MLB presents Dead & Company
Wrigley Field
1060 W Addison St, Chicago, IL 60613 USA
6:30 PM, Friday, June 30, 2017

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[6:43 PM band out]

1. [6:44 PM] The Music Never Stopped (BW)
2. [6:54 PM] Bertha (JM)
3. [7:04 PM] Me & My Uncle (BW)
4. [7:08 PM] Sugaree (JM)
5. [7:25 PM] Let It Grow (BW)
6. [7:39 PM] Uncle John's Band (7:45 Mayer swaps to electric, Weir does same soon after) » (7:50 Mayer swaps back to acoustic)
   [set ends 7:52 PM with the band pranking Mayer on the final go 'round]

[8:38 PM lights down, band out]

1. [8:40 PM] Shakedown Street (BW)
2. [8:53 PM] Dark Star » (8:56 PM first verse - BW) » epic jam, no second verse »
3. [9:02 PM] St. Stephen (JM/BW) » (9:10 PM totally sweet Mayer jam) » (9:15 PM Weir reels 'em in for the finale) »
4. [9:16 PM] China Doll (OB)
5. [9:25 PM] Lady With a Fan (JM) » [9:33 PM] Terrapin Station (BW) »
6. [9:37 PM] Uncle John's reprise »
7. [9:39 PM] Drums » (9:44 PM add OB) » (9:45 PM MH moves to the beam) » (drop OB, BK, MH; add JC, JM, BW)
8. [9:50 PM] Space » (9:52 PM add OB) » (9:56 PM add BK, MH) » (9:57 PM Milestones teases) »
9. [9:58 PM] Standing on the Moon (BW) »
10. [10:08 PM] Help on the Way (JM) »
11. [10:13 PM] Slipknot! »
12. [10:17 PM] Franklin's Tower (JM) » (10:28 PM Franklin's Tower finale reprise)
    [set ends 10:29 PM]
     
    Encore
13. [10:31 PM] Ripple (JM & BW acoustics)
14. [10:36 PM] U.S. Blues (BW/JM)
    [show ends 10:43 PM]

Dead & Company

• Oteil Burbridge: bass, lead and harmony vox;
• Jeff Chimenti: piano, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards, harmony vox;
• Mickey Hart: drums;
• Bill Kreutzmann: drums;
• John Mayer: guitar, lead and harmony vox;
• Bob Weir: guitar, lead and harmony vox.

Headed out from the hotel a little after 3:15, stopped here and there for a few errands, then got to the CTA around 3:45. Caught the next train in, got off and walked a block to Wrigley. Looked like only a couple hundred folks waiting for early entrance, and wouldn't you know, a few at the very front were friends waving at us to walk on up. Oh yeah!

Soon enough it's time to head in. We negotiate the scramble in style, and by 4:45 we're planted, dead center, about 8' back from the rail. Double plus good! Time to chill.

It's a long wait until showtime, but the crowd is merry, and it's not too hot today. It sprinkles for about 5 or ten minutes, but it's not serious enough to collect on the blankets or stimulate us to put on any layers… My sun hat does double duty in admirable fashion!

The stage is set up in center field; upon entering from the gallery beneath the bleachers, you cross over a makeshift platform built to cover the reliever's warm-up mound. It was funny to see folks posing for pics against the ivy-covered walls; one dude on our post-show CTA ride even had a wreath of purloined ivy wrapped around the crown of his hat. Fine evidence of the magic of MLB marketing and our susceptibility to collective nostalgia, no?

Some scattered thoughts about the show:

Mickey Hart played soulful percussion on Me & My Uncle; (I'd like to hear more about the inspiration to add those old shoes to his kit. I also noticed that the mask collection on his kit has grown – looks like a gas mask and a bush hat have been added.

Sugaree started out deathly slow, but grew into a killer jam or two, with Mayer shredding lightning bolts before dropping back to a super-sedated ending.

During the final out jam of Let It Grow, Weir swaps to acoustic; Mayer swaps immediately after they wrap things up. Most of Uncle John's Band is performed on the acoustics, but both guitarists swap back to electric for a killer jam late in the tune. Mayer swaps back to acoustic for the final go round at the end; seemed to me like the band decided to prank him on the ending, nyuck-nyuck-nyuck!

Dark Star featured an epic jam, but no second verse – looking at the printed setlist, I'm guessing that the sudden transition to Stephen was a JM miscue – Weir was probably prompting him to head back to the head for the second verse, but Mayer moved on to the next tune on the list instead. Hard to know without hearing something from the participants!

St. Stephen included a totally sweet Mayer jam, shortened by Weir's decision to reel 'em in for the finale, sigh.

As happened at many earlier Dead & Co. shows, OB joined MH and BK during drums.

When the front line came back, they teased Milestones during space … nothing super coordinated, but definitely present to the discerning listener.

Hard to know what was going on with the Franklin's Tower finale reprise – could be the same signaling/lack of coordination issue that came up earlier in the set, where the band members aren't all on the same page, so someone blows it, and the instantaneous impromptu reaction is to roll around one more time to get things right. In any case, it was strange and unexpected!

Ripple was oh so sweet!

And my oh my oh my did U.S. Blues rock the house tonight.

For me, this was the best of the six shows I saw on this tour.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!