Stick A Fork In Them, They’re Dead & Co.

In the summer of '95

We was grievin' just barely alive

I guess the dream had ended so it seemed

but by '99 it was fine Steve and Trey found that silver mine

and many Kilowatt hours were to follow

Quintet had such a ring to it familiar but that planetary thing to it

You can't go home again but the new one was so fresh

Back to the concert traveling fast

But nothing, no nothing ever lasts.

Now there's too many pigs on the teat

Too many hungry little piggies to feed

Three cover bands in town to choose, you got no chance to lose

But there's too many pigs on the teat.

I told you it was Mayer's band.

a real gem from r/deadandcompany -

https://old.reddit.com/r/deadandcompany/comments/151tc3e/its_weird_to_sa...

"its not going to feel like the GD without john mayer"

Hmm. Let's try that again.

>>>>We'll have the DSO's, JRAD's, and even John Kadlicek risking life and limb for the forseeable future

A bit dramatic eh?

>>>>Phish still maintains a touring fanbase

Phish seems to be selling out shows faster than they have in years.  I'd say they are more than maintaining and the reviews from the current tour seem to be pretty high.  

i saw a vid of an hour long tweezer>simple from their berkeley greek run and was pretty blown away. outside of a few very special PLF lineups, there hasnt really been improvisation of that length, at that level, happening anywhere in the GD world for a very long time now. if they keep playing like that, i could see myself going to a lot more phish shows in the future. if only their songs were not absolute, mind numbing garbage. i cant even put on phish shows around other people like i did with the dead, im embarassed to listen to those weirdos sing about freezers and tweezers and possums and ocelots in public. but they can motherfucking jam tho, ill give em that.  

John Mayer:

San Francisco, night 3/3. This music has made me a better player, and this band made me a better person. I was given the opportunity of a lifetime - to have access to the greatest songbook in modern music, and the deepest well of life memories shared by hundreds of thousands of Deadheads who extended their grace and acceptance to me. I learned to compromise, and to take other people’s chances along with them. I learned to play in real time, to express myself without the distraction of ambition or expectation. I learned to listen, to have musical conversation, and most importantly, to be a part of something much bigger than myself. It was never about me. It was bout “it” - that spirit that a band and a crowd could go looking for together. If I’ve done my job right, I’ll disappear into that beautiful tapestry, the one that began almost 60 years ago and will continue to expand for lifetimes to come. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for embracing me and my place in this band, and to Bob, Mickey, and Billy - I’ll never be able to fully express my gratitude for your taking a chance on me. Something magical happened on this tour, and I don’t think any of us saw it coming. Dead & Company is still a band - we just don’t know what the next show will be. I speak for us all when I say that I look forward to being shown the next shaft of light… I know we will all move towards it together. This band changed my life, and I love you all for it. An incredible tour, an unforgettable ride, and a beautiful world of memories to visit. I’ll be seeing you….

OK, one of my long ones...

I tend to agree with Dave. Over time Grateful Dead music has proven that it's a living thing and will continue to be played after we're all gone, and there are and will be other "jam bands" who will generate huge followings and allow people to sell junk in the parking lots, but as the old saying goes, "There's nothing like a Grateful Dead concert", and whatever one may think of D&C, they generated that unique atmosphere more than anything else out there.

I didn't like the idea of Dead & Company when I first heard about them, but after I saw them a couple of times I realized they weren't bad and to varying degrees I enjoyed every show I saw. Still, it's not the band I'll miss, it's the unique, one-of-kind BIG Grateful Dead scene & energy they generated, but without nearly as much of the crazed madness, the gate crashers, the dark underbelly of late era GD shows, and as Dave said, unless Bob puts together another similar band I don't see that particular beast rising again.

By far the best and most impressive thing about all the big D&C shows I attended or observed was the fact that more than half the crowd was under 50, and many of those were under 30, and how completely into it and devoted to it they were. More than half that band's audience never saw the Grateful Dead, so there was no "nostalgia" involved for them, they just fell in love with "it" just like we all did whenever it happened for each of us.

It's easy to make fun of that emotion or minimize it 28 years after the Grateful Dead stopped playing, but love is love, and there is no question that love was real at Dead & Company shows, and ultimately, that love was love for the Grateful Dead, and how can anyone here have a problem with that?

Dead & Company rode in on the huge wave generated by the Fare Thee Well concerts, and I was absolutely floored when I walked into Levi's Stadium eight years ago and saw that mass of humanity and felt that unique pulsing energy again; the vibe different, deeper, BIGGER than any of the many, many other GD related events I'd seen since Jerry passed, and D&C carried on that same energy. If it's truly over, it's that energy & vibe I'll miss.

But...... I think Bob is in a good place right now and is still having fun with the "big" show. I have a sneaky suspicion that he just might put together another band that will be similar to D&C (Billy Strings on guitar for one or two limited tours a year and the Mexico thing?) give it another silly name with Dead in it and carry on, until he simply can't any longer.

I hope that's true, on a personal level not so much for the music but for the chance to walk into that scene again and for all those younger folks who just recently fell in love with it all. And also for everyone who loves to bag on it, who hates it. Because hate is as strong an emotion as love, and folks need to put their hate somewhere, so I figure a rock band is about as harmless a place for it as anything.

So for me, after all the jabber and pontificating, it all comes down to this...

Long live the Grateful Dead.

And also for everyone who loves to bag on it, who hates it. Because hate is as strong an emotion as love, and folks need to put their hate somewhere, so I figure a rock band is about as harmless a place for it as anything.

based on my experience with the GD world and a few other niche, very dedicated communities centered around some kind of art, having elements of that community which are intensely critical and sometimes negative is a huge positive, which helps to foster serious, in depth communication/debate, and helps everyone to think critically and to try and sometimes evaluate said art from a more objective, outside perspective. 

i loved furthur when i was touring, but TBH im forever grateful to all the zoners who shit on them relentlessly. it helped keep me grounded in reality, and those criticisms were often what pushed me to learn more about specific aspects of the GD, or about post jerry eras i was not around for. many of the things i read here crticising or making fun of furthur was what kept me from going down the woo-woo paths that so many deadheads seem to fall into, like thinking that their favorite post jerry band is some kind of special reincarnation of the GD - the "passing of the torch" kinda nonsense. communities like ours which do not encourage heavy criticism, and which are not as accepting of negativity, tend to turn into substanceless circle jerks sooner rather than later.

part of me wonders why the need to see any semblance of the core 4 together any more? I mean I guess I get it...but I don't....the music is alive everywhere these days.

support your local cover band.

paying 100's of bux for stadium shows for this line up, no comprendo.

Phish lyrics are like scat and I am a fan. Just another instrument sound playing rhythm and beats in time. 

> More than half that band's audience never saw the Grateful Dead, so there was no "nostalgia" involved for them

Actually, there's a word of recent coinage–Anemoia–that describes nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known. I think that accounts for at least some of D&C's attraction.

> there is no question that love was real at Dead & Company shows...and how can anyone here have a problem with that?

I think it's possible to see others experiencing that love while not feeling it yourself. My line about D&C all along has been "I'm glad this music is being kept alive and enjoyed by others, but this current configuration just doesn't do it for me." That doesn't make a hater though. Not even close.

Yep. The beauty of this music and scene to me has always been that it's completely open to whatever interpretation, likes, and dislikes that anyone may have thereof on an individual level, including/especially anything that has happened since Jerry moved along. I think I know at least a  few people who are Deadheads through and through that have skipped pretty much every band iteration since July 1995 and that's great too. The wheel's still turnin'....

I saw DSO last Saturday and they ripped. I never felt D&C ripped.

They did a 76 show. The bass was played right. Let It Grow ripper out of the gates for the 2nd set (I think it was Chicago 6/28/76)

Vanilla/Chocolate such is life.

Soul, man.

>>> it's the unique, one-of-kind BIG Grateful Dead scene & energy they generated <<<

That meant a lot to a lot of the people who went to these shows. It may have been the music, but that was only part of it. People created that "tribal" feeling out of gathering with people who felt connection through the scene, the art, the songs, dancing, tour... for many of them GD may have been the name of a band that's beyond description that they didn't experience live but that brought them together with others who felt similar, maybe like brothers and sisters. I saw people posting about the feeling of family. Comfort and excitement where you find it.

My cousin and her fiance went to their first shows Saturday and Sunday and loved the gregariousness of it all. 

I'm so glad they made it and upped the tempo a bit, Didn't see any of it live' but enjoyed watching the freebee's on nuggs .I've been know to fly in from France to catch our beloved Phil at our beloved Capitol Theatre and have Never been disappointed, like Lance said " LONG LIVE THE GRATEFUL DEAD" 

p.s. Did the Fat lady sing? and those drone thingies musta been cool if you were dosin

Over the years millions of people saw DeadCo live and enjoyed the living fuck out of it.

Through all the words, criticisms, and pontificating that's all that matters. I had a great time at the shows I saw or couch toured. Other than that, who fucking cares about all the rest?

I tried 2 both listen & like Company. 
Honest engine. 
4 Anyone who felt a connection 2 the scene, the art, the songs, dancing, tour, etc god bless that connection.

It's way cool that many people (the GD may have been the name of a band) that's beyond description.

While Company$ may not B my cup of tea, if one enjoys, let that joy bring inner piece. 

My not grasping the music, luv & joy, makes me sound narrow minded. 
 

In 1962 Duke Ellington wrote  "There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind." 
 It's nobody's fault but mine that I cannot appreciate Co.  

>>> Did the Fat lady sing? 

Mickey Hart left the door open for future Dead & Company shows: ‘It’s Not The Final Anything.’

 Duplicate  Post 

Last year at some point I looked up GD cover bands for some reason.

There were 42 playing in the US that night.

So how long before the Mexico announcement ?

All the real deadheads are waiting for the Billy and the Kids tour.

I saw Dead & Co six times I think and I did like the energy of the audience they attracted. That was the main selling point for me. I love audience/band symbiosis and Dead & Co had that. Musically I preferred Phil and Friends and Further but both of those bands tended to attract a bunch of old guys that stood there with there arms crossed waiting for the band to impress them, and yes that is a description of me. I caught Friday night and they played way better than they did any of the other times I saw them. I wish they had those tempos throughout their run which was a the thing that I just couldn't get over and made me stay away. 

In some ways it's great that I didn't connect musically with them since I was reminded again on Friday why I avoid stadium shows, although they have gotten much better at them they still don't do it for me. It would have sucked to be really into this band and have to shell out the current price for concerts to see them in stadiums. 

I'm more than happy with the flavors we have now. DSO for 70's dead, JRAD for progressive dead. Phil and Friends for pretty dead particularly with this new line up, Wolf Brothers for those into that, and whatever else comes out of this. I hope that Oteil and Chementi put something together I would be into seeing what they come up with. Dead & Co were notorious for slow starts -  taking several shows to start to gel, so I'm not looking forward to one offs. 

Mostly I can't believe how many choices of live dead music we have in 2023. 

>>> Mostly I can't believe how many choices of live dead music we have in 2023 <<<

I'm reading that as amazement with gratitude, which might not have been what you really meant, but it sounds good to me.

I loved the Grateful Dead, and I love what other people get from a lot of other bands that are connected by threads of substance or happenstance to the GD and the music. Keep the flow going.

And I love you guys.

You read that right. It's a good thing.

> I hope that Oteil and Chementi put something together<

I think Oteil is going to be touring behind his Jerry ballad album he recently recorded in Iceland.

Yeah it's pretty amazing that in 2023 I can see Billy and his band and Bobby and his band in a "small" place down on the water in downtown Baltimore. (Could see Phil if I wanted to take the train to New Haven but can't.)  Ain't life grand. We will be seeing Oteil (with Kimock and Melvin) in a couple weeks at a local park.  

I preferred Phil and Friends and Further but both of those bands tended to attract a bunch of old guys that stood there with there arms crossed waiting for the band to impress them, and yes that is a description of me.

this is also me, but im not old, just extraordinarily high

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6LcktkYt_M

weir with chimenti and sless in the wolfpack sounding better to me than a lot of the deadco ive heard. new east coast tour dates just dropped for what im assuming is more or less this lineup.