MLB presents Dead & Company
Wrigley Field
1060 W Addison St, Chicago, IL 60613 USA
6:30 PM, Saturday, June 25, 2022

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[6:33 PM] {hooting for Oteil: the natives are ready to rock!}
[6:40 PM] {performers out; Jay instead of Bill}

Time to play ball?

1. [6:41 PM] Scarlet Begonias » [6:48 PM] jam » [6:53 PM] coda
   [6:54 PM] {full stop}
2. [6:55 PM] the Wheel » [7:05 PM] {Island groove} » [7:09 PM] {JM swaps to Telecaster} »
3. [7:09 PM] New Speedway Boogie » [7:22 PM] {JM swaps back to blonde custom Les Paul}
4. [7:23 PM] Big Railroad Blues (JM)
5. [7:28 PM] Dancing in the Streets » [7:35 PM] {scattered rain} » [7:40 PM] {showers again}
   [7:42 PM] {brief stop}
6. [7:42 PM] Tennessee Jed
   [7:52 PM] {full stop}
7. [7:53 PM] Sugaree (JM)
   [8:05 PM] {set ends}

[8:39 PM] {lights down, performers out; BW playing pink ? Telecaster; JM on Les Paul}

All aboard!

1. [8:40 PM] Casey Jones (JM/BW) {weird version: no speedup or crescendo at the end!} [8:48 PM] {full stop; BW swaps to the custom-topped auction guitar}
2. [8:49 PM] Ramble on Rose
   [9:00 PM] {stop; BW swaps to gray semi-hollow ?ES-335¿}
3. [9:01 PM] Help on the Way (JM) » [9:04 PM] jam » [9:12 PM] Slipknot! »
4. [9:14 PM] Franklin's Tower (JM)
   {Stop. Front line heads off stage for a break}
5. [9:26 PM] drums » [9:28 PM] {add OB} » [9:35 PM] {drop JL, OB; MH swaps to the beam} » [9:41 PM] {add OB at bass} » [9:47 PM] {drop MH; add front line; JM teases Third Stone from the Sun for a bit} » [9:52 PM] {BW 2nd guitar swap since coming back onstage} » [9:53 PM] {add MH, JL} »
6. [9:55 PM] Days Between (BW) >
7. [10:09 PM] Fire on the Mountain (OB) >
8. [10:19 PM] One More Saturday Night (BW)
   [10:25 PM] {set ends; all off, back in a minute}
    
   Encore
9. [10:27 PM] Brokedown Palace (BW) >
10. [10:32 PM] Touch of Grey (BW/JM)
    [10:38 PM] {show ends}
    [10:43 PM] {on the CTA, ready to roll south!}

official setlist posted to Twitter: what's under the tape?

Dead & Company

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

[4:04 PM] I'm psyched to be done with work (all caught up for the moment? Sorta! 🤪) and on my way to party central with the Dead Boys.

[4:37 PM] My Uber drops me off at Midway CTA. Riding that train…

A little under an hour later, I've disembarked at Addison. The usual street circus is happening, but I swim through it to the field entry gate: no line now: I lucked out and hit that perfect lull between the hard core railers and the schooling masses. Wait ten seconds to get my wristband, then it's time to find a water station … That turns out to be a barely functional fountain, and I struggle to fill my collapsible bags without squeezing out what I've managed to get in. More than ²/³ full seems like an achievement, and I give up in order to let other folks try their luck. I circle back around the concourse to the field entrance, then miss the closer GA gate and end up walking across the length of the front stage area to the other gate, only to spiral back to the center. This early, things are fairly loose until I hit the rail crowd: mostly standing already, with barely a square foot to spare. No biggie. I'm happy to find 3 square feet about 10 feet back from the rail, more or less dead center. Home again! Time to greet the neighbors and make new friends!

The hour passes quickly. The crowd grows, but things don't get much more crowded in the pit: people are being sensible and finding spots further out. Every now and then we get a brief shower: enough to get fooled into putting on and taking off rainwear, but thankfully, not really enough to get us very wet.

Folks are buzzing about how good last night was: another one gets away from me. I suppose I could have ditched the wedding reception yesterday, but I would have felt bad about it. At least I'm at the show tonight!

First the tunes tonight are well played, but darn slow. Must be the heat or something. They pick up the pace a bit with Big RxR: it wasn't fast, but it was fast enough to get people hoping up and down with Mayer. Good choice!

Dancing is rendered quite languidly, but I'm happy cuz they're playing the '76 version with the bouncy bass line and the quirky mu-tron guitar. Very tasty!

Sugaree is a real crowd pleaser. I enjoyed it, even if parts were a little flat – must be that tempo thing.

Set break seems shorter than normal. Maybe the band is tightening up the schedule a little bit in order to avoid overtime charges or curfew penalties?

Casey Jones seemed to be an unusual second set opener, but since I gave up studying Dead & Company setlists over the pandemic, I can't back up that assertion with serious proof, maybe they've used it in that slot in 2019 or earlier… Another strange thing is that to my best recollection, the pace of the tune remained constant (and slow): usually it's one that accelerates towards a hard-driving finish. Weird!

I was happy to hear the familiar plunk of Fire on the Mountain as the band finished Days Between: Oteil singing? I'm happy to hear him do a song or two every night. With Scarlet Begonias as the show opener, I expected that Fire on the Mountain would be the end of the set, with a tag of the Scarlet Begonias reprise to close things out, but that trope was stomped on by another one. What night is it? Well of course, it's One More Saturday Night! Woo, time to rock on out a little!

Getting Touch of Grey as a double-encore treat was icing on the cake, and a fun way to end the show on a more upbeat note than the bittersweet vibe of Brokedown Palace. Knowing that Touch had to be the last song of the night, I decided to stay until the kerosene verse, figuring that would give me just enough time to make it from the pit to the field edge before the show ended. Turned out my guess was pretty good, and I had enough time to hand out a few last NTTH stickers to the folks dancing on the outside edge of the crowd before the show ended. Also saw something kinda funny: a worker disassembling the crowd barriers with a power drill (during Touch), and a small posse of other dudes carrying away the pieces one-by-one. Seems strange that they didn't wait for the show to end, but maybe the idea was to remove further impediments to crowd egress? Whatever the reason, the drilling noise was a loud distraction!

As the band bowed and posed for post-show photos onstage, I transitioned from the field to the concourse, and lucked out to be there right when previously locked exit gates were rolled open. Instead of a crowded push through the common space under the bleachers, I had an empty roadway to speed-walk up Sheffield Ave back to Addison for the 50 yards back to the CTA station. Perfect! Into the station, up the stairs, down the platform a few steps and bingo! I step into a waiting train and take an open seat near the door. So far, so good!

Super duper glad to have gotten a seat on the subway after standing and dancing the past few hours. And double plus bonus points for getting one right on top of the A/C vent. Cold air on my legs felt really good. It might be normal for summer in Chicago, but it seemed weird to me how hot it was at 11 PM: 76 F and kind of sticky. One more reason to make my home in cool grey Oakland!

Today's photo gallery comes from ol' squinty!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2022 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2022 event list! ☸ On to the next event!