The Grateful Dead catalogue will be with us as long as there’s someone from the Dead left to play it, and probably for longer than that. The familiar Dead songs have been played every which-way, but this weekend at the Saenger, Dead stalwart Bob Weir proved there are still new ways to play them.
The show found Weir and his current touring band, the mostly acoustic Wolf Bros., accompanied by the Louisiana Philharmonic; it was the last of the orchestrated shows he’s doing in only three cities; the others were Chicago and Cincinnati. Also onstage was the Wolfpack, a horn and string section that they use for selected shows. So, this was not the usual case of an orchestra accompanying a rock band; rather, the band was usually deeper in the mix, functioning as part of the orchestra. (Even Don Was, the second-biggest name onstage, kept his head down all night while playing upright bass). The Wolf Bros. have no lead guitar—Weir played his usual electric rhythm—and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti is a non-flashy team player, so it was left to the orchestral players to provide the trademark Dead interplay.
Bob Weir & Wolf Bros Feat. Wolfpack. Photo courtesy of Bob Weir
From the start this was a stately affair, as a long overture led into one of the least danceable versions of “Shakedown Street” ever performed. The first half of Saturday’s show suffered from an overload of slow and somber material; as the two most obvious epics (“Dark Star” and “Terrapin Station”) were already done the previous night, and the extended “Lost Sailor” / “Saint of Circumstance” suite wasn’t a great substitute. Yet the night was more surprising, and ultimately more satisfying, than Weir’s 2023 appearance with Dead & Co. at Jazz Fest. Weir sang better and seemed more engaged overall, and the more open-ended songs had space to take off. His signature tune “The Other One” closed the first set; while parts of it were structured (the horns seemed to be playing transcriptions of Jerry Garcia solos), there were moments when the orchestra was cut loose to improvise, snapping back into gear just in time—like a Dead performance with ten times as many people.
Momentum continued into the second set, which opened with a straightforward version of “Jack Straw” and a long, impressionistic “Weather Report Suite.” During “Stella Blue” the orchestration turned lush, turning the song into the torch ballad it always wanted to be. And the question of what the orchestra would do in an actual rocker was answered when Weir struck up “Sugar Magnolia.” After tossing the main riff between the horns and strings, the rock players dropped out and the orchestra played a Baroque-styled variation, which set up the band’s celebratory re-entry.
The mood shifted again with the night’s final song, “Brokedown Palace.” Already one of the Dead’s saddest, on this night it sounded downright funereal, and seemed that Weir, at age 77, might be saying goodbye. But no, he’s got more Wolf Bros shows next month and his own Dead Ahead festival afterwards, so this was just one more stop along the road.
