Dead and Company at MSG: Photos, setlist, review from Fall Fun Run in New York City

Alex Biese | Asbury Park Press

This band just keeps getting better.

It's been four years since it first launched, and Grateful Dead legacy act Dead and Company is in spellbinding form.

Take the second night of the band's Fall Fun Run outing, Friday, Nov. 1 at the storied Madison Square Garden. Seated comfortably in the middle of the first set was "Ramble on Rose" — an ambling, mid-tempo, country-leaning number that, with lyrical invocations of Jack the Ripper, Frankenstein and New York City, was a fairly sure bet to be heard.

After all, the Fall Fun Run was launching right around Halloween in the heart of Manhattan.

Check out the gallery at the top of this story for a look at night two at Madison Square Garden during the 2019 Fall Fun Run.

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But the "Ramble on Rose" we got was nothing short of magical, the sort of performance that shows what Dead and Company is truly capable of when firing on all cylinders.

The band's three classic Grateful Dead members constructed the core of the song like the sturdiest of houses — singer/guitarist Bob Weir leading the way, with drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann laying a foundation that sounded like it would stand for a thousand years.

Bassist Oteil Burbridge locked in with a steady, grooving march and then singer/guitarist John Mayer took flight with keyboard player Jeff Chimenti, the former's blistering solo flowing seamlessly into a show-stealing run from the latter. By the time Weir charged into the "Goodbye, Mama and Papa" climax, the band and the sold out Garden audience were in the stratosphere together.

The night had barely begun.

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The Fall Fun Run launched on Halloween night at the Garden on Thursday, with that show's setlist serving as both a crowd-pleasing highlight reel (greatest hits like "Truckin'," "Uncle John's Band" and "Eyes of the World" all present and accounted for) and an elegiac ode to Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, who died in September.

Friday night, in turn, was bold, expressive and unpredictable throughout. After bringing "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" to an appropriately majestic conclusion, Mayer dug in deep to shine on the rock solid blues strut of "Mister Charlie."

It's always a delight to hear Mayer tackle signature numbers of original Grateful Dead frontman Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. Although the singer, keyboard player and harmonica player died in 1973, he and Mayer are kindred spirits, connected by a bluesy sensiblity equal parts grit, groove and grace.

The pleasant surprises kept on coming all night. Songstress Maggie Rogers added rich vocal flourishes to set one's "Friend of the Devil" and a cover of "The Weight" by The Band in the encore. Set two boasted a pair of the Dead's all-time great sequences, "Scarlet Begonias" into "Fire on the Mountain" and "China Cat Sunflower" into "I Know You Rider," separated only by a lush "He's Gone" that incorporated elements of Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning."

And the evening ended in perhaps the only way it could; Hunter famously penned the lyrics to three of the band's most cherished ballads — "Ripple," "To Lay Me Down" and "Brokedown Palace" — on the same afternoon in 1970. "Ripple" opened the 2019 stand at the Garden on Thursday, and it felt only natural that "Brokedown Palace" closed it on Friday.

This is a band that, to paraphrase Hunter, sings sweet songs to rock our souls. They're doing so beautifully, and that's something to be grateful for.

Dead and Company's six-date Fall Fun Run mini-tour moves to Long Island for Tuesday, Nov. 5 and Wednesday, Nov. 6 engagements at NYCB LIVE, Home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in Uniondale, New York, followed by Nov. 8 and 9 bows at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia.

They then reconvene on the West Coast for Dec. 27 and 28 performances at the Forum in Los Angeles before closing out the year with Dec. 30 and 31 gigs at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

If the tour's beginning is any indication, you don't want to miss any of these shows.

Set list

Set One

Cold Rain and Snow Hell in a Bucket Row Jimmy Ramble on Rose Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo Mr. Charlie Friend of the Devil Bird Song

Set Two

Scarlet Begonias Fire on the Mountain He's Gone Smokestack Lightning He's Gone (reprise) China Cat Sunflower I Know You Rider Drums Space Althea Morning Dew

Encore

The Weight Brokedown Palace

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