Dead & Company cover the Beatles during Mellow Friday Night at the Sphere (Videos)

After causing a lot of excitement in Las Vegas on Thursday, Dead & Company returned to Bullet for a wonderful and euphoric performance on Friday evening. The Beatles earned the best cover slot with a Bob Weir-led “Dear Prudence” touched the heart in the second movement.

Long before that, Weir, John Mayer, Mickey Hart, Jeff Chimenti, Hotel BurbridgeAnd Jay Lane started with some “Good Lovin’,” if only to make sure “the music never stopped.” John Mayer “Row Jimmy” lent his voice, while the images took the audience to the seabed and revealed a Dead-themed pirate ship.

The virtual curtain then opened in time for “Black-Throated Wind,” before the Dead led the crowd through a tie-dye tunnel with dancing bears during “New Speedway Boogie.” After that, the dome was transformed into a room filled with concert posters, patches, and other memorabilia for a performance of the first set and the closing track of Jerry Garcia‘s “deal”.

To open the second set, Dead & Company took the audience on a walk along “Shakedown Street,” which included a trippy spiral path leading to a giant disco ball printed with skulls. With “Help on the Way,” the ball transformed into the Gratefully dead‘s famous (or infamous) “Wall of Sound” – which transformed itself into a rainbow street worthy Mario Kart during “Slipknot!” The usual “Franklin’s Tower” ending was omitted from the trifecta, raising hopes that the upbeat number from a forgotten room from another time will make an appearance at Saturday’s finale.

Related: Dead & Company Sphere Shakedown moves indoors, reveals lineup for free after-parties

Rather than relying on weather-related visuals on “Cold Rain and Snow,” Dead & Company played amidst a cloud of color. This, in turn, became a 360-degree experience inside a lava lamp as Oteil Burbridge sang “China Doll” with glee. Next, “Terrapin Station” was a trip through the cosmos to a world far away—a fitting destination for Earth’s trippiest planetarium. That world gave way to a stunning display of kaleidoscopes in super HD as Oteil joined Mickey Hart and Jay Lane for a percussive summit on “Drums” and “Space.”

After the aforementioned Beatles cover “Dear Prudence,” which appeared in the ballad slot after “Space,” John led the company back into the Dead canon with a spirited “Bertha” under a rose-covered sky. Bobby took the lead on “Hell in a Bucket,” as a red, white, and blue-clad skeleton emerged from the crypt, danced in a cemetery, and rode a motorcycle through a colorful landscape.

“Morning Dew” set the perfect tone for the journey back to earth, landing gently at the Grateful Dead’s home in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco. “Ripple” also made the right waves as an emotional soundtrack to a photo montage of the Dead.

What Saturday’s show will bring in terms of tracks and atmosphere is anyone’s guess, but one thing is certain: it will be a uniquely intense (and almost certainly overwhelming) experience for everyone who fills the house.

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Dead & Company – “Good Lovin’” (The Olympics) – 14.06.24 – Partial

(Video: Nunupics Zomot)

Setlist: Dead & Company | Sphere | Las Vegas, NV | 14.06.24

Set One: Good Lovin’ (Olympiade), The Music Never Stopped, Row Jimmy, Black-Throated Wind, New Speedway Boogie, Deal
Second set: Shakedown Street, Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Cold Rain & Snow (Traditional), China Doll, Terrapin Station > Drums > Space > Dear Prudence (The Beatles) > Bertha > Hell In A Bucket > Morning Dew (Bonnie Dobson) > Ripple