Dead and Company delivered the miracle we needed as their final tour hit Phoenix
As the Grateful Dead's old pal Bob Dylan likes to sing, "Oh mama, can this really be the end?"
If it all goes down the way they said it would, then yes, Tuesday's concert at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre is the final Phoenix concert for Dead and Company, a group assembled by three members of the Grateful Dead, with John Mayer channeling Jerry Garcia to the best of his abilities on lead guitar, Oteil Burbridge on bass and Jeff Chimenti on keys.
In April, they announced that drummer Bill Kreutzmann, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, would not be joining them.
It's just “the culmination of a shift,” they explained, “in creative direction as we keep these songs alive and breathing in ways that we each feel is best to continue to honor the legacy of the Grateful Dead.”
That leaves singer-guitarist Bob Weir and Kreutzmann’s fellow longtime drummer Mickey Hart as the only members of the Grateful Dead on board as Dead and Company set out to bring the long strange trip it’s been in for a landing, with second drummer Jay Lane stepping in to fill the void left by Kreutzmann’s departure.
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Dead and Company's final tour: Is it really the end of an era?
Did it feel like the end of an era watching members of the Grateful Dead and a new generation of talented improvisors stretch out on staples as timeless — and essential to their legacy — as “Casey Jones,” “Scarlet Begonias” and "Cumberland Blues"?
Sure. To an extent.
But Dead and Company is really just the latest in a string of projects bringing former members of the Grateful Dead together since Garcia’s death in 1995, which led them to dissolve the band just in time for their 30th anniversary.
In 1998, they reassembled as the Other Ones, which featured Weir and Hart with founding bassist Phil Lesh and touring keyboardist Bruce Hornsby. In 2003, by which point Kreutzmann had rejoined the fold, the Other Ones became the Dead.
When that group ended, Weir and Lesh formed Furthur, which lasted for several years before a string of concerts in 2015 billed as Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead, which we were told would be the last time we’d see Weir, Lesh, Hart and Kreutzmann share a stage.
Three months later, Dead & Company did their first gig. Now here we are saying goodbye to a group of beloved musicians who, quite frankly, don’t seem likely to just never play music together again in some configuration or another.
Losing themselves in the freewheeling improvisational magic
And after seeing them lose themselves repeatedly in the freewheeling improvisational magic that defined the very essence of the Grateful Dead, it wouldn't be surprising if they did go out next summer with some subtle variation on the theme.
It’s in their blood. And there is clearly still an audience for what they do.
Not only did the Dead and Company Phoenix show sell out an amphitheater that holds approximately 20,000 fans, if you arrived at 6:15 p.m., a full 45 minutes before the show was scheduled to begin, it took roughly an hour to get in.
That’s how long the line was, as thousands and thousands of Deadheads inched their way through the parking lot to the sound of nitrous oxide salesmen overinflating balloons and barkers hawking magic mushroom chocolate bars with the promise of taking the show "to a whole other level."
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Dead and Company Set 1 highlights: 'Alabama Getaway,' 'Dark Star'
It was 7:20 by the time the six musicians strolled on stage and set the tone with an epic rendition of “Feel Like a Stranger” from 1980’s “Go to Heaven,” followed by a second song from that same album, “Alabama Getaway.”
“Dark Star” made its first appearance as Dead and Company approached the end of their opening set, coming out of a medley of the Traffic song “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and the singalong coda to the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”
It turns out that was just a taste of things to come in their increasingly experimental second set as they quickly retreated from the trippier terrain of “Dark Star” to “Cumberland Blues” and “Casey Jones,” two country-rocking highlights of “Workingman’s Dead" that kept rolling on like a runaway train (with stellar three-part harmonies on the chorus of "Cumberland Blues").
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Bob Weir and Mickey Hart are in good company with John Mayer and Oteil Burbridge
By that point, it could not have been more clear that Weir and Hart are in good company.
Anyone who figured Mayer for an odd fit would be shocked at how well he’s risen to the challenge, an accomplished lead guitarist who proved equally adept at the soulful blues of “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” and the atmospheric space-rock explorations that would come to dominate that second set.
The kid has clearly got the chops to do this music justice without resorting to the musical equivalent of cosplay.
Mayer also did a great job on lead vocals, sharing the spotlight with Weir, whose voice has somehow aged into a more expressive instrument.
And he brought some serious guitar face to the table.
Burbridge’s improvisational skills were undeniable yet tasteful as his fingers danced across his six-string bass while Chimenti also seemed to have the perfect keyboard part to elevate the whole arrangement.
This was especially true of his organ work, from “Alabama Getaway” to the soulful blues of “Death Don’t Have No Mercy," a Reverend Gary Davis song that's been a staple of the Dead-related repertoire since its unveiling at an Acid Test in 1966.
Things got really trippy in Dead and Company's brilliant second set
The second set is where they really hit their stride as musical adventurers.
That performance of “Scarlet Begonias” ventured into free jazz territory, flirting with the avant-garde.
The concert reached its true experimental peak, though, when a 20-minute “Drums” that just kept getting more intense until Hart took a violin bow to his blaster beam, a long metal beam strung with wires, as heard in countless science-fiction films, gave way to the aptly titled “Space,” as it so often does.
I can't compare it to the magic mushroom chocolate bar experience, but it did take the show to a whole other level.
Not many bands could’ve pulled that off and segued straight into a joyous rocker as contagious as "I Need a Miracle" along the way to closing with a gospel-flavored ballad as sublime as “Ripple” with Mayer and Weir on acoustic guitars.
And the other bands that could’ve done that are just trying really hard to be the Grateful Dead.
But no one does it better. And the fact that there are still two members out there chasing such moments of transcendence, reinventing their own language as they go, is why you hate to take them at their word when they tell you they're prepared to leave this miracle behind after a three-night stand in San Francisco, where it all began, the weekend of July 14-16.
Grateful Dead final tour setlist in Phoenix
First set
“Feel Like a Stranger”
“Alabama Getaway”
“Ramble on Rose”
“Dear Mr. Fantasy”/”Hey Jude”
“Dark Star”
“Cumberland Blues”
“Casey Jones”
Second set
“Here Comes Sunshine”
“Scarlet Begonias”
“Viola Lee Blues”
“Spanish Jam”/”Dark Star”
“Fire on the Mountain”
“Drums”
“Space”
“I Need a Miracle”
“Death Don’t Have No Mercy”
“U.S. Blues”
Encore
“Ripple”
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Dead and Company tour 2023: Final Phoenix concert was pure magic
