The long, strange trip will roll on for Grateful Dead fans as Dead & Co. announced Wednesday an 18-date residency at the buzz-worthy Las Vegas Sphere.
Dubbed Dead Forever and spanning of a series of six consecutive Friday-Sunday weekend gigs beginning May 16, fans will once again be able to experience the groovy tunes from Bob Weir, John Mayer and the rest, but this time with the ultra modern psychedelic visuals of The Sphere.
So much for their recently-wrapped Final Tour.
“In 2023, Dead & Company played their final tour. But there are other ways to make sure the music never stops," the band announced on social media yesterday. "And it’s gonna be a ball.”
Fans online were both excited about another run of shows, but also nervous about the ticket prices in light of what U2 fans had to fork over for the initial residency at the groundbreaking new venue which some have praised as being the finest concert experience ever.
"I'm gonna be so broke after this..." one man on Twitter fretted, but when the pre-sale details were revealed a collective sigh of relief swept the weary brows of grey haired Boomers and Gen Xers as tickets were between $145-$395. Reasonable.
The buzz about the prospect of the most recent incarnation of the Grateful Dead began as soon as The Sphere opened in 2023. The combination of state-of-the-art sound driven by 1,600 speaker panels and the eye candy delivered from a 160,000-square-foot wraparound LED display, had Deadheads peaking with anticipation alone.
The short list of groups fans imagined to be perfect for the $2.3 billion triumph of light and sound on the Las Vegas strip began with the Dead and included other acts that have delivered a visual spectacle like Pink Floyd, The Flaming Lips, The Talking Heads, and Phish.
The latter will be rocking the Sphere over a four-day long weekend from April 18-21. The stars aligned to give the younger groove merchants the first 4/20 Sphere date in the venue's nascent history.
The Dead first played Las Vegas in 1981 at the Aladdin Theater which is now the Axis at Planet Hollywood. The concept of the Woodstock-era band juxtaposed with the traditional Vegas fare of Wayne Newton and Rat Pack impersonators inspired the band to kick off that show with "Feel Like A Stranger."
The band returned to the desert multiple times in the '80s, eventually moving their show to the outdoor Sam Boyd Stadium on the college campus of nearby UNLV. By 1991, the group, then fronted by the iconic Jerry Garcia, easily sold out the outdoor venue.
Not only had the band, fans, and promoters learned how to co-exist in the Vegas ecosystem but when a lightning and thunderstorm erilly made its presence known at the '93 shows, drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann echoed Mother Nature's rumblings in the distance in a one-of-a-kind percussive improv that wowed those in attendance, including yours truly.
In order to get tickets to see Dead & Co. at the Sphere, you must first sign up at the Dead's website. An email with codes will arrive next week and then you can purchase your tickets.
Sounds complicated? Strangely this is a lot easier than back in the day when Deadheads were forced to get money orders, place them in self-addressed stamped envelopes, and hoped their heavily decorated envelopes adorned with glitter and trippy colors would inspire those in the mail room to hook them up.
Don't let that deal go down.
