By all rights, the residency by Dead & Company at Sphere shouldn’t have seemed that historic. After all, they were the third band into the venue, following U2’s opening 40-show run, followed by Phish’s brief but sweet four-concert stop in Las Vegas, both of which received the appellation of “mind-blowing.” Creative ground had been broken, new bars had been set, and it’d been sufficiently established that no one would ever be tempted to call the venue “Dolan’s folly” again (if anyone had been brave enough to do so in the first place). A 30-night stand by the semi-retired offshoot of the Grateful Dead could well have seemed anticlimactic, given how quickly something that seems massively innovative at the start can come to just feel like the new normal.
So, when Dead & Co wrapped up that run Saturday night after two months, why did it seem like they had come to own the place? And how soon, everyone wanted to know, could they come back? What a short, stunning trip it’d been… albeit one that will likely have a long tail — for the band, for the venue and for the further understanding of what live entertainment can be.
The 30 shows operated at near-capacity from the May 16 opening night to the Aug. 10 closing, but let’s face it: Dead & Company cheated, by inviting repeat business. Please read into that statement all of the irony intended, because no asterisk need be put on a box-office triumph just because not every visit was a unique visit. Even if you came into the “Dead Forever” experience as a nominal fan and not a hardcore Deadhead, chances are, you didn’t feel completely sated seeing just one of these nearly four-hour shows. Devotees came in knowing, or at least
