Founders of the iconic American rock band Grateful Dead, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, have announced a three-city, six-show tour next March – the first of its kind . The tour is promoted by Brooklyn Bowl founder Peter Shapiro, who also promoted the band’s 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well tour with members Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart.
The duo played together, sans a backing band, in a headlining set at Shapiro’s Lockn’ Festival in Arrington, Virginia this past August, which went so well, they say, that it inspired this mini-tour. The pair promise both acoustic and electric sets featuring reworked versions of classic Dead songs and solo tracks.
“We’re going to play everything we can think of,” Lesh tells Billboard. “We’’re going to do his stuff, we’re going to do my stuff, we’re going to play Jerry’s stuff, we’ll do Grateful Dead stuff and we’ll do covers. We’re going to try and play everything we’ve ever played together and maybe some new stuff too.”
After over 5 decades of making music together, Phil Lesh and I are hitting the road to perform as a duo for the first time ever!
To ensure you get tickets in your hands directly, Verified Fan Registration is available starting now. Register here: https://t.co/ZnQb7TVW2W pic.twitter.com/8zQg8HE99P
— Bobby Weir (@BobWeir) December 11, 2017
“I think it will be more stimulating than the recent performances we’ve done together.” Lesh adds. “It’s just easier to hear and easier to respond to Bob when it’s just us two. It heightens the focus on the totality of the music. It becomes an unconscious mental state — just Bobby and I up there reacting to each other and exploring our musical boundaries.”
The ‘Bobby and Phil Duo Tour’ will kick off in New York with two shows at Radio City Music Hall on March 2 & 3, travel to Boston’s Wang Theatre on March 7 & 8, and wrap up on March 10 & 11 at the Chicago Theatre. The tour will take place just after the recently rescheduled shows with Dead and Company, another Grateful Dead offshoot with John Mayer, who was hospitalized last week for an emergency appendectomy. The cancelled shows in New Orleans and Florida were rescheduled to February 24, 26 & 27.
Grateful Dead fans can register for a chance to score presale tickets through Verified Fan; tickets will go on sale Thursday, December 14 at 10 AM.
