Thursday night’s second set came storming out of the gate. St. Steve opened and segued into Scarlet Begonias, which (in a break from tradition) dropped into Franklin’s Tower. Julia’s favorite pairing of Dear Mr. Fantasy > Hey Jude followed, then the reality-warping Drums & Space. The dome went dark before the unmistakable opening bass notes of Fire on the Mountain rang out, cueing a flyover of snow-capped mountains painted by sunset. Then, one little 60-foot-tall dancing bear interrupted the serenity, marching along the horizon. And then, that one bear split into three, and then seven, until an entire technicolor troop of bears wrapped around the whole room. That’s when Sphere *really* showed you what it was capable of—the sky opened up, turning into an unbelievable black hole of fluorescent psychedelia that sent parading bears and peace signs and skulls and terrapins and flying eyeballs cascading down.
The phrase “jaw-dropping” often gets used when discussing Sphere and its visuals, but there’s no way to put it. It is utterly jaw-dropping. I was lucky enough to attend a weekend of shows back in June, and on the morning of the final show, I got an email that my sketch for a future show had been approved. My initial concept featured three magicians against a simple bullseye background, but after seeing the shows, I bottled that inspiration and flew off the rails. Constructing the background felt like trying to crack a code—running through every color combo and placement to determine what worked best. If you swipe through, you can see the progression and the framework I created for the background; I trusted the process without knowing where it would lead… and it led me right back to the Mountain.
So, at long last, I am proud to present my contribution to Dead & Company’s final weekend at the Sphere. These 24x36 fellas will be on sale throughout the weekend, and I’ll have APs dropping on Monday at noon. Thanks a million to Lady Lazarus for the knockout printing, and the Collectionzz crew for having me on board for this insane series of posters. It’s the highest honor to be included among such talented artists.
DEAD 4EVER