Photo Gallery: Dead & Company – Night One • Wrigley Field • Chicago

Brassneck | June 11, 2023

Dead and Company
Wrigley Field
Chicago, IL
June 9, 2023

Recap and photos by Curt Baran

To paraphrase one of their songs: Is this the moment when the music finally stops?!? Dead and Company, the collective hexad comprised of former Grateful Dead members, has hit the road on what is being billed as “The Final Tour,” which arrived this weekend at Chicago’s Wrigley Field for the first of two evenings that could very well be their last appearances at the “Friendly Confines.” With the recent departure of Grateful Dead lifer, drummer Bill Kreutzmann, the band can only boast of one original member in guitarist and singer Bob Wier.

The addition of guitarist John Mayer (yup, THAT, “You’re Body’s A Wonderland,” John Mayer) definitely helped to up not only attendance numbers, but has certainly invigorated the playing of those surrounding him. On a perfect evening a mile from Lake Michigan, the band wound its way through an extensive catalog of music that now exceeds five decades. The players moved (not always seamlessly) through straight-up rockers (“Playing In The Band,” “Deal”), blues enlisted sojourns (“It Hurts Me Too”), funky, southern boogie (“Scarlet Begonias,” “Sugar Magnolia”) and drowned-in-psychedelia Prog Rock (the “Terrapin Station” musical suite). All of which proves to be a perfect summation of how these musicians arrived at where they are today.

The origins of the Grateful Dead were a seemingly unsustainable amalgamation of musical genres that had no business existing together. Yet, somehow, the San Francisco-based outsiders honed it into something the likes of which will likely never be seen again. Add to that its ability to have blessed its influences on younger generations, one must certainly acknowledge the band’s place amongst the most hallowed of musical acts. If this was indeed the end of the long, strange trip, every note was equally savored. Even the ones that fell flat. For one to succeed, one must never be afraid to fail. If Dead and Company have proven anything, it’s that they wouldn’t have it any other way.