Photo by Larry Hulst

Dead and Company, Folsom Field, Boulder, CO- 7/3

Many fans of the Grateful Dead like to tout the number of shows they’ve attended over the years, but being a fan isn’t about the number of ticket stubs you’ve racked up — it’s about living in the moment — in the “now” — and soaking up the positive energy of the music and giving it back to the band and all around you. Whether you remember the days when Jerry Garcia broke out the Wolf guitar or Dead and Company is your first Deadhead experience, we’re all united in our desire to transform ourselves and the band into a collective whole, if only for a few all-too-short hours.

Dead and Company pulled their weight on July 3 at University of Colorado Boulder’s Folsom Field with a slow-tempo first set followed by an astonishing second set proving the fire is burning in this musical collective.

The first set might not seem all that impressive on paper but the band — Oteil Burbridge on bass and vocals; Jeff Chimenti on keyboards and vocals; Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann on drums, percussion; John Mayer on guitar and vocals; and Bob Weir on guitar and vocals – absolutely delivered the goods. The band opened the night with an ominous hour of brooding tunes filled with shady characters with questionable habits: “Feel Like A Stranger,” “Next Time You See me,” “West L.A. Fade Away,” “Samson and Delilah” and “New Speedway Boogie.” “Bird Song,” the jazzy homage to Janis Joplin, brought some light to the song list.

Set two was the Yin to the first set’s Yang and utterly eviscerated any musical demons of negativity. The band hit the stage with a lengthy “China Cat Sunflower” > “I Know You Rider,” with Meyer’s fleet-fingered lead during the connecting jam buttressed by Weir contrapuntal rhythms, before diving into “He’s Gone” > “Smokestack Lightning.”

And then things got really interesting…it began when the Dead and Company stepped away from “Smokestack Lightning” and into a reprisal of “He’s Gone. Expecting the Rhythm Devils to take command of the stage, some in the audience broke away for a break, but the band tore into a blistering version of “Let it Grow,” featuring wildly creative jams from Mayer and Weir and Burbridge’s deep-in-the pocket grooves. Chimenti moves through this tune in a form rarely seen in any reincarnation of the Dead, adding to its pulse with fast and lively filigrees of notes.

The ensuing “Drums” > “Space” featured all but Weir drumming along or manhandling a rack of horns, while Hart wrangled interstellar sounds from the Beam. The gracefully slid into a bottomless “Dark Star” but that was mere foreplay for what came next: a rousing “Morning Dew,” which should put to rest any claims by naysayers that Mayer doesn’t belong with this band. The Dead and Company balanced the dark and the light of the song with stunning emotion and power. It was a staggering performance.

The band ended their stay in Boulder with the elegiac “Brokedown Palace,” a jaunty “U.S. Blues” and a final bow.