In 2022, my wife and I got a babysitter and scheduled a rare night out to see Dead & Company in Saratoga Springs, NY. As we left our home, lacking confidence in my ability to use online tickets, I pulled over to double check I could access the tickets on my phone. But it came up that the tickets were being refunded. My wife did a quick Google search and we discovered that our first post-baby post-pandemic-shutdown live music show was cancelled. John Mayer could not make it due to family health issues that night. So, we ended up going to see a movie, Top Gun: Maverick.
Dead & Company was returning in 2023 as part of their final tour. Although a year earlier we had great tickets, we did not initially get tickets in 2023. So, later when we had to buy them through the secondary market, they were so expensive we settled for the lawn seats at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) on Sunday, June 18, 2023.
I’ve had lawn seating at many concerts. It has always been a good experience, lounging on the lawn even though you see the band at a distance. But soon after arriving at SPAC, I realized something was different. Thousands of people were outside of a building instead of surrounding an open ampitheater. A realization came over me, my wife, and her cousin who had come with us. The band would be indoors out of our view completely.
And that is how we paid $450 for three people to watch a band on a big screen and never even catch a glimpse of the real human forms of Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, John Mayer, Bob Weir, Oteil Burbridge, or Jeff Chimenti.
The Show
So, how was the show? Well I am not an expert on the Grateful Dead and had only seen them twice before this show, including one time touring with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. But like my previous shows, this one was a lot of fun with a lot of good music. And most importantly, the band always has one of the most fun, dedicated, and polite crowds of any live shows.
As Bob Dylan noted in his book The Philosophy of Modern Song, “With most bands, the audience participates like in a spectator sport. They just stand there and watch. They keep a distance. With the Dead, the audience is part of the band – they might as well be on the stage.” So, in a sense, even from our vantage point outside the Center, we were with the band on the stage the whole time. Had it been any other band, I would not have enjoyed paying for tickets to never see the band members live.
Being the last tour, there were a number of classics like “Friend of the Devil” and “Sugar Magnolia.” They played “Drums” and “Space” as they seem to be doing everywhere. Despite the love for those intstrumentals from many longtime fans, I noticed a lot of folks heading to the bathroom during them even as this version of the the Dead did a great job. Mayer, brought his guitar skills and bluesy vocals and love of the Grateful Dead catalog to the songs he sang. In the second set, to appease the longtime fans, Weir did most of the lead singing.
As usual, there were some covers previously performed during the Jerry Garcia days, like Rev. Gary Davis’s “Death Have No Mercy” and an encore of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London.” If you care to see the full list, you may check out the whole setlist from the show I basically watched on TV.
In conclusion, if you like the Grateful Dead, you should have been there or maybe catch Dead & Company at one of the few remaining shows. It seems while this is the end of this particular version of the many post-Jerry Garcia bands, it is not the last we will hear of Bob Weir. Still, it is sad to know we are nearing the end of this great American band that carved out its own niche of music history and culture.
Overall rating: The band: A. The venue’s lawn seating: C (saved from failing by excellent screen placement and wonderful videography). The fans: A+
Check out a video from the show below. If you invite over a bunch of friends who are fans, you can pack yourself together in your yard and watch your screen to get the same experience I got at SPAC.
Leave your two cents in the comments. What is your favorite show you’ve seen from the Grateful Dead or one of its offshoot bands?
