We've been blessed to have one of the finest bands ever, Dead & Company, touring for the last few years and visiting New England frequently. But nothing is forever, especially bands. Original Dead drummer, Bill Kreutzmann, has had to sit out stretches of their last couple of tours and announced early that he wouldn't be on this one at all. Bob Weir's other band, Wolf Bros (which includes Kreutzmann's replacement, Jay Lane, and sometimes keyboardist Jeff Chimenti), has been taking a lot of his time, and the other members of the band, especially John Mayer, have many irons in the fire themselves.
Probably for these and other reasons, Dead & Company announced that their Summer 2023 tour would be their last, and more than the usual frenzy for tickets ensued. There are rumors that actually the "end" of this band is mostly motivated by contractual issues, and that a "next Dead band" will appear soon under a different name. We'll see about that, I hope so.
In any event, the last gasp of this band has been riveting. We'd managed to stream about half the shows on the tour in advance of their June 24th and 25th appearances in Fenway Park. And we'd been very impressed. Not to knock Kreutzmann at all, but their rhythm was key to the band approaching another level from their last few tours. The adventure they brought to GD music had increased steadily with each tour, but this time around they seemed a little more crisp and assured in addition to that. Being their last tour probably helped also, they seemed more ready to push the envelope and try new things.
And Mayer and Chimenti have been playing flawlessly. I remember Garcia taking over entire theaters with his guitar playing, and Mayer has been reaching that level. He starts into a lead on his blues guitar (that he's been been playing almost all the time) and your whole soul just follows along with him. Then Jeff takes a lead and you trust him to take you to a higher place. Bobby had been showing some wear and tear in his voice lately, but his guitar playing was as right on as ever ... he's been mostly sticking to his green D'Angelico. And the bottom end has been remarkable (again, not knocking Kreutzmann), filled with drum pyrotechnics and fast bass passages.
Dave had gotten tickets to the shows at Citi Field (New York) preceding the Boston shows, but decided that the physical and psychological cost of going down there was probably not worth it. We agreed, we shuddered a bit at the thought of the intense crowd scenes and all that goes along with them. But we'd be damned before we'd skip the Fenway shows (even though this meant missing the Green River Festival this year!), and we lined up online for tickets to them. Even this was an intense hassle but we got seats to both shows and got very psyched for them.
Dave was over for the weekend and we headed into the Fens early on the 24th, hoping that the incredible rains of this late Spring/early Summer would hold off. We got a table at oppressively noisy and crowded Yard House. Can't believe that our waitress could put up with that level of noise for her whole shift. We had to shout in her ear to place our orders. But we like the beer and food there, it's very conveniently located, and we didn't have to wait for a table for that long.
Off to the ballpark after that and we managed to find our way to our pretty good seats in a box just to the left of the visitor dugout, five or so rows from the field. I considered getting a beer, but the lines were long and the crowd was oppressive with people clogging the aisles and wandering around in dazes. It looked worse out on the field, especially when they wheeled out a stretcher for a medical emergency and closed off one of the pressure valves holding those fans in. Anyway, we were ready for the madness and pretty much stuck to our seats.
Another thing we were prepared for but exceeded our expectations was talking in the crowd. Some people carried on conversations throughout the whole concert, like they were sitting (stoned) in their living rooms. The guy to my right had done lighting at Fenway and so got a lot of tickets for friends. Most of them were Deadicated concert goers like him and were there to listen. But some weren't. One couple in particular shoved their way up to talk to him and kept on talking, with their backs to the band. I finally asked them to keep it down and the friend was outraged at that. He and his partner left in a huff and soon after that the guy to my right touched my shoulder. When I turned around he and his girlfriend offered me a handshake and a fist-bump, smiled, and said thanks for that. They were there to listen, not to talk!
And some people were there to smoke pot, and smoke more pot, and keep on smoking pot. I'm used to clouds of smoke at concerts, but this was extreme, especially the couple who sat in front of us for the second set and smoked doobie after doobie of ditchweed, like they'd better smoke as much as they could before they had to leave. We were choking from the smell ... hadn't they heard of edibles?
Anyway, just trying to set the bad part of the scene. The good part of the scene was fantastic! The rain held off and we even got some blue sky and brilliant sunshine reflecting off the right field stands. Our sight lines were pretty good, being a few rows up we could see all of the stage very well. And the sound was as great as you'd expect from such an experienced band. They were scheduled to start at 6:30 and came on late (supposedly, John, Oteil, and Jeff were stuck in traffic and had to get out of the limo and run). Here's the first set:
- Cassidy
- Brown-Eyed Women
- I Need a Miracle
- Here Comes Sunshine
- Tennessee Jed
- China Doll
- Viola Lee Blues
- The Music Never Stopped
Even to critics like us, who had seen much of the tour and were even pickier because of that, this just bowled us over. Bobby's voice was not shaky at all, it was as strong as ever. They were so tight and well-rehearsed and the sound was so good. And they brought that extra panache we'd noticed with this tour, ready to jam and be experimental, but doing it as a group rather than a bunch of individuals.
And the experience was beautiful, I almost forgot about all the madness. Seagulls whirled above Fenway in the slowly setting sun as they sang about the flight of the seabirds. We'd predicted that they'd play Here Comes Sunshine, and we'd recently heard covers of that song by Phil's bands that we considered hard to equal, but this was just as magical an experience, if not better. We were outside, the rain was holding off, and the early evening summer sun was streaking through the venerable ballpark, while on stage John and Bobby and Oteil and Jeff (who's vocal contributions were key) sang their hearts out.
Wow, that was great. The bathroom was not that far away, but the beer lines were still impossible and I fled back to my seat while the rock crowd in Fenway whirled around us. I knew I would be going back there the next night, but my future plans do not include many concerts at Fenway!
Anyway, it was an unusually short set break and then the guys came back out and wowed us some more.
- New Speedway Boogie
- Dark Star
- The Other One
- Terrapin Station
- Drums
- Space
- Dark Star On the Big River
- Black Peter
- Casey Jones
- One More Saturday Night
This was a mind-bending set! We were hoping for a Dark Star and boy did we get one. They went far out there, but this was a solid, booming outer space experience, and they kept teasing TOO and then went into it, one of Dave's and my favorite songs. And then they held up after the first verse and shifted gear smoothly into Terrapin. Excellent stuff.
Oteil had been doing a duet with Mickey at the beginning of some Drums segments on the tour, but this night they went right onto the meat of Drums, and then Mickey had an extended time on The Beam. He took it way down low and got Fenway shaking while the lights played over the press box. Dave thinks he actually saw him lick The Beam, as he sometimes does in the throes of ecstasy.
And then something totally unexpected happened. We were thinking that they'd go back into TOO and/or back into Dark Star, both of which had only been the first verses. But were they going to break into Big River? Were they going to go back into Space? What was happening? Oteil and John found a groove and Bobby and Jeff jumped right in and they followed that groove down the rabbit hole and back out and we all were suddenly parsecs away. In the band's later notes they scribbled a name for this jam, "Dark Star On the Big River." And that's what it was. You have to hear this.
Bobby always sings me Black Peter, and this one was fine. And Casey Jones is a little overplayed, but this was such an excellent one! John's vocal lead was great, and Oteil was a monster, hopping around the stage and playing a loud, strong, inventive bass line.
The finished with OMSN, being Saturday, and then waved goodbye. No encore tonight, as it was already pretty late and they were pressing up against Fenway's curfew.
We had to wait a bit before the lines out started moving and sat quietly in our seats while others clambered over us. The couple in front of us had been some of the first to "leave," though they had to be staggering after power-smoking ditchweed all night. Finally the crowd started moving and we made it out to Jersey Street, where we found ourselves in another crowd, pushing out to Van Ness and beyond, barely able to take steps without trampling each other. Finally made it back to our parking garage, got some good luck with lights down Boylston, and then were on the road back home.
What a horror show but what a great concert!
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