Photo by Jeremy Williams

On Feb. 4, Following his third and final sold-out performance at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo., Billy Strings and his friends set out to Knew Conscious in Denver to continue their musical inclinations deep into the night by joining Ross James and Andy Thorn’s Electric Dead Grass.

The supergroup, which taps and celebrates the songbook of the Grateful Dead and more, is comprised of James of The Terrapin Family Band, Leftover Salmon’s Thorn, along with Circles Around The Sun’s Mark Levy and bassist for Colorado’s own The Motet, Garrett Sayer.

The quartet started the show with “Rosalie McFall” and “Pig in a Pen,” during which James and Thorn swapped vocal duties. Strings bandmates, also hot off their performance at the 6,500-person 1STBANK Center, joined Electric Dead Grass for “Jack-A-Roe,” “Catfish John,” and “Althea” before James settled the room with “Brown-Eyed Women.” Then Strings, the man of the evening, stepped on stage, firstly ripping through a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Big River.” He continued with two more masterful covers: “Sitting In Limbo,” a favorite live staple from Jerry Garcia’s solo stock, before closing his appearance with Peter Rowan/New Riders Of The Purple Sage’s “Panama Red.”

Electric Dead Grass continued their show with a non-stop jam of “Help On The Way” > “Slipknot” > “Midnight Moonlight.” They continued with “The Music Never Stopped,” which was followed by “Black Peter,” which bled into the evening’s first closer, “Throwing Stones.” After a short moment of repose Electric Dead Grass returned to the stage, with the mystic of the early Sunday morning to encore with “One More Saturday Night.”

Watch a replay of Electric Dead Grass at Knew Conscious below.