photos by Jay Blakesberg

On Friday night, Grateful Dead co-founders Bob Weir and Phil Lesh opened up their first-ever tour as a duo at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, and the evening was filled with originals and covers from the extensive Dead catalog, helped out by percussionist Wally Ingram.

Set one kicked off with “Uncle John’s Band,” followed by “Operator,” a song off American Beauty written by original keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. The set also included “Friend of the Devil,” “He’s Gone” and a set-closing run of “Lost Sailor” into “Saint of Circumstance.”

The second frame opened with a couple of Weir’s favorites, “Loose Lucy” and “Peggy-O,” before “Me and My Uncle,” “Mountains of the Moon” and a reprise of “Bird Song.” The set closed with “Let It Grow,” Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and the classic “Not Fade Away.” Weir and Lesh then returned for an encore of Lesh’s “Box of Rain.”

See the full setlist below, along with video of the set openers and more photos from the night. Weir and Lesh return to the Radio City stage tonight for round two before heading off to Boston and Chicago next week.

Bob Weir and Phil Lesh
Radio City Music Hall New York, NY

Set I: Uncle John’s Band, Operator, Ramble on Rose, Friend of the Devil, Bird Song > He’s Gone, Lost Sailor > Saint of Circumstance
Set II: Loose Lucy, Peggy-O, Me and My Uncle, Mountains of the Moon > Bird Song (reprise), Let It Grow, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Not Fade Away
Enc: Box of Rain