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Written by: Matthew McGuire
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Hop on the bus and ride into summer with the Grateful Dead for their 5oth anniversary and final set of shows. Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir will reunite at Chicago’s Soldier Field, nearly 20 years to the day from the last Grateful Dead concert, which took place at the same venue. “Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of Grateful Dead” will occur over three nights on July 3, 4, and 5, 2015, in Chicago, Illinois marking the original members’ last-ever performance together.

The band will be joined by Trey Anastasio (guitar), Jeff Chimenti (keyboards), and Bruce Hornsby (piano).

The group will perform two sets of music each night. In the tradition of the original Grateful Dead Ticketing Mail Order, tickets will first be made available via a first-come, first-served mail order system.

Additional details & tickets at: http://www.Dead50.net.

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Please note: Grateful Dead Ticketing Mail Order, tickets will first be made available via a first-come, first-served mail order system.

This venue is considerable large, but the Dead community will most likely want to see these sets of shows a little more then another other set of concerts. It will be the last time that this lineup will ever play again, and as a Dead fan, I am excited to hear what happens on stage.

If I were I betting person, I would put money down that there is a long list of musicians that have performed with the Dead in the past, and will be leveraging to joining the band live on stage. The surprise guests in combination with two sets of Dead music will be an excellent way to rejoice on the 4th in Chicago.

Billboard broke the news early Friday, and spoke with Anastasio, Lesh, Kreutzmann, Hart and Weir on the reunion/farewell shows. The outlet also noted the in connection with the band’s 50th anniversary next year, the band have announced plans for a documentary executive produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by Amir Bar-Lev.

This is exciting for me as a film viewer, and a Bar-Lev fan, after seeing ‘Happy Valley’. The combination of his work with Scorsese will be nothing less then the magic that the Grateful Dead has provided us over all the years.

Weir talked about how Trey would fit in with the band on stage.

Weir: “Trey is schooled in what we call ‘the fluid tonic’: listening intently to what’s going on and reacting meaningfully to what other people are playing.”

Watch and stream the latest from the Dead community. Connect with the Grateful Dead YouTube Channel.

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Listen in on a classic discussion with Bob Weir and Steve Parish on the historic Cornell show and many other amusing stories from the past in connection to the band’s upcoming show to celebrate the July 4th.

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 Moments

Over my lifetime the members of the Grateful Dead have generated a lot of moments that I not only will never forget, but look at as some of the energizing moments of my life. In 2002, there was Bonnaroo, and all the talk of the festival was Phil and Bobby playing together.

On a serious note about Bonnaroo 2002 & 2003 in connection to the Grateful Dead/Phil & Bobby headlining the event. Those are the all time famed sets of music festivals. And I am so happy to have seen both sets. The crowd at both of those events were truly spectacular. It will be interesting to see how Billy Joel and the Mumford and Sons crowd compares to a Dead head crowd.

Now, if you are an older Dead head, you might be thinking, this millennial kid doesn’t know about the tour runs back in the 60s and 70s. This is true, I was not alive. This is my point of view on how I first saw the band perform live, and the experiences I had during the shows.

In 2013, I was able to cover the All Good Music Festival in Ohio with Furthur performing live. It was a thrill to be able to give back to a community that they have helped build.

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