AXS presents Dead & Company
Folsom Field
University of Colorado in Boulder, 2400 Colorado Avenue, Boulder, CO 80302 USA
6:30 PM, Sunday, July 2, 2023

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[6:40 PM] {performers out}

1. [6:41 PM] Feel Like a Stranger
   [6:53 PM] {brief stop}
2. [6:53 PM] Brown Eyed Women (JM)
   [7:02 PM] {stop}
3. [7:02 PM] Samson & Delilah
   {Stop. Noticeably slower tempos today!}
4. [7:10 PM] Friend of the Devil
   {Stop, noodle a little}
5. [7:18 PM] It Hurts Me Too (JM)
6. [7:28 PM] Ramble On Rose
   [7:38 PM] {BW guitar swap}
7. [7:39 PM] High Time (OB)
8. [7:46 PM] Let it Grow
   [8:01 PM] {set ends}

[8:42 PM] {performers out, noodling right away}

1. [8:42 PM] They Love Each Other (JM) »
2. [8:51 PM] China Cat Sunflower »
3. [8:58 PM] I Know You Rider
   [9:08 PM] {OB swaps to banjo bass}
4. [9:09 PM] Fire on the Mountain (OB) » [9:15 PM] {MH vox!} » {jam}
   {OB swaps back to 6-string bass}
5. [9:18 PM] the Other One (first verse only) » {jam} » {dissolution}
6. [9:28 PM] Drums » [9:30 PM] {add OB} » [9:37 PM] {beam space, drop JL, OB} » [9:43 PM] {MH off, drone continues, front four on within 30 sec} » [9:50 PM] {drummers back at their kits} »
7. [9:50 PM] the Eleven »
8. [10:00 PM] US Blues »
9. [10:06 PM] (Walk Me Out in the) Morning Dew
   [10:18 PM] {set ends}
    
   Encore
   {Front line guys all on acoustics}
10. [10:20 PM] Ripple
    [10:24 PM] {show ends: a little bow from Bob and then they're all off, just like that!}

Dead & Company

• Oteil Burbridge: bass, banjo bass, acoustic bass, drums, lead & harmony vox;
• Jeff Chimenti: piano, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards, lead & harmony vox;
• Mickey Hart: drums, lead vox;
• Jay Lane: drums;
• John Mayer: guitar, acoustic guitar, lead & harmony vox;
• Bob Weir: guitar, acoustic guitar, lead & harmony vox.

Practice from yesterday made today's line and entry experience relatively smooth. Major props to David Vineberg and Michael Markley for welcoming us onto their blanket for the pre show wait: it was nice hanging out with them! Entrance line energy for the last 15 or 20 minutes was way too intense: lots of young folks pressing forward eagerly, then wanting to run instead of doing the slow do-dah walk. Ting even lost a shoe in the scrum to reach the stadium floor: that's one way to set your frenemies back!

Like yesterday I was able to maintain position at the front of the pack, which set us up fairly well for picking up a few square feet of leftover space in-between the advance entry VIP crowd. More center today, but father back. And hot now: I miss the cloud cover that kept us cool yesterday. Might have been a bad choice on my part to skip sun screen, but I've wagered that late afternoon sun isn't as likely to give me a burn: can't do anything about that now!

6 PM and some cloud cover has blown in. Excellent! The floor temperature instantly drops from “frying” to a more tolerable “simmer.” I'm grateful! And a peek over my shoulder at the clouds show they re likely to last awhile. Yay!

Soundcheck while we were outside today seemed restricted to drums. Makes for a bit of mystery right now: lots of tunes left – which ones will we get?

Heh. Totally wrong about the thick clouds. The wind up there must be pretty strong. Happily, I'm now shaded by folks standing up to my west. I'll take that for a consolation prize!

The guys come out a few minutes earlier than yesterday, and deliver a healthy 81 minute set of tunes mostly drawn from the classic first set repertoire. I try my best to enjoy it, but a lot of the folks around us seem to be there mostly for the party: drinking, yacking, mingling, and basically spending their evening in all sorts of activities different from listening or dancing to the music. Harrumph.

In that respect, the second set is both better and worse: of course it's more crowded, and of course all the new folks need to catch up on gossip that they missed from the last hour, so that unceasing murmur is a major annoyance. On the other hand, I have a healthy amount of personal space to dance, and I can see pretty well except for being blocked now and then by a tall bro in a cowboy hat. No need for that now (it's night!), but I don't bother engaging with him – it doesn't seem worth the trouble, as there are plenty of other tall dudes in his group as opposed to little old me. Dancing with my eyes closed, yeah, that's the ticket!

My patience with the talkers runs out during drums, so I gather up my crap and slink way up front and center to find Ting and the rest of the rail crew. Happily, there's enough space for me to pogo up and down behind Jason (another tall guy), and my experience of the last half hour is 1000x better than the rest of the show. It's good to be welcomed by your tribe!

After the show we socialize a bit with folks on the floor – apologies to Kelly Jean for not giving you more of our time! – and then headed up to meet Gerry & Pumpkin at the usual post-show spot. Pumpkin is absent – Ger says she headed off to find a quiet place to answer an unexpected phone call from her mom – so we three run the nitrous gauntlet outside the stadium then amble over to Lot 380 where Ger has parked. Tail gate, yay! With only two sticks of string cheese, we're a bit short on provisions, but Ger has thoughtfully brought a cooler with beer and EANABs, and I relax awhile in one of his camp chairs while we wait for Pumpkin to arrive. With the light breeze, it's growing chilly, and Pumpkin rescues Ting by digging a fleece sweater out of the car. Yay! Hard to be sociable when you're distracted by cold. I make do by zipping my pant legs back onto my shorts: gotta love convertible pants!

[11:42 PM] We finally get to the car after our post-show social with Gerry & Pumpkin. I'd hoped that this would make for a pleasant drive back to the hotel, but the roads are still clogged in Boulder, and Hwy 36 heading back toward Denver is blotched yellow and red on the navigation screen. Ugh! It's official: there are too many people in Colorado!

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

Whoa! This section is incomplete for now, sorry!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!