Much has changed in San Francisco over the last six decades. But all these years later, the music of the Grateful Dead can still draw a significant crowd to Golden Gate Park, where the revered rock band played some of its earliest shows just blocks from the house on 710 Ashbury Street, where its members set up shop in the mid-1960s.
Only some of those founding members remain today — iconic frontman Jerry Garcia died 30 years ago, while bassist Phil Lesh passed away last October — but two surviving members, Bobby Weir and Mickey Hart, brought their decade-old outfit Dead & Company to Golden Gate Park on Friday (Aug. 1) night for the first of three shows celebrating 60 years since the Grateful Dead’s 1965 debut.
Rounded out by John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Lane, Dead & Company has become a live music juggernaut in its own right since its 2015 formation. In 2023, the year it staged its final tour, Dead & Company grossed $114.7 million across 28 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore; in 2024, it launched its Dead Forever residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere, grossing $131.8 million across 30 shows. (The band continued the residency in 2025 with 18 more concerts.) Along the way, Dead & Company has introduced a new generation of fans to the Dead’s music and subculture — while offering older Deadheads more opportunities to enjoy them.
This cross-generational appeal was on display in Golden Gate Park on Friday, where the jamgrass sensation Billy Strings — who was only 2 when Jerry Garcia died — opened the show for an audience that spanned from kids to old-timers who just might’ve been at the Dead’s earliest shows in the park in the mid-60s.
Here are some of the best moments from the first show of Dead & Company’s three-night run in Golden Gate Park. And when you’re done with that, here’s the complete setlist.
