Here Comes Sunshine: Dead & Company Add Five Venue-Specific Song Debuts During Week Four Residency Opener at Sphere
Photo Credit: Alive Coverage
Last night, Thursday, June 6, Dead & Company returned to Las Vegas’ state-of-the-art Sphere venue for the onset of their fourth Dead Forever residency weekend. Continuing their latest trend, the band added first-time Sphere plays to the night’s setlist, expanding their current canon of venue-specific pulls with “Minglewood Blues,” “Peggy-O,” “Here Comes Sunshine,” “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” and a show-closing, “Johnny B. Goode.”
Sticking with the aforementioned motif, the night picked up on “New Minglewood Blues,” last performed during the group’s Cornell University tribute concert at the famed Barton Hall on May 8, 2024. Set one wade into familiar territory with an onslaught of popularized favorites: “Playing in the Band,” “Feel Like a Stranger,” and “Tennessee Jed,” which nudged follow-up, “The Weight,” a welcomed opportunity or line swaps between Bobby Weir, John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti.
Set one progressed into traditional “Peggy-O,” a longtime staple of the original San Francisco jamband, and a first-time Sphere play, prior to a take on Jerry Garcia’s 1972-released “Sugaree,” which inevitably merged into the concert’s halfway point. After resting their bones, the group was back and ready to salute the season on “Here Comes Sunshine,” another Sphere first, which ran into fan favorite “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider.” On the other side of referred sister tunes, the band picked up “Estimated Prophet” before transitioning into “The Other One.”
The repetitive chant of “coming around, coming around, in a circle” gave way to Mickey Hart, Jay Lane, and Burbridge’s soul-stirring beats during the second set staple “Drums” and forever follow-up, “Space.” On the other side of the instrumental interlude, the band pulled another Sphere debut, Reverend Gary Davis’ original, the emotive “Death Don’t Have No Mercy.” For the final songs of the main frame, the group went with a final trio of classics before adding one final venue-specific first with Chuck Berry’s famed “Johnny B. Goode.”
Scroll down to view Dead & Company’s setlist from Thursday, June 6. For more information and tickets to upcoming shows, visit deadandcompany.com.
Dead & Company
Sphere – Las Vegas
June 6, 2024
Set I: Minglewood Blues+, Playing in the Band, Feel Like a Stranger, Tennessee Jed, The Weight, Peggy-O+, Sugaree
Set II: Here Comes Sunshine+ > China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider > Estimated Prophet > The Other One > Drums > Space > Death Don’t Have No Mercy+, Brown-Eyed Women, U.S. Blues, Morning Dew
Enc.: Johnny B. Goode+
Notes:
+ First time played at Sphere venue
Setlist via Setlist.FM.
