The Saturday concert had been so good, and we wondered what surprises were in store for us on Sunday. Samson and Delilah for sure, but besides that most of our predictions were incorrect. But whatever, that was fine with us!
The big topic was how and when we were going to get in to Fenway. As bad as our crowd experience had been, we knew that it would be even worse if we didn't head in there sooner rather than later, and we decided to brave Yard House once more. Couldn't be as noisy and crowded as yesterday, huh?
We parked in the same garage on Ross Way and were about to get to the restaurant, where Andrew (who hadn't been at Saturday's show) was already waiting. But who were those two hippies right in front of us? It was Paul and Diane! They're some of our Green River Festival friends and had been there for Friday and Saturday, but had just arrived back in Boston for the DeadCo show. What serendipity, this was amazing!
We got a big, relatively quiet table, and all six of us had a great meal, with some fine beers, salads, and conversation. Time to head in and we broke up with them to find our way in. Amazingly, the merch stand outside had no line and we were able to pick up a few t-shirts and sweatshirts, which we dumped back at the car. Then we walked all the way down Van Ness to the bleacher entrance and hooked back around up to our right-field grandstand seats, under the overhang and not far from where we'd sat for the Thanksgiving Woburn-Winchester game in 2021. Luckily the evening sun didn't quite shine in our eyes, and the sight lines were almost as good as they had been the night before, though the sound was understandably not quite as good.
We were able to hit the bathrooms and beer line before it got too crazy, and then make it back to our seats. But the talkers and pot chain-smokers were again ubiquitous! Two guys behind us in the second set were engaged in a long conversation and during Drums one of them (a loud talker) commented that this was what he'd come for. I whirled around and said, "Excuse me, I have to interrupt. If you came for Drums how come you're not listening to it?" He got the point and quieted down a bit.
Anyway, this was another excellent concert, perhaps not as dynamic as Saturday's had been.
- Samson and Delilah
- Cold Rain and Snow
- Jack Straw
- Althea
- Comes a Time
- Mr. Charlie
- He's Gone
- Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad
I just love CR&S, and the timeless Jack Straw was another magical first set song, setting the tone for another great Summer. Comes a Time was a surprise ... tour debut ... and Oteil was in excellent voice on it. John took the blues intensity up with Mr. Charlie, and the whole band took it ever farther up with great ensemble singing on He's Gone. And then GDTRFB was a rocking sing-along for all of Fenway. What fun!
Longer set break than Saturday, but we stayed in our seats. We knew that just getting to the bathroom would be insane, and getting back would be even worse. And no way we were going to brave the beer lines. We'd gotten some outrageously priced bottles of water when we got beer before the first set, and these helped us get through. We were up and dancing for most of the show of course, but by the end of the night we were getting pretty exhausted. Anyway, time for the second set, where the dragons come out.
- They Love Each Other
- Playing In the Band
- Help On the Way
- Slipknot!
- Fire On the Mountain
- Drums
- Space
- Playing In the Band
- The Other One
- Standing On the Moon
- Not Fade Away
More individual excellence and more tight, accomplished takes on these songs. They reprised PITB after another mind-bending Space segment and then went into a dark and meaty reprise of TOO, finally finishing up the second verse. Sarah loves SOTM and this was a great cover with Bob singing as well as ever.
It's in their contract that they have to throw NFA to the crowds so they can chant endlessly, but this was luckily a short and sweet one and the band came back out for an encore before things really got out of hand. They had meant to encore with The Weight Saturday night before getting distracted by the dark star on the big river, but they did it Sunday night (with Jeff taking a verse of course), and then finished off with Ripple.
Geez, will I ever see these guys again? Probably not in that configuration at least, though I knew I'd be seeing more streams of this tour. But it was sad to have them leave Fenway ... wait a minute, will I ever be inside Fenway again? Probably, but again, nothing is forever.
Anyway, we were close to our limit with the scene. Successfully exited out the bleacher entrance but then knew that it would take hours to get all the way up Van Ness, so we detoured around up Boylston, which was pretty packed too. Made it back to the garage, but the luck we'd had with lights on Saturday didn't hold, dentists were dashing across the street with balloons, and we were delayed forever just exiting up to Storrow. And when we made it to 93 North, there were three lanes closed and it took forever just to get up to Roosevelt Circle, where we opted for cross-country back home.
But what a weekend it had been! We've been blessed by Dead & Company, and we've taken the opportunities we could to go see them live. It's been worth every second.
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