With a few nights off and a first-time tour stop for the band, anticipation was high for Dead & Company’s performance in the Duke City, and Albuquerque’s Isleta Amphitheater was to play host to the night’s festivities. Being the smallest venue of the tour, it was surprising that by Wednesday, ticket sales had just barely reached 10,000, and the virtual secondary market was showing multiple signs of over-purchasing.

Observing the full Dead & Company experience on July 2 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, from early afternoon happenings outside the San Francisco Bay Area venue through the encore’s final exclamation of “We Will Survive!” confirmed that the band’s cultural anthropology, centered around spirited live renderings of Grateful Dead music, still colorfully and cheerfully thrives.

Dead & Company resumed their summer tour last night, after stops in the Northwest and Shoreline, at the Mattress Firm Amphitheater in Chula Vista, CA.  Though the area is gripped in a heat wave like most of the country, the near 100-degree temperatures did not dissuade the faithful from coming out in full force.

Night two, “One More Saturday Night” at Citi Field is in the books! Very lucky to have attended both shows. The weather was spectacular on this second night of the two-night run at the ballpark. The Dead & Company 2018 Summer tour is in full swing and at the halfway point. I have been following Dead & Company since their inception and witnessing what I see as an evolution.

SPAC, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center is one of those venues that has always been a special place to visit. The concert shed is located in the State Park, a couple of miles from downtown Saratoga Springs, NY. Saratoga State Park is known for its healing springs. The waters are rumored to be magical. FDR bathed in these spring waters during the Great Depression as a treatment for his Polio.

March for Our Lives, the movement and organization started by high school students who survived the mass shooting in Parkland FL, will have a booth at every Dead & Co. show on the summer tour.

Did I say one? Better make it two. While Dead & Company trounced Dallas this past Friday with a meaty rocker of a show, Saturday night in Austin received a more deliberate performance befitting the band’s early era of improvised exploration. Which was better? Well, that depends on the opinion of the most opinionated fans in music. But we can all agree that for one weekend there was a seventh flag flying over Texas: the Freak Flag.

The Dead & Company concerts that were postponed due to John Mayer’s emergency appendectomy have been rescheduled for February 24th in New Orleans, February 26th in Ft. Lauderdale, and February 27th in Orlando. Tickets for the original shows will be honored at these newly announced 2018 dates.  Should ticketholders choose to seek a refund, they will be available at point of purchase.​

John Mayer is recovering from the emergency appendectomy he underwent yesterday and is in good spirits.