The Dead

[Drunk Monk]

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Drunk MonkLater we spotted a dude climbing on top of the windmill. As I pointed at him, he began climbing down, so I acted like it was some sort of force push i was projecting. Most laughed but some of the noobs might’ve believed me at that point. Keeping that legend alive.
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Deadhead scales Golden Gate Park windmill during Dead finale

SFGATE travel editor Silas Valentino follows a Grateful Dead truism by not missing the last show of the weekend

Dead & Company perform in Golden Gate Park during Grateful Dead 60 on Aug. 3, 2025.
Alive Coverage
By Silas Valentino, Travel EditorAug 4, 2025
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A baby boomer-aged Deadhead turns to his friend to share a joke as they shuffle past security into the Dead & Company concert on Sunday in Golden Gate Park. “What did the old man and the old Deadhead say to each other?” he begins the setup. “The old man says, ‘Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.’ And the Deadhead replies, ‘Help, I’m tripping and I can’t come down!’”

The atmosphere for the Dead’s final show of the weekend was as buoyant as a fattie balloon wafting over the Polo Field, where a melange of tie-dye shirts and some white men in dreadlocks found space on the grass for one final bash before facing the inevitable comedown: a Monday morning. 
The three-day concert series commemorated 60 years of the Grateful Dead — dubbed “GD60” — who launched their global genre, brand and lifestyle from a house on Ashbury Street a few miles from the stage. Only one member of the original lineup remains, guitarist and singer Bob Weir, who resurrected the band as Dead & Company in 2015 with longtime percussionist Mickey Hart. John Mayer, filling Jerry Garcia’s sandals, rounds out the sound and keeps the band on track. 

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For GD60, a consensus among fans was that they got off on a slow foot Friday night, even though bluegrass superstar Billy Strings opened with rapt energy. Saturday’s set with Sturgill Simpson opening earned much higher praise. Joshua Malan from Sonoma, who told SFGATE he’s seen the Dead nearly 100 times in all their variations, said Saturday was a knockout.
“In all my experiences, it was a top five show,” he said.
About 15 hours later, Malan was back on the polo field with about 60,000 other fans abiding by a certain credo held among Deadheads. “Never miss a Sunday show!” an attendee named Mark Bowers said near the water refill station as the crowd started to fill the field in the early afternoon. 
Among Deadheads and jam band fans in general, the third and final day of the weekend run is a sacred event. Some argue it’s when the band performs at their best, having loosened up over the previous two nights, while others speculate that the Dead reward fans willing to embrace a hungover Monday with a specially curated set list.
“It’s the lore,” said Rob and Jeannie Toutkoushian from Georgia. “It’s when they bust out the best songs.”
Others held a more sentimental perspective. “It was the last day of Jerry,” John Wiggle said.
This Deadhead wisdom may be scientifically proven. A couple of years ago, a fan utilized data science to explore the popularity of Grateful Dead shows by weekday for every year the band performed. The analysis found that recordings of Sunday shows had the highest average downloads of any day. 

To cap off GD60, Trey Anastasio Band commenced the Sunday show. It was a special event in and of itself, since the Phish frontman performed with the Dead during their Fare Thee Well run a decade ago. 
Anastasio appeared with gratitude, genuinely thanking the crowd for this chance to play. Supported by a brass horn section that evoked a New Orleans procession, Anastasio’s band weaved in a couple of Phish covers before the guitarist paused to address the audience. 
He said he first saw the Dead in 1981 at the New Haven Coliseum and “fell in love with all of it.” Anastasio dedicated the next song to the bygone Dead frontman, covering “Mission in the Rain” by the Jerry Garcia Band. Anastasio played the somber and reflective cut with reverence, capturing the San Francisco neighborhood on a misty midnight stroll. 
The cover felt all the more relevant since the city of San Francisco commemoratedGarcia’s childhood street on Friday. Harrington Street in the Excelsior is now also known as Jerry Garcia Street.

The Jerry Garcia Street sign is shown after its unveiling in San Francisco, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025.
Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
By 6:30 p.m., Dead & Co. appeared for a 17-song set that would have to meet the 10 p.m. curfew. They opened with a breezy cover of “Good Times” by Sam Cooke that ended with a short a capella between Weir and Mayer. “We’re going to stay here till we soothe our souls,” they sang, as if it was a promise to the barefoot and bewildered beyond the stage. 
They swiftly backed up their claim by moving into a one-two punch with “China Cat Sunflower” and “I Know You Rider,” forever entwined since they appear side-by-side on the band’s seminal album “Europe ’72.” Weir’s sharp guitar notes laid the groundwork for Mayer to blast off, who worked the tight end of his fretboard with gentle ease. A major part of Dead & Co. is Mayer’s noodling. His solos are the cohesion that tether these decades-old songs together and fasten them to the present. 
However, Mayer’s inclusion is still sometimes debated among Deadheads. The self-professed purveyor of “Sob Rock” seemed like an unusual choice, but his dexterity and respect for the elders has won over fans since 2015. It’s been a gradual softening of the “Dead and Bro” image he brought to the band. 
When Dead & Co. last played San Francisco in summer 2023, Mayer seemed to secure his place in many Deadhead hearts with an enrapturing rendition of “Althea” that helped listeners hear past his long history of sexist, racist and immature public comments. 

Trey Anastasio joins Dead & Company in Golden Gate Park during Grateful Dead 60 on Aug. 3, 2025.
Following their mid-set break, Dead & Co. returned with Anastasio onboard to play “Scarlet Begonias” and “Fire on the Mountain” for nearly 30 consecutive minutes. It was a moment fit for a Sunday, with Weir flanked by Mayer and Anastasio. 
The two guitarists are heralded as some of the finest players alive. As the song drifted into a mid-tempo jam, Weir took a step back to let Anastasio and Mayer feed off each other. They locked in their bluesy licks and occasionally tilted their guitars in the air like an orchestra conductor leading the charge. Both players deployed exuberant facial expressions to complement the wailing; Mayer buttoned his lips, crinkled his face while Anastasio blankly stared back at him, mouth slightly ajar, as their fingers found every note.
When Deadheads opine that you can never miss a Sunday show, moments like this affirm their position. 
As the set wound down, another memorable moment came during “Sugaree” when a fan in dreadlocks and wavy clothes scaled the windmill in the middle of the Polo Field. As the band jammed on, the Deadhead threw his arms into the air with his dreads billowing in the wind. From the crowd, someone cried out, “It’s a wook on the windmill!”
One of the last songs of the evening was “Standing on the Moon,” which Weir sang solo without support. The 77-year-old wore his signature sandals and a dark cloak over jeans. At times, it sounded as though he was forcing out the words, gasping to keep up with the mild tempo. But nobody seemed to mind the haggard vocals as listeners clung to every lyric, especially in the middle when Weir sang: “But I would rather be with you/Somewhere in San Francisco/On a back porch in July/Just looking up at heaven/At this crescent in the sky.”
At that moment, numerous Deadheads jolted their attention to the left of the stage, where a half-lit moon hung south of the city. It was a celestial happenstance that’s typical for a Dead show, and among the many reasons that lure fans back, 60 years and counting.
“Who knows how much longer these guys will have,” said David Khine of Redwood City during the afternoon. “If they’re going to give us music, we’re going to come for it.”