Grateful Dead's Farewell Tour (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Associated Press (ap.org) via Huffingtonpost.com

SANTA CLARA, California - The four surviving members of the Grateful Dead are launching their farewell mini-tour on Saturday [June 27, 2015, see video below] in Northern California, where the legendary jam band got its start 50 years ago [20 years after the passing of their famous Latino leader, Jerry Garcia].

 

The first of the Dead's five "Fare Thee Well" shows is scheduled to take place at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, not far from the pizzeria where a five-man blues-rock band called The Warlocks played its first gig in May 1965. The group changed its name to the Grateful Dead seven months later and shortly after moved to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, the counterculture hub with which the Dead still are identified.

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(Glenda Kuhl) "Truckin'" live June 27, 2015, Levi's Stadium

 

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They will perform a second two-set show in Santa Clara on Sunday before heading to Chicago for three shows at Soldier Field on July 3, 4, and 5. Soldier Field is where the Grateful Dead last played as a group before the death of lead guitarist-songwriter Jerry Garcia in August 1995.

The band's so-called "core four" -- rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh, and percussionists Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann -- insist July 5 will be their last concert together.

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They have recruited Phish front man Trey Anastasio as Garcia's stand-in on guitar and vocals. Keyboardists Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti, best known for his work with Weir's band RatDog, will round out the lineup.

 

Although the Dead are known almost as much for their legions of die-hard tie-died fans as they are for their extended onstage improvisations... More

Full concert: first set

(Peter Campbell) Grateful Dead with Phish's Trey Anastasio live at Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, California: First set, Saturday, June 27, 2015.

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