Dead & Company just finished up their eighth show of Summer Tour 2021, a killer throwdown show at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania. They even seemed to play right into their encore slot and just decided to not leave the stage before they sent everyone home with a final tune before their hard curfew hit.
The show kicked off with a killer “The Music Never Stopped > Easy Answers” before returning to the refrain of “The Music Never Stopped.” The hit from In The Dark, “Touch of Grey,” came next and was a nice singalong. Then the band brought back “Tennessee Jed” after a bit of an absence and I’ll always welcome multiple plays of “Mr. Charlie” during a tour if it’s John Mayer singing it. After a “Black Throated Wind” that got pretty soulful, the band delivered a mellow “Cassidy” with some great playing during the jam in the middle. “Don’t Ease Me In” closed the set and Bobby once again told everyone they’d be back in “just a little bit.”
Set two started with “Here Comes Sunshine” and gave way to a very deep “Estimated Prophet.” From there, the band played “Eyes of the World” and went from that jam into a stellar “Althea” before bringing in the “Drums/Space” section of the show. From the couch I thought that Space had just gotten extra jazzy but it turns out the band was vamping on “Milestones” which is a Miles Davis throwback. Woah. Definitely need to give this another listen.
“Going Down the Road Feeling Bad” brought us out of the space jazz and brought the energy back up. “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” had Bobby absolutely wailing out his vocals, and “One More Saturday Night” fittingly closed another Saturday night set two. The band then said they’ve got a hard curfew and they stayed up there to play off the crowd with “Quinn the Eskimo,” according to r/gratefuldead.
Scroll down to see the setlist from the show.
Dead & Company @ Hersheypark Stadium, Hershey PA 8.28.21
Set I: The Music Never Stopped -> Easy Answers -> The Music Never Stopped, Touch of Grey, Tennessee Jed, Mr. Charlie, Black Throated Wind, Cassidy, Don’t Ease Me In
Set II: Here Comes Sunshine > Estimated Prophet > Eyes of the World > Althea > Drums > Space > Milesstones > Going Down the Road Feeling Bad > Death Don’t Have No Mercy > One More Saturday Night
“Encore”: Quinn the Eskimo
Hershey! Thank you for a spectacular night! We’re going to take a few days off, then see you for a double header at Great Woods Thurs. & Fri. nights.
📸: Matt Busch pic.twitter.com/iFlPunkRHN
— Dead & Company (@deadandcompany) August 29, 2021
