The Dead & Company: Bringing Back Rock Music In Folsom Field After 15 Years

 The Good Old Grateful Dead & Their Young Bandmates

John Mayer playing alongside with the legendary Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir in Folsom Field last Sunday

Yes! The 3 veterans from the Grateful Dead : Bob Weir, Mickey Hart Bill Kreutzmann team up with the keyboard player Jeff Chimenti, the bass guitarist Oteil Burbridge  and the guitarist  who helped to form the super-band - John Mayer have brought back music to the Folsom Field in Boulder on last Sunday night. The Folsom Field, property of the University of Colorado used to be one of the most famous places for Rock concerts. Especially one in the 1972 when all the great Rock bands including the Grateful Dead appeared at the Folsom Field and the venue was overcrowded with fans. Since then the Folsom Field always had been the center of Blues and Rock music in Colorado until 2001 when the public complain stopped all further live music concerts. The last Rock concert was held by Dave Matthews Band in 2001. Now, after 15 years, the super-band Dead & Company finally set out to begin their tour across the states. The tour began last month from Manchester, Tennessee and last Saturday and Sunday nights the Dead & Company appeared in Folsom Field for 2 days to play some of the greatest Grateful Dead music hits and the good old Blues-Rock & Folk-Rock.

Crowd In Folsom Field In July 3 to see Dead & Company live

The Dead & Company began to appear on concerts just last year. Their major concert in 2015 was in Madison Square Garden, New York in October. After that successful night the Dead & Company announced that there would be more concerts and tour. The Dead & Company is no doubt a band with experience. The Grateful Dead is one of the most famous Rock bands of the late 60s and 70s. They had achieved a huge success playing the Blues and Folk music and turning them into Blues-Rock like many of the other bands of that era. But, Grateful Dead had made history in the past with many awesome songs and live appearances. It has been more than 20 years since the guitarist Jerry Garcia died and the band pretty much collapsed but the remaining members kept on reuniting time to time on different occasions. John Mayer began tagging along with Bob Weir in 2015 and then decided to form the Dead & Company band. Since their formation the veterans had been on spotlight in the music world, being interviewed by different magazines and performing in late night shows like the one on February 18, 2016 when the band performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to promote the tour. The major reason of forming this band was to spread their good old music once again to the world and to the young generation. And that’s what happened in Folsom Field. The band started the concert with Feel Like A Stranger and then played the hit Next Time You See Me which was sang by John Mayer. As soon as the music started, the stadium came to life, and then there was just pure music, the good old hits from the past that still touch souls and makes us sing along, and certainly there were improvisations with new guitar solos. If you are a Grateful Dead fan then you cannot miss this collaboration. John Mayer, who seems to fill the void after the departure of Garcia played with great passion. Mayer’s passion brought the band together and the world could hear that awesome folk-rock and blues-rock once again. Oteil Burbridge, who had previously collaborated with Allman Brothers Band was signed up to Dead & Company after Phil Lesh (the original bass guitarist of Grateful Dead) refused to join. Jeff Chimenti had also toured with Grateful Dead in past and played alongside Mayer, Mickey Hart and Bob Weir. In Colorado, these guys were at their best with riffs and solos and constant one hour of jamming in July 2 and July 3. The band seemed quite peculiar since there were the white haired veterans and the young musicians playing alongside and having the best time, they were fun to watch. The concert in Folsom Field continued for two days with many Grateful Dead and other blues and boogie hits like Samson & Delilah, Bird Song, West LA Fadeaway. The next set began with China Cat Sunflower and played gold hits like Smokestack Lightinin’, Let It Grow, Morning Dew and other hits.

 

Still the band is on tour and they will appear again this Thursday night show in Clarkston, Michigan @ DTE Energy Music Theatre. 

The band remaining tour dates are:

            July 09 – Elkhorn, WI @ Alpine Valley Music Theatre

July 10 – Elkhorn, WI @ Alpine Valley Music Theatre

July 13 – Pittsburgh, PA @ First Niagara Pavilion

July 15 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park

July 16 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park

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