Ready for Liftoff! 5/26/2024 Dead and Company / Sphere Las Vegas

[@ZombieTheodore]

Thanks for sharing this video. The hype is real about this venue. I recommend seeing a show there for a band you really like. I was there for all 4 phish shows and plan to return for phish again.

[@YeshuaAlberto]

Phish was amazing. Dead and co has been a little boring. But still obviously cool just a bit slow.

[@jeffreyweil1227]

The venue more than lives up to the hype!

[@Lolaandcassidyadventures]

I was there Friday incredible experience!

[@jeffreyweil1227]

Incredible is an understatement! 😁 I described it as fucking Amazeballz to my friends.

[@texdealer220]

I want to believe this was Bill Walton’s soundtrack and view when he passed on 💙

[@fivefluffyclouds]

Funkin WOW!

[@unclegnar]

Did those people ever stop talking? I can't imagine paying that much to go and then just talk through the entire show.

[@Estimated_Eyes]

Chomper central

[@chop6604]

That’s what I was going to say ….

[@RobsMemoryLane]

😲, I was almost feeling nauseous watching this. Are you in a seat or is this a standing room pit? John Mayer singing?

[@christheghostwriter]

It's arena-style seating

[@jeffreyweil1227]

I was on my feet on the floor / General Adm. It was great as they only allow 1400 people on the floor and I did not feel crowded at all. Plenty of elbow room and dance space.

[@Spacebird321]

So incredibly uninspirational.... Mayer can't improvise worth a damn !

[@christheghostwriter]

This is absolutely absurd

[@johnrossi7985]

@spacebird321 Think you have thousands of people who would disagree with you.

[@jeffreyweil1227]

🙄

[@novakaya]

I’d have to agree with spacebird but with the caveat that although sure, he can ‘improvise’ and is a technically fluent mostly blues and pop background guitarist. He just doesn’t fit authentically or stylistically with what made this music so unique and legendary and the founding ethos of the band they are covering and paying homage to. He’s like the anti-Garcia man. Who he is and the life he’s lived doesn’t even distantly embody the archetypal characters of these songs Robert Hunter so ingeniously and intentionally crafted.

[@christheghostwriter]

@@novakaya again, this is absurd. If anything, the fact that Mayer isn't some Garcia clone is an advantage. And he's come a long way in eight years. He's much more than just a "mostly blues" guitarist, and he's taken this band into many new improvisational spaces. This clip isn't the one to use to assess his improvisational abilities. Check out his playing on Help>Slip>Franklin's, for example. As much as I loved the GD (131 shows between 85 and 95), I can still recognize that Mayer takes the jam sections into a lot of new melodic and harmonic spaces. If you don't recognize this, it's your failing, not his. Then there's the band dynamics that raise DeadCo above virtually every other post-Garcia lineup. In most of the bands cobbled together after Garcia's death, the so-called "lead guitar players" have been hired guns, not band leaders. From Haynes to Kimock and everyone in between, those "lead" players deferred to Phil, Bobby, or both. That's not happening here. Mayer isn't afraid to grab the wheel and steer the ship, and THAT is the real "authenticity" that's been missing from most of the post-Garcia lineups: DeadCo plays like a real band. If you've been waiting for Jerry 2: Electric Koolaid Boogaloo, you're going to be waiting for a long time. Meanwhile, Dead and Company are and have been the real deal