Last night, April 27, Billy & the Kids performed at the Saenger Performing Arts Theater in New Orleans. The performance led by the Grateful Dead’s drummer Bill Kreutzmann–marking his first since his announcement that he would not be performing with Dead & Company this summer–featured joyous and free interpretations by Tom Hamilton, Aron Magner, Reed Mathis, James Casey, Molly Tuttle, George Porter Jr., Jeff Franca and Wally Ingram.

The band kicked off their first set with a cover of The Cars’ “Let the Good Times Roll,” followed by classic Grateful Dead tunes “Truckin'” and “Scarlet Begonias.” Next up, the band invited legendary bassist George Porter Jr. to join them on stage for a lively rendition of his own catalog: The Meters’ “Fire on the Bayou” before they dipped into Jerry Garcia’s “Sugaree.” The first set continued with Billy & the Kids performing “China Doll,” before more contemporary material in the form of Harry Styles’ “Sunflower, Vol. 6,” and before another Garcia composition, “Bird Song.” The set concluded with “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue.”

For their second set, the band began with a tribute to The Beatles with a cover of “Get Back.” They followed this with a trio of Grateful Dead favorites: “Help on the Way,” “Slipknot!,” and “Eyes of the World.” The band then slowed things down with a beautiful performance of “Standing on the Moon” before picking things back up with a rollicking cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Dead Flowers.”

Billy & the Kids continued with “Franklin’s Tower,” another Grateful Dead classic, before slowing things down again with Bob Dylan’s iconic “Forever Young.” The band then performed a cover of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” before diving into a jam session for the “Drums” segment of the set. After the jam they concluded their set with a lively performance of the ever uniting traditional “Iko Iko,” beautifully uniting the group for one last track which was on full display throughout the night.

Watch a clip of Kreutzmann chatting about the joy of playing with Billy & the Kids and a clip of performance via nugs.net below.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Bill Kreutzmann (@billkreutzmann)

Billy & the Kids
Saenger Performing Arts Theater – New Orleans
April 27, 2023

Set I: Let the Good Times Roll (The Cars cover) (>) Truckin’ (Grateful Dead cover) (>) Scarlet Begonias (Grateful Dead cover), Fire on the Bayou (The Meters cover) (with George Porter, Jr.), Sugaree (Jerry Garcia cover) (with George Porter, Jr.), China Doll (Grateful Dead cover) Sunflower, Vol. 6 (Harry Styles cover) (>) Bird Song (Jerry Garcia cover), White Rabbit (Jefferson Airplane cover), Tangled Up in Blue (Bob Dylan cover)

Set II: Get Back (The Beatles cover) (>) Help on the Way (Grateful Dead cover) (>) Slipknot! (Grateful Dead cover) (>) Eyes of the World (Grateful Dead cover) (>) Standing on the Moon (Grateful Dead cover), Dead Flowers (The Rolling Stones cover), Franklin’s Tower (Grateful Dead cover), Forever Young (Bob Dylan cover), Take Me to the River (Al Green cover) (>) Drums (Grateful Dead cover) (>) Iko Iko ([traditional] cover)