The 1995 Three Rivers Stadium concert came to be known as The Rain Set because the Grateful Dead responded to the weather by opening the second half with a string of four splendid rain songs.
You could call this one The Humidity Set.
Not that Dead & Company has specific songs about humidity — who would bother with that? — but because this one was slow and thick on a hot July night at the Pavilion at Star Lake.
If you came to boogie Tuesday, this was not your Dead show. That said, it was still a delight to be there because the Dead is still divine.
With the recent sidelining of drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Dead & Company is down to one founding member of the Grateful Dead, 74-year-old Bob Weir, and one longtime member in Mickey Hart, who arrived two years after the 1965 formation.
They are joined by keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, who has been at Weir’s side since 1997, former Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge, drummer Jay Lane (another longtime Weir sidekick and onetime Primus member) and, doing the heavy lifting, Mr. John Mayer.
I had longtime Deadhead friends, guys I hung with at Dead shows going back to ’79, say they wouldn’t cross the street to see this version with Mayer. I didn’t love it when they first came around in 2016, but there is no denying that Mayer has grown into the role.
I won’t commit the blasphemy of using “if you close your eyes …” line here on the public record, but let’s just say that Jerry Garcia is smiling down at all the colors the 44-year-old Mayer is painting on his PRS McCarty Sunburst.
The first set, starting with “The Music Never Stopped” (which a lot of people missed due to the usual epic traffic jam), had a few of the old beauties in “Dire Wolf” and “Friend of the Devil,” but the real centerpiece was “They Love Each Other.” Mayer, wearing a black tee, khakis and headphones, sang it with a heavy bluesy drawl and then went off on some gorgeous excursions while the brilliant Chimenti did his thing, building the drama on keys.
Weir, whose handsome face has been overtaken by snow-white whiskers, has maintained his husky vocal chops and is able to sound more like Jerry when he wants to but still enough like his younger self. His first set highlight was that dreamy pairing of “Lost Sailor”/”Saint of Circumstance” that drifted and rocked. The biggest first-set cheer came when he sang “I’m still walkin, so I’m sure that I can dance.”
After the laidback first set, I expected they’d go more uptempo and they did, with Mayer belting out “Big Railroad Blues.” From there, though, in the twilight, they ventured into the deep-space psychedelia of “Dark Star,” which they abbreviated to crash down to earth into the cowboy campfire story of “El Paso.” What a wild transition!
They would do “He’s Gone” (“Steal your face right off your head!”), a groovy “Eyes of the World” and a trippy electronic “Drums/Space” before getting back to the second verse of “Dark Star.” You would not expect the guy who sang “Your Body is a Wonderland” to channel Jerry Garcia in the deep nether regions of “Dark Star,” but there it was. Weir on acoustic during parts also added some odd twists. Watching on the screen from the lawn was magical.
Further proof of Weir’s vitality came on the howls that drove “Hell in a Bucket” to its riveting climax. Rather than building on that energy, they made the surprising choice to ramp it down again for “Dear Prudence” (lovely and majestic though it was) before boogie-ing their way out of the set with “U.S. Blues.”
In the several hours before that, the bulk of it was a slow, humid crawl, but at least we enjoyed the ride.
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com.
Dead & Company Set List
Set 1
The Music Never Stopped
Dire Wolf
Friend of the Devil
Foolish Heart
They Love Each Other
West LA Fadeaway
Lost Sailor
Saint of Circumstance
Set 2
Big Railroad Blues
Dark Star
El Paso
He’s Gone
Eyes of the World
Drums
Space
Dark Star (reprise)
Hell in a Bucket
Dear Prudence
U.S. Blues
Encore
Ripple
First Published: July 13, 2022, 12:15 p.m.
