Dead & Company kicked off its 2022 tour Friday night with an epic show at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles that was heavy by Dead standards like “Casey Jones,” “China Doll,” “Jack Straw,” and “Scarlet Begonias.” Towards the end of the second set, they broke the cover of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” which turned into a musical coda for the Beatles’ song “Hey Jude”. Check out the fan video above.
“Dear Mr. Fantasy” was a regular part of grateful deadLive ammunition from 1984 to 1990, but this was the first time Dead & Company tried it. The Grateful Dead also played “Hey Jude” 31 times between 1969 and 1990, but this was also the premiere by Dead & Company.
The Dead & Company tour continues tonight and tomorrow with shows at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California. It concludes on July 16 in Citifield, New York. It will mark the end of a very busy tour year for John Mayer since he played a singles tour of 30 dates between February and May.
The only surviving member of The Grateful Dead not involved with Dead & Company is guitarist Phil Lesh. He’s toured with Phil and Friends since the Dead’s Fare Thee Well shows in 2015. However, in August, he plays a special group at the Sacred Rose Festival at SeatGeek Stadium in Chicago with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Nils Klein. They call themselves Philco.
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