Concert Review: Dead & Co. at the Las Vegas Sphere April 25, 2025

I was gonna write about President Trump’s first 100 days, but I was interrupted by the Dead & Co show at the Sphere in Vegas and I just had to write about while experience was still fresh in my mind. I will return to regularly scheduled programming next week.

The ritual of attending rock concerts with friends is a great American tradition that started in the 1950s with the emergence of rock ‘n roll with artists like Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Johnny Cash. My first show was a 1973 middle school “field trip” to see Jethro Tull at the old Boston Garden. Hey, it was the 70s and school was a little looser then.  My obsession with music was officially kickstarted. Since then, I’ve seen my share of shows spanning the gamut of huge stadium shows with the likes of Boston, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, ZZ Top, Peter Gabriel, X, The Eagles and too many nightclub shows to count. As a quick public service announcement, I am bummed that access to rock shows has become a massive industry dominated by a few huge ticket brokers like Ticketmaster who have raised prices to the point they are outreach for many Americans. That really sucks.

I’m not a Dead Head but I was coaxed into seeing Dead & Co by a close college friend who is also not a Dead Head, and whose musical tastes track more closely to mine. That changed when he saw the Grateful Dead at the Las Vegas Sphere last year, he was hooked. I have had many opportunities over the years to see the Grateful Dead in their heyday when Jerry Garcia and all the members were alive, but I said no to free tickets and friends who insisted I would regret it. I just thought they didn’t have the musicianship and power of the bands that I loved.

Then I watched the 2017 Long Strange Trip Dead documentary several years ago and that piqued my interest in the Dead. At the very least, I had to respect their success in building a legendary fan base from the bottom up. Without the kind of support from major record labels they just toured 100 days per year. They built their brand around live performances where every show was different. It spawned a cottage industry, that traded boot legged recordings of thousands of shows. Their trademark graphics with the skull and crown of roses made them an early adopter of combining music with graphic art. Back in the day when vinyl album covers were art themselves. The sphere was designed with this motif in mind.

So, when I learned that my friend was heading back to the Las Vegas Sphere for another Dead & Company show, I said yes, and our group four Air Force Academy buddies met in Sin City for the event. Together, we were comprised of two loyal Dead Heads, and two newbies. This would be my first live exposure to the Grateful Dead at the tender age of 65. In fact, my three buddies saw all three shows in a row that weekend. Now that’s what I call “Deadication.”

The lineup has changed quite a bit given the deaths Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmans health issues. But what’s left of the Grateful Dead is Dead & Co and they include co-founder Bob Weir on vocals and rhythm guitar, early member Mickey Hart on percussion, Oteil Burnbridge on bass, Greg Chimiento on keyboards and John Mayer on vocals and lead guitar.  This outfit does the music serious justice. Especially John Mayer. For me he has cemented his position as the GOAT guitarist who stands on the shoulders of giants like Hendrix, Page, and Gilmour. No less of a guitar legend than Eric Clapton proclaims: “

“John Mayer is a master. He’s a master of touch, a master of dynamics, and he has a great, great voice. He’s one of the best guitar players I’ve heard.”

Mayer skillfully reinterpreted the expansive Dead catalog with his mellifluous vocals and other worldly guitar chops.

At the tender age of 78 Bob Weir, with his bushy white hair and beard, moved around on stage like a musical Bilbo Baggins singing A Hobbits Tale. The show opened with a favorite, Playing with the Band, against a stunning graphic of Haight-Ashbury Street from the 1970s. Bobby’s voice was never technically great, and neither was Jerry Garcia’s for that matter. But they sing with a soulfulness that was unique and who cares anyway. Their songwriting was incredible. I have new respect for Bobby Weir as a great songwriter. And did I mention Bob has the best beard of all time? If me and my gray-haired bearded buddies put our beards together, it would not come close to the fur face mask sported by Mr. Weir.

Dead & Co. is obviously the headline participant in the rock show but the Sphere itself is also a critical part of the experience. The graphics projected inside the globe was like being in a psychedelic eyeball Looking outward. And inward. On and on. Into beautiful infinity. I wonder if some of the graphics moved dynamically with the music. Vibrantly colored Kaleidoscope tunnels morph into spaceship views of earth, and thousands of pixelated dancing bears mimicking the designs of blotter acid that fueled the Dead’s shows for decades. At one point I asked one of my buddies, “How many skulls do you think are projecting on the massive globular screen?” He just said, “I dunno man. Too many to count.” It’s no surprise that the success of the Las Vegas Sphere has spawned a copycat that will be constructed in Abu Dhabi. I am sure there will be others.

From the beginning, an indispensable part of any Grateful Dead show has been the audience. Most fans have seen multiple shows over the years, and they dwarf the first timers like me. Our show was a sea of gray-haired 70-something boomers in their vintage tie dye Dead shirts mixed with a whole bunch of young people who were introduced to the music by their parents and grandparents. I don’t think there is any musical equal that spans multi generations like the Grateful Dead. A perfect example was the group of young folks sitting behind us who were very amused and impressed with the banter between me and my three gray-haired buddies. They insisted on taking a group picture after the show.

The second set of the three-hour show opened with the iconic Sugaree. The folks in front of us were dancing to the languid groove which blocked a bit of our view, and when I asked my buddy what we should do, he said “the guy’s got to go but” the dancing waif directly in front of us “could stay.” I broke out in uncontrolled laughter. I cherish friends who make me laugh. The Beatles lyric, “I get by with a little help from my friends” comes to mind.

Dead & Co. closed the show with transcendent renditions of Uncle John’s Band and Casey Jones. The Sphere was rumbling with the collective voices of the 20,000 fans singing along with the band as the lava lamp projections seemed to jump out right in front of us. As we finally left the building to walk the neon-infused Vegas strip back to our hotel after-party, we all agreed that, despite the ticket costs, this was the best entertainment bang for the buck we had ever experienced. Bob Weir and his merry band of pranksters had forcefully driven a stake in the ground representing the creative musical culture of the 70s, as if to say, “There you go. Top that.”