band into 6/8 time while guitarist John Mayer worked flighty licks high up on the neck and Oteil Burbridge walked the bass before returning to a funky “never stopped” vamp.

Mayer then led the band through “Alabama Getaway,” which saw keyboardist Jeff Chimenti reeling off a tasty ride on the Hammond B3 organ. Following the quick rendition, Weir helmed Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” for the first time at a D&C show since June 14, 2022. John Mayer then handled lead vocals on “Mr. Charlie” and exhibited a crunchy tone throughout the Dead classic originally sung by Ron “Pigpen” McKernan.

“Charlie” was short and funky ahead of “Tennessee Jed.” Mayer had some twang in-store for the modulating solo section ahead of the song’s conclusion. D&C kept things country-tinged with “Dire Wolf.” Mayer captained the number, which included an outstanding honky-tonk piano run from Chimenti and John peeling off another twangy affair.

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Next, D&C eased into “Bird Song” with Bobby handling lead vocals on the first verse. The band then floated through freeform jam before Mayer stepped to the mic for the second verse with the vocalists coming together in harmony for the bridge.

The first substantial improv sequence of the first set saw Mayer finding motifs with the band responding. Lane and Hart then began to swing the beat with Chimenti letting jazzy chords cascade over The Gorge. Mayer and Chimenti then began tossing variations of the main “Bird Song” riff back and forth before the band landed back on the bridge.

Weir and Mayer would swap lines for the final verse of “Bird Song” before the sextet slid into the Noah Lewis-penned Cannon’s Jug Stompers tune, “Big Railroad Blues,” engineered by Mayer. The rollicking edition saw Jeff shooting off more Hammond fireworks before John brought the number home. The rowdy “Big Railroad” capped off an otherwise fairly laid back first set on a sunny late afternoon at The Gorge.

Dead & Company continued to kick back to open the second set with “Sugaree” as the sun set over the rim of the gorge in orange and purple hues. John handled lead vocals and weaved together a couple soulful solos for the song originally appearing on Jerry Garcia’s 1972 self-titled debut solo album. Mayer absolutely torched his second salvo before wrapping the tune with some bluesy vocal stylings.

Next, the sextet hopped into “Estimated Prophet.” Bobby presided over one of his signature tunes with John Perry Barlow. Chimenti added some nice touches on electric piano complementing Weir’s singing. Mayer filled the Western Washinton air with auto-wah as he soloed over the chorus progression. Weir then vamped on “don’t worry bout me” before the sextet sashayed through a gently bouncing jam with Mayer flying around the fretboard.

“Estimated” gave way to “Scarlet Begonias.” Bobby helmed the From The Mars Hotel cut before kicking things over to John who reeled off another twangy affair which waxed rocking as the band cycled through the form a few times laced with rolling fills from Hart and Lane along with dive bomb bass from Oteil.

The sextet sunk into another understated sequence on the way out of “Scarlet” which gained in intensity as Mayer worked right hand rhythm and Chimenti stretched out on the 88s over percolating bass from Burbridge leading into a strutting groove that built into a full-tilt boogie rave up and a nice drop back into the “Scarlet” riff.

The band then swung into the secon Noaw Lewis compostion of the evening, “Viola Lee Blues,” with John smoking on blues licks before stepping back to the mic, joined by the vocalists to sing the first verse. Mayer and Chimenti then swapped riffage on the guitar and organ respectively over a shuffling groove before the prime soloists ramped things up once again before dropping back into the second verse. Another loose jam emerged with Mayer showing off his blues chops over a bed of jazzy Fender Rhodes from Jeff.

“Viola” then gave way to “Dark Star.” The band eased their way into the psychedelic Grateful Dead classic before coalescing on the main riff and toggling back and forth between the riff and freeform variations on it. Bobby then stepped to the mic for the first verse only before the song melted into “Drums,” which began with Jay rolling mallets on the gong and Mickey engineering effects.

Oteil then joined in on the drum platform for a clackety dance of the skeletons before things escalated with the booming toms. Mickey then manned his effects station, unfurling various psychedelic sounds and then bells ringing out over The Gorge ahead of a droning Beam session.

“Space” began with Oteil plucking chords high on the neck of his six-string as the band trickled back in to add spacey bells and whistles. Chimenti then began layering gospel and bluesey runs on the piano, which led the band into “Cumberland Blues.” D&C slow-boiled song into a raucous affair. Bobby had a little trouble with the words on the final lyrics but quickly found them with encouragement from the crowd.

Weir then got his slide out for “Black Peter” in the ballad slot and delivered a classic, howling Bobby vocal vamp before jumping into “Casey Jones.” The band chug-a-lugged through the tune with Weir adding more slide and Mayer tearing things up over the coda to put an exclamation point on the second set. For the encore, John led a fitting “Black Muddy River” and authored a soaring solo to wrap night one at The Gorge.

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Dead & Company returns to The Gorge tonight before bringing The Final Tour to a close with a three-night stand in San Francisco. Livestreams for the rest of the sold out tour can be purchased via nugs.net.

Source: JamBase.com