Dead & Company delivered their fourth consecutive three-night run at Sphere over the weekend. With 12 shows in the bag, the band has continued to deliver unique experiences night after night. While many fans questioned how a 30-night Las Vegas residency would gel with the unique nature and inherent spontaneity of a Grateful Dead experience, Dead & Company have kept things fresh with both a growing song rotation (95* have been played so far) and experimentation with classic tunes’ time-honored placements within the setlists. *[Note: this tally counts “Sugar Magnolia”/”Sunshine Daydream”, “Terrapin Station”, “Drums”, and “Space” as single songs].
The first show of the weekend on Thursday, June 6th saw five total Sphere debuts from Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti, Oteil Burbridge, and Jay Lane, beginning with the show-opening “New Minglewood Blues” and a “Peggy-O” toward the end of the first set. There were plenty more Sphere debuts in the second frame, starting with the set-opening “Here Comes Sunshine”. Dead & Company also offered up only their 12th-ever performance of Rev Gary Davis‘ “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” dating back to 8/16/21—another first for the Sphere—before the show came to a rocking close with the Sphere debut of Chuck Berry‘s landmark “Johnny B. Goode”.
Friday night’s show was lighter on the Sphere debuts but made up for it with a setlist that kept seasoned Deadheads on their toes via unorthodox song placements. That trend began with the night’s first song, “Uncle John’s Band”, the Workingman’s Dead classic usually reserved for an easygoing comedown following intense psychedelic jamming on second-set heavy-hitters like “Dark Star”, “St. Stephen”, or “Drums” > “Space”. In Dead & Company’s entire nine-year existence and 61 performances of the song, UJB has only opened one other show, back on 6/29/17 in Wheatland, CA.
More surprises immediately followed with a standalone “Franklin’s Tower”, which typically comes after “Help On The Way” and “Slipknot!”. Instead, the previously missing “Help” > “Slip” portion of the classic passage appeared later in the set and eventually landed in “Eyes of the World”, typically a set two staple. Dead & Company continued to tear up the rulebook in the weekend’s fourth set, beginning with the first second-set opening “St. Stephen” since Playing in the Sand 2023, prior to The Final Tour. Though Sphere is encapsulated by the world’s largest LED screen, Bobby must have sensed some precipitation coming to the Nevada desert as he dished out the first “Looks Like Rain” of the Las Vegas residency, the only Sphere debut of the evening.
Dead & Company finished the fourth weekend of their Dead Forever Sphere residency on Saturday with more tricks up their sleeves. The biggest setlist highlight of the night and the entire weekend came midway through the first set with a bust-out of “West L.A. Fadeaway”. Despite its position as an all-time classic Grateful Dead song that epitomized the band’s sleek ’80s veneer, the song has sat on the shelf since 7/12/22 at The Pavilion at Star Lake outside Pittsburgh. The dust on “West L.A.” showed a bit as Bobby fumbled the lyrics at one point, but the roar of the crowd assured him there were no hard feelings.
To cap the first set, Weir threw audiences for another loop with a relevant “One More Saturday Night”, a song more often than not reserved for show-closing duties. In a similar vein, when Dead & Company returned for the sixth and final set of the weekend they started things back up with Sam Cooke‘s “Let The Good Times Roll”, a perennial first-set opener. From there on out, Dead & Company kept things pretty consistent and classic with favorites like “Sugar Magnolia”, the Terrapin Station suite, “Good Lovin’”, Bob Dylan‘s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”, and finally The Crickets‘ “Not Fade Away” as the Sphere crowd kept the beat.
Check out a collection of fan-shot videos from weekend four of the Dead & Company Dead Forever Sphere residency along with each night’s setlist. The residency continues this weekend on June 13th, 14th, and 15th. Find a full list of upcoming dates here.
Fans hoping to get in on the action with Dead & Company at Sphere can find tons of face-value tickets for the entire run via CashorTrade. By choosing CashorTrade over other sites you are supporting real fans, not brokers trying to offload inventory. Unlike other platforms, you may even stumble upon a miracle. Browse what’s available on the site here.
Dead & Company — “New Minglewood Blues” — 6/6/24
[Video: Steve Maurer]
Setlist: Dead & Company | Sphere | Las Vegas, NV | 6/6/24
Set One: New Minglewood Blues [1], Playing in the Band, Feel Like a Stranger, Tennessee Jed, The Weight (The Band), Peggy-O (Traditional) [1], Sugaree
Set Two: Here Comes Sunshine [1] > China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider (Traditional) > Estimated Prophet > The Other One > Drums > Space > Death Don’t Have No Mercy (Reverend Gary Davis) [1] > Brown-Eyed Women, U.S. Blues, Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson), Johnny B. Goode (Chuck Berry) [1]
Notes: [1] Sphere debut
Setlist: Dead & Company | Sphere | Las Vegas, NV | 6/7/24
Set One: Uncle John’s Band, Franklin’s Tower, Loose Lucy, Ship of Fools, Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Eyes of the World
Set Two: St. Stephen, Scarlet Begonias, He’s Gone, Dark Star > Drums > Space > Looks Like Rain [1] > Truckin > Throwing Stones, Casey Jones
Notes: [1] Sphere debut
Setlist: Dead & Company | Sphere | Las Vegas, NV | 6/8/24
Set One: Cold Rain and Snow (Traditional), Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo, Bertha, West L.A. Fadeaway [1] They Love Each Other, Jack Straw, One More Saturday Night
Set Two: Let the Good Times Roll (Sam Cooke), Sugar Magnolia, Althea, Terrapin Station > Drums > Space > Standing on the Moon, Good Lovin’ (The Olympics), Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan), Not Fade Away (The Crickets)
Notes: [1] Sphere debut, LTP 7/12/22
The post Dead & Company Continue To Expand Setlist & Experiment With Tradition At Sphere Weekend 4 [Videos] appeared first on L4LM.
