Almost 52 years to the day (8/16/69) that The Grateful Dead performed one of their self proclaimed “worst” gigs ever at Woodstock 1969, their offshoot Dead & Company featuring 1969 members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart descended on the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, NY this past evening on 8/23/21. The Bethel venue is located at the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair and hosts all major tour acts as a major summer tour shed stop in the northeast.
Dead and Company’s first set featured a run of tunes yet to be played on the prior four shows of the 2021 summer tour which included a rowdy John Mayer guitar-heavy version of “Hell in a Bucket” and Weir’s epic musical story “Lost Sailor>Saint of Circumstance.”
Fans might have noticed that Dead & Company hadn’t yet played any of the five songs from the 1969 performance as of yet, and as they kicked into the triumphant “St. Stephen,” one could only bet “Mama Tried” and “Dark Star” would follow. The other two Woodstock tunes of “High Time” and “Tune On Your Lovelight” followed as they gave a 2021 redemption to their original show- minus Phil, Jerry and Pigpen of course.
Prior to the start of set two, Weir announced: “Fifty-something years ago right here, we tried this next little sequence, and it didn’t work so well for us. So, we’re gonna try it again !”
Instead of ending the set there, the band went into “Drums” and “Space” and concluded the show with three more originals to give it a full two-set feeling. While some fans knock Dead & Company for not being creative enough with their setlists, this past evening shows they can still through some gifts with the best of em.
