Dead & Company
Citi Field, Flushing, NY
June 23, 2019
Section 122, Row 22, Seat 2
Personnel:
Bob Weir, guitar & vocals
Bill Kreutzmann, drums
Mickey Hart, percussion
John Mayer, guitar & vocals
Oteil Burbridge, bass, vocals, drums
Jeff Chimenti, keyboards & vocals
First set:
St. Stephen
Cold Rain and Snow
Samson and Delilah
High Time
They Love Each Other
Ramble On Rose
Sugaree
Jack Straw
Second set:
Terrapin Station >
Althea >
Scarlet Begonias >
Fire on the Mountain >
Drums >
Space >
The Wheel >
The Other One >
Morning Dew
Encore:
Brokedown Palace
I didn't think I was going to make it to this summer's Dead & Company visit to Citi Field. For starters, I'd presumed I'd be too recently returned from London, where I had plans (and tickets) to attend King Crimson's three-night 50th-anniversary home stand at the Royal Albert Hall—until cataract surgery last Monday put paid to that notion. But recovery has been surprisingly smooth, my left eye is as startlingly sharp as I'd been promised, and a chance encounter with an amiable Deadhead on the Times Square subway platform Saturday afternoon made me think I really ought to be going. What's more, the weather Sunday was picture-perfect, and my Citi Field companion for the last two summers was available and eager to extend our streak.
So away we went. A good thing, too, because Sunday night's show was inspired from start to finish—and the band managed to keep things going despite not one but two complete P.A. failures: during the climactic home stretch of "Fire on the Mountain," and again during "Drums." If you listen to the official recording of the show, you might not even notice anything going around. But trust me, when we audience members start singing "fire on the mountain" really loudly and insistently, it's because at that point we weren't hearing anything from the stage.
Heads on Twitter pointed out – some with delight, others with outrage – that John Mayer appeared to be playing Jerry Garcia's famed "Wolf" guitar Sunday night. I don't know whether that's what caused Mayer to play a supernaturally abundant show… but whatever the case, I won't be skipping any opportunities to see Dead & Co. from this point forward. Long may they run.
A note about Caught: Look, I know better to make promises at this point… but obviously I continue to attend a lot of concerts, including many for which I lack the bandwidth and/or the proper platform to write about in any official capacity. But my urge to document what I'm seeing and hearing remains as powerful as ever, especially since quite a lot of it goes undocumented by the mass media. That being the case, I'll be making a renewed effort to write some little something here about everything I attend.
Wish me luck.
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