After a brief pause in the second half of July, the Dead & Company Dead Forever residency at Las Vegas, NV’s Sphere is due to resume on Thursday with the run’s penultimate three-day weekend stretch. The following weekend, the modern-day Grateful Dead offshoot will deliver its 28th, 29th, and 30th Sphere shows to round out the third-ever engagement at the multibillion-dollar, state-of-the-art entertainment arena. With eight out of ten weekends now in the rearview, we’re taking our final dive into setlist trends ahead of the run’s conclusion in August.
In the lead-up to the residency—comprised of smaller, three-night runs each weekend—many fans expected the setlist from weekend to weekend to remain largely the same (i.e. “If it’s expensive to create these visuals, and each song needs visuals, the band will likely maintain a relatively small rotation of songs”). While the visual capabilities of the state-of-the-art Sphere may be cool, many wondered, how would a “Vegas residency model” work for a band whose M.O. for decades has been its ever-changing setlists?
Expectations quickly became clouded on the second night of the residency when fans were greeted with largely repeated night-one visuals to go along with a new setlist. But while the repeated visuals initially caused some grumbles among fans, they have allowed the band—comprised of Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti, and Jay Lane—to tinker with the setlist more than most had expected, to make it more like the perpetually evolving experience that Deadheads know and love.
This piece is our third periodic examination of Dead & Company Sphere setlist trends and statistics. When we published our first setlist snapshot after weekend three of the run we were still learning how to follow along with this unusual engagement from home, piecing details together bit by bit as they became available. When we once again took a look at setlist trends after weekend six, the whole picture had become much clearer: There is a rough beginning and end to each Sphere show’s visual narrative and a finite (though gradually growing) set of visual motifs that can make up the rest of the trip. None of the visuals are necessarily tied to a given song, nor vice versa. Certain visuals (i.e. the old West Bobby ‘Ace’ title screens) have often been paired with certain “types” of tunes (i.e. cowboy songs), but there’s generally more maneuverability with the song list than many thought was possible ahead of time.
Now, with just two weekends/six dates left in the run, we have enough data to comfortably make some educated guesses about what fans can expect during the last few shows.
Through 24 Sphere shows over the course of eight weekends (not counting the 6/18/24 private gig), Dead & Company have performed 110 different songs*. While the new additions to the Sphere setlist rotation have slowed somewhat as we’ve gotten into the later weekends, six of those 110—”Next Time You See Me”, “Liberty”, “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, and “In The Midnight Hour”—made their first Sphere appearances in the last two weeks.
12 songs have appeared during each of the residency’s first eight weekends (Drums, Space, Althea, Bertha, Brown-Eyed Women, China Cat Sunflower, Eyes of the World, Franklin’s Tower, I Know You Rider, Scarlet Begonias, St. Stephen, and Terrapin Station), while “Drums” and “Space” have each appeared at all 24 public shows so far shows so far (though, funnily enough, not at the 6/18/24 private show). This tracks pretty closely to where things stood when we last checked in after 18 shows. The only song to drop off the “every weekend” list in the ensuing two chunks of shows was “Jack Straw”, which spent its first mini-run of the residency on the bench during weekend eight.
An additional 11 songs have been played at seven out of the eight weekends so far (Casey Jones, Cold Rain and Snow, Deal, Fire on the Mountain, Help on the Way, Jack Straw, Not Fade Away, Shakedown Street, Slipknot!, Sugaree, and U.S. Blues). This list looks pretty similar to our last check-in, too: Only one song, “Playing In The Band”, dropped out of the “all but one” club in the last two weekends, while “Jack Straw” now falls into this category after its first weekend off. At this point, it’s a pretty safe bet that most, if not all of those aforementioned songs played during seven or eight weekends so far will get trotted out again during the last two groups of three Dead Forever shows at Sphere.
Further illustrating the notion that the band has continued to leave room for variation in its setlists, 70 songs out of the 110 songs played so far have appeared at less than half of the weekend runs. That includes four songs played four times each, 17 songs played three times each, 24 songs played two times each, and 25 songs played one time each.
Related: Read Questlove’s Review Of Dead & Company At Sphere [Photos]
As far as new additions we can expect in the last two weekends, a handful of songs played during Dead & Company’s The Final Tour in 2023 have yet to make an appearance at the Sphere including “Comes a Time”, “The Eleven”, Warren Zevon‘s “Werewolves of London”, Jimmy Reed‘s “Big Boss Man”, various Miles Davis-based jams (“Spanish Jam”, “All Blues”, “Milestones”), and others. Various additional songs in the “only played once” column have been utilized with more frequency in past years and may be primed to get in on the action once again in the band’s last two weeks in Vegas (“Dire Wolf”, “Easy Wind”, “Johnny B. Goode”, “Let It Grow”, “Here Comes Sunshine”, “Me and My Uncle”, “Peggy-O”, “West L.A. Fadeaway”, etc.).
Of course, these breakdowns based on numbers only really get into what’s happened already, and there’s always the chance we get some setlist surprises in the last six shows—at least on the visual front. As John Mayer noted in a recent Variety interview, “[Some visuals] were still being finished [when the run started]. I think some things we were holding onto just to have some differentiation. But there were other things that the computer was still rendering, and so we were able to put those in over weeks two and maybe three. There are still pieces coming. They’ll be slow to come out for a moment, and then there will be a bit of an update in August. So we’re working on that right now just to keep it as exciting as possible for everyone. Because I know that there are people coming every weekend who are seeing this for the first time, who should catch up with what this show already is, but in an effort to make sure that people who are coming repeat times still get some surprise, there will be some things that we will add into the show around August, just to really make something of those last six shows.”
Below, view the full list of songs played at Sphere so far (through 7/13/24) alongside the number of times they have been played. Find complete setlists for each of the 24 completed Dead & Company Sphere shows here.
Dead & Company return to Sphere for their next batch of shows beginning on Thursday, August 1st, also known as the late Jerry Garcia‘s birthday. 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.
Songs/Number of Times on Dead & Company Sphere Setlist (Through 24* Shows)
*[Notes: This tally counts “Sugar Magnolia”/”Sunshine Daydream”, “Terrapin Station”, “Dear Mr. Fantasy”, “Hey Jude (Reprise)”, “Drums”, and “Space” as single songs. It does not factor in the stats from the 6/18/24 private gig. Setlists and numbers via setlist.fm.]
Drums: 24
Space: 24
Althea: 8
Bertha: 8
Brown-Eyed Women: 8
China Cat Sunflower: 8
Eyes of the World: 8
Franklin’s Tower: 8
I Know You Rider: 8
Scarlet Begonias: 8
St. Stephen: 8
Terrapin Station: 8
Casey Jones: 8
Cold Rain and Snow: 7
Deal: 7
Fire on the Mountain: 7
Help on the Way: 7
Jack Straw: 7
Not Fade Away: 7
Shakedown Street: 7
Slipknot!: 7
Sugaree: 7
U.S. Blues: 7
Dark Star: 6
Estimated Prophet: 6
Good Lovin’: 6
Morning Dew: 6
One More Saturday Night: 6
Playing in the Band: 6
Sugar Magnolia: 6
Uncle John’s Band: 6
Tennessee Jed: 5
Hell in a Bucket: 5
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door: 5
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo: 5
Ramble On Rose: 5
Standing on the Moon: 5
They Love Each Other: 5
Throwing Stones: 5
Truckin’: 5
Brokedown Palace: 4
Cumberland Blues: 4
Feel Like a Stranger: 4
The Music Never Stopped: 4
Big River: 3
Black Muddy River: 3
Cassidy: 3
Dear Mr. Fantasy: 3
Going Down the Road Feeling Bad: 3
Good Times: 3
He’s Gone: 3
Hey Jude: 3
I Need a Miracle: 3
Minglewood Blues: 3
Mr. Charlie: 3
Row Jimmy: 3
Ship of Fools: 3
Stella Blue: 3
The Other One: 3
The Weight: 3
Turn On Your Love Light: 3
Alabama Getaway: 2
All Along the Watchtower: 2
Bird Song: 2
Black Peter: 2
Crazy Fingers: 2
Dancing in the Street: 2
Days Between: 2
Dear Prudence: 2
Friend of the Devil: 2
Greatest Story Ever Told: 2
Iko Iko: 2
It Hurts Me Too: 2
Looks Like Rain: 2
Loose Lucy: 2
Loser: 2
Lost Sailor: 2
New Speedway Boogie: 2
Ripple: 2
Saint of Circumstance: 2
Samson and Delilah: 2
The Wheel: 2
Touch of Grey: 2
Viola Lee Blues: 2
Wharf Rat: 2
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall: 1
Big Railroad Blues: 1
Black-Throated Wind: 1
China Doll: 1
Death Don’t Have No Mercy: 1
Dire Wolf: 1
Don’t Ease Me In: 1
Easy Wind: 1
El Paso: 1
Here Comes Sunshine: 1
I’ll Remember You: 1
In the Midnight Hour: 1
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue: 1
Johnny B. Goode: 1
Let It Grow: 1
Liberty: 1
Maggie’s Farm: 1
Mama Tried: 1
Man Smart, Woman Smarter: 1
Me and My Uncle: 1
Next Time You See Me: 1
Peggy-O: 1
Smokestack Lightning: 1
West L.A. Fadeaway: 1
When I Paint My Masterpiece: 1
This November, Deadheads can continue their lifelong journeys down the Golden Road with Golden Road Festival at Sanger, CA’s Wonder Valley Ranch Resort on November 8th–10th, 2024. The all-inclusive, Grateful Dead-inspired micro-festival offers 200 fans an intimate, all-inclusive experience featuring lodging, activities, gourmet meals, and full open bar in addition to performances by Jason Crosby’s Golden Road All-Stars featuring Oteil Burbridge (Dead & Company), John Kadlecik, and more; Pink Talking Fish Are Dead, Mihali, The Abbey Roads featuring Reed Mathis and Aron Magner, and others. For tickets and more information, head here.
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