This reviewer has spent a lot of time in this very space writing about the evolution of Dead & Company. Even before the final bow at 2015’s “Fare Thee Well” shows in Chicago in 2015, plans were already underway for the music (and everything that goes with bringing it on the road) of the Grateful Dead to continue. John Mayer seemed like an unlikely source to move things along, but 2016 proved that he and the music were a perfect match. The following summer at Citi Field things were a little rockier as the band began mixing things up more in terms of song selection and placement. In 2019, John Mayer even played Jerry Garcia’s famed Doug Irwin “Wolf” guitar for a correspondingly excellent show that saw the amps blow out during “Fire On The Mountain.”
In 2022, things are seemingly much more up the air for the band. Bill Kreutzmann was forced to miss a few shows with back issues. John Mayer’s father was rushed to the hospital earlier in the month and the band was forced to cancel their show at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, a Grateful Dead stronghold. When this tour was announced, Rolling Stone immediately ran a “scoop” that this would be the final tour. The band immediately debunked this, but it still lingered over the shows even before the personnel substitutions and cancellations.
Saturday Night (7/16) at Citi had the feel of all that uncertainty, but also of a stadium full of fans collectively wanting it all to be as good as it could be for however long that was. The band hit the stage with “Playin’ In The Band,” as much a career-defining opener as you could think of. There were some nice dark spaces before “Uncle John’s Band,” followed by a segue into Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy.” Just as Jerry Garcia and Brent Mydland used to duet on the song, Mayer and Weir shared vocals and did the “Hey Jude Reprise” as well. The pairing of “Ramble On Rose” and “Brown-Eyed Women” were perfect for Mayer to shine on. Weir sings the first song, but both Europe ’72 classics were right in Mayer’s wheelhouse and really tapped into the energy in the stadium.
The set-closing “Jack Straw,” and the entire second set, really one wonder what Bob Weir’s plans are for the future. He clearly enjoys this band, as evidenced by the audible of “Wang Dang Doodle” out of “Truckin’” to open the set. “Scarlet Begonias” highlighted some of the night’s best guitar work as it settled into “Franklin’s Tower.” “St. Stephen” is never bad to hear, especially if you are of the age that you can remember hearing any band with “Dead” in its title play it was a dream. It was nice to hear “The Eleven” at the end of it as well.
The stretch run was where the uncertainty over the band’s future really set in. Over the last couple of years, it feels like Bob Weir has been at times fucking with all of us. When he did his Blue Mountain album, Wolf Bros tour, and even his guest spot with Billy Strings, Weir sang his ass off and at times conjured up the Bobby of old. But with “All Along The Watchtower” and “Morning Dew,” he retreated into the character he’s seemed to have created on stage. Is it just “the old man getting on?” or is it just “Bobby being Bobby?” For “Dew,” he often sang away from the mic or simply omitted words. This was more than a little jarring during the Dead’s most beloved ballad. Yet, he knew every word of “The Eleven” seemingly without using the TelePrompter. This is the same guy who willingly and admittedly let himself look like a “grizzled Civil War veteran” but works out to give himself some serious biceps. Yes, I know he also had serious back problems which led to his fitness regime, but this is also the same guy who wore a kilt to Dead and Co.’s MSG shows a few years back.
My point, and I do have one, is that Bob Weir seems unsure of the future of this project onstage. He always joked that the Grateful Dead didn’t need him or any of its original members to tour. John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti, and even Jay Lane (who filled in for Kreutzmann this tour) seem to be really enjoying this all. But with Bobby you can’t always tell, which may be the point.
The “Wang Dang Doodle” inclusion bumped something from the post-Space run, “The Wheel,” perhaps? “Deal” and the “Playin’ Reprise” were listed as encores, though the band never left the stage. The fact that “One More Saturday Night” was omitted was also noteworthy. All these things could mean nothing. The show was fun as hell, so why overthink it. As the famous Stones song goes, “this could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don’t know.”
