Dead & Company: The Grateful Dead Is Resurrected (Again), This Time With John Mayer *

No Phil or Trey - pass.

GD ended in 1995 and have never been resurrected, nevermind resurrected again.

Dead, Inc. would have been better than Dead & Company.

 

John Mayer? In a rock band?
Seriously, bad match of the century.
The guy plays a hell of a guitar, but he has no groove.
The GD is ALL groove.

 

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Nah, I've seen him play with Bobby. He is actually a very good guitar player and can sing the songs very well without trying to copy anyone else's style. He is newer to being a fan but has jumped in with both feet in the last couple years. I think he will be better than Trey, certainly with regards to vocals. Not having Phil on the bass is going to be a tough obstacle to overcome.

 

Dead & Company sounds like a store at the outlet mall.

 

Soldier Field is 3x the size of MSG, i believe.

 

Looks like Phil was serious when he said Chicago would be the last show for all the remaining members to play together. I don't know what his reasons are but I respect him for sticking by his decisions.

 

No question about it. MSG holds about 25,000? Selling that in a city of 9 million, not to mention the rest of the country that will gladly fly to NYC for a Halloween adventure, a quick sell out is a sure thing. I am surprised they are only doing one night.

 

Yeah, it'll sell out, provided they keep the hype train rolling with the goodwill from the FTW shows. I doubt it'll have people flying across the country paying four figures per ticket, but it'll sell out.

 

Fare The Well was/is the Grateful Dead saying goodbye officially.

This is 3 of them (or 4 if you count Chimenti) going to work, doing what they know how best to do with new co-workers.
OK with me, but I'll not be attending. More out of money woes than anything.

The Grateful Dead is such a part of my life that NOTHING can 'taint' them as far as I'm concerned. We still have the music we loved handy at any time.
The music will always be around if we need it.

 

Seems weird without Phil but Oteil can play. He's just not that prominent as Phil.

 

That's probably in the works!

 

I know, right? It's almost like they're living in the present.

 

Big fan of the Dead, but not of John Mayer. He's not a half bad guitarist but I can't stand his wimpy boy band voice. Vocally, he would fit in much better with the Backstreet Boys.

 

It is less a question of ability and more of leadership. Phil really is the musical director more than he is the bass player. It will be interesting to see how Bobby an John arrange the songs. With Bobby as the default leader, the tempo will be very slow.

 

If I get a chance, I will go see them. I have no illusions it is anything other than what it is, which is better than nothing.

 

For how many MSG GD shows I saw (along with the fact that MSG is right down the street from me) means I won't miss this show.

I wouldn't travel for it, nor did I travel for FTW...but when GD members play in NYC in whatever incarnation I'll always make the effort.

Looking forward to catching Phil at the Capitol Theatre the weekend after as well.

 

I'm ok with this. Although not a fan of his albums to the point I buy or listen to them I'm fully aware this guy is a hell of guitar player. And I don't know how anyone could hear him and think otherwise. Style? Fit? Tone? All subjective for the most part so I'm approaching this like someone said earlier in this thread, by comparing THIS (3 memebers & mayer) to NOTHING else by those members this year. I watched when he co hosted the late late show (I think) and had Bob on as his guest and you could tell how much he loves this band. And the songs he and Bob did with band were awesome IMO. His solos in "Truckin'" were tasteful and fitting. I watched those performances over several times I enjoyed them so much. I've caught Mayer's performance on several of those Clapton festivals on VH1C and Paladium and thought he not only "grooved" but "jammed"! And that's something I didn't expect. I won't underestimate this project and hope for the best. More Dead-related music is always a good thing in my book!

 

It's good that they still want to get out and play, wouldn't you want to too?

 

Yes, I've no dog in this hunt as I'm not going to see these gigs and didn't bother with any of those earlier in the year, but I did see John with Bob on Bob's TV spot and must say he did a fine job imo, and I don't own any of John's records but do like his playing, this could be good and if they release something I might check it out.

 

I think this is great news. I'll quote myself from another thread talking about a Phil & Friends show from TxR:

Yeah, I was anti-John Mayer until I saw the show on the 13th. In fact, if he had been billed on this show ahead of time instead of appearing as a surprise guest, I might have blown it off. I thought he did a good job. Of course Stu Allen was carrying the bulk of the lead role, but when Mayer came in he managed to sound good, sound sufficiently "Dead" and sound original, which made him the most interesting guitar player on the stage, in my opinion. I was actually looking forward to his leads, but I did think his lead on "Deal" was a bit too generic-bluesy.

Let the man blow it live on Oct. 31 before you judge, I say. Yup, he's no Trey, but Trey has got his own successful full time gig going right now, and Mayer really doesn't outside of whomever is buying his albums. I think Mayer thinks he needs to do this, and to pull it off, to give himself a boost, and he's a good guitar player, so, again, I think it's best to reserve judgment until you see him in action or hear the results. I think this thing could go musically off the rails without Phil involved as de facto "musical director", but then again, I'd rather wait and see before I dismiss this venture.

I agree, although I think Trey is just fine vocally. Trey's voice is getting guff from a couple people in the Phish Tour Thread which I don't understand at all.

Great minds think alike--I wrote "musical director" before I saw your post. That's been my problem with Ratdog v. Phil & Friends for years now. The former blows the tempos, and the latter sticks to them.

 

I actually thought this was going to link to an Onion article.

 

Trey writes for his own voce quite well. IMO when it comes to Jerry songs, it feels more like talking than singing. A little light on the emotional content.

My one bit of hope that this won't be a rehashed Ratdog set is that Bobby will be trying to do a Grateful Dead set rather than trying to be different and have his own spin.

Without Phil playing traffic cop the jams could get unorganized messy real quick. Bobby spaces out and gets lost fairly often. It certainly happened all over the place at fare thee well.

 

No surprises here. A project with Mayer has been in the rumor mill since the FTW announcements. Plus its no secret Phil was done and the rest of the guys were not. So I think this is right on time, but I will never be excited about seeing John Mayer do anything.

 

I like Mayer but it would be much more interesting if they got the genuine article, Mr Eric Clapton to kick out the jams instead of a pale imitation like John. Instead of trying to sound like Jerry, let's hear a true original give it a new slant.