Dead & Company At Folsom Field In Boulder 2017, Night One

The last day of school and the day of Natalie’s eighth grade promotion was an insanely busy day — and not only because of kid activities. Once school was out and promotion was over, we grabbed a quick lunch with the family, finished packing up the kids and ourselves, and sent the kids off on a camping trip to Half Moon Bay with my parents. Brian and I then headed to the airport to fly to Boulder, Colorado for back-to-back Dead & Company concerts at Folsom Field, just one week after seeing two Dead & Company concerts at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California.

Even though the kids weren’t with us for these two concerts, Brian and I did the same thing we usually do, we adventured and explored during the day and went to the concerts at night.

Our first stop was the Pearl Street Mall to get lunch and wander through the shops — and the beautiful outdoor mall was filled with happy men in tie-dye t-shirts, old Grateful Dead concert tees, and Dead & Company concert tees, and ladies in festival wear, tie-dye dresses and skirts, and concerts tees. I even found a couple dresses! As we ducked in and out of stores, we met others in town to see Dead & Company, and everyone we met was incredibly friendly… that’s one of the things I love most about the community surrounding the Grateful Dead — it’s inclusive, welcoming, and friendly.

Unlike having Shoreline’s general admission lawn tickets, which means you must arrive very early to find seats, for both Boulder, Colorado Dead & Company concerts, we had seats — and that meant we could explore more during the day. When we were done at Pearl Street Mall, we visited Chautauqua Park with access to Open Space Mountain Park trails and an iconic view of the Flatirons. Next we drove up to Panorama Point for majestic, sweeping views of the city below.

Around 2:30, we headed over to Owsley’s Golden Road for the Melvin Seals & JGB pre show. We’ve heard Melvin Seals & JGB play at the Auburn Event Center by our house several times, at Jerry Day in San Francisco, and at other venues, and we never get tired of hearing them jam! But it was insanely hot and humid, the concert was outside, and there was a heater on above us that was just making the entire area around the stage grossly hot. So we stayed for their first set and then left for Folsom Field and Shakedown Street.

Because we had assigned seats, we didn’t need to rush into the stadium, so we wandered around Shakedown Street, checking out the vendors and looking for something cool to bring back for Natalie. She has some type of clothing item or accessory from every Shakedown Street we have been to, so it’s now tradition. Later, we braves the lines, entered the stadium, grabbed cold drinks, and found our seats. We had great seats and great seatmates!

Dead & Company kicked off the first set of its sold out two-night run with Dancing In The Street, followed by a strong Cold Rain & Snow that’s slowly becoming one of my favorites. Weir then took the reigns with Hell In A Bucket and Johnny Cash’s Big River. We loved the slow rendition of Althea, followed by New Speedway Boogie, The Music Never Stopped, and an acoustic Ripple to close out the set. In this set, the band — Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart, John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, and Jeff Chimenti — played each song as a stand alone song with no jams to tie them together, instead stretching the songs out longer to jam in the middle of the songs.

The first set was awesome and we couldn’t wait to see what the second set would bring.

When the second set began with St. Stephen, which transitioned to Estimated Prophet, which fed right into Eyes Of The World, the crowd went wild. A slower-then normal, relaxed Deal followed, along with Let It Grow, and the set closed out with The Other One and Morning Dew. Finally, the band came back for an encore of Touch Of Grey.

We had such a great night and couldn’t wait to do it again the next day with another sold out crowd! While we do love going to shows with our kids, it’s really nice to do this by ourselves every once in a while 🙂

Dead & Company Folsom Field, Boulder 6/9/2017 Set List: