How can we miss you if you won't go away?

The Grateful Dead cover band that is known as Dead & Co. has opened up a vaunted new residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas.

This is sort of funny since it seems like only yesterday they were engaged in a much ballyhooed farewell tour.

Now you can say that many bands indulge in perpetual farewell tours, it is a great way to make bank, I know, I know. 

The Grateful Dead were not every band. They stood for integrity, or they did when Jerry was alive anyway. He assuredly would not have allowed his band to pull this sort of crap.

But as we know, this is not the Grateful Dead, not even close. There are two extant members of the Grateful Dead in the band, arguably the two that were the least creative musically.

You now get the rhythm guitarist with the damaged vocal cords and the rudimental drummer. What was it that Greg Allman once said about Mickey Hart, the dude can't swing!

This is why true dead aficionados treasure 1973 and 74 shows, a time when the incredibly underrated timekeeper Bill Kreutzmann drummed solo and things were real creative. With Mickey pounding away it became quite difficult to turn a tight corner.

Ah well, I just don't resonate with anything about Dead & Co.. Jerry Garcia once said that it was his job to open the door musically and Bob Weir's job to shut the door. To each his own but I prefer the former. 

I have tried to listen to Dead & Co. but usually last under a minute. Not my cup of meat. I miss Jerry, I miss Phil, I miss Billy and I even miss Bruce Hornsby for his brilliant contributions.

I don't need to relive my psychedelic youth and play pretend. You eat enough mushrooms and even Wayne Newton would sound phenomenal and trippy, I know. But does it pass the real acid test?

BigDave caught two shows, said they were spectacular. Beautiful. But he mostly talked about the extraordinary visuals in the sphere.

Now I am a visual guy and I would be tempted to check it out just for the light show. But hearing these guys play my favorite band's music would be like watching a film of somebody making love to a former lover, it would just feel very wrong.

The dead have to be swimming in gelt at this point.  What did I just read?

Grateful Dead breaks the record for most top 40-charting albums in the nearly 68-year history the Billboard 200. The group’s latest archival live release, Dave’s Picks, Volume 49: Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford U., Palo Alto, CA (4/27/85 & 4/28/85), debuts at No. 25 on the chart dated Feb. 10. It’s the 59th top 40-charting set for the band, surpassing the 58 top 40s earned by both Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra

Now far be it for me to suggest that anybody make a graceful exit. I just don't want to be involved. I see nothing even remotely interesting in rehashing these worn idioms some fifty or sixty years down the road.

Die already.