Dead & Company: The 2017 Planning For Retirement Tour (And Show Statistics)

   

    Yes, it’s undoubtedly a money grab. Posters with dead bears, strung out on meth for $70 http://i.imgur.com/lbuOZEi.jpg, childish varsity style jackets for $300, even the hippies on shakedown street are gouging for a veggie burrito, minus the veggies of course, because the power hungry policemen shut them down. 

Yes, there is tension in the band, Bobby yelling at Bill and Mickey time after time, in hopes they’ll keep the fucking time. It makes you wonder though, at some point you’d think Bob would realize his efforts are a lost cause. In Bob’s eyes they haven’t been able to keep the beat in over fifty years. Night two at Shoreline, during Fire on the Mountain, Bob’s belting out the line “takes all you got just to stay on the beat” while turning around and glaring, like Bill had sex with his daughter. 

Yes, the boys are using the tour to settle down and pay for their imminent retirement, meanwhile paying for John Mayer’s next five generations of kin. All that aside, nearly a handful of cities weaved through and happiness rained down on each one. The shows have been absolutely bombastic! Somehow I must find the dividing line between this tour’s unseemly and egregious claim on my bank account and the rip roaring shows they’ve been dolling out thus far. 

Six shows deep and I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. The driver getting out to find that I haven’t yet been slaughtered, so he gets back in the truck, slams the transmission in reverse, pounds his foot to the gas pedal and BAM, runs me over again to put me out of my suffering. This is the mere atrocity of a week running on less than a handful of hours of sleep. I’m not here for the LSD, I’m here for the music. I’m not standing in line, trudging through the swine and filth to hear you talk about your shitty job during the show. Its still going to be shitty after the show ends, so you might as well dance to the fucking music. 

Show Statistics

Thus far, the band has dolled out 74 different songs, 20 of which have been repeated twice, while adding 12 covers to the mix. At this point, John is somewhere around 18 new pairs of shoes. Bob Weir seemingly drifting from magic to the brink of a coma. Rumor has it he spends the set breaks in a cryogenic chamber, frozen on ice. Beyond Bob’s concerns for the drummers, I don’t ever remember Bill and Mickey playing better together. Oteil remains a rock solid force on stage right, he’s about as fun a bass player as you’ll ever get to see and he compliments John incredibly well. Jeff Chimenti has been turned up this tour for the first time in his career and I want to say he sounds amazing, even better then other tours, but I wonder if it’s just because we can fucking hear him this time around. Every Jeff solo you can drift your eyes to the other side of the stage and watch Oteil grinning ear to ear. I really didn’t think Mayer would improve, but wow has he ever. From his guitar playing, switching from a blues based repertoire to more of a melodic style of playing, like Jerry Garcia used to charm us with. The tour has been top notch, firing on all cylinders. Giving the age of a few members and possible future contractual obligations from other members, including Oteil and John, we never know which tour will be their last. Point being, seize your summer and if you can, catch a show this tour (streaming or in person), you will not regret it. Tonight the boys bless the state of Utah. See you folks in Boulder. 

Also, I’ve added some show statistics if anyone is interested. This includes all the songs they’ve played, followed by the last date played and total times played in parentheses. I’ve divided the songs up arbitrarily between Jerry and Bobby songs, Connected and Cover songs and alphabetized them the best I could. Any feedback, vicious and otherwise will be absorbed with intense consideration. Keep in mind the subjective nature of the chart. Thanks and Enjoy! 

Jerry Songs	Jerry Songs (cont)	Covers	Bobby Songs
Althea 5/31 (2)	New Speedway Boogie 6/1	A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall 6/4	Black Throated Wind 5/31
Bertha 5/28	Ramble on Rose 5/31	Dear Prudence 5/28	Cassidy 6/4 (2)
Black Peter 5/27	Ripple 5/31	El Paso 6/4	Estimated Prophet 6/1
Black Muddy River 6/3	Shakedown Street 5/31	Good Lovin’ 6/3	Feel Like a Stranger 5/28
Bird Song 6/4 (2)	Stella Blue 5/31	Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door 5/27	Jack Straw 5/27
Brokedown Palace 6/4	St. Stephen 6/1	Little Red Rooster 6/1	Hell in a Bucket 6/1
Brown-Eyed Women 6/4 (2)	Tennessee Jed 6/3 (2)	Me & My Uncle 6/3	Looks Like Rain 6/3
Candyman 6/3	Terrapin Station 6/1	Next Time You See Me 6/1	Minglewood Blues 5/28
Casey Jones 6/4 (2)	The Wheel 6/3 (2)	Not Fade Away 6/1	Music Never Stopped 5/27
Cold Rain & Snow 5/31	They Love Each Other 6/4	Peggy-O 5/28	One More Sat Night 6/3 (2)
Crazy Fingers 5/28	Touch Of Grey 5/28	The Promised Land 5/31	Playing in the Band 6/3 (2)
Cumberland Blues 5/31	Uncle John’s Band 6/1	Samson & Delilah 6/4 (2)	Sugar Magnolia 5/31
Dark Star 6/1	U.S. Blues 6/1		The Other One 6/4 (2)
Deal 6/3 (2)	Viola Lee Blues 6/3	Connected Songs	Truckin’ 5/31
Dire Wolf 5/27	West L.A. 6/1	China Cat Sunflower 6/3 (2)
Don’t Ease Me In 6/4		I Know You Rider 6/3 (2)
Eyes of the World 6/3
Friend of the Devil 6/3 (2)		Help On the Way 6/4 (2)
Here Comes Sunshine 6/3		Slipknot 6/4 (2)
He’s Gone 5/31		Franklin’s Tower 6/4 (2)
Loose Lucy 5/28
Loser 5/27		Lost Sailor 5/28
Morning Dew 6/1		Saint of Circumstance 5/28
Mississippi Half Step 6/1
		Scarlet Begonias 6/4 (2)
		Fire on the Mountain 6/4 (2)