The Grateful Dead’s Final Tour?

By Jeremy Bednarsh

Don’t tell any of my fellow Phish fans, but when it comes to jam bands, it’s hard to beat the Grateful Dead. While their music has changed since Jerry Garcia died, they’re still going strong, although this marks what’s supposed to be their very last tour. The four surviving members of the band, joined by a trio of companions, launched their “Fare Thee Well” mini-tour in Santa Clara this past Saturday, where they got their start some 50 years ago.

During a performance that featured over 3 ½ hours of music, the Dead’s “core four” - bassist Phil Lesh, rhythm guitarist Bob Weir and percussionists Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart - let loose a set list filled with both crowd-pleasers and more obscure pieces from their earlier years. With familiar renditions of such songs as “Truckin’” and “Uncle John’s Band”, the band got the 80,000-person crowd into a good groove, followed by such songs as “Cumberland Blues”, “Born Cross-Eyed” and a 20-minute-long rendition of “Viola Lee Blues”. The latter song gave Phish’s own Trey Anastasio, who has been replacing the late Jerry Garcia, his first great challenge on solo. As “Viola Lee” ended, a rainbow showed up across the sky, serving as a symbolic sort of “smile from beyond”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaemGFgNLBo

The audience, ranging from millennials who were mere babies when Garcia died to aging hippies, were grateful to be there. The parking lot around Levi’s Stadium didn’t look as much like the traditional Grateful Dead parking lots, and was littered with fewer vendors selling glass pipes, tie-dyed T-shirts and jewelry than before, but the spirit was still there. The second half of Saturday’s show started off slow as the reunion band struggled to find its footing. The energy started to rebuild after they tackled the iconic “St. Stephen”, where Anastasio hined. And per tradition, Hart and Kreutzmann were able to re-engage the audience with “Space”, an improvised percussive interplay accompanied by rhythmic psychedelic graphics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFdJ-ghGaBA

The Grateful Dead played a second show yesterday, and are now on their way to Chicago, where they’re scheduled to play three shows at Soldier Field on July 3rd, 4th and 5th, the same location where they last played before Garcia’s untimely death at the age of 53. Even though the original band members say that July 5th will be the last time they perform together, each member has their own musical project, and have teamed up as pairs for certain gigs. While this might be the “end”, the community around the Grateful Dead is too strong for the culture surrounding this iconic band to simply die.