Dead & Company's first North American tour as a group keeps truckin' on as they recently stormed the stage at Atlanta's Philips Arena. The newly formed group, blending together Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart with John Mayer, Jeff Chimenti and Oteil Burbridge, pulled out a number of Dead staple tunes each night over the span of two sets and an engaging, sentimental encore.
The show launched with a Weir-led "Feel Like A Stranger" before Mayer took the reins on "Cold Rain And Snow." Dead & Co. are able to roll out the hits more smoothly as they've now played a number of tunes two or three times over their inaugural tour, Jambase notes. The opening set carried on with a cover of "Promised Land" by Chuck Berry before crossing over to the slowest track of the set, "Loser." Singer-songwriter John Mayer got the crowd moving again with "Bertha" as the group then segued back and forth between "Cassidy" and an impressive jam session. The first set came to a close with the only tour debut of the Atlanta gig, "Don't Ease Me In."
The sextet jumped into the second set of the night with a lengthy, 20-minute jam on "St. Stephen," an encapsulating highlight of the night. Mayer and Burbridge specifically rose to the occasion on "Stephen" as the "Slow Dancing in A Burning Room" singer and The Allman Brothers Band member engaged in a call-and-response installment. Dead hits from "Uncle John's Band" to "Help On The Way" and "Franklin's Tower" dazzled audience members just ahead of Mayer's heavy Garcia-influenced sound on "Not Fade Away," which closed out the second set. For the second time on their North American tour, American Beauty classic "Brokedown Palace" acted as the encore.
The Grateful Dead and their iconic 1970 album American Beauty were recently announced among a group of respected artists and celebrated music to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, Reuters reports.
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