![]() Mayer is playing with more patience, and the ensemble jams benefit from the kind of slow burn intensity that comes from musicians who listen to and trust each other. This summer, Dead & Company seems to have found the right balance, evidenced by the stellar show in Foxborough and hearing the recordings of recent concerts now streaming online. That may in part explain why Weir and the drummers took to slowing the tempos on almost everything the band played. ![]() And that may have contributed to the flaws in Dead & Company’s earlier outings Mayer tended to overstuff his solos, worrying more about quantity over quality. With Mayer, Weir found the “anti-Jerry” – a player who was shaped by Berklee, not Berkeley a player with a pop pedigree, rather than one with a passing grade from the Acid Test a player who has better social media chops than shamanistic mystique.īut make no mistake: Mayer can craft a blazing guitar line around just about anything tossed his way. When virtuoso guitarist and de facto Grateful Dead leader Garcia died in 1995, that forced Weir, Lesh, Hart and Kreutzmann into finding new ways to keep alive both a unique rock ‘n’ roll songbook and a popular, ritualistic music scene. It seemed both nutty and disingenuous when founding Grateful Dead member Bob Weir enlisted Mayer to join him, original Dead drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, plus keyboard player Jeff Chimenti and bass player Oteil Burbridge to form Dead & Company in 2015 shortly after a series of Grateful Dead “farewell concerts” that included remaining founding member Phil Lesh on bass and Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio.ĭead & Company has definitely evolved in its search for a place within the post-Jerry Garcia Grateful Dead universe. Photo : Courtesy of David Silverman | Kraft Sports + Entertainment.ĭeadheads of a certain age (see hand in air) may never get used to watching a guitarist wearing a Madonna t-shirt on stage as he conjures up the requisite jams that propel such Grateful Dead gems as “Eyes of the World,” “Bird Song” and “Dark Star.” But John Mayer’s fashion sense aside, Dead & Company constructed a beauty of a concert Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. (R to L) Dead & Company’s guitarists John Mayer and Bob Weir flank Bill Kreutzmann on stage at Gillette Stadium. Avoiding pat formulas and enlisting unexpected aides de camp are probably the only ways that Bob Weir and his fellow founding Grateful Dead mates can avoid turning into a stale nostalgia act.ĭead & Company at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA on June 22.
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