Dead & Company Drop Setlist Bonanza At Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park (SHOW REVIEW)

After more than fifty years, the Grateful Dead’s long strange trip through Philadelphia has finally come to an end. Maybe. 

Since 1968, when the Jerry Garcia and Pigpen-led iteration of the Dead first visited the City of Brotherly Love for a three-night run at the infamous Electric Factory, Philly has proudly counted itself as something of a secondary/east-coast-centric home for the San Francisco-based psychedelic traveling circus. 

That geographical affinity was shared by band members and fans alike as the Grateful Dead would go on to perform nearly seventy Philadelphia-area concerts through Garcia’s death in 1995, with over fifty of those occurring at the now-defunct venue, The Spectrum. 

The notoriously rowdy (yet remarkably respectful) Philly-based audiences always seemed to motivate the band to perform at the top of their game, leading to a slew of legendary concerts. In 1995, when Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh decided it was finally time to bust out “Unbroken Chain”, his highly regarded song from the Dead’s 1974 album From The Mars Hotel, he insisted it happens in Philly.

The trend of top-shelf performances has kept up long after Garcia’s death, with various post-GD ensembles, Furthur, The Dead, The Other Ones etc., continually delivering high-energy concerts to the ravenously appreciative Philly natives. 

Dead and Company, the latest post-Garcia iteration led by John Mayer and Bob Weir, is arguably the greatest example of this continuing cultural and musical phenomenon, and last night’s performance (6/15) at the cavernous Citizens Bank Park was no exception. 

However, given the surprise announcement earlier this year that this would be the band’s final tour, a genuinely head-scratching decision considering the group’s ability to still sell out massive stadiums and perform at a consistently high level, along with the even more-alarming news that founding member Bill Kreutzmann would not be joining his musical brethren on drums for this final run due to a “shift in creative direction”, fans were left somewhat uncertain and bittersweet about the what the future holds for the remaining band members. 

Fortunately, any remaining doubts were likely immediately forgotten – at least temporarily –  thanks to a pair of high-energy sets lasting well over three hours that focused on some of the Dead’s most cherished material from every era of the band’s legendary catalog. 

Taking to the stage shortly after 7 pm, with a typically hazy June sunset looming over the Philly skyline on the horizon, the sextet immediately kicked things into high gear with a rousing opening trio beginning with the familiar strains of King Radio’s made famous by Harry Belafonte’s calypso special, “Women Are Smarter”. An explosive rendition of the Dead’s “Shakedown Street” got the expected rise out of the crowd thanks to some tasty Q-Tron-infused guitar runs from Mayer that led to an impressive psychedelic-laden jam before segueing nicely into the traditional “Cold Rain & Snow” with Mayer handling lead vocals. 

Weir then returned to the microphone to lead the group through a dynamic reading of “Jack Straw”, which eventually churned towards a climactic closing jam before Mayer took the helm of the Robert Hunter/Garcia gem, “Brown Eyed Women” which featured some impressive piano work from Jeff Chimenti, who continues to cement his legacy as the longest continual keyboardist in any Dead related projects.

A slow spacy jam that hinted at Dead specials like “Wharf Rat” and “Bird Song” eventually morphed into the first verse of the Holy Grail of Dead songs, “Dark Star.” The group then settled in for an extended psychedelic odyssey that traversed the cosmos and contained some impressive jazz chops from the entire ensemble that ultimately landed on Marty Robbin’s cowboy-carol, “El Paso.”

The opening stanza came to a triumphant conclusion with another traditional cover, and one of the oldest songs from the Dead’s repertoire dating back to 1966, with a raucous take on “Don’t Ease Me In” which worked the capacity crowd into a frenzy thanks to some explosive runs from Chimenti on his Hammond B3 organ (which was also utilized by Mydland during his tenure with the Grateful Dead). 

After a (somewhat) brief setbreak, which featured an endearing moment that saw a sizeable portion of the crowd singing along to Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” as it played over the P.A. system, the band opened up the second set on a decidedly more mellow note with a patient reading of “Fire on the Mountain” which featured a rare (and serene) lead vocal performance from bassist Oteil Burbridge. 

A bluesy take on another Hunter/Garcia gem, “New Speedway Boogie” counts as one of the evening’s many standout moments thanks to some impressive guitar runs from Mayer along with a re-worked final vocal section. Weir then continued to lead the group through an invigorating combo of “Estimated Prophet” and “Eyes of the World”, the latter of which featured some jaw-dropping jazz-infused piano work from Chimenti and stands as one of the evening’s most impressive moments as the entire ensemble was firing on all cylinders. 

The pre-requisite “Drums/Space” segment featured Burbridge joining the percussive duo of Mickey Hart and Jay Lane for some memorable EDM-inspired segments that elicited some appreciative howls from the Philly faithful before the subtle return of the “Dark Star” theme which led to the second verse of the magnum opus. 

The instrumental fireworks continued with an exhilarating rendition of the bluegrass-fed “Cumberland Blues” before Weir took over lead vocal duties for a tender performance of Garcia’s haunting late-era ballad “Standing on the Moon”, which featured a dramatic tear-jerking delivery from the guitarist during the song’s final refrain.

An energetic set-closing take on Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”, a song the Dead have truly made their own, gave way to an endearing call-and-response moment with the entire crowd with full-throttle chants of “You know our love will not fade away!” as the band members gradually left the stage. A fitting message if there ever was one, especially when considering the band’s highly uncertain future.

A poignant acoustic encore rendition of “Ripple” evoked a goosebump-inducing sing-a-long moment among the tens of thousands of attendees before sending the massive throng into the clear cool Philadelphia night. 

While the likelihood of Weir & Hart continuing to perform together until their proverbial wheels literally fall off remains high, the bottom line is that, as of right now, the future of the music of the Grateful Dead in a live setting is as uncertain as it’s ever been. That said, if last night’s Dead and Company show was any indication, fans can hold out hope that the long strange trip will continue for another fifty years, in one form or another.