WEEKLY ENCORE: Your Must-Read Setlist
Here's a look at this week's top headlines.
Relix Daily
January 31, 2026
January 31, 2026
On rotation in our office and broadcasting to readers worldwide on Spotify. Stay tuned for updates every Friday, and send anything you think we have to hear to [email protected].
NEWS
Just days after the Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds Riviera Maya destination event made headlines, the Dave Matthews Band have announced their summer tour itinerary. From May 8 to Sept. 6, Matthews and his band of road warriors will deliver 35 performances across the country, culminating in his traditional Labor Day weekend residency at George, Wash.’s Gorge Amphitheatre.
NEWS
On Friday, March 6, 2026, Zakir Hussain, the renowned tabla virtuoso and percussionist who helped widen global interest in classical Indian music, will be celebrated by an esteemed list of collaborators and friends on the Ronald O. Perelman Stage in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium in New York City. The event coincides with the late musician’s 75th birthday.
WATCH
Bob Weir: In Memory YouTube Playlist
Bob Weir: In Memory is a tribute playlist highlighting iconic performances and rare moments from Relix’s archives. Celebrating a founding voice of the Grateful Dead and a lifelong musical explorer, this collection honors a legacy that continues to resonate across generations.
Send a message with style, and a nod to the Dead. These officially licensed Grateful Dead greeting card sets feature a vibrant Skull & Roses border design created by Charleston-based artist Lia Burke Libaire. Inspired by classic Grateful Dead iconography, each card showcases red roses, Steal Your Face icons, and Bertha herself along the edges, leaving the center blank for your personalized note. Whether you're writing to a fellow Deadhead or just want to add a touch of classic rock art to your correspondence, these cards are perfect for any occasion.
RECAP
On Thursday, Phish returned to the waterfront stage at Moon Palace Cancún to greet their fans for night two of their Riviera Maya 2026 residency. While the four-decade jam pioneers set a high bar with their series kickoff, which included two unexpected track revivals and a live debut, they stuck to the standard by sharing more new material during their follow-up.
A 74-page zine featuring Adrian Boot’s rarely seen photographs of the Grateful Dead’s legendary 1978 trip to Egypt. This first issue in our new series offers an exciting look at the band’s historic performances and adventures at the foot of the Great Pyramids.
FEATURE
The members of Taper’s Choice have taken to calling their project a “subversive jamband,” which feels like an appropriate way to describe their approach. Though the four members of the five-year-old group all came of age in New York and New Jersey, in the shadow of the jamband scene, they each initially made a name for themselves on the indie-rock circuit. Guitarist and in-house producer Dave Harrington is best known for his work in the psychedelic-electronic project Darkside and as a journeyman musician on the Downtown New York experimental music scene; bassist and singer Alex Bleeker co-founded the jangly indie-pop group Real Estate with his high-school friends and leads a more freak-folk-inspired group under his own name. Drummer and singer Chris Tomson put together world-inspired “big indie” group Vampire Weekend with his friends at Columbia and worked with The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney on a solo release between VW LPs. And keyboardist Zach Tenorio blurs the times between indie and pop with his Providence, R.I.-bred group Arc Iris and has worked with a range of big-name acts, most recently helping shape Willow Smith’s 2024 set, Empathogen.
NEWS
Billy Strings has confirmed a series of live shows that will serve as his official Summer Tour. The quick-picking golden boy has signed off on the venues associated with his 12-night run, after previously teasing fans with a journal-style presentation of details that suggested the cities and dates he would hit when the days grow longer and grass is bleached by the sun. Billy Strings’ Summer Tour begins on July 14 at the Berglund Center in Roanoke, Va.
FEATURE
Brian Weitz’s life almost went in an entirely different direction. Just over 20 years ago, the Baltimore-bred musician was pursuing a career in environmental policy in Washington, D.C., with a particular focus on the intersection of ocean policy and climate change. When his fellowship ended, Weitz decided to temporarily live out a childhood dream touring and recording with his high school friends David Portner, better known as Avey Tare, and Noah Lennox, who releases music as Panda Bear. The experimental combo they had started a few years earlier, Animal Collective, had started to gain some traction and grown to include Weitz on samplers and electronics as well as another old friend from Baltimore, Josh “Deakin” Dibb. Things took off from there and, instead of returning to government work, Weitz, under the moniker Geologist, has spent the past two decades releasing a mix of LPs, soundtracks and creative visual projects with his old friends.
NEWS
Bruce Springsteen has released “Streets of Minneapolis,” a new protest song responding to Trump’s militarized occupation of Minnesota. Springteen has long used his music to address cultural crises, and his latest offering explicitly denounces the hypocrisy and murderous impunity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol agents’ assault on communities in and around the Twin Cities. The artist was stirred to action after the execution of Alex Pretti on a residential street on Saturday, and the song memorializes both Pretti and Renee Good.