My Morning Jacket Wraps Fillmore Residency With Grateful Dead Tribute
My Morning Jacket closed a seven-night residency at San Francisco's Fillmore, with each concert assigned a different rainbow color and no repeated songs on back-to-back nights. Jim James said he has been in a deep Grateful Dead period, and the run paid tribute to the Dead's ties to the band, venue, and city. The residency included guest Karina Rykman and used both subtle and direct references to honor the Grateful Dead.
My Morning Jacket’s seven-night Fillmore stand was announced seven months earlier with rainbow artwork. Each night matched one rainbow color, and consecutive concerts avoided repeated songs. Keyboardist Bo Koster said Jim James chose Grateful Dead material he felt emotionally tied to, aiming to honor San Francisco’s cultural history with one Dead song per show.
The run also included Sly Stone’s “Everyday People” and “Thank You,” Marvin Gaye’s “Baby Don’t You Do It,” and covers by Dolly Parton, Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, and AC/DC. Guest Karina Rykman appeared, and on Green Night MMJ played “Scarlet Begonias,” then followed with “Fire on the Mountain,” echoing the Dead’s usual pairing.
This residency may strengthen interest in legacy acts and city-specific concert experiences, drawing Dead fans, MMJ followers, and Bay Area music tourists to the Fillmore. Such themed, color-coded runs could encourage other artists to treat venues as historical collaborators rather than neutral stages. For audiences, it may deepen appreciation for the Grateful Dead’s San Francisco roots and for cross-generational live collaboration, though its broader cultural reach likely remains concentrated among devoted rock and jam-band listeners.