Dead & Company Turn Back Time At Dazzling Las Vegas Sphere Debut

Dead & Company played their first concert of 2024 on Thursday night, performing the first show of an 24-date residency at the Las Vegas Sphere. The band became the third act to play at the visually stunning new venue, following U2 and Phish, and over the course of two sets dazzled and enthralled a captivated audience.

Many in the crowd appeared the same age as the older musicians onstage and stories of seeing shows in decades past permeated pre-show and set break discussions. The residency is billed as Dead Forever and on Thursday night Dead & Company stepped into the future with an anchor to the past, frequently incorporating imagery that referenced the history of the Grateful Dead.

Sponsored By

Dead & Company — Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and drummer Mickey Hart, alongside guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Jay Lane – sounded vibrant both sonically – given the room’s state-of-the-art spatial audio – and for it being their first performance together since the last show of the Final Tour in July 2023.

Prior to the show, the Sphere’s dome projected an industrial image, as if large scaffolding was flanking the stage. I overheard a few people reveal they did not realize the backdrop was not real physical metal beams.

The crowd roared with admiration and enthusiasm when the members of Dead & Co. emerged to take the Sphere stage, which was starkly adorned with minimal lighting stacks. “Feel Like A Stranger” was chosen to be the first song of the band’s Sphere residency, and while it was not necessarily a “long” night, the song’s lyrics were prescient about it being a “crazy” one. The scaffolding turned red and blue and split apart and images of the band members were projected on the massive dome.

A roll call of sorts ensued as the crowd cheered whenever a new member of the band became the focus of the projection. After the impromptu introductions, the opener glided into a mellow starter jam, making for an overall somewhat subdued opening statement.

One of the visual and audio highlights of the concert came next as “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” landed in the second slot. As the song began, the Grateful Dead’s 1960s house at 710 Ashbury in the Haight District of San Francisco was shown behind the band. Words describing the location flashed on the screen, which was the first of a few instances where the printed word was included in the visual presentation.

The world became the stage as the perspective then pulled out, rising above the house, the neighborhood, the city, the state and on and on in a way that left me feeling like I was soaring, or the band was rising and falling. Intense and beautiful, eventually the perspective was extracted to outer space and the Sphere became the coolest planetarium on the planet. A satellite blasted overhead right in time with “across the Rio Grande” change of “Half-Step.” The rare first set visit to space (visually in the instance) was unforgettably stunning and impressively well-executed.

“Jack Straw” came next and cooked up a nifty jam to go along with the images that made it feel like being on the inside of a lava lamp. A longer, dissonant jam developed out of the spacious “Bird Song” that followed. Hart employed his drone generator The Beam, bowing the stringed instrument to induce a powerful low-end accompaniment. The shadowy “Bird Song” jam was contrasted by the Sphere’s transformation into a rainforest-like scene, with enormous, colorful plants surrounding the stage as digital rain fell from above.

A classic Western film motif was employed to augment the subsequent “Me & My Uncle,” complete with parody of a film’s title and credits sequence, showcasing the star “Bobby ‘Ace’ Weir” and his co-staring bandmates. Landscape of the western frontier encapsulated footage of the band playing the twangy cover below.

A few times during Thursday’s concert the imagery, while visually impressive, remained static for an entire song. This first occurred with “Brown-Eyed Women” which was paired with an ornate interpretation of the iconic Skeleton & Roses poster introduced in 1966 by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley. Projections of the members of Dead & Company were shown on either side of the image, and the jam saw the usual dynamic interaction between Mayer and Chimenti, with the latter drawing multiple cheers from the crowd.

The Sphere took on the form of a cube built out of recreations of Grateful Dead backstage passes, posters, ticket stubs and other ephemera as “Cold Rain & Snow” was fired up to be the set closer. Tasteful and respectfully done, while also mind-blowingly cool to look at, the nod to the past was infused with images of Jerry Garcia and other members of the Grateful Dead not onstage in Las Vegas, adding an emotional layer to the set closer.

During set break, the Sphere was doused in a purplish hue while lines of Grateful Dead lyrics were cycled on screen. There was also a countdown to the start of the second set – hilariously noting when 4:20 was left of the break.

“Uncle John’s Band” served as the set two opener. A paint-by-number landscape flanking the band was filled in color-by-color (the sky looked so phony). A cartoon of Jerry Garcia sat on the porch of a cabin beside a river, instrument in hand, and was soon joined by an enormous turtle (or terrapin) playing a banjo while another turtle played banjo on the other side of the landscape. Dead & Company performed a forceful and rhythmically focused jam with projections of the musicians appearing under a rainbow crossing the painted landscape that eventually turned into a psychedelic black-light-esque scene that drew a smile out of Mickey Hart when the song came to an end.

A rocky, desert landscape with a stage at the bottom appeared behind Dead & Co. at the start of “Help On The Way.” Trusses began to be built on the virtual stage and piece-by-piece the Grateful Dead’s massive Wall Of Sound PA system was digitally depicted around the real-life band. A pulsating groove developed during the transition from “Help” into “Slipknot” as the Wall Of Sound folded on itself and spiraled into another realm where a swirling rainbow morphed into the rings of Saturn.

The pop from “Slipknot!” into the joyous arrival of “Franklin’s Tower” was met with an enormous virtual disco ball appearing above the band. A metallic Steal Your Face decorated the disco ball. Multiplied black and white video of Dead & Co. members were intertwined with the virtual disco ball reflections, swirling around in a hypnotic twirl like the dancers on the outer edges of the pit. Once again Chimenti’s excellent playing on the organ during “Franklin’s” was responded to with appreciative cheers from the crowd.

The backdrop transitioned to look like massive red stage curtains that opened to reveal a Steal Your Face decorated with roses. The center of the Stealie showed incredibly high definition video of the members Dead & Co. performing “He’s Gone.” Mayer and Chimenti got into a blues battle within the loping “He’s Gone,” trading brash licks back and forth.

Hart was then left in charge of the “Drums” segment with Lane and Burbridge joining in pounding out cosmic beats. An array of drums were arranged in a spiral around the dome, encircling video of the drummers onstage. The drum circle spun around and moved in rhythm with the sounds coming from the stage.

As the drumming intensified, the visuals became like a rhythmic kaleidoscope and incorporated scenes from a Teton Gravity skiing movie that used Grateful Dead music in its soundtrack. Colorful depictions of the human brain and other intense graphics supplemented the wild “Drums” sequence that was laced with Hart getting low on The Beam.

Weir, Mayer, Chimenti and Burbridge delivered the evening’s free-form “Space” progression, sounding like they were playing different parts of the same song at the same time. The band was shown in black and white above the stage during “Space,” and it stayed that way after the transition into the Weir-led “Standing On The Moon,” eschewing a more literal interpretation of the poignant song’s lyrics.

Many fists shot up in the air when the opening notes of “St. Stephen” rang out in the Sphere. The classic song led to the night’s standout jam, driven by Lane’s propulsive drumming and the cohesive interaction between the band. Accompanying “St. Stephen” was a visual recreation of the psychedelic liquid light show developed by Joshua White in the 1960s and used at early Grateful Dead concerts.

An unforgettable video display unfolded along with “Hell In A Bucket.” The motorcycle-riding skeleton from The Grateful Dead movie went on an animated joyride passing by one GD icon after another along with other historical call outs like Festival Express. Before going to the show, this type of animated video was something I expected, but how it was delivered blew away my expectations.

The headiest Google Earth trip started during “Half-Step,” continued with “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” Starting from outer space and pulling toward earth, by the time the band reached the end of covering Bob Dylan’s heartfelt song, the prolonged, unusual journey had arrived back at 710 Ashbury.

Instead of leaving the stage for an encore, an old news broadcast from the 1960s reporting on the Grateful Dead was played over the PA, ending with a statement about the band going on forever. The bombastic beat of “Not Fade Away” was soon bouncing around the curved wall of the Sphere which began showing photos of the Grateful Dead taken across their storied career. The added production elements, here and elsewhere in the show, added a sense of significance to the concert, giving the feel of a fully formed presentation.

After the members of Dead & Company took a bow together at center stage, they exited and the virtual scaffolding that broke apart at the start of the show was closed. There is only more to build upon over the course of Dead & Company’s Sphere residency, but if opening night is any indication, the structure to do so is firmly in place.

Want more Dead & Co stats?

Visit JamBase’s The Skinny Hub

More Skinny

Videos

Audience Recording (Taped by Tire Iron)

---

CashorTrade, is the leader of the face value ticket movement. Tickets are listed at face value or below right now for the Sphere run. By choosing CashorTrade you are supporting real fans not brokers trying to unload inventory. Head over to CashorTrade and make an offer. Who knows, you might even stumble upon a miracle. Going to see Dead & Company at Sphere or any other concerts in Vegas? Book your stay at the newly-renovated Rio Las Vegas using this link and receive 40% off your accommodations!