REVIEW: Dead & Company at the L.A. Forum, December 2019

by Hal Masonberg | Jan 5, 2020 | Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, Dead & Company, Dead & Company Setlists, Dead and Company, Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart, Reviews

Dead & Company – December 27 & 28, 2019
The Forum, Inglewood (Los Angeles area shows)
Review and Photos for Deadheadland by Hal Masonberg

The two night pre-NYE Dead & Company run at The Forum in Los Angeles was a welcome year-end treat for the Southern California DeadHead community. A chance to reunite with friends old and new, to wish one another happy holidays and share hopes for the year to come. And to, once again, dance together. 

Pre-show live music was on hand on Shakedown as THE ALLIGATORS played a rocking free set under the stars before Saturday evening’s show. Post-show events were aplenty from THE HIGGS to PARACOSMIC and others playing into the wee hours at smaller venues around the Forum. 

25 years after the passing of Jerry Garcia, the music of the Grateful Dead has become a musical movement unto itself. There is a veritable bounty of extraordinary musicians and bands playing Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia music and – whether containing original members or not – each band has their own flavor, their own take and style. We all know the influence, but one of the most adventurous aspects of this modern musical landscape is experiencing how the music changes, is reinterpreted by a new combination of voices, by new musical conversations, by a new mixture of different styles.

Dead & Company offers its own unique take on both the music and the scene that, while certainly channeling aspects of the Grateful Dead experience, deserves its own category. The Dead & Company experience is not a Grateful Dead concert. The music feels more calculated, more precise with specific intent.

As many have noted in the past, many songs have been slowed down, favoring what might be a more ballad-style approach. This change alone creates new spaces for the band to explore, a different tone to the conversations than what the Grateful Dead gave us. To this listener, it feels like a slightly less risky approach to the music than was present in the Grateful Dead or Jerry Garcia’s style of improvisational music-making, but its popularity has shown that it’s an interpretation of the music that transcends generation or expectation. There was no shortage of love and excitement from the audience toward the band, and vice versa. 

Dead & Company’s first night at the Forum was a rather mellow and ethereal affair. The boys opened the first set with TRUCKIN’ which might have suggested a potentially rocking night, but the energy quickly shifted to a more laid-back, more thoughtful approach. 

The second set of the first night opened with an understated PLAYING IN THE BAND. Instead of slamming into the opening rhythms, Dead & Company chose to ease its way into the song, This set the stage for what would be a lilting and graceful set of music from the mythical and folkloric journey of TERRAPIN STATION to the sweet and delicate tones of CHINA DOLL. Even THE OTHER ONE favored a more intricate and weaving approach compared to some of the earth-shaking renditions we knew and loved by the Grateful Dead themselves. 

Bob Weir’s influence on the band is everywhere. Being the single most innovative and original rhythm guitarist I’ve personally ever seen, Weir’s stylings and preferences are all over Dead & Company’s approach to this beloved catalogue of songs. Anyone familiar with Weir’s solo bands will recognize his mark, influence and musical preferences here. One of the results of this approach is that John Mayer’s lead guitar is less prominent in the mix than Garcia’s was. His playing doesn’t so much lead the way as blend into the soundscape itself. This offers a very different feel and interplay, one that has come to define the sound of Dead & Company. 

Not to say Mayer’s leads don’t occasionally rise to the level of leading the music. It changes from song to song, but it was on night two that Mayer really got to tear into some leads and bring the music to new heights. While the first set felt a bit more like an extension of night one, more reserved and meditative, the second set offered a rocking bolt of energy that really showed what this band can do when they ride the music like a pro surfer becoming one with a wave.

For me, Dead and Company rarely feels like the music is playing the band. I’m usually hyper-aware of the specific intentions of the music and musicians; I can feel the thought and care that has been put into it. There is a sense of mastering the music as opposed to giving in fully to it. Of course, that’s just my interpretation. Others would disagree. But the second set on night two was as close as I’ve gotten to seeing the music actually playing this band. It felt more connected, more organic, less restrained.

Opening the second set by completing set one’s VIOLA LEE BLUES was the perfect, unexpected intro to a night full of delightful twists and turns. The CHINA->RIDER was inventive and nuanced with a strong life-force behind it. The DARK STAR was melodic and intense with Mayer taking center stage and, along with Chimenti, really traversing some wonderfully rich spaces. The HE’S GONE was both beautiful and powerful. DRUMS -> SPACE was as primal and exotic as ever until the band made a sharp left turn into ALTHEA which turned out to be one of the more powerful songs of the evening.

The MORNING DEW that followed was a most welcome treat that, as MORNING DEW’s often will, acknowledged a special night of music. This MORNING DEW was a perfect example of some of the differences between the Grateful Dead and Dead & Company. Gone is the pin-drop quiet of Garcia’s rendition, that gentle, mournful, barely-audible soulfulness that would take its time in exquisitely and organically building to a crescendo of deep and powerful emotional release. Dead & Company’s MORNING DEW focuses more on the unstoppable heart-wrenching mournfulness that cannot be contained. It doesn’t linger, but instead succumbs to the pain of loss and the rage of helplessness that is at the heart of MORNING DEW. 

Though, in my opinion, Dead & Company rarely reaches for the ecstatic highs and the delicate lows the Grateful Dead traversed, they do – with their own creative voice – manage to play that space in-between with both skill and grace. The two nights at the Forum in Los Angeles were the perfect sampling of the diverse spaces this band inhabits, and of what they do best.