Dead and Company Chula Vista July 6 Recap

Friday night by the US-Mexico boarder in Chula Vista, CA at the Mattress Firm Amphitheater was the when and where for Dead & Company’s first Southern California stop on their Summer Tour.  As D&C slid into town, so did an nearly unbearable heatwave. The poster fit the mood of the show, for sure.  Sing it with me, “temperature rolled up, to a-hundred and five…”  It was so hot the term “puddled” took on new meaning.  It was close to 100 degrees when the doors opened to the venue.

All heat aside, I was looking forward to catching the band after having seen bits and pieces of the last few nights in Oregon and NorCal.  Set-lists have been solid and John Mayer along with the other two non-OG Grateful Dead members, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti, have been breathing a new kind of energy into the music taking those old Grateful Dead classics to new and exciting places.

Friday night kicked off seeming paying homage to the outside temperature with Hell in a Bucket and leading us all on a deep dive into the old catalogue of Dead music and keeping it very mellow.  Maybe the heat was just too much to get the juices really flowing.  Highlight for me was definitely Bird Song>Loose Lucy>Bird Song to close out set one.

The sun went down along with the temperature and, finally, we could all breath a little easier as the temps dropped to a more reasonable space on the thermometer.  The band took the energy level up just a little bit for second set but never really hit that second set crescendo moment I was hoping for.  Lots of great moments but never a “holy sh!t, batman” moment.  It’s always nice to hear “Estimated Profit near the California shore and I can’t argue with a Shakedown Street anytime anywhere (I called it before the show).  “I Need A Miracle”, if I had to choose, was probably the musical highlight from set two, for me.  The Bob Dylan “Knockin’ on Heavens Door” is always a downer encore for me so, it was what it always is.

Overall, a great show, albeit fairly tame and mellow musically.  Great place to see a show, if you’ve never been there.  Parking super easy, ingress and egress from venue was smooth and there really isn’t a bad seat in the house.  Good sight-lines from everywhere…even the beer garden.

 

Mattress Firm Amphitheater
Dead & Company
July 6,2018

For more photos of the show, check out Jim Stidham Photography’s Facebook Page HERE!