JRAD announces their final 2026 dates. DSO is preparing a Reckoning-era recreation for D.C. My Morning Jacket honors the Dead at the Fillmore. Taper’s Section hits Winterland 1977 and Capital Centre 1991. Local shows all month.
John Mayer Triples His Sphere Residency. Don’s Pick Is Ohio Theatre 1971. Grahame Lesh Breaks a Record in Denver. And the Fare Thee Well Show Is On Tonight.
JRAD announces their final 2026 dates. DSO is preparing a Reckoning-era recreation for D.C. My Morning Jacket honors the Dead at the Fillmore. Taper’s Section hits Winterland 1977 and Capital Centre 1991. Local shows all month.
Fare Thee Well Radio Show · Every Thursday Night
A musical tribute to the bands formed by the surviving members of the Grateful Dead following the passing of Jerry Garcia — RatDog, Phil and Friends, The Other Ones, The Dead, Furthur, Dead and Company — every Thursday night on the channel.
The Fare Thee Well Radio Show is the Thursday night home for everything the surviving members of the Grateful Dead built after Jerry Garcia’s passing in 1995. The show moves through the full post-Garcia arc: Bob Weir’s RatDog years, Phil Lesh’s rotating Phil and Friends ensembles, the reunions under the Other Ones and The Dead banners, the Furthur run with Weir and Lesh co-leading, and eventually Dead and Company, the John Mayer collaboration that brought the catalog to a new generation of listeners. Tonight’s broadcast airs in the same week that Mayer announced a massive expansion of his own 2027 Las Vegas Sphere residency, a development that connects directly to the energy Dead and Company generated during their own Sphere run. The thread between the Fare Thee Well show and the current landscape of the music runs directly through everything that airs tonight.
The Only Dick’s Pick That Ever Fit on One Disc, Because the Jam Wouldn’t Let Anything Else In
Out of thirty-six releases in the Dick’s Picks series, only one ever fit on a single disc. This show is the reason. Producer Dick Latvala had to cut several first-set tracks just to make room for the second set’s uninterrupted, forty-five-minute suite, and once you hear why, the decision makes complete sense. Some nights earn that kind of editorial ruthlessness.
This show caught the band in genuine flux. Mickey Hart had left earlier in 1971, leaving Bill Kreutzmann as the sole drummer — a shift that let the group play tighter, lighter, and faster, planting the seeds for the jazz-leaning improvisation that would define their legendary Europe ’72 run. Pianist Keith Godchaux had just joined that October, filling in for an ailing Ron Pigpen McKernan, and this Halloween show was only his eleventh with the band. His bright, melodic acoustic grand piano work gave Garcia’s guitar solos a new kind of lift they hadn’t had before. The second set’s central suite stretches and breathes in ways that the earlier, rawer configurations of the band hadn’t quite reached yet. It is one of the essential transitional recordings in the catalog, a band in the middle of becoming something they couldn’t fully see yet, playing with the instinct and confidence of people who already knew it was going to be extraordinary.
The Ohio Theatre in Columbus was not a Dead stronghold the way San Francisco, New York, or Boston were. Playing a Midwest college town on Halloween meant a crowd that was present entirely on its own terms, without the added layer of scene culture that sometimes defined the coasts. The energy was direct, reciprocal, and completely focused on the music. That specific quality comes through in the recording and is part of why this particular night still sounds so alive decades later.
Full show details on The Grateful Dead Live →John Mayer Triples His Sphere Residency to 18 Shows · April 8 Through June 5, 2027 · Three-Act Format
John Mayer is making major news this week, officially announcing the expansion of his highly anticipated 2027 solo residency at the Las Vegas Sphere. Originally announced as a brief six-night engagement, Mayer officially tripled his residency block due to overwhelming presale demand. The expanded run now features 18 shows spanning from April 8 through June 5, 2027.
The format for each night is built around three distinct acts: a solo acoustic performance, a full-band set, and a blues-heavy set alongside the reunited John Mayer Trio featuring bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Steve Jordan. Mayer directed the visuals for Dead and Company’s own Sphere runs, giving him a level of familiarity with the format and the venue’s capabilities that few artists arriving there will have. General public ticket sales launch Friday, October 9, at 10:00 AM PT.
Meanwhile, updates regarding Dead and Company remain focused on the band’s future and the collective mourning process following the death of Bob Weir in January 2026. Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti have both remained active in the live circuit throughout 2026, sitting in with various side projects and keeping the catalog moving through individual festival ensembles. Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann remain focused on archiving and preserving the vault.
The 18-Show Residency · April 8 – June 5, 2027
Three acts per night: solo acoustic, full band, and the John Mayer Trio reunion with Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan. Drawing on the visual direction experience Mayer developed during the Dead and Company Sphere runs, each night will be a self-contained visual and musical experience.
Tickets · On Sale Friday October 9 · 10 AM PT
General public ticket sales launch Friday morning. Given that the original six-night announcement sold well enough to triple the run, expect high demand. Plan accordingly.
RatDog, Phil and Friends, The Other Ones, The Dead, Furthur, Dead and Company — the full lineage that connects directly to what Mayer is carrying forward in 2027.
Grahame Lesh and Friends Close Denver’s Levitt Pavilion Summer Series With a Record-Breaking 9,326 in Attendance
On October 3, 2026, Grahame Lesh and Friends closed out Denver’s Levitt Pavilion summer concert series, drawing a record-breaking crowd of 9,326 Deadheads for a night of classic jams and Lesh family originals. The number is the highest single-show attendance in the Levitt Pavilion’s history, and it happened on what was already a meaningful occasion — the final night of a summer concert series at one of Denver’s most beloved outdoor venues.
Grahame has been building momentum throughout 2026 in a way that reflects both the organic growth of his own reputation as a bandleader and the broader hunger in the Deadhead community for live music that carries genuine generational connection to the band’s legacy. His father Phil Lesh established the free concert tradition in public parks and outdoor spaces that remains one of the defining cultural signatures of what the Grateful Dead meant to their community. Grahame bringing a record crowd to a free outdoor venue in Denver on the final night of summer is that tradition continuing in a form Phil would have recognized immediately.
My Morning Jacket Brings Out Molly Tuttle at the Fillmore to Honor the Grateful Dead and Bob Weir
During their October 2026 residency at The Fillmore in San Francisco, My Morning Jacket brought out bluegrass virtuoso Molly Tuttle to perform a guest rendition of the Jerry Garcia classic Sugaree as a direct tribute to the legacy of Bob Weir and the Grateful Dead. The Fillmore is not an incidental choice of venue for a moment like this — it is one of the rooms most associated with the band’s history, and performing a Garcia tune on that stage with a guest of Tuttle’s caliber is a specific, deliberate act of acknowledgment.
Molly Tuttle’s relationship with the Dead’s catalog runs deep. She has performed Garcia and Dead material throughout her career, approaching the songs from the bluegrass and folk tradition that was Garcia’s own musical foundation. The pairing with My Morning Jacket, a band whose extended improvisational approach has always carried a Dead influence, made the Sugaree particularly resonant. It was the right song, the right room, and the right collaborator for the moment.
Taper’s Section This Week: Winterland 1977 and Capital Centre 1991
The official Grateful Dead Taper’s Section on Dead.net continues its weekly release of unreleased soundboard recordings from the vault. The October 2026 features highlight two legendary sets from very different eras: Winterland 1977 and the Capital Centre 1991. Winterland in 1977 places the band at the peak of their late-seventies power, the Keith and Donna Godchaux era running at its most sophisticated and the band’s improvisational ambition fully realized in the architecture of the room they knew better than perhaps any other. The Capital Centre 1991 captures the Vince Welnick configuration settling into its identity, the band finding its footing in the first full year after Brent Mydland’s passing. Two completely different versions of the Grateful Dead, both available free to stream on Dead.net this week.
JRAD Finalizes November Dates · DSO Prepares Reckoning-Era Recreation · Live Dead and Brothers on the West Coast
JRAD · Final 2026 Dates · November 12–14
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead confirmed their final tour leg of the year: a compact Mid-Atlantic theater run on November 12 at State Theatre in New Brunswick NJ, November 13 at Warner Theatre in Washington DC, and November 14 at The Met Philadelphia. After late-September outdoor dates in New York were canceled due to severe weather, these three nights wrap their 2026 calendar. Tickets through the JRAD Tour Portal.
Dark Star Orchestra · Rex Foundation Benefit · D.C. November 21 · NYE at The Cap
DSO’s fall 2026 tour peaks with a specialized Rex Foundation Benefit on November 21 at The Anthem in Washington DC, where they will completely recreate a full three-set acoustic and electric show from the iconic Reckoning era. They then ring in the new year with a multi-night stand at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester NY. Their busiest and highest-attendance year on record continues through December.
Live Dead & Brothers · West Coast October Dates
The collaborative super-collective featuring Berry Duane Oakley, Mark Karan, and Scott Guberman continues combining the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers Band legacies across a series of West Coast tour dates throughout October 2026, following a heavily attended summer run. One of the most musically coherent mashup projects currently on the road.
The Wednesday night home for live music by Grateful Dead cover bands — the full tribute circuit, every week. JRAD, DSO, Live Dead and Brothers, and everything else on the road right now gets its proper soundtrack here.
Splintered Sunlight Saturday · Lovelight in Trenton · Steal Your Peach · Crickets and Cicadas in November
A range of shows on our radar this month and into November across the NJ and PA corridor. The tribute scene is running deep right now.
The premier long-running local Delaware Valley Dead tribute headlines Ardmore Music Hall. Splintered Sunlight remains the gold standard in this region for full-band Dead performance. A major show on the local calendar this weekend.
Lovelight returns to Cooper’s Riverview on the Delaware River in Trenton for a weeknight show. The outdoor deck setting and full dinner menu make this one of the more complete evenings on the local list. Arrive early for a deck table.
Steal Your Peach delivers high-energy mashup sets blending the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers catalogs. Two catalogs that share enough musical DNA that the combinations are natural rather than forced, with real improvisational space between them.
The NJ/PA Dead tribute collective known for using the classic catalog as a launchpad for deep abstract instrumental jamming headlines Shere-E-Punjab in Media. The intimate restaurant setting suits their approach particularly well. A dinner-and-a-show night worth planning around.
Regional icons The Big Wu headline a Bob Weir Celebration at the Fitzgerald Theater in Minneapolis. One of the ongoing tribute events honoring Weir following his January 2026 passing. Worth noting for anyone in the upper Midwest.
Every band above and the full local tribute circuit gets its weekly home on the channel every Wednesday night. The spirit of the Dead keeps moving.
Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann Remain Focused on the Vault While the Live Tribute Scene Carries the Music Forward
Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, the legendary Rhythm Devils who turned the Drums and Space segments of every Dead show into something the rock world had never encountered, remain primarily focused on archiving and preserving the vault in the post-Weir landscape of 2026. Their individual projects continue — Hart’s visual art and rhythm science research, Kreutzmann’s ongoing presence in the Hawaiian music community — but the main channel for their collective energy right now runs through the preservation and curation work that ensures future generations have access to the full scope of what the Grateful Dead created over thirty years of live performance.
For fans looking for live celebrations of their legacy, the Bob Weir Celebration at the Fitzgerald Theater on October 16 featuring The Big Wu is among the most prominent upcoming events honoring the band’s founding generation. Regional tribute events like this continue to proliferate across the country, filling the space left by the absence of any formal touring entity.
World percussion, ethnomusicology, and the rhythmic philosophy that built thirty years of Drums and Space — every Sunday morning on the channel.
