This July 4th weekend marks the fifth anniversary of the greatest “final act” (with all due respect to The Last Waltz) in rock history when the surviving members of the Grateful Dead celebrated the iconic band’s 50th anniversary at Soldier Field in Chicago with a trio of concerts officially titled: “Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead.”
This historic musical trifecta – which fittingly took place during the July 4th holiday weekend and almost 20 years to the day from the final Grateful Dead concert with Jerry Garcia at the same venue – featured a lineup consisting of original members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh & Bill Kreutzmann, as well as long-time percussionist Mickey Hart. The core four were augmented by Jeff Chimenti & Bruce Hornsby on keyboards and piano, respectively, while Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio took on the formidable challenge of having to essentially fill the lead role of Garcia, who passed away in 1995.
As the looming anniversary slowly approached, band management was inundated with formal offers for potential concert & event ideas. Representatives from the Bonnaroo, Outside Lands and Coachella festivals all pitched their multi-million-dollar schemes in hopes of enticing the group into choosing their venues. Even Dick Clark Productions (yes, the same guy who hosted American Bandstand) submitted their plans for a celebratory made-for-network television-extravaganza to be held in Golden Gate Park featuring an all-star cast with the likes of Lady Gaga & Carlos Santana. Seriously. Ultimately, the burden fell upon rock promoter – and lifelong Deadhead – Peter Shapiro to do the yeoman’s work in pulling everything together and making this event a reality.
To say Mr. Shapiro was successful in his endeavors would be a tremendous understatement. What started as a somewhat far-fetched idea of playing just a single show in Chicago rapidly evolved into a three-night affair that would go on to shatter pretty much every sales record in the North American concert industry. When tickets finally went on sale to the general public, there were over a half-million people waiting in online queues to purchase them, and the total allotment of 200,000 tickets sold out in less than an hour, marking the biggest single-day rock concert sale in Ticketmaster history. The trio of concerts ultimately grossed over $50 million and the total attendance was over 362,000, both records for U.S. concert sales and Soldier Field, respectively. Even the pay-per-view broadcast set a record with over 175,000 subscribers. The staggering response & subsequent demand took everyone by surprise, including band members, who eventually agreed to schedule two additional “warm-up” shows the weekend prior at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA.
By the time the July 4th weekend rolled around, Chicago essentially had been transformed into a Deadhead mecca. Bars & restaurants everywhere put out signs welcoming Deadheads and hotel employees were donned in their favorite Dead t-shirts. Local breweries were touting their latest cleverly named drafts – “American Beauty Ale” – and even the historically stuffy Palmer House was offering patrons a “Deadhead” cocktail (a pricey – yet delicious – mix of vodka, rum, tequila & gin.)
Musically speaking, the Chicago shows were pretty uneven, particularly the first two nights, though that was somewhat to be expected for a group that had only rehearsed as a full unit just a handful of times prior. However, the moments that they were “on” proved to be vessels of pure bliss and immediately reminded the hundreds of thousands following along in person and at home why they fell in love with the Grateful Dead in the first place.
Anastasio, while somewhat tepid in his approach during the Santa Clara shows, seemingly gained confidence with each passing note in Chicago. This was especially evident by the final evening when the guitarist led the band through cherished Dead numbers like “Althea” with the same assurance and élan that he conveys when performing with his own ensembles. Messrs. Hornsby & Chimenti, while criminally low in the sound mix throughout the weekend, still managed to pay a fitting tribute to all of the Dead’s previous keyboardists – Vince Welnick, Brent Mydland, Keith Godchaux, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and even Tom Constanten – by providing their unique twin-style of psychedelic melodic texturing underneath of Anastasio’s searing leads & Weir’s undulating rhythmic comps. Meanwhile, the core four themselves clearly rose to the occasion and played with as much passion and conviction as any of them ever have, particularly Bob Weir, who delivered one of the most emotional performances of his storied career, especially on songs like the somber Garcia/Hunter gem “Days Between.”
While these shows may have marked the final time the four surviving members will ever perform in public, nearly all of the musicians involved in Fare Thee Well have stayed busy in their own right. Both Hornsby & Anastasio have continued on with their own incredibly successful groups, while Messrs. Weir, Kreutzmann, Hart & Chimenti went on to form the remarkably popular Dead & Company later that year. The lone exception has been Phil Lesh who has stayed relatively quiet, playing mostly sporadic shows at his hometown restaurant/venue Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael.
Though the tickets, programs, and countless pieces of concert memorabilia may don the “Fare Thee Well” moniker, those of us who were fortunate enough to be in attendance throughout this magical weekend – this author included – are not subject to any confusion as to what transpired over the course of those three days. Make no mistake about it. This was, for the final time ever, The Grateful Dead.
Join us as Glide takes a look back at 10 of the best moments from Chicago:
“Box of Rain”: If ever there was an appropriate opener to kick off this historic weekend, the Lesh/Hunter masterpiece “Box of Rain” masterfully fit the bill. In addition to the poignant and relevant lyrics – “such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there” – this song was the last tune ever performed live by Jerry Garcia during the Dead’s final show at Soldier Field on July 9th, 1995.
“Help on the Way / Slipknot! / Franklin’s Tower”: This always welcome trio was offered up as the second set closer on Friday night. The musical triptych begins with Anastasio handling lead vocals on “Help” before leading the band through the dissonant instrumental piece “Slipknot!.” Lesh takes over lead vocal duties for a bouncy romp through the fan-favorite three-chord special “Franklin’s” to bring the opening evening to a triumphant close.
“Standing on the Moon”: Among the more touching moments of the weekend was Trey’s beautiful interpretation of this late-era Garcia/Hunter love song. The guitarist’s moving rendition featured the same emotional vocal climax that Garcia delivered towards the end of the song in which the narrator desperately vows “I’d rather be with you”, and even elicited a heartfelt bear-hug from Lesh at the song’s conclusion.
“The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)”: “The Golden Road” has always been something of a conundrum in the Grateful Dead world. While it was undoubtedly well-known among Deadheads – as the opening track on the wildly popular compilation album Skeletons from the Closet, “Golden Road” was the first Grateful Dead song many young fans ever heard throughout the 70’s & 80’s – it was also among the rarest of songs in terms of live performances, with only four known outings in 1967 before being permanently shelved. This energetic version again features Anastasio & Hornsby sharing lead vocal duties en route to a psychedelic jam that would eventually dissolve into “Lost Sailor.”
“Althea”: Arguably one of the strongest performances from Anastasio from the entire weekend, the guitarist sounded as if this song has been in his repertoire for decades. One only had to look at Trey’s near-giddy body language while delivering the infamous “You know this place is getting hot” line during the bridge to get an idea of just how much this experience meant to him.
“Days Between”: Another emotional highlight, Weir delivers a remarkably impassioned vocal performance atop of some dramatic use of the Hammond B-3 from Chimenti during what was ultimately the final song written by Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia, in 1993.
“Bertha”: This rollicking rocker, written in 1971 as an ode to a temperamental electric fan in the band’s offices, was handled masterfully by Anastasio – after all, “Bertha” was one of a handful of Dead tunes Phish used to cover during their primordial years – and reaches some nice peaks, particularly during the final verse.
“Not Fade Away”: A fitting closer to the weekend’s final set, this call-and-response Deadhead special ended with a spine-tingling moment in which the 70,000-strong crowd chanted “You know our love will not fade away!” in unison throughout the entire encore break and then, without missing a beat, resumed it after the lights went up and the masses poured out into the typically sultry Chicago summer evening.
“Let Trey Sing”/ ”Touch of Grey”: Prior to the final night’s first encore, Weir came back on stage sporting a brand-new t-shirt with a simple message: “LET TREY SING”, before launching into a faithful rendition of the Dead’s lone top-ten hit. Naturally, Weir’s very tongue-in-cheek threads have since become a hot item in lot-inspired fashion shows across the country.
“Attics of my Life”: Easily one of the most tear-jerking moments of the entire weekend, Lesh had decided this would be the final song played as soon as he signed on to perform the previous winter. Utilizing an incredibly moving video montage featuring all past & present members of the Dead’s extended family that simultaneously played on the enormous screens above the band, this version admittedly started off a bit rough, but all five vocalists soon found their respective ranges and ultimately delivered a beautiful rendition to bring this historic weekend to an appropriately emotional end.
