Dead & Company At Shoreline Amphitheater, Night One, June 3, 2017

Bourn Family Dead & Company Concert at Shoreline Amphitheater June 3, 2017

When Dead & Company announced their 2017 Summer Tour, we were thrilled and bummed at the same time. We were thrilled to be able to see more shows this summer and share the experience with the kids. But this year the tour began before school ended, so that meant missing some shows we wanted to go to. It also meant the kids were going to have one really rough Monday!

Shoreline Amphitheater is just a few hours from our house, so we knew we’d be at those two shows no matter what and make a long weekend out of the trip, and the shows were Saturday, June 3 and Sunday, June 4, the weekend before school got out for summer break. So after a weekend of adventuring and exploring during the day and concerting at night, we had to drive home late Sunday night (almost Monday morning) so the kids could go to school the next day. They don’t do much the last week of school anyway, so we figured it didn’t matter if they were exhausted!

We drove to Santa Clara Friday night to have all day Saturday to explore the area.

On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel, and because it was too early and nothing else was open yet, we headed over to Santa Clara University to tour Mission Santa Clara de Asis. After that we visited the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, and then headed to San Jose for lunch at Gordon Biersch and an afternoon of science at The Tech Museum of Innovation.

General Admission Lawn Seating at Shoreline Amphitheater for Dead & Company

Dead & Company At Shoreline, Night 1

We arrived at Shoreline around 4:00 pm so we had time to visit Shakedown Street before entering the venue. Natalie bought some awesome tie-dye pants, we ran into a bunch of friends, and I found an awesome They Love Each Other sign made from license plates. I didn’t want to carry it around, so I tracked down the artists in the Dead & Company Facebook Group and ordered one to be shipped to our house!

When we were ready to head inside, we got in the longest line I have ever seen. It took us a VERY long time, standing in the blistering sun, to get inside.

For the 2016 Dead & Company concert at Shoreline Amphitheater, we bought seats for the whole family to be closer to the stage, but that was a bad move. The pitch isn’t very steep at Shoreline, so the row in front of us was only a few inches lower than we were, which meant that as short people, Natalie, Carter, and I were screwed. We could barely see and for the amount we paid for those seats… yikes!

After our experience in 2016, we decided to just get general admission lawn tickets for the 2017 Dead & Company shows at Shoreline — and the lawn was AWESOME. We had lots of room, there were food (tacos!) and beer trucks at the top of the lawn, our neighbors were super friendly, and while we were farther away, we could see great! We even ran into some friends of ours from WordPress!

The only downside to general admission lawn seats was that the music wasn’t very loud, and as a result, you could hear the people talking around you. The speakers for the lawn section weren’t turned on and I swear, I play music in my kitchen louder than the music at Shoreline. Luckily in the second set, the music did get a bit louder, but nothing like it should have been.

Dead & Company, consisting of Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzman, Micky Hart, John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti, kicked off the two night run at Shoreline Amphitheater with PLayin’ in the Band which lead into Viola Lee Blues. Next up was on of our favorites, Tennessee Jed, followed by two tour debuts, Here Comes Sunshine and Candyman. The first set came to a close with one of Brian’s favorites, Me & My Uncle, a relaxed Friend Of The Devil, and surprisingly, One More Saturday Night finished it off.

The second set definitely kicked it up a notch. It began with a killer China Cat Sunflower and I Know You Rider combo, followed by bassist Oteil Burbridge taking a turn as lead singer for China Doll, which earned thunderous applause from the sold out crowd. Next up was one of Natalie’s favorites, Eyes of the Word and Deal, which I always love.

After a post Drums/Space jam, we were treated to Wheel and Looks Like Rain, before closing out the second set with Good Lovin’. Finally, the night ended all too soon with an encore of Black Muddy River.

While it’s still early in the tour, and the band still seems to be settling into their summer groove, the show was awesome and we all had a great time! Natalie danced along with me and sang her heart out with the crowd, and Carter, who’s not quite into the music yet, appreciated the comfortable lawn to relax on — and he even stretched out and slept through the second set!