# Dead and Company at the Forum, December 30, 2015

[Dead and Company](http://www.deadandcompany.com/events/346273)  
2015-12-30  
[the Forum](http://www.fabulousforum.com/)  
[3900 W Manchester Blvd, Inglewood, CA 90305](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=3900+W+Manchester+Blvd,+Inglewood,+CA+90305&hl=en)  
7:00 PM, Wednesday, December 30, 2015

[[2015-12-28|Back to the previous event!]] ☸ [[:#section2015|Up to the 2015 yearbox!]] ☸ [[:2015#December_events|Up to the 2015 event list!]] ☸  [[2015-12-31|On to the next event!]]

## Set One

[7:43 PM lights down, band out]

01. [7:45 PM] _Minglewood Blues_ (B)
02. [7:52 PM] _Here Comes Sunshine_ (J) >>
03. [8:04 PM] _West LA Fadeaway_ (J)
04. [8:13 PM] _Althea_ (J) >>
05. [8:22 PM] _Loser_ (B) >>
06. [8:30 PM] _Bertha_ (J) >>
07. [8:40 PM] _Bird Song_ (B/J)  
[set ends 8:52 PM]

## Set Two

[9:40 PM lights down, musicians onstage]

01. [9:41 PM] _Playing in the Band_ (B) »
02. [9:54 PM] _Viola Lee Blues_
03. [10:03 PM] _Shakedown Street_ (B) >>
04. [10:14 PM] _China Cat Sunflower_ (J/B) >>
05. [10:20 PM] _I Know You Rider_ >>
06. [10:28 PM] drums (Mickey to the beam right away) >> [10:29 PM] loop space + big drums >> [10:33 PM] add OB on Billy's kit >> [10:36 PM] all 3 on back line >> [10:38 PM] (-OB, BK) beam space >> [10:40 PM] (add OB, JC, JM, BW) space jam >> [10:42 PM] drop MH >> [10:44 PM] add BK, sounds like _the Last Time_ >> [10:44 PM] add MH >> jam >> [10:46 PM] JM guitar swap; sounds like modal Miles Davis jam >> [10:49 PM] _the Other One_ jam >>
07. [10:51 PM] _the Other One_ (B) >>
08. [10:58 PM] _Wharf Rat_ (J/B) >>
09. [11:07 PM] _(Turn On Your) Lovelight_ (B/J)  
[set ends 11:16 PM]  
   
**Encore (acoustic front line)**
10. [11:18 PM] _Friend of the Devil_ (J)  
[show ends 11:24 PM]


## Performers

[Dead and Company](http://www.deadandcompany.com/)

* [Oteil Burbridge](http://oteilburbridge.com/): bass, acoustic bass, drums, harmony vox;
* Jeff Chimenti: piano, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards, harmony vox;
* [Mickey Hart](http://mickeyhart.net/): drums;
* [Bill Kreutzmann](http://www.ocean-spirit.net/): drums;
* [John Mayer](http://johnmayer.com/): guitar, acoustic guitar, lead and harmony vox;
* [Bob Weir](http://bobweir.net/): guitar, acoustic guitar, lead and harmony vox.


## Notes

Walked four blocks from our hotel to [Casa Gamino](http://casagaminoinglewood.com/) for a terrific feast. Ting got the Sopa _Sietes Mares_: Half a crab, salmon chunks, octopus, scallops, mussels, clams, shrimp and who knows what else in a thin red broth. Needless to say, she slurped it all up. I ordered _Enchiladas de Jaiba_and was happily surprised with the generous allotment of crab. Much more food than I needed, so I opted to ignore most of the sides and gorge on the good stuff. Yum Yum Yum!

With dinner over, Ting put in an Uber request, and not two minutes later we we're cruising to the venue. $5 later we're queued up to pass through a perfunctory security check and head on inside. Seems like everything's going our way! Ting makes a poster-buying stop at the first merchandise booth we come across, and while waiting, I immediately run into a crowd of TXR peeps -- nice to have the Terrapin Nation crowd out in force! Eventually Ting and I make our way inside, only to find out that we're on the opposite side of the arena from our seats. Oh well, just another little hike!

We make it about half-way around to section 125 -- directly to stage right, at a 3 o'clock position if looking out from the center -- and settle in there with our friends Paul and Lori. Big thanks to Paul for arranging things tonight! More familiar faces trickle in as the venue fills up, and by showtime, it appears that the house is pretty well packed. Not quite a sell out, given the open seats behind the stage, but respectably full indeed! And happily, there are a lot of NorCal folks around us. Good to feel that vibe!

From the opening lines of _Minglewood_, it's apparent that Bobby is suffering voice issues...it seems like he can hardly get a single line out without rasping like Tom Waits. This is going to be interesting.... Thankfully, John picked up the slack in admirable fashion, treating us to a first set full of Garcia-Hunter classics. I was a bit surprised that Bobby decided to croak his way through _Loser_, but maybe that was his idea of a joke? _Bertha_ was a good choice to bring the energy back up, but the way that Bobby cut things off to segue into _Bird Song_ on the last line ought to be a crime. Bozo! You'd think that after a half century of playing this music he'd know how to make such changes more seamless, but maybe it just doesn't occur to him how jarring it is to the audience? Hard to know...

The second set was full of classics from the back catalog, and as before, Bobby seemed to step back just a little on vocal duties. Smart to be saving his voice -- wouldn't want to blow things out on the penultimate night, right? _Viola Lee Blues_ was super fun, but _I Know You Rider_ seemed strangely discombobulated ... as if the guys were a bit out of synch? More shambling and perfunctory than the majestic renditions committed to tape for _Europe 72_ and other commercial offerings. Drums was pretty fun tonight, and being in the NorCal zone, there were plenty of other folks shaking their bones like me throughout this segment. The following jam seemed to wander through a few distinct musical zones before eventually settling into the Spanish jam that plays three against two to lead into _the Other One_. Yay! The bus came by, and I got on...

Ending the show with _Friend of the Devil_ was a pretty inspired choice -- different, but it worked just fine. And while the front line guys all played acoustic instruments, the rendition was upbeat and energetic instead of slow and snoozy. [Deadlists](http://www.deadlists.com/default.asp) tells me that song _never_ appeared as an encore with the Grateful Dead despite being performed at over 300 shows. Further research reveals that Dead & Company ended the November [14](http://db.etree.org/lookup_show.php?shows_key=622192) and [21](http://db.etree.org/lookup_show.php?shows_key=622196) shows that way too. Guess I should have spent more time studying my pre-show tour statistics!

Armando Brown posted a [review](http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mayer-698080-dead-weir.html) of the show for the Orange County Register; Mikael Wood posted his [review](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-dead-and-company-review-20160101-story.html) for the L.A. Times.

{{tag>music Dead_and_Company the_Forum Oteil_Burbridge Jeff_Chimenti Mickey_Hart Bill_Kreutzmann John_Mayer Bob_Weir}}

[[2015-12-28|Back to the previous event!]] ☸ [[:#section2015|Up to the 2015 yearbox!]] ☸ [[:2015#December_events|Up to the 2015 event list!]] ☸  [[2015-12-31|On to the next event!]]