Trek To Las Vegas For Some Dead & Company At The Sphere |
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 5/30/2024 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Our trek to Las Vegas started the prior day catching an afternoon flight from Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport to Detroit and then to Las Vegas. The purpose of this trip was to see one of our favorite cover bands, Dead & Company, performing at the new super high-tech venue, the Sphere. Our flights were somewhat ontime and we arrived in Vegas in the evening got our rental car and headed to our hotel, the Flamingo, located within walking distance to the Sphere. Checkin was slow but we finally got our room with a decent view of the Sphere and the High Roller. We made are mandatory stop to our favorite store in Vegas, Planet 13. We started the first day with an early breakfast, by Vegas standards, and then headed to the Venetian to check out the Dead & Company Dead Forever Experience. This included plenty of Grateful Dead memoribilia, photos, exhibits and a nice art display of works by drummer Mickey Hart. After this we headed back to the Flamingo and relaxed in the huge pool on this 100 plus degree day. We grabbed a quick bite at In-N-Out Burger and headed to the Sphere for night number 1 of 3 to see Dead & Company. We arrived early and were excited to see the venue up close for the first time. We entered the Sphere, that is over six stories high and took the huge escalators to our seats in the 300 level just right of center stage. The steep seating was reminiscent of being in the upper oranges at Buffalo's old Memorial Auditorium. The show opened on time to the sellout crowd and Dead & Company played an excellent set that started surprisingly with Iko Iko. After the opening number the remainder of the set took us on a journey of the Dead from San Francisco where it began, to the Pyramids in Egypt, to outer space and back again. The Sphere was impressive with amazing crystal clear audio and unreal video. The first set included a nice jam on Bertha with John Mayer providing the awesome lead and a good cover of Marty Robbin's El Paso with Bob Weir providing the lead. They closed the first set with Cold Rain and Snow and then a half hour intermission. The opening set in the Sphere was amazing but they were only getting started with the effects and very cool animations. They opened set two with Ripple and played a good version of Althea that included Mayer providing more excellent jams. This set included several tributes to Dead Head and basketball star, Bill Walton, who passed away this week and was well known for his fandom of the Dead seeing 800+ shows. The tribute started at Drums that included seat vibrations of Drums along with cool visuals, and went to Knockin' On Heaven's Door and finished with Fire On The Mountain. Both Weir and Mayer had #32 stickers on thier guitars in Bill Walton's honor. The show ended with the band waving goodbye to number 32, Bill's number, to end a great first show for us. This venue could be a game changer and since it is only in it's infancy, who knows where this technology could go. I was waiting for Russell Crowe to come out after the show and ask if 'we were not entertained', to that question I say and astounding YES indeed we were entertained! Tomorrow, we get to do it all over again !Slideshow | |
<<<- <- -> ->>> Dead & Company perform Bertha at The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 30, 2024
Dead & Company perform Althea at The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 30, 2024
Dead & Company perform El Paso at The Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 30, 2024
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