Tonight’s Radio Show and What It’s Actually Doing – Music Plays The Band Radio Show & This Day in Phil Lesh and Friends History
Giants Stadium Is Coming Back to New Jersey Theaters, and Tonight the Cover Bands Are on the Air
The June 17, 1991 Giants Stadium show is one of those concerts where people who were there still talk about “you remember when the second set happened?” rather than “it was such a great show”, asking each other where they were, rather than hearing about what happened in the second set from someone who wasn’t even there
On August 8 and August 10, 2026, that night returns to New Jersey theaters as the 2026 Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies 35th-anniversary screening of the remastered multi-cam film with a 48-track surround sound mix by Jeffrey Norman, and if you’ve only heard it, you should see it, and you will want to see it, and if you’re reading this, maybe you should tell your story about that night first.
The screening will also feature a preview of “Shakedown Street” from the forthcoming Merriweather 6/30/85 box set as a treat for those of us waiting on that one,
but tonight is about the present, as The Music Plays the Band Radio Show streams live on The Grateful Dead Live, celebrating Grateful Dead cover bands with a multi-hour block tonight, just in time for the 35th-anniversary screenings of this show, the various tribute shows happening around New Jersey this month, and Don’s Pick tomorrow night, featuring one of the heaviest concerts in Dead history this week in the life of the community. Read the Full Article on The Grateful Dead Substack!
Tonight’s Radio Show and What It’s Actually Doing – Music Plays The Band Radio Show
The Music Plays the Band exists because the cover band ecosystem is not an adjunct to the real Dead shows but a continuation of the tradition the Dead created that the music was for everyone who played it seriously and played it with love.
Tonight’s broadcast taps into that ecosystem most intensely, and if you haven’t been paying close attention to what the best tribute bands have been up to in 2026, it’s worth your while to actually pay attention rather than have it on in the background.
The Dead didn’t give us a catalog; they gave us a practice, which the tribute bands that do it right recognize.
The Music Plays The Band Radio Show plays live music by Grateful Dead Cover Bands. Grateful Dead, the iconic American rock band, has left an indelible mark on music history. Known for their improvisational style, eclectic sound, and devoted fan base, the Grateful Dead’s influence continues to resonate long after their disbandment. While the original band members may no longer grace the stage together, the spirit of the Grateful Dead lives on through the countless cover bands that pay homage to their music. In this show, we explore the world of Grateful Dead cover bands and the important role they play in keeping the legacy alive. Read the Full Article on The Grateful Dead Substack!
Local Shows This Month Worth Your Attention
If tonight’s broadcast has whet your appetite to hear this music in a room with other people, here are some options.
Steely Dead plays the Ardmore Music Hall on August 9, just across the river in Pennsylvania, but close enough. The concept is as good as it sounds: the jazz-rock fusion precision of Steely Dan meets the improvisatory codification of the Dead in one hybrid that shouldn’t work as well as it does.
Lovelight brings two full sets to Cooper’s Riverview in Trenton on August 13. Lovelight is one of the more seriously improvisatory New Jersey tribute bands, meaning they’re going to be riffing on the catalog as much as playing through it, which is a nice change of pace if you’re into that kind of thing.
Back to the Garden 1969 brings a full multimedia theatrical tribute to the Woodstock-era catalog to the Broadway Theatre of Pitman on August 16. It’s a show of a different stripe, more production-oriented than most in this group, but the early Dead psychedelia it mines out is criminally underutilized in the tribute circuit, so that’s reason enough to check it out. Read the Full Article on The Grateful Dead Substack!
What Else Is Moving This Week
Dead.net’s Jam of the Week is streaming the May 11, 1977 St Paul Civic Center show, which is as good as it should be for that year on the road, and the Taper’s Section is concurrently featuring music from the 1969 Big Rock Pow Wow, Baltimore 1977, and Shoreline 1992 performances. Three shows, all very different, all well worth your time.
Mickey Hart has been out this summer promoting his community curation of the original 1967 Straight Theater concert poster from his first show with the band, which he’s trying to find, so if anyone knows anything about that poster, now would be a good time to let him know.
Live Dead and Brothers , the supergroup of Mark Karan and Berry Duane Oakley, and the 1969-73 Dead/Allman Brothers collaboration, is winding up its Northeast summer tour this week. Dark Star Orchestra has announced a 50th-anniversary reconstruction of the Dead’s September 1976 Kaplan Arena show to happen in late September at William and Mary, which could well be a worthwhile hunt. Read the Full Article on The Grateful Dead Substack!
This Day in Phil Lesh and Friends History: Two Shows Worth Revisiting
July 29th is a day with two shows worth going back to if you have the chance.
July 29, 2000 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. This is the Quintet show, with Phil Lesh, Warren Haynes, Jimmy Herring, Rob Barraco, John Molo, featuring the best possible configuration of Phil and Friends, which is not surprising since it shares a co-headlining bill with Bob Dylan and has the setlist to prove it; the performance of Help on the Way into Slipknot into Franklin’s Tower into Terrapin Station and the Viola Lee Blues sandwich in the middle as the set’s anchor with a particularly white-knuckled version of the closing song defining the whole night’s music makes this the closest thing we’ll ever get to seeing the full power of the Phil and Friends lineup. Another noteworthy element was that it was the first time the band had ever played a concert on Garcia’s birthday, which fell on July 29, 1967, although that doesn’t appear to have stopped the fireworks going off over the Jersey City night sky during the performance when The Band opened the second set with their own set, with the members of The Band coming out to jam with the Dead. Read the Full Article on The Grateful Dead Substack!
The Phil & Friends Radio Show is a captivating journey into the musical universe of Phil Lesh, the iconic bassist and founding member of the Grateful Dead. This radio show is a celebration of Lesh’s solo projects and his collaborations with a rotating cast of talented musicians, collectively known as Phil & Friends. Through a curated selection of live recordings, the show highlights Lesh’s distinctive style and his contributions to the rich tapestry of improvisational rock music.
The Phil & Friends Radio Show features FIVE (5) Hours of Live Music from their shows every week!
Every Tuesday Night at 9PM EST
This Week on Don’s Pick Returns to Roosevelt Stadium
Saturday, which means Don’s Pick, and Don is giving us the August 1, 1973 Roosevelt Stadium show in Jersey City for Jerry Garcia’s 31st birthday.
This is one of those shows where the legend is deserved, but it’s also worth knowing at least a little about the context before you listen because it adds a nice layer of significance to the performance. The band had played Watkins Glen three days ago, which was at the time the largest concert in America, and they brought that electricity with them to Jersey City for Garcia’s birthday, where they played an equally memorable second set that stretched unbroken from Dark Star into El Paso into Eyes of the World into Morning Dew, about an hour of music that moved from the most jazz-inflected song in the Dead’s repertoire to Marty Robbins’ cowboy song to one of the most expansive Garcia guitar workouts in the 73 catalog to a Morning Dew that folded all of it back in like the closing statement on a huge topic.
It was also the first time the band had ever played a concert on Garcia’s actual birthday, and the Band played as the opening act, with fireworks going off over the Jersey City night sky during the performance and the members of The Band coming out to jam with the Dead.
In short, it is one of the great concerts that this band ever played, in New Jersey, on a birthday, and tomorrow night, Don’s Pick will air it for you to hear. Read the Full Article on The Grateful Dead Substack!
