Review: Dead & Company bounce back with vastly superior Night 2 show

It’s always a bit of a roll of the dice when you see Dead & Company in concert — especially in Las Vegas.

Sometimes the Grateful Dead offshoot is merely mediocre and, other times, they come across like one of the best live bands on the planet.

Having opened their 2nd (annual?) Sphere run on Thursday with the former — a mostly tentative affair with uninspired jams and weighed-down arrangements — Dead & Company bounced back in glorious fashion on Friday with a show that exhibited as much high-voltage electricity as the hi-tech venue itself.

It was clear from the start that we were in for a very different experience as the group — consisting of former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir (guitar and vocals) and Mickey Hart (drums) as well as John Mayer (guitar and vocals), Oteil Burbridge (bass), Jeff Chimenti (keyboards) and Jay Lane (drums) — tore into a version of “Cold Rain and Snow” that sent the sold-out crowd of some 17,000 Deadheads into overdrive.

Dead & Company perform March 21, 2025 at the Sphere in Las Vegas (Jim Harrington, Bay Area News Group).

Mayer sounded strong at the microphone, and even better on the electric guitar, as he worked in and out of the incredible rhythm masterclass coming from the twin towers of percussion — Hart and Lane. Sure, Hart gets all the attention — and, for good reason, since he’s amazing — but Lane (a founding member of Weir’s RatDog group) was really bringing the thunder on this night.

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What was the biggest surprise of Dead & Company Night 2 at Sphere?

The high-energy level and superb musicality of “Cold Rain” blew over into the supremely funky “Shakedown Street,” which was the track that featured Dead & Company’s now-signature Sphere video graphic segment — rocketing the fans from the band’s old Haight-Asbury neighborhood right off into space via the the mammoth 16-K wraparound LED screens that run from floor to ceiling in the 366-feet-tall building.

Dead & Company perform March 21, 2025 at the Sphere in Las Vegas (Jim Harrington, Bay Area News Group).

The intensity level of the jamming during those two numbers was so much greater than what was seen at any point during Thursday’s opener, which kicked off Dead & Company’s run of 18 shows at the Sphere, and the group managed to keep it for a third consecutive track as they lifted “Cumberland Blues” to terrific heights — while the Sphere’s giant screens revisited legendary GD venues like Madison Square Garden, Red Rocks, Winterland and Radio City Music Hall.

Dead & Company perform March 21, 2025 at the Sphere in Las Vegas (Jim Harrington, Bay Area News Group).

All told, those opening three numbers took up 30 minutes of stage time — with nary a second wasted — and the musicianship was so stellar that even the high-flying Sphere graphics took a backseat to the band itself. And that rarely happens at the Sphere.

The group stayed on a tear with a groovy version of “Lay Down Sally,” marking the first time that Dead & Company had ever covered that Eric Clapton song — which actually owes its inclusion in the greater Dead musical oeuvre to the Jerry Garcia Band, rather than GD itself.

The band (and the crowd) took a bit of the breather with the country rambler “Tennessee Jed,” before bringing the one-hour first set to an immensely satisfying conclusion with “Sugaree.”

After the half-hour-plus set break, the group returned to the stage with the fan favorite “Uncle John’s Band” and proceeded to rock a true “greatest-hits” second set, serving up a steady succession of numbers that likely even the most casual fan would know. Yet, along with those well-known names came an overall slip in musical intensity — and the jamming in the second set rarely reached what we heard in the first.

Dead & Company perform on March 21, 2025 at the Sphere in Las Vegas (Jim Harrington, Bay Area News Group).

Still, the second set also ranked as a definite triumph, as the tunes and graphics found great synergy during the two-hour stretch. There were the multi-story-tall dancers twirling about during “Uncle John’s Band”; the tapestry of numerous red roses — some probably as big as the house I live in — blanketing the screen for an elongated version of “Estimated Prophet”; the huge spinning disco ball and tiny marching Dancing Bears used as pixels to form images of the band members (both holdovers from the Night 1 graphics) as well as sensory-overloaded circus scene on “Eyes of the World”; and, of course, the now-traditional ending where we plunge from space back to Haight-Ashbury, set this time to Weir’s vastly underrated “Throwing Stones.”

Back in the Haight, the group belted out the legendary “Casey Jones” and then the train ride was over for Night 2, leaving people oh-so-greatly anticipating what was to come on Night 3 on Saturday.

Dead & Company perform March 21, 2025 at the Sphere in Las Vegas (Jim Harrington, Bay Area News Group).

Dead & Company setlist March 21, 2025
1. “Cold Rain and Snow”
2. “Shakedown Street”
3. “Cumberland Blues”
4. “Lay Down Sally”
5. “Tennessee Jed”
6. “Sugaree”
Set 2:
7. “Uncle John’s Band”
8. “Estimated Prophet”
9. “Eyes of the World”
10. “St. Stephen”
11. “Drums”
12. “Space”
13. “Wharf Rat”
14. “U.S. Blues”
15. “Throwing Stones”
16. “Casey Jones”