Dead & Company Welcome Sturgill Simpson and Grahame Lesh in Golden Gate Park

Photo courtesy of Dead & Company via Dead & Company’s Facebook page

Dead & Company’s three-day run at San Francisco’s Golden Park Park continued last night. Sturgill Simpson, the country star who has embraced rock music on his records in recent years and discovered the Dead more recently, served as the group’s opening act and, once again, the evening’s headliners welcomed some special guests. Simpsons teased a but of “China Cat Sunflower” during “Brace For Impact (Live A Little),” and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who helped Dead & Company obtain the permits to host the shows, introduced the group shortly after 6:15 pm.

As a fitting nod to a weekend billed as a celebration of the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary, yesterday’s Dead & Company concert opened with a cover of Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour,” the R&B rave-up tune Pigpen sang with the group in the ’60s and early ’70s, before the Dead put it on the self until the cut enjoyed sporadic revivals in the ’80s and ’90s. From there, the group nodded to a number of different eras of the Dead’s 30-year arc, beginning with two enduring classics first introduced in the ’70s, “Bertha” and “Jack Straw,” the latter of which contained a tease of the Allman Brothers Band’s “Blue Sky.” Next, Dead & Company offered a segue from Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” into the coda of The Beatles “Hey Jude,” a popular segue the Dead perfected during the height of Brent Mydland’s powers in the 1980s and Dead & Company have made their own during the past three years. Then, the musicians moved into “Passenger,” from the Dead’s 1977 classic Terrapin Station, the ever-popular sing-along “Brown-Eyed Women” and the Dead’s arrangement of Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew.” Simpson returned to the stage for the final selection, which was a highlight of the Dead Ahead set country crossover star and Bob Weir both were involved in during the Dead Ahead destination event in Mexico earlier this year.

Dead & Company’s second set was a particularly playful one, filled with numerous teases, trademark song sequences and some of the Dead’s most famous numbers. Things kicked off with “Uncle John’s Band,” which contained a jam based around “The Other One” and then slid into the famed run from “Help on the Way” into “Slipknot!” and “Franklin’s Tower.” (Of note, they teased the Ghostbusters theme during “Slipknot!” and some of The Beatles’ ‘”Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” during “Franklin’s). For the second show in a row, Dead & Company then welcomed Grahame Lesh to the stage, this time for a take on “St. Stephen” that teased “The Eleven,” the number is was frequently paired with early on. (Lesh played his father Phil’s Doug Irwin bass.) As the set rolled on, the group moved into the “Drums” and “Space” segments, the latter of which teased Pink Floyd’s ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” The movement then slid into “Spanish Jam,” the Dead’s occasional nod to Miles Davis’s “Solea” from Sketches of Spain.

As the outfit returned back to some more defined songs, Weir took the lead for the “Days Between,” one of the last great Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter ballads, which has grown into a tribute to Garcia since his 1995 passing. Dead & Company then picked up the tempo for an extended “Truckin’,” which contained an “The Other One” jam that teased Miles Davis’ “All Blues,” the traditional “Cold Rain and Snow” and the always beautiful swan song, “Brokedown Palace.”

Dead & Company’s Golden Gate Park celebration will conclude this evening. Trey Anastasio Band will open the night.

Here’s a look at last night’s setlist via Setlist.fm

Saturday, August 2, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA

I: In the Midnight Hour, Bertha, Jack Straw, Dear Mr. Fantasy> Hey Jude, Passenger, Brown-Eyed Women, Morning Dew

II: Uncle John’s Band>Help on the Way>Slipknot!>Franklin’s Tower, St. Stephen, Drums>Space>

Spanish Jam>Days Between>Truckin’>Cold Rain and Snow, Brokedown Palace