Table of Contents

Dead & Company at Folsom Field, July 3, 2023

AXS presents Dead & Company
Folsom Field
University of Colorado in Boulder, 2400 Colorado Avenue, Boulder, CO 80302 USA
6:00 PM, Monday, July 3, 2023

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

Soundcheck

Set One

[6:42 PM] {performers out, noodling}

  1. [6:43 PM] Bertha (JM) …
  2. [6:53 PM] New Speedway Boogie
    [7:04 PM] {BW swap to auction guitar}
  3. [7:04 PM] Cold, Rain & Snow (JM)
    [7:12 PM] {BW swap to grey guitar}
  4. [7:12 PM] Jack Straw >
  5. [7:22 PM] Althea (JM) …
  6. [7:31 PM] Playing in the Band
    [7:35 PM] {lightning alert! abort set!}

Set Two

[8:27 PM] {performers out}

  1. [8:28 PM] Playing in the Band » [8:32 PM] Uncle John's Band tease »
  2. [8:35 PM] Uncle John's Band » [8:46 PM] Playing in the Band reprise …
  3. [8:49 PM] Help on the Way (JM) » [8:54 PM] Slipknot! »
  4. [9:01 PM] Franklin's Tower (JM) »
  5. [9:12 PM] He's Gone » [9:25 PM] the Other One teases »
  6. [9:26 PM] the Other One: jam » [9:29 PM] {second verse} » jam » [9:32 PM] {front line heads off} »
  7. [9:32 PM] Drumspace: {MH starts a drone » [9:34 PM] {add OB; skeleton drummer puppet video} » [9:40 PM] {short bell jam; then MH over to the beam after a minute; OB off; JL off 30 sec later; MH playing bell samples over deep drone} » [9:44 PM] {fat bouncy electronic burble over the same drone} » [9:46 PM] {MH off, drone continues; add front line x OB} » [9:47 PM] {add OB » Dear Prudence tease? Nah, just space} » [9:52 PM] {MH and JL standing ready to mount up} » [9:54 PM] {drummers in the kit!} »
  8. [9:54 PM] Standing on the Moon
    {JM introduces Dave Matthews: acoustic guitar & vox}
  9. [10:06 PM] All Along the Watchtower (DM) »
  10. [10:15 PM] Not Fade Away
    [10:23 PM] {set ends; Dave & Bobby hug; all off}

    Encore
    [10:25 PM] {all back out; MH with a cigarette?!}
  11. [10:25 PM] Knocking on Heaven's Door (BW/DM/JM)
  12. [10:33 PM] the Weight (BW/JM/OB/DM/BW falsetto)
    [10:41 PM] {show ends; group bow; hugs all around; all off and done 10:43 PM}

Performers

Dead & Company

Special Guest

Notes

Kept the same schedule today as the first two: why mess with success? I drop Ting off near the Field access line, then circle campus and park on University. Lots of open spots on the westbound side right now, but curiously, parking on the other side of the road is full. Maybe most folks enter from the neighborhood to the west of campus? I dunno! Still got a few minutes to kill before I can pay for parking, so I chill awhile in the shade near the parking machine…

[3:25 PM] Comfy and seated at the head of the line again: how long will it take for the next 95 minutes to tick past?

[4 PM] The line is starting to get packed in. Lots of eager folks, not smart enough to sit down and take up space to keep things mellow.

[5:06 PM] Inside on the field! Managed to find a small bit of unclaimed space to stand on, nearly dead center, but ~40 feet back. Ting is not psyched: there will be too many tall people in front of us; she goes scouting for greener pastures. The entry system totally broke down again, with gonzo folks overrunning security as soon as they could. Kind of lame, both from the fans and from security. Happy to be centered at least. Unhappy to be roasting in the sun again: hoping some of those clouds floating around will drift across the sun.

[5:40 PM] Still too hot. A few wisps of cloud have tempered the direct radiation, but the heat is definitely making folks grouchy. The smart thing to do would be to go hide in the shade, but there's no guarantee of keeping your spot any better than setting your ass on the ground, right? I stay put and broil.

[6:10 PM] And I'm getting both standing shade and cloud shade: hallelujah! And to make it all even better the crowd has melted a bit (mellowed!). Must be the positive vibe establishing itself now that folks aren't fighting over precious squares on the plastic field cover.

[6:26 PM] Ajay and the other roadies are doing line checks: it won't be long now! (Still waiting…).

[6:35 PM] Ting comes back to tell me that she's secured space for the both of us about 10' closer to the stage. I'll take that upgrade, thanks!

First set tonight is solid. Not spectacular, but better than yesterday. Unfortunately, after only a few minutes of Playing in the Band, Bobby announces that the show is being cut short out of concern for incoming thunderstorms. The PA blares public service announcements advising fans to find shelter until the storm passes. I take this as an opportunity for an early piss break, then hang out at the very top of the stands in the half-shelter of the roof overhang. I don't notice any thunder or lightning nearby, but we do see some rain. After another five or 10 minutes, the exodus of folks from the field has stopped (along with most of the rain), so I head back to our spot on the floor to wait out the rest of the break. I don't recall hearing any sort of announcement to cancel the emergency warning, but folks drift back in little by little, and by 8:15 PM it's darn crowded once again.

Around 8:25 PM it's looking like the show will resume any minute now, and soon enough, it does, with the band slipping back into a Playing in the Band jam to start things off, then sliding into a few minutes of Uncle John's Band jam before stating head of the tune properly. Presumably, that was 'the end' of the originally planned first set… which would make the Help-Slip-Franklin's trio the start of set two, right? Anyways, it was darn good, and I'm glad they played it for us. I was glad to hear teases of the Other One as the band jammed out of He's Gone, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if they hadn't split the tune across the two days – maybe that was a fix for unintentionally leaving the tune unfinished on Sunday?

Like the other days of this run, Drums was super-good. Lots of interesting sound textures over a deep groove. And happily, today we had a really quiet crowd around us, so I could dance and enjoy the percussion without trying to filter out inane background chit-chat. I was less enthusiastic about Space today – it was interesting, but not really as engrossing as drums. Maybe I was too caught up in guessing what the next tune was going to be instead of listening to what was happening right in front of me?

Standing on the Moon was a good choice for a full moon night at an outdoor show, but between the late moonrise and remnant thunderclouds, I don't recall being able to see the moon at all during this tune tonight. Next, John Mayer gave a heartfelt and very warm welcome to Dave Matthews, tonight's special guest, who delivered a rousingly different vocal rendition of All Along the Watchtower. I'm pretty sure that difference included singing the whole song twice (or possibly repeating some verses two or three times … I guess that's one way to make your mark as a vocalist!). I think Dave took a verse of Not Fade Away too, but I must have been busy dancing then instead of paying attention and taking notes: shame on me!

And while I was a little surprised to get a double encore, the song selection seemed predictable, given that we'd heard them practicing both tunes earlier in the afternoon for soundcheck. I guess that takes some of the fun out of the experience, but it's hard to ignore soundcheck when you're sitting right outside the stadium while it happens.

All in all, this was a great run: I'm really glad we stuffed it into our schedule!

[10:24 PM] Back at the car. No tail-gaiting tonight as we're not set up for that. Ger & Pumpkin have walked out with us, so we drive to the other side of campus to drop them off at their car.

[10:41 PM] 15 minutes to go a mile or three: that's traffic for ya! We drop off Ger & Pumpkin, then begin the slow haul (thick traffic!) back to our hotel in Westminster.

Photos

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

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Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!