After a year of not touring, instead opting for a residency at the Las Vegas Sphere with Dead & Company, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead will be embarking on a small fall tour, starting in Cincinnati. At each of these shows in Cincinnati, Chicago and New Orleans, Weir and the Wolf Bros will be joined by the local orchestra, which will definitely be an interesting arrangement of Grateful Dead classics and newer Weir originals.
Weir, who was a founding member of the Grateful Dead back in 1965, has not slowed down since the original band ended with Jerry Garcia’s passing in 1995. Playing with solo groups like RatDog and the Wolf Bros, he’s also been in every post-Garcia version of the band, whether it was The Other Ones, The Dead, Furthur, Fare Thee Well or (most recently) Dead & Company.
Weir, who since 1996 has been seen as the head of the music movement that is the Grateful Dead, has been playing the music of one of the most influential bands in history for almost 60 years. In addition to his Dead & Company and solo tours, in early 2023 Weir began to perform with local symphonies and orchestras in different cities around the country. Combining the improvisational spirit of the Grateful Dead with the full, swelling sounds of a full orchestra has been one of the strangest entries in Weir’s musical journey, but also one of his most inspired and beautiful. For Deadheads, this means that you could have the ability to hear songs not played by the original Grateful Dead, like the complete Terrapin Station suite complete with the full sound of strings and brass sections (if Cincinnati is lucky enough to get that on our setlist).
For anyone lamenting that Dead & Company didn’t come to Riverbend Music Center this year, you can still get your Grateful Dead fix on Nov. 13 at Cincinnati Music Hall.
Bob Weir & Wolf Bros perform with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra at Cincinnati Music Hall on Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m. The show is now sold out.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s Oct. 30 print edition.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 12, 2024.
