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Dead & Company

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Dead & Company - The Final Tour

Tickets On Sale Starting Friday, October 14th at 10AM Local.

DEAD & COMPANY is launching its 2023 summer tour on Friday, May 19th and Saturday, May 20th in Los Angeles at the Kia Forum with dates running through Friday, July 14th and Saturday, July 15th when the tour ends in San Francisco at Oracle Park.  The band - Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, John Mayer, and Bob Weir, with Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti – will perform two sets of music drawing from the Grateful Dead’s historic catalog of songs. Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, October 14th @ 10 AM local venue time through deadandcompany.com . 

The highly-anticipated 2023 summer tour, produced by Live Nation, will be the band’s final tour since forming in 2015. Highlights include the tour-opening back-to-back concerts at the KIA FORUM in Los Angeles (Friday, May 19th & Saturday, May 20th), as well as doubleheaders at WRIGLEY FIELD in Chicago (Friday, June 9th & Saturday, June 10th); SARATOGA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER in Saratoga Springs, NY (Saturday, June 17th & Sunday, June 18th); CITI FIELD in NYC (Wednesday, June 21st & Thursday, June 22nd); and THE GORGE in George, WA (Friday, July 7th & Saturday, July 8th); an epic return to FENWAY PARK in Boston, MA (Sunday, June 25th); the band’s first-ever three-night stand at FOLSOM FIELD in Boulder, CO (Saturday, July 1st, Sunday, July 2nd, & Monday, July 3rd); and the tour finale - a two-night debut at ORACLE PARK in San Francisco (Friday, July 14th & Saturday, July 15th). A full listing of the 2023 tour dates can be found below.

To ensure that tickets get directly into the hands of fans, advance presale registration is now available HERE powered by Seated. The Artist Presale begins Wednesday, October 12th at noon local venue time and runs through Thursday, October 13th at 10 PM local venue time. Advance registration does not guarantee tickets. Supplies are limited. 

Guests who prefer an enhanced experience for this memorable Dead & Company tour can purchase a variety of VIP and Travel Packages. Packages include seamless venue access, early GA entry, pre-show lounge with food and a cash bar, exclusive merchandise, or travel packages for multi-night runs in various cities. Packages from 100X Hospitality will go on sale October 12th at noon local venue time. For full details, click HERE .

Dead & Company and Activist will continue their work with longtime sustainability partner REVERB to reduce the summer tour’s environmental footprint and engage fans to take action for people and the planet. More details at REVERB.org .

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Dead and Company Announce Dates and On-Sale Times for Final Tour Next Summer

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

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Shortly after announcing that next summer’s tour would be the last one for Dead and Company , the group has announced the full schedule of dates for that farewell outing, with tickets set to go on sale a week from Friday.

The tour will begin with a two-night stand at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum May 19-20 and end — perhaps not surprisingly — in San Francisco, at Oracle Park, where this offshoot of the Grateful Dead will call it a night after final gigs set to take place there July 14-15.

Tickets go on sale Oct. 14 at 10 a.m. local time through deadandcompany.com.

The band had formally announced that the forthcoming tour would be its last in a Sept. 23 statement, with the members acknowledging that word was bound to get out as dates were in the last stages of booking. “As we put the finishing touches on booking venues, and understanding that word travels fast, we wanted to be the first to let you know that Dead & Company will be hitting the road next summer for what will be our final tour,” the September statement read. “Stay tuned for a full list of dates for what will surely be an exciting, celebratory, and heartfelt last run of shows.

Early in 2022, there had been rumors that the band would be hanging it up after this past summer’s tour. It turns out the speculation was off by a year, with one more extended chance to see the band still ahead.

In response to an April 2022 report in Rolling Stone that the group would cease touring after this year, the band pumped the brakes on that news, saying then that “Dead & Company has made no official decision as to this being their final tour.”  Bob Weir  even posted on Twitter: “News to me.”

The group started in 2015 and includes several original members of the Grateful Dead as well as fresh reinforcements, with the lineup now featuring Mickey Hart, Kreutzmann, John Mayer , Weir, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti.

The full schedule for the swan song tour:

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Dead & Company Announce 2022 Summer Tour

By Madison Bloom

Dead & Company have announced a 2022 summer tour. The jam band—featuring members of the Grateful Dead and John Mayer —will kick things off on June 11 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. They’ll stop off in Boulder, Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia, and more before wrapping up in New York on July 16. The upcoming trek marks Dead & Company’s seventh tour since the band formed back in 2015. Find Dead & Company’s full schedule below.

Read Pitchfork’s feature “ The Grateful Dead: A Guide to Their Essential Live Songs ,” as well as the Sunday Review of John Mayer’s Room for Squares .

All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Dead & Company:

06-11 Los Angeles, CA - Dodger Stadium 06-13 Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre 06-14 Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre 06-17 Boulder, CO - Folsom Field 06-18 Boulder, CO - Folsom Field 06-21 Maryland Heights, MO - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre 06-22 Cincinnati, OH - Riverbend Music Center 06-24 Chicago, IL - Wrigley Field 06-25 Chicago, IL - Wrigley Field 06-28 Noblesville, IN - Ruoff Music Center 06-29 Clarkston, MI - Pine Knob Music Theatre 07-01 Bethel, NY - Bethel Woods Center for the Arts 07-02 Foxborough, MA - Gillette Stadium 07-05 Hartford, CT - The Xfinity Theatre 07-06 Saratoga Springs, NY - SPAC 07-08 Bristow, VA - Jiffy Lube Live 07-10 Philadelphia, PA - Citizens Bank Park 07-12 Burgettstown, PA - The Pavilion at Star Lake 07-15 Queens, NY - Citi Field 07-16 Queens, NY - Citi Field

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Dead & Company Announce 2021 Tour

By Claire Shaffer

Claire Shaffer

Dead & Company have announced they’re hitting the road on a 2021 tour, kicking off August 16th in Raleigh, North Carolina, and running through Halloween, with a three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl on October 29th, 30th, and 31st.

The supergroup consisting of John Mayer ,  Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti will play 31 dates overall, including stops in New York, Chicago, Denver, Boston, and more cities throughout the U.S.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, May 21st at 12:00 p.m. local time through  Ticketmaster . Fan registration is now available until Sunday, May 16th at 10:00 p.m. PDT, through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program. The Verified Fan Presale begins Wednesday, May 19th at 10:00 a.m. local time through Thursday, May 20th at 10:00 p.m. local venue time.

The band was forced to cancel their 2020 summer tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but have been quick to reschedule live show dates following widespread vaccinations. Last month, Dead & Company announced that they’ll be returning to the Riviera Cancun, Mexico, in January 2022 for their fourth Playing in the Sand concert vacation, a three-day residency where the band performs just feet away from the Caribbean Sea.

Dead & Company 2021 Tour Dates

August 16 – Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park August 18 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live August 20 – New York, NY @ Citi Field August 21 – Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park August 23 – Bethel, NY @ Bethel Woods Center for the Arts August 25 – Darien, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater August 27 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center August 28 – Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium September 2 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center September 3 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center September 5 – Hartford, CT @ The Xfinity Theatre September 7 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center September 10 – Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre September 11 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center September 13 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre STL September 15 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center September 17 – Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field September 18 – Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field October 6 – West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre October 7 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre October 11 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion October 12 – Atlanta, GA @ Cellairis Amphitheatre at Lakewood October 14 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion October 15 – Woodlands, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Presented by Huntsman October 22 – Greenwood Village, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater October 23 – Greenwood Village, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater October 25 – Phoenix, AZ @ Ak-Chin Pavilion October 27 – San Diego, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre October 29 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl October 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl October 31 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl

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VIP Tickets and Travel Packages

Hit the road with Dead & Company this summer for their final tour! Travel Packages are available in Los Angeles, Chicago, Saratoga, Boulder, The Gorge & San Francisco. Travel Packages combine tickets, local lodging, merchandise gifts and shuttle transportation (where available).

Travel Packages include:

• Two or three nights at a convenient hotel

A pair of VIP or GA tickets to see Dead & Company at one of the following stops for each night:

Los Angeles – 5/19 & 5/20

Chicago – 6/9 & 6/10

Saratoga – 6/17 & 6/18

Boulder – 7/1, 7/2 & 7/3

The Gorge – 7/7 & 7/8

San Francisco – 7/14, 7/15 & 7/16

Roundtrip transportation to and from the venue*

Two travel package merchandise gifts

On-site event host

*Shuttle transportation is not available in Chicago or San Francisco

VIP Ticket Details

Golden road super vip experience | $799 - $809.

One premium reserved ticket in the first five rows -OR- one GA Pit / Floor ticket*

Early venue entry**

Access to ‘Loose Lucy’s Lounge’, featuring:

Complimentary hors d’oeuvres

Cash Bar with two drink tickets

Private bathrooms

Comfortable lounge to relax and hang with fellow guests

One premium ‘Golden Road’ merchandise gift

One limited-edition, screen printed Final Dead & Company Tour poster – signed & numbered by the poster artist

One commemorative concert ticket and case

Crowd-free merchandise shopping

One VIP laminate

On-site concert host

• Parking pass (one per order where available, available venues to be announced at a later time)

*Some venues have a GA pit, some venues have a larger GA floor

**Please note: VIP guests who choose to partake in early entry will enter the venue in the following order: Golden Road, Steal Your Face, Scarlet>Fire

Steal Your Face VIP Experience | $449 - $459

One premium reserved ticket in the first 30 rows -OR- one GA Pit / Floor ticket*

Cash Bar with one drink ticket

Comfortable Lounge areas to relax and hang with fellow fans

One limited-edition, screen printed Final Dead & Company Tour poster – signed and numbered by the poster artist

Scarlet 〉Fire Seamless Ticket | $299 - $309

One Premium Reserved ticket -OR- one GA Pit / Floor ticket*

Early venue entry through dedicated ‘Scarlet>Fire’ venue entrance**

Dancing In The Streets Ticket | $159 - $169

One lawn ticket to see Dead & Company live

Early venue entrance and access to the lawn

* Available only at Amphitheater venues

Cities + Venues + Dates:

San francisco, ca, contact guest services, join our mailing list.

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It was great while it lasted: Dead and Company has concluded final tour in California

The Grateful Dead's offshoot band, Dead and Company, concluded its final tour in California on Sunday. For fans and vendors who have been following the bands for decades, it's the end of an era.

ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:

The Grateful Dead's offshoot band, Dead and Company, played its final shows in San Francisco over the weekend. It's the end of an era for fans like Colorado Public Radio's Vic Vela, who have been following the Dead's music for decades. It's also a big change for vendors and merchants who travel with the band and thrived on a scene called Shakedown.

VIC VELA, BYLINE: When the pandemic shutdowns were lifted and live concerts returned, Tony Seigh did something downright crazy. He left a career at Tesla to sell Grateful Dead bumper stickers in parking lots. But if you're a Deadhead, you totally get it.

TONY SEIGH: It almost was like for, like, two years, when you're thinking, like, oh my gosh; it's the end of the world; we're all going to die - like, we better go on tour with the Grateful Dead before it's over, you know?

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UNCLE JOHN'S BAND")

DEAD AND COMPANY: (Singing) Well, the first days are the hardest days. Don't you worry anymore.

VELA: Dead and Company has been the most successful Grateful Dead spinoff since Jerry Garcia died almost three decades ago. Now that the band is calling it quits, a lot of folks whose livelihoods literally depend on Dead shows are wondering what's going to happen to a place called Shakedown.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHAKEDOWN STREET")

GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) Nothing shaking on Shakedown Street.

VELA: Named after the Grateful Dead song "Shakedown Street," the epic traveling emporium of merchandise, music and madness is simply known as the Shakedown lot.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I got marigolds.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

VELA: It's a little bit farmers market, a little bit county fair, a little bit "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." It's where a fan can buy a Grateful Dead hoodie, a grilled cheese sandwich and, yes, even LSD. With this band's demise, vendors on Shakedown have some anxiety over what's next for the music they love and their own bank accounts. Seigh says a significant chunk of his income is from selling merchandise on Dead tours.

SEIGH: I don't know - maybe, like, half.

VELA: That's a lot.

SEIGH: Oh yeah, yeah. Oh no, it's a total gamble. But, you know, it takes a lot to win, but even more to lose.

VELA: Coleus Langer of Los Angeles sells clothing on Shakedown. He says losing that customer base is going to hurt.

COLEUS LANGER: It definitely makes me very sad because there's no other place like a Grateful Dead Shakedown lot. You know, as far as vending and just meeting people and networking and hanging, you know, there's just - it's such a special place.

VELA: Nowadays, a lot of vendors sell their goods online, so their incomes aren't totally dependent on Dead shows. But for many, there's nothing like that personal connection with other Deadheads. Stephen McMennamy is the owner of Grateful Fred, a company named after his dog. He sells metal stickers with Dead imagery.

STEPHEN MCMENNAMY: It's very different when you're standing across from somebody and they have tears in their eyes talking about how much this thing meant to them because it was the name of a pet or a loved one or a grandmother or something like that.

VELA: Some vendors say they'll continue to sell outside Phish shows or other jam bands where there's a lot of crossover appeal. And here's the thing. A lot of folks on Shakedown firmly believe there'll be a new Grateful Dead offshoot to follow post-Dead and Company. After all, there's been several versions of the Dead over the last couple decades. So the hope is that the music of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir will continue to thrive alongside fresh faces, or in the words of the Grateful Dead, the music never stops. For NPR News, I'm Vic Vela in San Francisco.

Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Dead & Company 2021 Tour

Tickets on Sale Friday, May 21 @ Noon Local Time

Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, John Mayer, and Bob Weir, with Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti –  is thrilled to announce its 2021 tour, kicking off August 16 th in Raleigh, North Carolina, and running through Halloween, with a three-night stand at the iconic Hollywood Bowl on October 29 th , 30 th , & 31 st .

The 31-date tour also includes a night in New York at Citi Field (August 20 th ), two nights in Boston (September 2 nd & 3 rd ), two nights at Wrigley Field in Chicago (September 17 th & 18 th ), and two nights in Denver (October 22 nd & 23 rd ), among others. A full listing of these 2021 tour dates can be found below.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, May 21 @   Noon  local venue time through  Ticketmaster .

To ensure fans get tickets in their hands directly, Fan Registration is now available  HERE  until Sunday, May 16 th @ 10PM PDT, through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program. The Verified Fan Presale begins Wednesday, May 19 th @ 10 AM local through Thursday, May 20 @ 10 PM local venue time. Supplies are limited.  

Dead & Company is excited to announce that they will continue their work with longtime sustainability partner REVERB. This summer the band has committed to a comprehensive carbon offset program via Reverb’s unCHANGEit Climate Campaign, covering all projected emissions from this year’s tour – including fan travel to and from shows. These Dead & Company tour offsets will immediately fund important projects around the world and here at home that directly fight climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

Dead & Company will once again offer a variety of enhanced experience packages that range in amenities from Loose Lucy’s Lounge access and early venue entry to branded lawn chairs and limited-edition screen-printed posters, paired with premium concert tickets. Travel Packages that bundle concert tickets with local accommodations will also be available. All enhanced offerings and travel packages go on sale May 19 th  at 10AM local venue time. For full details, visit HERE .

Check  deadandcompany.com  for complete tour information. 

Dead & Company 2021 Tour:

Dead & Company  was formed in 2015 when the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir joined forces with artist and musician John Mayer, Allman Brothers’ bassist Oteil Burbridge, and Fare Thee Well and RatDog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti.  The result was one of the most successful touring bands of the decade.  Since its formation, the band has completed six tours, playing to 3.4 million fans, and has become a record-breaking stadium act. Having toured consistently since its 2015 debut, the band has grossed $255.5 million and sold 2.8 million tickets across 149 reported shows.

Dead & Co. has headlined iconic stadiums across the country including Folsom Field, Autzen Stadium, Citi Field, Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium. Additionally, the band broke Wrigley Field’s all-time concert attendance record.

In between tours, Dead & Company hosts its annual “Playing in the Sand” all-inclusive Caribbean concert vacation in Mexico and features three nights of Dead & Company playing on an intimate beach. Due to overwhelming fan demand, a second weekend was added to 2022’s Playing in the Sand. Both weekends have sold out.

About Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit  www.livenationentertainment.com .

For a high res band photo and tour artwork, click HERE .

#  #  #

Media Contacts:

For Dead & Company, Scoop Marketing

Larry Solters, Anna Loynes, [email protected]

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Dead & Company 2021 Tour Recap: Highlights, Stats, & Top Shows

Dead & Company , the Grateful Dead spinoff band featuring John Mayer (lead guitar/vocals), Oteil Burbridge (bass/vocals), and Jeff Chimenti (keyboards/vocals) alongside Grateful Dead alumni Bill Kreutzmann (drums), Mickey Hart (drums), and Bob Weir (rhythm guitar/vocals), recently completed their first tour since the COVID pandemic shut down the live music industry in March 2020.

The loosely-branded What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been tour was the longest in the band’s six-year history, lasting 31 shows split into three legs spanning from August 16th through Halloween . The shows continued the band’s established practice of playing two sets of material from the Grateful Dead’s repertoire, focusing heavily on original songs co-written by late guitarist/vocalist Jerry Garcia and the late lyricist Robert Hunter and Weir’s co-writes with the late John Barlow .

Because it was Dead & Company’s first tour since the pandemic arrived in early 2020, new protocols required that attendees were vaccinated or at least tested negative for COVID shortly before the event. However, early in the tour, there were enough no-shows by vaccinated-but-hesitant or unvaccinated ticketholders that people were actually giving top-priced tickets away on show days. By mid-October proof of vaccination became standard for ticketholders to gain entry while the number of no-shows lessened, with significant numbers of ticketless folks doing the one-finger shuffle outside all four Colorado shows and three of the four California shows.

Now that it’s over and we’ve more or less recovered, here’s a show-by-show recap, with our favorites listed at the end in the Top Shows section. We threw in some song statistics and a few other random details along the way too, so kick back, relax, and enjoy.

SUMMER TOUR, LEG 1 – AUGUST 16th – 28th

NORTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA

After 576 days without a Dead & Company show, the wait was finally over and the first show since January 2020 would finally happen, but not before one final setback from a thunderstorm that delayed the doors at the Coastal Credit Union Amphitheatre (aka Walnut Creek) and the start of the show. No matter. The band wordlessly took the stage to a deafening roar and kicked off a shortened six-song first set with the most meaningful version of “Touch Of Grey” in a long, long, long time.

The band was tight, rehearsed, and clearly happy to be back as well, as the second set’s pre-“Drums” ran eight songs, lasted over an hour, and included “Playing In The Band”, “Truckin’”, and the tour’s sole version of “Spoonful”. On the far side of “Space”, the band delivered the show’s highlight, a stunning debut of the blues dirge “Death Don’t Have No Mercy”, a yes-they-went-there moment if there ever was one, and the set ran so long that the venue’s curfew prevented an encore. Welcome. Back.

After a day off the tour resumed at the Jiffy Lube Amphitheatre in Bristow, VA outside Washington, D.C. After Mayer delivered strong versions of “Cold Rain & Snow”, “Mr. Charlie”, and “Dire Wolf” in the first set, he’d also get the nod to start the second with the Garcia/Hunter classic “Here Comes Sunshine”. This would be the first of several stellar versions of the song he’d deliver on the tour and take to a new level; in 2021 Mayer found his way to the heart of this song in the way that he’s previously done with “Althea”, “Deal”, and “Brown Eyed Women”. Not long after that, the first of only two uninterrupted versions of the classic pairing of “Scarlet Begonias” and “Fire On The Mountain” on the entire tour would be another highlight.

NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA

The tour’s third date was Dead & Company’s first post-lockdown show in a stadium, and seeing the band walk onstage at New York’s Citi Field made us feel like things were sort of getting back to normal. While the fact that the song had been overheard being played at soundcheck took the surprise factor away for some, the band opened the show with their debut of “Let The Good Times Roll”, a staple of Grateful Dead shows from 1988 onwards. Not only does this one fit the vibe like it always did, but the “everyone sing a verse” lyrics also allow monitors and PA levels to be adjusted as needed.

The second set kicked off with “Eyes Of The World” for the only time on the tour, and the “Drums” section would feature the debut of Voices Of The Rainforest , recordings sourced in Papua, New Guinea by Hart that included video footage to go along with them. The tour’s sole version of the elusive “Spanish Jam” followed “Space”, and aside from “Althea” and the encore of “The Weight”, the second set’s song list could have come from a Grateful Dead’s 1974 “Wall Of Sound” show.

We’ll talk more about the tour’s next four shows in Philadelphia, Bethel, Darien Lake, and Saratoga Springs in the Top Shows section at the end of the recap. And directly after them, the opening leg of the summer tour ended on a Saturday night at Hershey Stadium , which was the first night of Grateful Dead music at the venue since the OG band’s 1985 rain-soaked classic . Intentionally or not, Dead & Company’s show paid immediate homage to the peak of that 1985 night by starting with “The Music Never Stopped”, before deftly weaving Weir’s 90s-era Dead tune “Easy Answers” into it, a tricky tune that Dead & Company handle far more deftly than their predecessors. Later, the second set’s highlights came from another kaleidoscopic “Here Comes Sunshine” from Mayer, Weir’s second reading of “Death Don’t Have No Mercy”, and the tour’s sole performance of “Quinn The Eskimo” as the encore.

SUMMER TOUR, LEG 2 – SEPTEMBER 2nd — 18th

MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT

These three New England shows clearly meant a little something extra to Wilton, CT native and Berklee College Of Music student John Mayer, who’d posted a photo of the Wilton exit on I-84 and also say as much on the day of the first show. The band would also take the opportunity to actively treat this trio of shows as a distinct group by starting and ending the three-show run (two nights at XFinity Centre   Amphitheatre  [aka Great Woods] in Mansfield, MA, and one at Hartford’s Xfinity Theatre ) by starting and finishing the run with the two halves of “Playing In The Band”, and the band would also split the tour’s first appearances of “Dark Star” over the two Great Woods shows as well. The aforementioned show-opening version of “Playing” combined seamlessly with “The Wheel” to last a combined 30 (!) minutes, while the second set kicked off with one of Mayer’s best versions of “Deal” on the tour, complete with him simultaneously fanning his guitar while repeatedly jumping up and down like a pogo stick.

After Friday’s Great Woods show (which we’ll talk more about in the Top Shows section at the end) and a day off on Saturday, the band made its way down I-84 to Hartford and picked right up where they’d left off, with a first set so stacked that the songs could have actually comprised a 1980 second set by the Grateful Dead if “Drums” and “Space” were added, and included “Shakedown Street”, “Samson & Delilah”, and “Franklin’s Tower”. The second set’s highlights came from the tour’s first versions of “St. Stephen”, “William Tell Bridge”, and especially “The Eleven”, and Hartford also scored the tour’s sole version of “Werewolves Of London” as the encore. All three nights of the New England run were strong individually, but collectively the shows wove themselves together into a distinct trio.

OHIO AND MICHIGAN

Next up was a drive west on I-80 to Ohio and the Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls just south of Cleveland. As the band took the stage Mayer quickly won the “best-dressed band member” award by sporting a black satin shirt that would have passed Studio 54 ’s dress code, and he’d also deliver the tour’s sole version of “Next Time You See Me” early in the show before a strong pairing of “Cassidy” and “Bird Song” closed the first set. The second set truly caught fire with the version of “Eyes Of The World” preceding “Drums”, and the show’s peak occurred via an absolutely gorgeous transition from the end of “Standing On The Moon” into the extended final verse of “Viola Lee Blues” along with a lengthy, standout version of “Not Fade Away” to close the set.

Three days later the next stop was DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, MI (aka Pine Knob), whose first set featured a rare mid-set placement of “New Speedway Boogie” just before the tour’s first version of The Beatles ’ “Dear Prudence”. The second set’s highlight came early via Burbridge’s gorgeous vocal take on the Garcia/Hunter ballad “Comes A Time”, complete with an equally gorgeous closing solo by Mayer. If you were there you got lucky, because it was the only one on the tour.

Later highlights came from the “China Cat Sunflower” and “I Know You Rider” pairing that led into “Drums”, and the relaxed-but-welcome tour premiere of “I Need A Miracle” following “Space”. The following day found the band moving fast down I-75 to the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati for a show on Mickey Hart’s 78th birthday, but we’ll talk about that one in detail later, in the Top Shows section.

MISSOURI, INDIANA, AND ILLINOIS

The summer tour remained in the Midwest for its last week, with shows at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis, MO (aka Riverport) and the Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center in Noblesville, IN (aka Deer Creek) that we’ll go over in detail in the Top Shows section at the end. From there, the summer leg closed with a pair of weekend shows within the friendly confines of 107-year-old Wrigley Field in Chicago. However, before the first show on Friday night , Mother Nature dropped a thunderstorm that caused two delays and worked heavily against the band.

The first set started late, was marred by equipment issues, and was then cut short after four songs. It was followed by a second set whose rushed pre-“Drums” did at least contain the sole “Dancing In The Streets” of the tour, but fortunately, the closing run of songs after “Space” was much stronger, with “Morning Dew” as the night’s highlight. The “Ripple” encore made for a nice finish, but overall, this was a rare off-night.

This wasn’t lost on the band, who’d make it up for it the following night . The first set started with a trio of second-set songs (“Althea”, “Uncle John’s Band”, and “He’s Gone”) and also contained the tour’s sole version of “Little Red Rooster”. But even better was the sprawling, generous second set that ran nearly two hours and contained, in Deadhead shorthand, “China” > “Rider”, “Estimated” > “Eyes” and “Help” > “Slip” > “Frank”. Yes, all of those in the same set plus “Milestones” and “Days Between” too, and after a double encore of “Brokedown Palace” and “Touch Of Grey” the band headed home for a two-week break before the fall leg commenced.

SONG STATS AND FUN FACTS

MOST AND LEAST PLAYED SONGS

Over the course of 31 shows the band played 119 different songs, aside from the “Drums” and “Space” segments each night during second sets. There was actually a 13-way tie for first place in the “most played song” category, with the following songs getting eight airings each: “Dark Star”, “Althea”, “The Other One”, “Deal”, “Playing In The Band”, “Uncle John’s Band”, “China Cat Sunflower”, “I Know You Rider”, “Bertha”, “Scarlet Begonias”, “Fire On The Mountain”, “Not Fade Away”, and “Franklin’s Tower”.

Right behind all those there was a 7-way tie for second place, with the following songs getting seven plays each: “Help On The Way”, “Slipknot”, “Let The Good Times Roll”, “Casey Jones”, “Jack Straw”, “Shakedown Street”, “New Speedway Boogie”, and “They Love Each Other”. On the other end of the statistics, 23 songs were only played once, with 14 shows getting one of them, the Raleigh, Bethel, and St. Louis shows each getting two, and the Dallas show getting three.

2021 DEBUTS

Dead & Company only added three new songs to the repertoire in 2021, but they were all winners. The Reverend Gary Davis  blues dirge “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” debuted on the tour’s opening night ( Raleigh 8/16 ), and Sam Cooke ’s 1964 party anthem “Let The Good Times Roll” opened up the tour’s third show ( New York 8/20 ). Both these songs remained in regular rotation for the entire tour, but the version of The Rolling Stones ’ “The Last Time” would sadly be a one-off, making its sole appearance at Darien Lake on August 25th as a dedication to Stones drummer Charlie Watts , who had passed away the day before.

ALTHEA’S HOT SPACES

In 2019 “Terrapin Station” was the song whose location in Dead & Company shows would constantly bounce around, but in 2021 Mayer’s signature song “Althea” moved into this welcome role. Over its 8 appearances, it kicked off the second set twice ( Cuyahoga Falls 9/7 and Los Angeles 10/31 ) and appeared in the body of the second set’s pre-“Drums” twice ( Atlanta 10/12 and Phoenix 10/25 ), but it also opened a first set ( Chicago 9/18 ), led directly into “Drums” ( Hershey 8/28 ), came out of “Space” ( New York, 8/20 ), and served as the encore ( Red Rocks 10/19 ).

SCARLET > FIRE AND FRIENDS

Another thing Dead & Company setlist architect Matt Busch did to keep people guessing in 2021 was add one or more songs into the middle of the “Scarlet Begonias” > “Fire On The Mountain” pairing, one of Deadheads’ most beloved song combinations since March 1977. This pairing was played 8 times in 2021, all in second sets, but only 2 were “traditional” and flowed directly into one another (Bristow 8/18 and Los Angeles 10/31 ). During the other six airings, the following songs flowed between them: “Help On The Way” and “Slipknot” (Saratoga Springs 8/27), “Viola Lee Blues” ( Clarkston 9/7 ), “Deal” ( Chicago 9/17 ), “Uncle John’s Band” ( Charlotte 10/11 ), “Estimated Prophet” and “Eyes Of The World” ( Red Rocks 10/19 ), and “Touch Of Grey” ( Phoenix 10/25 ).

THE STORYTELLERS SPEAK

Another welcome change in 2021 was that the tour’s livestreams on Nugs.net now had hosts to fill the “Dead Air” before the first set and during intermission. They were familiar faces, too: Gary Lambert and David Gans , two longtime torchbearers of the Deadhead community who host Tales From The Golden Road , the weekly call-in show on Sirius XM’s Grateful Dead channel.

Not only was it fun to watch them recap sets and manufacture on-the-fly conversation to fill the final minutes before the band took the stage for the second set each night, they were also joined by guests of prominent stature from all eras of the Grateful Dead universe, and these are less than half of the names: GD family members ( Trixie Garcia ), OG GD extended family members ( Ken Babbs , Rosie McGee ), those who make official GD music releases happen ( David Lemieux , David Glasser , Mark Pinkus ), a podcast host ( Jesse Jarnow ), a Nugs founder ( Brad Serling ), and a musician or two ( Don Was , Branford Marsalis , Denise Parent , Jeff Mattson , and some random guy named John Mayer).

YOU SHOULD BE MADE TO WEAR EARPHONES

When Dead & Company took the stage in Darien Lake on August 25th , there was a surprising sight on stage right: John Mayer was wearing headphones during the show, though aside from that he played and sang normally. And as soon as it got to intermission, Dead Air host Gary Lambert texted Mayer to ask about them, and Mayer texted him right back so Gary could get the word out: the headphones were to protect his hearing against (further) tinnitus and hearing loss, but they also help him to hear the band more fully, as he has the band’s front-of-house engineer mix piped in, so he’s hearing the very same mix by front-of-house engineer Derek Featherstone that Deadheads do. Want a pair for yourself? Go here .

FALL TOUR – OCTOBER 11th — OCTOBER 31st

NORTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND TEXAS

Originally, the fall leg of the tour was supposed to start with a pair of shows in Florida, in West Palm Beach on October 6th and Tampa on October 7th. However, on September 28th the band canceled these shows and issued refunds, citing “routing and logistics” as the reason and not elaborating further.

A week earlier the band had also added two dates at the 9,000-capacity Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. This was a surprising move for a band who draws over four times that number just up the road at Folsom Field in Boulder on a summer Saturday , but they’d pull this off by booking the shows on a Tuesday and Wednesday night in late October.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Tarheel State of North Carolina hosted their second kickoff show of the tour at PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte on October 11th. The opening “Let The Good Times Roll” was now clearly a band favorite, and it would be the only song of the night that wasn’t a Grateful Dead original. It was followed by an early-show surprise of “Cassidy” in the second slot, and the set’s highlight was the expansive “Bird Song” closer.

Related: Grateful Dead Studio Albums Ranked Worst To Best

The second set neatly incorporated half of the Grateful Dead’s classic 1970 Workingman’s Dead LP, starting with “Uncle John’s Band” between “Scarlet Begonias” and “Fire On The Mountain” before “Drums”, and finishing with a post-“Space” segment of “New Speedway Boogie”, “Black Peter”, and “Casey Jones”. The following day the band traveled to Atlanta’s Cellairis Amphitheatre (aka Lakewood), which seems to have become a charmed venue for the band. Dead & Company’s two previous shows there in 2017 and 2019 were each among that year’s best, and since it happened again at Lakewood in 2021 we’ll talk about that one in more detail in the Top Shows section at the end.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Bobby Weir (@bobweir)

Well before Dead & Company arrived in Texas for a pair of shows in Dallas and Houston, the state created one of the year’s biggest political controversies by passing Senate Bill 8, a nefariously crafted abortion restriction bill that’s outrageous enough that it could be overturned by the most conservative Supreme Court in a century. Weir had already made his public pronouncement on the issue by posting photos of his and his wife’s attendance at the San Francisco edition of a national Women’s Rights march that took place on October 2nd, and the band’s first set at Dallas’ Dos Equis Pavilion would say much more.

After opening with the sole “Man Smart, Woman Smarter” of the tour, the rest of the set featured songs about beloved female characters in the Grateful Dead’s universe: “Bertha”, “Queen Jane Approximately” (the only one of the tour), “Brown Eyed Women”, “Peggy-O”, and “Sugaree”. After the dust settled from all that, the second set kicked off with the only “Deep Ellum Blues” of the tour as a friendly callout to the notorious Dallas nightlife district that spawned the song. Later on, the extended version of “The Other One” just before “Drums” would be the highlight of the show, and the band closed the night with one final, gentler political plea via their “Liberty” encore.

The band headed 210 miles south on I-45 the following day for a show at the Cynthia Woods Pavilion outside Houston, with the band competing against the Friday Night Lights of Texas high school football. Two of the first set’s big plays came from the hoped-for songs with local references (“El Paso” and “Jack Straw”), and the second set’s touchdowns came from yet another classic with a local reference (“Truckin’”), versions of “St. Stephen” and “The Eleven” whose jams took some slight darker turns, and one of the tour’s two versions of Miles Davis’ classic “Milestones”. Lastly, there was a classic sliver of sibling-style banter onstage after the “Black Muddy River” encore, an hour or so before Weir turned 74 and Mayer turned 44 on October 16th:

Burbridge: “An early ‘Happy Birthday’ to John and Bob!”

Hart: “The birthday boys…How cute.”

On paper, this was as good as things could get for Dead & Company and Deadheads in 2021, with two shows at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, just west of Denver. But just before the first show started, as the temperature was dropping to a bone-chilling 34 degrees, there was a stunning announcement.

Drummer Bill Kreutzmann had contracted a non-Covid 19-related illness and would not play , and Wolf Bros and Ratdog drummer Jay Lane would fill in for him. And when we say stunning, we mean it: Kreutzmann himself couldn’t recall ever missing a show in his entire career, which is fair, because a look through Deadbase revealed he had missed only one, on 11/22/68 .

Rallying, defiant versions of “Not Fade Away” and “New Speedway Boogie” started the show and the “Eyes Of The World” in the second set would be the show’s powerful highlight, but at the conclusion of “Casey Jones”, the cold conditions and equipment issues forced Mickey Hart offstage for the rest of the night, leaving new guy Lane out there on his own for the closer and first-ever “Althea” encore. No pressure, man. It was a beautiful but cold setting and it was definitely a Dead & Company show, but the drummers’ circumstances made for an uncommon night onstage.

The second Red Rocks show on October 20th took place under a full moon, with slightly higher temperatures ranging from the low 50s into the 40s during the show. Lane would fill in for Kreutzmann for a second straight night, and the first set featured a nice run of 70s-era songs highlighted by “The Wheel” and “Black-Throated Wind”, while the 80s were represented by what was possibly the most relaxed version of “Hell In A Bucket” ever. And while the second set was solid throughout and highlighted by “Terrapin Station”, two quick moments after “Space” stood out: during the closing jam of “All Along The Watchtower” Lane unleashed a powerful blast of drumming that rippled right through the entire band, and then got in a second one with the same effect during the climax of “Standing On The Moon” two songs later.

While Lane has played with Weir for decades and was already familiar with a sizable chunk of the Grateful Dead’s catalog, these were breakthrough moments for him with Dead & Company, right after being airdropped into this madness. Two days later, the tour resumed just 25 miles down the road at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in Greenwood Village with another pair of shows , and Lane continued filling in for Kreutzmann at both of them. Lane’s surges would prove a good omen for the Fiddler’s Green run, and his new-guy energy would help those shows become two of the tour’s best. We’ll talk more about them in the Top Shows section at the end.

ARIZONA AND CALIFORNIA

The weather warmed up considerably once the band moved on from Colorado to Arizona, but even more importantly, Kreutzmann was back on his drummer’s throne for the Monday evening show at Phoenix’s Ak-Chin Pavilion . Not only were Kreutzmann and the band in fine form all evening, the setlist would make fans of the Grateful Dead’s “dirty 80’s” era very happy: aside from the encore, every song could have been from a 1984 Dead show. In particular, we loved Burbridge’s “China Doll” and the “Let It Grow” from the first set, and the second set trio of “Scarlet Begonias”, “Touch Of Grey”, and “Fire On The Mountain”, a sequence the Grateful Dead would only do twice, on July 3rd, 1984  and July 13th, 1984 .

Next up was a drive west on I-8 to the North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, CA, just outside San Diego. Local boy (and World’s Tallest Deadhead) Bill Walton turned up, and beaming visage and outstretched arms were consistently broadcast on the video screens to the delight of the crowd, while the first set’s highlights came from another great “Cumberland Blues” and the “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo” closer. However, the Chula Vista show would be set apart by its second set song choices, which included five songs from the Grateful Dead’s 60’s era and a looser, slightly rawer vibe to go with them: “St. Stephen”, “The Eleven”, “New Speedway Boogie”, “Death Don’t Have No Mercy”, and “Good Lovin”.

The tour concluded with a drive up I-5 for three sold-out shows at the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, with many folks taking advantage of Halloween weekend by dressing for the occasion on all three nights. (Skeletons were far and away the most common costume, followed by a respectable number of people dressed as The Dude from The Big Lebowski .)

Both sets on opening night were bookended by a Weir/Barlow classic: the first set started and finished with “Playing In The Band”, with highlights between them coming from “Deal”, “All Along The Watchtower”, and “High Time”. Not to be outdone, the second set kicked off with “Sugar Magnolia” and finished with its coda, “Sunshine Daydream”, with highlights in between coming from a dense “Slipknot!” and a lengthy “Estimated Prophet”. There was a somber note to this set, however, as right before the band started “Sugar Magnolia” Weir quickly said the song was “for Rob”. This rare onstage dedication was for Rob Lawson , Weir’s longtime driver and confidant who was in his final days and who would pass away on November 1st, the day after the tour ended.

Hollywood Bowl’s middle night on Saturday was rolling smoothly along after a first set highlighted by “It Hurts Me Too” and “Tennessee Jed”, and a second set that started with an agreeable run of “Jack Straw”, “Sugaree”, and the classic pairing of “China Cat Sunflower” and “I Know You Rider”. However, before the band could start a fifth song Kreutzmann would leave the stage, and most of the band followed while Hart handled the “Drums” segment largely on his own. It turned out the band had prepared for this possibility and had kept Lane on hand, as he took Kreutzmann’s place for the remainder of the show, which had a heavier, more serious vibe during “Throwing Stones” and “Days Between” before the more upbeat, celebratory vibes of set closer “One More Saturday Night” and encore “U.S. Blues”.

The following morning on Halloween, Kreutzmann took a light tone on a social media post and apologized if he’d “spooked” anyone with his absence, while disclosing that he’d come back too soon from his illness and Lane would fill in for him one last time for that evening’s Halloween tour closer , and we’ll talk a little more about that one in the Top Shows section below.

TOP 8 SHOWS, PLUS 4 HONORABLE MENTIONS

The What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been tour lasted 31 shows and 77 days, and it more than lived up to its name, as you’ve read here and/or experienced firsthand. Over that time there were some shows that stood out from the others, and we kept track of them along the way. Since this Dead & Company tour was longer we expanded the customary Top 5 to a Top 8, and to 4 Honorable Mentions instead of the usual 3. So with a resounding Rhythm Devils drum roll and without further ado, here are 2021’s top Dead & Company shows, in chronological order.

TOP 8 SHOWS

August 21st – Philadelphia, PA

Just before the band took the stage for the fourth show of the tour, word came down that tonight’s show would have no intermission due to severe incoming storms and would instead consist of one solitary set that had to end by 10 p.m. But the Philly crowd took it all in stride and pushed the band the way they always have, and after a pair of rainbows formed over the stadium during the third song, “Jack Straw”, the band was off to the races for the rest of the night, with the pre-“Drums” highlights coming from Chimenti’s lengthy, fiery Hammond B3 organ solo in “Franklin’s Tower”, and a 35-minute journey through “Terrapin Station” and “The Other One”. However, the faster-tempo-than-usual “Morning Dew” that closed the set would not just be the peak of this show. Instead, Mayer’s closing solo ensured this song was the peak moment of the entire tour, and it will remain one of his signature moments with Dead & Company.

August 23rd – Bethel, NY

One of the trademarks of any band led by Bob Weir is that there’s an avoidance of nostalgia or simply recreating past glories. Weir’s focus is all about creating something new each night, so after a solid first set featuring four 80s-era Weir/Barlow classics, Weir stepped to his microphone at the beginning of the second set and delivered the biggest surprise of the tour.

Since the stage they were on that was adjacent to the site of the August 1969 Woodstock Music & Arts Festival and the Grateful Dead’s utterly disastrous five-song set there (thunderstorms caused life-threatening technical issues), Weir announced a “do-over” of that set, 52 years later. And to the crowd’s disbelief and joy, they’d run through “St. Stephen”, “Mama Tried”, “Dark Star”, “High Time” and “Turn On Your Lovelight”, and it would go a lot better this time. To finish the night off, “Ripple” would be the perfect encore at this proving ground of hippies with the best of intentions trying to make a huge rock festival work before anyone had truly figured out how exactly to do it.

August 27th – Saratoga Springs, NY

The 20-minute “Bird Song” that closed the first set of this show featured a jam with a heavy metal level of intensity, with David Gans and Gary Lambert later declaring it one of the best performances of the song by anyone in its 50-year history. The second set would stand up to it, too, with the front half featuring a sequence of “Scarlet Begonias”, “Help On The Way” and “Slipknot!” that recalled the Grateful Dead’s exploratory 1976 approach to each of these songs, and the show’s peak would be the definitive-D&C-version-so-far of “Cumberland Blues” out of “Space”, followed by Weir delivering the tour’s best version of “Days Between”. On its fifth try, the venerable Saratoga Performing Arts Center finally hosted a Dead & Company show that channeled the intensity of the Grateful Dead’s legendary 80s-era shows there.

September 11th – Cincinnati, OH

For the first time in Dead & Company’s six-year history, a show took place on a band member’s birthday, and the band would celebrate drummer Mickey Hart’s 78th trip around the sun by leading the crowd through a version of “Happy Birthday To You” before the second set, which was inspired and seamless. Highlights came from its opener of “The Other One” that would conclude over an hour later after journeys through “Uncle John’s Band”, the “Help On The Way” > “Slipknot!” > “Franklin’s Tower” trio and another top-notch “Cumberland Blues” coming out of “Space”. The first set stood out too, thanks to a well-chosen run of five early-70’s Grateful Dead originals: “Tennessee Jed”, “Here Comes Sunshine”, “Loose Lucy”, “Mr. Charlie”, and “Looks Like Rain”.

September 15th – Noblesville, IN

The venue we still call Deer Creek once again served as the location for a night of magical Grateful Dead music. The first set peaked with Weir’s dramatic reading of the tour’s sole version of Bob Dylan ’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”, and the second set got off to an unconventional start with Mayer leading the band through a stand-alone version of “Sugaree”.

But from there, the band would head straight to 1969 and stay there for the rest of the set, and if you allow “Space” to be considered the equivalent to “Feedback”, they’d play the entire Live Dead  double album, slightly out of sequence and with the additions of “Drums” and “Casey Jones”. Once again, while it remains rare for Dead & Company to make clear and conscious nods to big, specific happenings from the Grateful Dead’s past, when it does happen the results tend to be pretty big as well.

October 12th – Atlanta, GA

For the third time in three Dead & Company shows at Lakewood, the show made our best-of-tour list. This one started with the best first set of the tour, which kicked off with 19 minutes of “Shakedown Street” and was later bolstered by the band’s then-and-there decision to try out the original, faster 1973 arrangement of “They Love Each Other” without ever having rehearsed it. It worked. But the second set eclipsed it, with an opener of “Playing In The Band” that segued into the first “Crazy Fingers” in two years.

After Mayer delivered his signature song “Althea”, the version of “China Cat Sunflower” > ”I Know You Rider” that followed lasted for an eye-popping 28 minutes, nearly three times the 10:35 duration of the Grateful Dead’s benchmark version from Europe ‘72 . Hart’s segment on The Beam at the conclusion of “Drums” was also the tour’s best, and with all of this it’s unsurprising that the band ran so late with their set that the gorgeous set-closing reprise of “Playing In The Band” would be the final number of the night. But by then, an encore wasn’t really necessary.

October 22nd – Denver, CO

After a first set that drew from six different eras of the Grateful Dead’s live repertoire, the second set kicked off with a stand-alone “Sugaree”. Once again it was a seemingly odd choice, just like it was in Deer Creek , but once again it would precede a continuous psychedelic blast that would last for the remainder of the set. This time, every song (including “Sugaree”) could have come from a Grateful Dead show from 1971, and the set’s centerpiece that was the highlight of the fall leg of the tour: a 45-minute excursion of “Dark Star” > “The Other One” > “Drums” > “Space” > “Dark Star” > “The Other One”.

Sets containing both of these open-ended classics were extremely rare after 1971 with the Grateful Dead, and it’s only happened a couple times before with Dead & Company, but this is the first instance we know of where either band played both songs and split them both in half in the same set. The band knew they’d nailed it all too, and they remained dialed-in for the “Wharf Rat” and “Sugar Magnolia” closers. Oh, and we almost forgot: Weir’s delivery of the “headlight” verse in “I Know You Rider” was the best one we can remember.

October 31st – Los Angeles, CA

Jay Lane had to sit in for Kreutzmann again on this night, but not for the first time; the band used the last night of the tour to stack the setlist and go for broke. The first set was highlighted by the opening “Samson & Delilah” and second-set-intensity versions of “Uncle John’s Band” and set-closer “Terrapin Station”. The second set closed out the tour with a list of favorites and stone-cold classics dished out with no-tomorrow energy, including opener “Althea”, a “Dark Star” > “El Paso” suite, and another strong “Eyes Of The World”. Following “Space”, the band dealt out the first uninterrupted “Scarlet Begonias” > “Fire On The Mountain” since the tour’s second show in Bristow back in August, and then follow it with a substantial “Morning Dew” to close the set. Enough classics for you? The only drawback was “Werewolves Of London” being cut from the encore because of the venue curfew, but by this point one could just blame it on the Dew and smile.

4 HONORABLE MENTIONS:

August 25th – Darien Lake, NY

This day started on a somber note for pretty much everyone who’s ever liked rock ‘n’ roll, as the sad news came from London that Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts had passed away the day before at the age of 80. The news wasn’t lost on the band, who debuted their version of the Stones’ classic “The Last Time” as the Grateful Dead’s Steal Your Face skull logo broadcast on the venue screens with the Rolling Stones’ tongue logo in place of the lightning bolt.

The overall vibe of the show also contained several nods to the time when the Rolling Stones were young men and the Grateful Dead were even younger: “Viola Lee Blues” and “Cold Rain and Snow” date back to the Dead’s earliest days when the Stones were a big influence, but they also didn’t shy away from playing “New Speedway Boogie”, the song that memorialized the one time the bands tried to play together, with disastrous results, at Altamont Speedway in December of 1969. All in all, it was the celebration of the backbeat of one of rock’s greatest bands while also acknowledging that same band’s dark and dangerous side. And, just being able to hear “Truckin’” in Buffalo again was a joyous little celebration all by itself. This show had the dark and the light in spades.

September 3rd – Mansfield, MA

Connecticut native and Berklee College of Music student John Mayer was excited and nostalgic about the trio of shows that took place in New England over Labor Day weekend (two at Great Woods in Massachusetts and one at Xfinity in Connecticut), and the second night of Great Woods would just barely outpace the other two in a strong weekend of shows. The first set featured no fewer than four songs with Mayer on lead vocals (“Cold Rain & Snow”, “Dire Wolf”, and “Sugaree” on his own, plus shared vocals with Weir on “Mississippi Half-Step”), followed by a second set that allowed numerous opportunities for Mayer to run wild as a player, including the big second set jam that started with “Truckin’” and ended over an hour later with “Morning Dew”. To wrap it up, Mayer would team up with Weir to belt out a perfectly-timed “U.S. Blues” encore to send everyone back out into the Massachusetts night.

September 13th – St. Louis, MO

The timing of this show ended up coinciding pretty closely with the announcement of the Grateful Dead’s Listen To The River box set, featuring seven complete shows played in St. Louis from 1971 to 1973. And setlist assembler Matt Busch made sure to take note of the location with “Big River” and “Black-Throated Wind” and their direct references to St. Louis making the first set, and St. Louis native Chuck Berry ’s signature song “Johnny B. Goode” would get its sole airing of the tour as the encore. In between, the second set had a decidedly late-1978 vibe to it, with a “Bertha” > “Good Lovin” opener, and a mid-set “Shakedown Street” before “Terrapin Station” begat “Drums”, with “Wharf Rat and “Sugar Magnolia” serving as the two post-“Space” set closers.

October 23rd – Denver, CO

Numerous shows on the tour were consistently strong from start to finish, but this final of the four shows in Colorado (and the fourth with Lane filling in for Kreutzmann) had that little something extra the whole way through that sets it apart. The first set nestled five classic 1970’s Garcia/Hunter songs (“Shakedown Street”, “Ship Of Fools”, “Brown-Eyed Women”, “Crazy Fingers”, and “Here Comes Sunshine”) in between two of the late Jerry Garcia’s most reliable Grateful Dead covers in “Iko Iko” and “Going Down The Road Feeling Bad”. Following that, the second set’s otherness came from the unusual turns in the jams in the opening “Truckin’” and the all-three-verse version of “Viola Lee Blues” that followed, with late-show highlights coming in the from of “Cumberland Blues” and a mesmerizing “Stella Blue”.

Dead & Company’s next shows take place from January 7th–10th and January 13th–16th, 2022 at the annual Playing In The Sand event in Cancun, Mexico. Get more information here .

Dead and Company 2021 tour: The 13 best performances from a long, strange trip

What a run.

Dead and Company wrapped up its year on the road with the final show of a three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Sunday, Oct. 31, and in the wake of the tour there is plenty to unpack.

This was undoubtedly the wildest outing yet for the Grateful Dead legacy act. The band braved the elements — playing on through a downpour in Philadelphia and rolling with a rain delay in Chicago — and played on as a non-COVID-19 illness forced drummer Bill Kreutzmann to miss October shows in Colorado and California.

But Dead music has always been about the present, living and playing in the moment — and as this band continued its search for the sound, they discovered plenty of wonders out there on the road.

From mid-August through the end of October, Dead and Company — the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir on guitar and vocals with drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, joined by singer/guitarist John Mayer, singer/bassist Oteil Burbridge and keyboard player Jeff Chimenti — crossed the country to deliver 31 shows, each in the neighborhood of four hours and drawing on a decades-deep catalogue of American classics. 

Delights were to be found at every turn. Let's look back, in chronological order, on 13 highlights of the tour, one for every point on the Grateful Dead's signature lightning bolt logo:

Just as no two Dead shows are ever the same, no two lists of high spots will be the same, either. But we're all enjoying the ride.

1. "New Speedway Boogie," Aug. 16, Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek in Raleigh, North Carolina

A pair of Grateful Dead classics, "Touch of Grey" and "New Speedway Boogie," became anthems of perseverance for many during the hard days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And while this tour-opening show began with the defiant "we will get by" chorus of "Touch of Grey," it was the gritty blues of "New Speedway Boogie" that hit the hardest, delivered with ever-enduring world weariness by Weir with sharp blues guitar leads directly from Mayer's wheelhouse. 

2. "Eyes of the World," Aug. 20, Citi Field, New York City

The band opened the second set of its triumphant New York City return with a luxurious and exploratory 18-minute "Eyes of the World," Mayer and Chimenti's complementary leads intertwined in a sublime cosmic dance as Weir, Burbridge, Hart and Kreutzmann served as the sturdiest of terra firma — all before Burbridge unleashed his own sparkling bass solo that reverberated throughout the whole stadium.

3. "Morning Dew," Aug. 21, Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia

Some of Dead and Company's finest moments occur when Weir and Mayer join forces to wrap their arms around songs that were showcases for Grateful Dead singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia, and there was no finer example of this tandem in action this year than on the Philadelphia rendering of the apocalyptic folk-rock odyssey "Morning Dew."

With Weir's weathered and passionate lead vocal matched by Mayer's meteor shower guitar work, the band found every last drop of ancient and timeless soul in the song and delivered it to the Philadelphia faithful. 

4. "High Time," Aug. 23, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, New York

When Dead and Company returned to the site of the landmark 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Fair at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel, New York, the second set began with a replication of the Grateful Dead’s five-song set at that generation-defining festival.

After a 21-minute pass through the potent and bold rock 'n' roll incantation of "St. Stephen," a sturdy Weir-led reading of Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" and a nearly-22-minute trip through the jazz rock masterpiece "Dark Star," a touchdown on solid ground was found with a rich and tender reading of the ballad "High Time."

One of Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter's most vulnerable compositions, the song served as a brilliant showcase for Burbridge's captivating vocals and a prime example of how he's found a niche in Dead and Company shows singing Garcia ballads.

For the love of Jorma:  Jorma Kaukonen, back on tour, brings joy and the blues to NJ. See photos, his setlist

5. "El Paso," Sept. 2, Xfinity Center, Mansfield, Massachusetts

Weir has always been a cowboy at heart, and for decades he has shown a particular affinity for the work of country singer Marty Robbins, covering his material or taking influence for originals such a "Mexicali Blues."

A Robbins classic long favored by Weir, "El Paso" returned to the stage in Mansfield, Massachusetts, in particularly weathered and poignant form with a rich patina. It arrived after the space dust had settled from a potent "Dark Star," complemented by rollicking saloon piano from Chimenti.

6. "St. Stephen," "William Tell Bridge" and "The Eleven," Sept. 5, Xfinity Theatre, Hartford, Connecticut

Mayer and Weir found themselves in lock-step with the rhythm section on one of the Dead's earliest multi-part suites, the grand procession of "St. Stephen" followed by the less-frequently-played "William Tell Bridge" and the tricky pop majesty of "The Eleven." 

With so many things in the world being thrown into disarray, hearing this old wonder in fine form was incredibly heartening.  "This is the season of what now"  indeed.

7. "Friend of the Devil," Sept. 10, DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, Michigan

"Friend of the Devil," an all-time country rock classic, continues to enchant listeners more than 50 years after it made its debut on the Dead's "American Beauty" album, and this rendition was a lush and lovely reminder of why it's one of the band's most-beloved songs.

8. "Looks Like Rain," Sept. 11, Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati

This was a perfect pairing of song and occasion. At a time when the emotions of many were raw — due to factors including the pandemic and the fact that this show fell on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks — Weir guided the band through "Looks Like Rain," one of his and lyricist John Perry Barlow's most mournful songs.

It's a song of love and loss, lovingly captured on this night flush with tenderness and grace. 

9. "Drums," "Space" and "Milestones," Sept. 18, Wrigley Field, Chicago

The "Drums" and "Space" improvisational sections in the middle of the second set are opportunities for pure invention on each night. And a grand delight of the Dead and Company experience for many has become the occasional appearance of the Miles Davis composition "Milestones," as the entire band returns to the stage for the evening's home stretch.

While "Milestones" was stately and respectable in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in August, by the time the band made its return to Wrigley Field in Chicago it had become inescapably propulsive: Chimenti anchoring a driving rhythm as Mayer and Burbridge played brilliant figures around the foundation.

'Deep magic': Allman Brothers family conjures NYC wonders on MSG, Fillmore East sets

10. "It Must Have Been the Roses," Oct. 11, PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, North Carolina

Since the 2015 formation of Dead and Company, Mayer has fully immersed himself in this collection of music, to the point where he is capturing it with confidence and playfulness to a wonderful degree.

Mayer's command of the material most often materializes in the form for fire-slinging powerhouse performances, such as Oct. 30 Hollywood Bowl performance of "Sugaree." But he's also an incredible balladeer, evidenced by his lovingly soulful performance of the relative rarity "It Must Have Been the Roses."

It was terrifically delicate, and the fact that it was followed by the blues rocker "Mr. Charlie" shows exactly why Mayer was the right man for this job.

11. "Queen Jane Approximately," Oct. 14, Dos Equis Pavilion, Dallas

The writings of Bob Dylan have often occupied a place of honor in the Dead universe, and that tradition continued this tour. There was Weir's sagely reading of the grand surrealist epic "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" on Sept. 15 at the Ruoff Music Center in Deer Creek, Indiana, and a reggae-infused "All Along the Watchtower" on Oct. 29 at the Hollywood Bowl.

The band's strongest Dylan moment arrived Oct. 14, when the "Highway 61 Revisited" gem "Queen Jane Approximately" returned to the repertoire for the first time in more than three years in joyous, loving form. The song came amid the first set of the band's Texas return, a block of songs that started with a cover of the calypso classic "Man Smart (Woman Smarter)," followed by six songs named after women.

12. "Sugar Magnolia," Oct. 22, Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre, Greenwood Village, Colorado

With Kreutzmann sidelined due to medical issues for the band's four Colorado shows (and eventually the tour-closing Halloween night engagement at the Hollywood Bowl), RatDog and Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros. drummer Jay Lane stepped up to hold down the beat.

One of Lane's peak moments was the second set of the band's first show at the Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre in Colorado. After nimbly navigating the spacier corners of the repertoire — "Dark Star," "The Other One," "Drums" and "Space" — then the haunting ballad "Wharf Rat," Lane commandingly picked up the pace so band and audience alike could bask in the sonic sunshine daydreams of the Weir rocker "Sugar Magnolia."

13. "Playing in the Band," Oct. 29, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles

This Weir-led odyssey is certainly one of Dead and Company's most-played numbers, but after all of these years it it still capable of transcendence.

Launching the band's tour-ending three-night run at the Hollywood Bowl with an extended introduction, this performance of the song felt utterly luxurious. Here they were, beginning their last stand of the year, soaking it all in and still finding spaces to explore. Burbridge's bass work was vivid, Weir's command of it all was steady and the band was all in for whatever happened next.

Dead and Company's 2021 shows can be streamed in audio and video formats via Nugs.net. The band's next scheduled dates are Jan. 7 to 10, 2022, and Jan. 13 to 16 for its sold-out Playing in the Sand gatherings in Mexico.

Alex Biese has been writing about art, entertainment, culture and news on a local and national level for more than 15 years.

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Las Vegas Sphere: Ultimate guide to seats, prices and how to see Dead Forever in 2024

C ompeting for attention in Las Vegas with neon signs, billboards and mega-resorts that resemble European palaces and Egyptian pyramids is no easy feat.

But an eight-month-old orb with a talent for shapeshifting is stealing a little of their thunder.

Sphere at The Venetian Resort , an entertainment venue that opened September 2023 just off the Las Vegas Strip , has garnered much attention since its debut for its immersive audio-visual experiences.

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See the 366-foot-tall venue from the outside at night and it captivates people for its ability to project images from its exterior shell (also called the Exosphere) containing 580,000 square feet of LED lights, whether it's the Earth, the surface of Mars, a blinking eye, or an emoji. It developed a reputation for causing traffic gridlock since the projections began last year during the Fourth of July.

Inside, the venue's 160,000-square-foot display with 16K by 16K resolution displays immersive visuals, backed by the world's largest beamforming audio system, according to The Venetian .

If you're planning a trip to Las Vegas, check our guides on the best ways to get there from Phoenix , free things to do , which hotels offer free parking , and how to check for bedbugs in hotels .

If you can't get to Vegas just yet, the newly opened Caesars Republic Scottsdale hotel and upcoming VAI Resort in Glendale offer the luxury of Vegas in the Valley, though neither has a casino.

Here's everything to know about the Las Vegas Sphere.

What is the Sphere in Las Vegas?

Described on its website as "a next-generation entertainment medium that is redefining the future of live entertainment," Sphere is an immersive venue that uses haptics (seats that can move and vibrate), atmospheric simulations and visual effects to "transport audiences to places real and imagined."

The Sphere Experience, the main attraction inside the Sphere, is a two-part attraction. The first part, guided by a humanoid robot called Aura, includes a 360-degree avatar capture and a 50-foot-high holographic installation.

The second part is a viewing of an immersive film called "Postcard From Earth" by director Darren Aronofsky on Sphere's largest, highest-definition screen. "Postcard From Earth" is described as part nature documentary, part science fiction movie.

Sphere has also hosted concerts, with U2 inaugurating it with a 40-show residency that launched on Sept. 29, 2023. Sporting events are coming as well: UFC President Dana White said in February that he booked Sphere for UFC 306, scheduled for Sept. 14, 2024.

Where is the Sphere in Las Vegas?

Sphere is at the intersection of Sands Avenue and Koval Lane, just off the Las Vegas Strip and about 1 mile east of The Venetian.

Its address is 255 Sands Ave., Las Vegas.

Who owns the Sphere in Las Vegas?

Sphere is owned by Sphere Entertainment Co., which was spun off from Madison Square Garden Entertainment in April 2023.

Can you go inside the Vegas Sphere?

Yes, but it will cost you. Every guest must have a ticket for a show to enter the Sphere.

How many people does the Sphere hold? 

Sphere can seat 17,500 people and has a standing room capacity of 20,000, according to The Venetian .

Do the seats move in the Sphere? 

Of the Sphere's 17,500 seats, 10,000 of them are described as "haptic seats," or seats that are capable of moving and vibrating.

Where are the bad seats in the Sphere? 

Any seats with an overhang of upper levels will obstruct the view of the stage and/or screen.

USA Today's 10Best suggests avoiding certain seats in the far right and far left sections in the 100 level, where rows 30 and higher are completely obstructed by the overhang.

The 200, 300 and 400 levels offer the best seats.

How long does the Sphere Experience last? 

The Sphere Experience lasts just under two hours, with 60 minutes for the interactive experiences and 50 minutes for the "Postcard From Earth" film.

How long will U2 be at the Sphere?

U2 played the final show of its U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere residency on March 2, 2024.

Who is performing at the Sphere in 2024? 

After U2's residency ended, the jam band Phish became the second music act to play Sphere. Their four-show residency ran April 18-21.

Members of Dead & Company, a spinoff of the Grateful Dead featuring former members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart along with singer and guitarist John Mayer, will perform a 24-show Sphere residency called Dead Forever. The residency, which runs from May 16 to July 13, will begin a year after their final tour made a stop in Phoenix .

How much does it cost to go to Sphere Vegas?

It depends on the show and what day you plan to visit.

The Sphere Experience starts at $79 per person during the week and $99 per person on weekends.

Tickets for Dead & Company's Dead Forever residency start at $145 per person.

Is the Sphere worth going to?

Sphere has attracted an assortment of highly positive and highly negative reviews from travelers.

It has a user rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars on Google. One user, Phillipe Beaumier , called Sphere "a once in a lifetime experience" and described the immersive audio and visual as "so incredible, you feel like you are part of the travel!"

Tripadvisor users gave Sphere more mixed reviews, with an overall rating of 3 out of 5 stars. Most of its bad reviews were critical of the message of the "Postcard From Earth" film in the Sphere Experience.

A one-star review from a Tripadvisor user named Kathryn W. expressed disappointment with the Sphere Experience's humanoid robots and how "a couple of robots that are comparable to (Amazon's virtual assistant) Alexa can't answer a question." Kathryn added that the moving seats "could be mistaken for someone kicking the back of your chair."

Michael Salerno is an award-winning journalist who’s covered travel and tourism since 2014. His work as The Arizona Republic’s consumer travel reporter aims to help readers navigate the stresses of traveling and get the best value for their money on their vacations. He can be reached at  [email protected] . Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:  @salerno_phx .

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Las Vegas Sphere: Ultimate guide to seats, prices and how to see Dead Forever in 2024

Megadeth announces North America tour, closing out with a Nashville stop

Megadeth has announced a 2024 fall  "Destroy All Enemies Tour" that will take them all across North America. On Sept. 28, the thrash metal band will end their tour in Nashville at the Municipal Auditorium.

The 33-show tour, produced by Live Nation, will feature support from Mudvayne and All That Remains.

The two-month tour will kick off on Aug. 2 in Rogers, AR before hitting cities in Texas, California, Nevada, Florida, North Carolina and more.

The band, comprised of vocalist and guitarist Dave Mustaine, bassist James LoMenzo, guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari and drummer Dirk Verbeuren, is known for songs "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" and "Symphony of Destruction."

They most recently released their 2022 album "The Sick, The Dying...And The Dead!"

“Our ‘Crush The World’ tour has been a tremendous experience for the four of us,” said singer/guitarist Dave Mustaine in a statement.

“We are all playing tight, and that has made it possible for me to really focus on solos and singing, we are playing more songs than ever before, and we are closer to each other, onstage AND off. I’m excited to see Mudvayne, and All That Remains. Join us as we DESTROY ALL ENEMIES.”

How do I get tickets for the Megadeth 2024 tour?

Tickets for all the dates will go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. local time on Friday, April 26.

Fans can access a presale for the Cyber Army and Megadeth Digital members at megadeth.com .

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• Kid Cudi Cancels Tour After Breaking Foot At Coachella: “There’s Gonna Be A Long Recovery Time”

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Kid Cudi , whose real name is Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi, is canceling his tour after he injured himself during a performance at Coachella Weekend 2.

The rapper is now heading into surgery and will focus on recovering before returning to the stage.

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The We Are Who We Are actor assured fans that “anyone who bought tickets will get a full refund” and should be getting an e-mail soon.

“We will be back with new tour dates as soon as possible, and I can’t wait to get back out there with you guys and turn up how we do,” he continued. “I’m so sorry fam and I love you all so much, thanks for the endless love and support. Im really disappointed as im sure you guys are too, but I will be back.”

Cudi said he was in “good spirits” and was just experiencing “a lil soreness.”

The artist had to cut his set short on Sunday after jumping off the stage saying in a post, “So I broke my foot today at the show. just leaving the hospital. Never a broken bone before so this is all a bit crazy. I wanna thank u all for ur concerns and well wishes!! I love yall man. I heard yall still ragin when I was offstage. Made me smile big.”

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Dead Boy Detectives, Challengers, and Baby Reindeer top this week's Must List

See EW’s top pop culture picks for the week of April 26, 2024.

I swear this weekly letter wasn't intended to be so musical focused , but I've just been so wowed by my recent trips to the theater. This past week I caught the national tour of  Funny Girl . The Broadway production was all about the Beanie Feldstein-replaced-by-Lea Michele drama — but at Center Theatre Group's Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, it's all about Katerina McCrimmon. The recent college grad has the clearest voice I've heard in ages, with charisma to spare. Remember her name, I'll bet they're saying it at awards shows in coming years. (And Melissa Manchester plays her mom for (not) crying out loud!) — Patrick Gomez, Editor-in-Chief

PS. If you want to receive  the Must List  in your inbox,  sign up for our " . You'll receive all three each week — the trifecta of entertainment information. Entertainment Weekly and Awardist " newsletter

Netflix; MGM

Dead Boy Detectives

Ed Araquel/Netflix

With the glory days of the CW behind us, where is one supposed to find a new supernatural procedural to obsess over? Netflix has your answer with this new series , which stars George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri as undead sleuths who help other ghosts solve their problems. Not only is the chemistry crackling between the leads (and their allies, including Kassius Nelson's psychic Crystal Palace), but the magical rules are detailed enough (don't use spells on cats or face the consequences!) to make this world feel textured and lived in. Fans of  The Sandman ,  Supernatural , and  Arrow shouldn't miss this one. —Christian Holub, Senior Writer

Challengers

In  Challengers , sex is a tennis match — and tennis is everything. Over a decade, professional tennis players Tashi ( Zendaya ), Art (Mike Faist), and Patrick ( Josh O’Connor) tangle a web of desire and competition. It's game, set, match for the best movie of the year so far. — Maureen Lee Lenker, Senior Writer

Read EW’s full Challengers review here.

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Marc Brenner

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome to the hottest show on Broadway : The jaw-dropping revival, delivered in the round at the August Wilson Theatre, features awards-worthy Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin as the stars of a Berlin nightclub amid the Nazis' rise to power. —Emlyn Travis, News Writer

Read EW’s full review of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club here.

Baby Reindeer

Ed Miller/Netflix

Richard Gadd has bravely turned his own harrowing experiences into this powerful and unsettling Netflix limited series. Of its stellar cast, Jessica Gunning stands out as troubled stalker Martha Scott, with a performance that showcases a versatility we typically see across an entire career. —Alamin Yohannes, Social Media Director

Waxahatchee on tour

Douglas Mason/Getty

Singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield followed up her 2020 masterpiece  Saint Cloud  (one of the most life-affirming albums released during the pandemic) with the similarly rocking  Tigers Blood , and her music comes alive on stage with a full band. Expect the crowds to be packed and joyous! —Christian Holub, Senior Writer

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[WATCH] Dallas Cowboys First-Round NFL Draft Pick Tyler Guyton Arrives In Frisco

Guyton was all smiles as he took a tour around ‘The Star,’ soaking in the Super Bowl rings and the Lombardi Trophies in the lobby. 

• Author: Bri Amaranthus

In this story:

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys’ first-round NFL Draft selection Tyler Guyton has arrived the Cowboys headquarters in Frisco. Guyton was all smiles as he took a tour around ‘The Star,’ soaking in the Super Bowl rings and the Lombardi Trophies in the lobby. 

Dallas Cowboys fans, meet your new offensive tackle Tyler Guyton. Guyton JUST arrived at Cowboys HQ in Frisco. He’s 6-foot-8, 330-pounds. Grew up a Cowboys fan, idolizes Tyron Smith. #DallasCowboys #CowboysNation #CowboysDraft pic.twitter.com/ZMMgaZqGrS — Bri Amaranthus (@BriAmaranthus) April 26, 2024

Guyton has the chance to make an impact right away for the Cowboys, who lost longtime star left tackle Tyron Smith this offseason to the New York Jets.

Guyton grew up as a Cowboys fan and idolizes Smith :

“I feel like those are big shoes to fill from such a legendary tackle, but I'm going to work my ass off to do the best that I can,” Guyton said. “I was a big Tyron Smith fan my whole life because he plays for my team. He plays for my favorite team and once I started playing the offensive line position, knowing that he's one of the best to ever do it, was kind of amazing for me.”

New Dallas Cowboys Tyler Guyton gets first tour of the Star in Frisco 🤠 Guyton grew up a Cowboys fan and looked overwhelmed to see Troy Aikman’s plaque. #CowboysNation #CowboysDraft #DallasCowboys pic.twitter.com/9OyZQy851S — Bri Amaranthus (@BriAmaranthus) April 26, 2024

The 2024 NFL Draft continues Friday with coverage of the second and third rounds starting at 4 p.m. PT. The fourth through seventh rounds will begin at 9 a.m. PT on Saturday, April 27.

Dallas has gone 12-5 in three consecutive seasons under  coach Mike McCarthy . With one  NFL Playoff  win during those three seasons , the Cowboys look to improve the roster.

The Cowboys are throwing an NFL Draft  party at The Star in Frisco from Thursday, April 25 - Saturday, April 27. 

Fans can watch the draft coverage live on the jumbo screen at The Star while also enjoying performances by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and Dallas Cowboys Rhythm & Blue, a live DJ, food and beverage offerings. There will also be Dallas Cowboys player autograph signing opportunities. 

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