Legendary music promoter Bill Graham once said about the Grateful Dead, “They’re not the best at what they do, they are the only ones who do what they do.” 

For 30 years, that was true. But in 2019, that cannot be said of the surviving members of that band, three of whom make up half of Dead & Company (Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart). Since the passing of Jerry Garcia in 1995, something has developed that I, personally, never saw coming. Like many, Jerry’s death signaled the passing of an era, but also of a specific type of live musical experience that rested on the Dead’s ever-changing approach to their own songbook and the various covers they loved to play. 

Instead of fading into obscurity or even simply holding a sacred place in American culture (and counter-culture, which the Grateful Dead do), an entire musical and communal scene took root that today is a thriving exploration of both the Grateful Dead songbook and the Grateful Dead’s approach to live music, which itself was inspired by multiple forms of music from jazz to classical, from bluegrass to good ol’ rock-n-roll. Dead & Company are just one of many bands taking the Grateful Dead’s music to new spaces.

There are bands that have sprouted up comprised of performers who weren’t even born when Jerry Garcia passed (for example, Grateful Shred), and there are bands made up of members who all grew up seeing the Grateful Dead live, many for decades (Dark Star Orchestra). While some of these bands directly emulate the Grateful Dead sound, many others (certainly the bulk, I would say) are taking the Grateful Dead’s lead in finding new and more personal ways to express themselves through this music. And that means new experiences, new sounds. “Grateful Dead,” one could say, has become its own musical genre. 

Dead & Company, who just completed a stellar two-show run at the Hollywood Bowl here in Los Angeles (the venue of Pigpen’s last show), are attracting large crowds – Grateful Dead-sized crowds – for their own interpretation of this music with audiences that span generations from children to great grandparents. Dead & Company have their own unique sound. And it’s very different from the Grateful Dead.

Dead & Company has skillfully incorporated the sounds of John Mayer’s bluesy guitar, Jeff Chimenti’s fierce keyboards, and Oteil Burbridge’s monster bass lines. The result is a tight and laid back experience, with songs often favoring a ballad’s pace mixed with light jazzy explorations. The space they inhabit is more “restrained” than the Grateful Dead and the result is oftentimes a beautiful, melodic and quite hypnotizing combination of sounds with periodic bursts of intense energy.

For those wanting the Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead-style experience, this is not that. John Mayer and company never quite reach the pin-drop delicacy of the Grateful Dead or the orgasmic peaks of Garcia’s vulnerable and deeply expressive guitar work. The music and approach feels more “calculated” than that, but once embraced, it proves to be equally valid in honoring the vast mixture of styles, influences and intuitive desires of the band members themselves. There is genuine musical conversation happening here. 

Because it’s not the Grateful Dead, Dead & Company will have its loving fans and it will also have its critics. That comes with the territory. The great news is, in my opinion, because there are so many bands taking their Grateful Dead influence in new and untapped directions, anyone seeking a unique experience of the Grateful Dead songbook can find almost any sound, any style imaginable to choose from.

From tried and true cover bands like Cubensis, or the Pigpen era celebration, The Alligators, or the incredibly powerful and oftentimes downright transcendent Jerry Garcia Band recreation, Jerry’s Middle Finger, to bands that only dabble in the Dead’s songbook but have absorbed the Grateful Dead’s jazz-like communicative and improvisational style such as the stadium-filling Phish, or nightclub and theater bands like The Higgs ort John Kadlecik’s Golden Gate Wingmen (which happens to have Dead & Company’s Jeff Chimenti on keys) who seamlessly combine old favorites with new originals.

You can find the Bluegrass version of Grateful Dead music in bands like The Grateful Bluegrass Boys, or a punk interpretation via Punk Is Dead, or the gorgeous slack-key guitar-styled melodies of David Gans’ Fragile Thunder trio, or the fierce and highly energized creative interpretation offered by Furthur alum Joe Russo in JRAD. There are literally hundreds of bands to explore and be energized and inspired by in this ever-flourishing genre.

The set list for the first night at the Hollywood Bowl gave us one Dead & Company breakout (High Time – always a special one) and the first set Bird Song gave us some inspired interplay between Mayer and Chimenti, who seemed downright giddy connecting throughout the evening. The other highlight for this audience member was the surprise Terrapin Station encore, which built to a nice crescendo and seemed to leave the evening’s audience quite satiated.

Dead & Company
Summer Tour 2019 (shows 3 & 4)
Hollywood Bowl
Los Angeles, California|
Setlists and set opener videos:

Monday June 3, 2019

Set 1: 
Cold Rain & Snow
Hell In A Bucket
Easy Wind
Mississippi Halfstep
High Time
Jack Straw
Bird Song-> 
Don’t Ease Me In

Set 2: 
Iko Iko->
New Speedway Boogie->
Sugaree
Help On The Way->
Slipknot->
Franklin’s Tower-> 
Drums->
Space->
Stella Blue-> 
Not Fade Away

Encore:
Lady With A Fan->
Terrapin Station

Night two took new directions from the get-go with a Los Angeles High School jazz band joining Dead & Company on stage for Coltrane’s A Love Supreme-> Shakedown Street. It was a great way to instantly plug in and set the tone for the creative set lists that followed as the first set closed with a Cassidy that flowed seamlessly and unexpectedly into Fire On The Mountain. A pre-drums St. Stephen -> Lovelight surprised everyone and the band rode that wave of energy through the rest of the set. 

Wednesday June 4, 2019

Set 1:
A Love Supreme-> *
Shakedown Street-> *
Friend of the Devil @
Alabama Getaway
Ramble On Rose
Brown-Eyed Women
Cassidy->
Fire On The Mountain

Set 2:
Estimated Prophet->
Truckin’->
Smokestack Lightning jam->
He’s Gone->
St. Stephen-> 
Lovelight-> 
Drums->
Space->
A Love Supreme reprise jam->
Standing on the Moon->
U.S. Blues

Encore:
Brokedown Palace

*w Los Angeles High School Jazz Band
@ Bob Weir Acoustic

We live in a time rich with Grateful Dead music. What once seemed like it might fade with the passage of time has, instead, blossomed into something bigger and far more expansive than this writer and life-long Dead Head ever imagined. From Dead & Company to the many Grateful Dead-inspired festivals like Skull & Roses, the June Lake Jam Fest, Lockn’ , and dozens of other Festivals spread far and wide across the country from High Sierra Music Festival to Peach Fest, and e festivals known for other genres of music are embracing the Dead in 2019, with Phil Lesh and The Terrapin Family Band headlining at Oregon Country Fair, Newport Folk Festival & Telluride Blues and Brews – we have so very much to be GRATEFUL for!

Our intrepid musical community is very much alive and thriving and shows no signs of slowing down. Some things just have that kind of momentum and connect so viscerally with audiences that it breathes on its own, all you have to do is show up and tap in. The Grateful Dead already showed us the way. 

Dead & Company are a wonderful stopover on this magical bus ride. Whether you get on here or somewhere else, the legacy of the Grateful Dead experience is waiting for you. Pick your stop and hop on. 

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