Dead & Company’s Las Vegas return: It’s a round trip at Sphere

Decades before “immersive experience” ever described live entertainment, the Grateful Dead had turned the phrase into an art form. The original jam band’s voyage has been enhanced as the Dead & Company era, going on 10 years now, ballooning at Sphere.

Led by rock’s lion in the winter Bob Weir, Dead & Company’s Sphere show takes us on a round trip, from San Francisco through the cosmos of their career and back. Returning for an 18-show run last week, Dead & Co. at Sphere is aglow with a new large conjuring by guitar great-yet-sideman John Mayer.

A scene I’d not seen in the band’s first run is a flowing video of the Dead’s LSD blotter. This expanding sheet shows the hundreds of dancing bears grooving along the venue’s curved surface. The guy in front of me actually reached out to the image, pretending to snap up a square and drop it on his tongue. I can’t say if he had done this in fact, but he was having some time of it.

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The image morphs into a psychedelic, live video of the band churning out “Eyes of the World.” Later an amoeba of pastel colors encircles Weir and Mayer during “St. Stephen.” Whoa. The band doesn’t cover “Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” but could for this scene. Don Henley’s suggestion that Sphere inhabitants bring Dramamine to Eagles’ shows applies to Dead & Co., too.

Held over is the show’s signature opening segment, in which the virtual camera pulls back from a tight view of a row of Victorian houses in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district, dating to the band’s infancy. The shot moves out, up, rising through clouds, into the borders of the universe, it seems. “Shakedown Street” is the number. We would not be surprised to see William Shatner in this starry trek, or even the ghost of Bill Walton.

The set list is as fluid as the lava lamps that, invariably, cover Sphere’s interior (and we also have like a zillion Dead-branded disco balls). For the first time on Friday, the band covered Eric Clapton’s “Lay Down Sally” live, which drew cheers and triumphantly laughs from the crowd, as if to say, “It’s about time!”

Dead & Co. is sparse but inventive with their selection of covers. The band opened their return performance last Thursday with another first-ever live performance, Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin’.” This is a popular and welcomed holdover from the Grateful Dead era.

A lot in this … Intense circus action and more @deadandcompany @SphereVegas @reviewjournal pic.twitter.com/uw3IqjjHZQ

— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) March 22, 2025

“Uncle John’s Band” is a constant in the residency’s return. The Dead’s only top-40 single, “Touch of Grey” closed the opener. A touch? This Sphere crowd is immersed in grey, which is OK. Mickey Hart’s drum solo is a rhythmic ride around Sphere’s sound system, coupled with Hart’s own artwork. “Hell in a Bucket” works its way in and out of the set list, the song playing along with the skeleton-on-a-Harley chase scene.

I’m dropping these titles as if I’m a longtime Deadhead, which I’m not. The first time I’d seen any Dead variation was at the Dead & Co.’s opener in May. First Weir sighting was when he joined Sammy Hagar at The Strat in November 2021.

As I’ve flooded the socials with visuals, I’m asked if I’m a fan of the band. I am, in the context of Sphere. “Dead Forever” at Sphere, I’m a fan of that.

The @deadandcompany show leaves no stoner unturned … @SphereVegas @reviewjournal pic.twitter.com/DSlh0gxxvw

— John Katsilometes (@johnnykats) March 22, 2025

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.