Red Rocks Amphitheatre is widely considered the premier music venue in America. Widespread Panic holds the record for the most amount of sold-out shows at Red Rocks. Therefore, when Panic comes to town in late June every single summer since 1997 with the exception of 2004, 2009, and 2012, people travel from far and wide and gather to celebrate the music of this magnificent band. On Friday, June 22, the band that draws the most people to this music mecca played here for the 53rd time for their 49th consecutive headlining sell-out. Fans from all over the country fly in for this special occasion, and on this night, they delivered.

Sitar virtuoso, six-time GRAMMY Award nominee, and daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar, performed a gripping concert dedicated the awareness and advocacy of the refugee crisis. This summer she has returned to the United States for a unique series of live performances in protest to the displacement of refugees fleeing conflict areas across the globe. Shankar is raising funds for the humanitarian relief efforts led by the singular nonprofit organization Help Refugees.

Folsom Field – For decades, the venue has been a legendary haven for Deadheads dating back to the early 1970’s. While the Dead had played numerous shows in the Colorado area before, including the Miller Ballroom at CU in ’69, and two acoustic shows in ’70 at the Mammoth Garden (now the Fillmore), nothing quite sparked the interest of the Grateful Dead in the Centennial State quite like the legendary 1972 performance at Folsom Field in Boulder.

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.

On July 7, 2018, the seminal five-piece jamband from upstate New York moe. brought their whirlwind Calyphornya tour of nine shows in ten days to a close at the legendary Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace. The tour has taken moe. through 4 nights with Phil Lesh at his resident venue Terrapin Crossroads, as well as stops in Santa Cruz, two nights in San Diego, and one at The Fonda Theater in LA before arriving in Pioneertown. This is also one of the first tours moe. has been on since Rob Derhak successfully beat oropharyngeal cancer, so the band is followed by a ton of extra energy and excitement.

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.

Moe., the crafty, veteran improv-jamming five-piece out of upstate New York, completed a four-day residency at Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads on July 1 with a fine show in the venue’s Beach Park. Phil Lesh & the Terrapin Family Band closed out the show, and then they all joined together for a three-song finale that turned it into a five ½-hour event.

Whether layin’ it down with his revered trio, his new five-piece band, accompanying fellow performer Mama Kin as a duet, or mesmerizing the crowd with an epic solo of guitar gymnastics, Australian roots rocker John Butler held the crowd visibly spellbound from start to finish in Sacramento’s ornate Crest Theatre on June 19.

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.