Cali One-Off

This show invites curiosity by virtue of being the band’s debut in the Golden State. The Dogs had spent most of the month in Colorado for a massive residency before making the 17-hour trek out west. That’s a long trip for a one-off festival booking—they’d be back in the state for six shows in June and four in November (the latter thanks to PPPP)—but it precedes a much-needed two-week break from the band’s insane ‘23 touring schedule. They went on to pick out Cali for their base of operations for the ‘24 residency.

Skull & Roses is an annual Dead-themed fest based out of the Ventura County Fairgrounds in SoCal, just north of Los Angeles. This iteration featured quite the lineup: DSO, Oteil & Friends, Leftover Salmon, Melvin Seals, Circles, and 2 nights of Phil & Friends. The Dogs were billed 16th on the flyer, and played the penultimate afternoon of the four-day festival from the outdoor stage. A year after this show, I met two CO heads who caught the Dogs at this shindig, having no clue that the band had just played 10 nights on their home turf! It’s too bad they missed out on the residency—this show isn’t nearly as exciting as the preceding dates. It’s mostly hangs around “below average” territory, but still worth checking out for the final sequence. The full set was live-streamed on Fans.Live, but the VOD does not circulate.

One Set. The band opens with a truncated Watchtower jam, finishing off the work done by Brown Eyed Women—a Dead cover band made up of talented gals from the East Coast, including a bassist from the Dogs' home turf. The playing on this one lasts less than a minute, so it’s hard to quantify this as a proper jam. Brian swaps “the Dogs are back in town” with “Phil is back in town” in Can’t Wait before pulling out “Jerry on the road” instead of Huey (a nod to both the festival’s Dead roots and the lyric change on 4/5). Bucket is the first of two Dead tunes in the set—it’s the best standalone iteration yet, but I find myself more drawn to the Charlie sandwich from two shows back). There’s a dead stop after Ugly Song before Look Johnny. The next two tunes are the weakest in the set, but the band recovers from a mediocre Fenway with multiple climaxes in Let It Grow and Charlie—to date it’s the only time the former has been performed in consecutive shows. The latter is hotter than soup, and includes nearly twenty minutes of music with three peaks in the jam.

 

One Set: 4/10 

Overall: 2 stars

 

Highlights:

Let It Grow>Charlie - redeems a relatively weak set

 

Sources: The soundboard has you covered. A fan recording of Let It Grow is on YouTube, but the full show video isn’t available at the time of writing.