Posts Tagged ‘ Soldier Field ’

Grateful Dead: July 5, 2015 Chicago – Flac/MP3/Streaming

July 13, 2015
By

Let Trey Sing
[screen shot from the livestream]

The Grateful Dead ended abruptly and without much warning when after a disastrous Summer 1995 tour, Jerry Garcia’s body finally gave out and the band decided to formally retire the name. While the public mourning for Garcia was ubiquitous and lengthy, the band itself never quite got the farewell it deserved. Twenty years later, these five “Fare Thee Well” shows reunited the remaining significant surviving members of the Grateful Dead and supplemented the band with keyboard wiz Jeff Chimenti and the guitarist who is perhaps the most deserving of the passing of the mantle from Garcia — Phish’s Trey Anastasio. While these shows certainly had ups and downs, overall the “Fare Thee Well” event was a fitting tribute to the band and ultimately a proper goodbye.

The final night in Chicago began with a furious run through “China > Rider” before an early set “Estimated” gave Trey and the band a chance to stretch out and jam. While Bob Weir’s vocals on Estimated were strangely timed, by the time the lyrics were ended and the instrumental segment began, the song kicked into gear and Anastasio switched from the Garcia heavy wah-wah tone to something more in his own style and made the closing jam his own. Bruce Hornsby did a very nice job on vocals for Garcia’s late-era mid-tempo ditty “Built To Last” before the set lost a little momentum. “Samson” was sloppy and Lesh’s vocals on a strange “Mountains of the Moon” took the air out of the building and “Throwing Stones” was not a strong set closer. The second set began with a rare repeat (Santa Clara opener) “Truckin” before the performance of what may very well be the highlight of entire group of shows — a damned near perfect rendition of “Cassidy” where every player shined and the song reached crescendos not often achieved in the late-era Grateful Dead versions of this song. Trey kept it rolling with a superb “Althea” before Lesh’s vocals again brought the momentum to a screeching halt. “Lady With a Fan” is one of Robert Hunter’s greatest set of lyrics and the phrasing and subtlety that Garcia brought to the song made it one of the Dead’s best ever. Lesh is simply not a vocalist with chops or range to carry off this song and it trudged along before Weir saved the day during the “Terrapin” segment as he brought passion and vocals abilities to the tail end of the number. Sadly, the post-drums “Days Between” did not play to Weir’s strengths and the song dragged — live at the venue people began to sit down and talk among themselves. This version of the “Days Between” — the last song Garcia ever composed — was not a fitting tribute to the fallen leader and it sapped the energy from the set. Fortunately, “Not Fade Away” brought the crowd back into the show and the expected “Touch of Grey” (with shared vocals) was indeed a fine tribute. And at the end, tears were shed and spines tingled as “Attics” closed the evening in very classy fashion and finally gave the Grateful Dead the goodbye they deserved.

This set was recorded by Bill in the same manner as the July 3 show and the July 4 show, and the quality is equally excellent. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]
Please be kind and don’t re-post the direct links.

Stream “Estimated Prophet”:

Grateful Dead
2015-07-05
Soldier Field
Chicago IL

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Taper’s Section

Busman BSC2 + AKG 480/CK61 + Sennheiser MKH-8040s > Tascam DR-680 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded by Bill Walker
Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:12:38]
01 China Cat Sunflower
02 I Know You Rider
03 Estimated Prophet
04 Built to Last
05 Samson and Delilah
06 Mountains of the Moon
07 Throwing Stones

Set 2
[Total Time 2:12:21]
08 Truckin
09 Cassidy
10 Althea
11 Terrapin Station
12 Drums-Space
13 Unbroken Chain
14 The Days Between
15 Not Fade Away
16 [encore break]
17 Touch of Grey
18 [second encore break]
19 Attics of My Life
20 [crowd – closing remarks]

If you download this show from NYCTaper, please support the band and buy anything from the plethora of available music and merch at Dead.net.

Grateful Dead: July 4, 2015 Chicago – Flac/MP3/Streaming

July 5, 2015
By

gd screenie 4
[screen cap from the live stream]

Tonight is the last official performance of the band formerly known as “The Grateful Dead”. The entity known as “NYCTaper” would almost certainly not exist in its current incarnation were it not for the Grateful Dead and the tapers who captured the shows. These fans were essentially the courageous pioneers whose persistence, imagination and sacrifice created the very idea that a rock band could have “tapers”. After years of back and forth, the band ultimately recognized the value of the tapers and created an official “taper’s section” for them to do what they do. I spent quite a few nights in the late-era version of that section and it was an orderly community with its own set of particular rules and mores. In our own way here at NYCTaper, we try to apply a similar set of rules and use the code that made the tapers so successful and apply it to today’s technology and the music world at large. Indeed, our friend Jesse Jarnow is writing a book about the early days of the Grateful Dead tapers and gave us a small sample of his work in an article published in Wired Magazine on Friday.

The community aspect of the tapers’ creed is also a large reason why these recordings are coming to NYCTaper and doing so very quickly. Our friend Bill won the “lottery” and nabbed taper tickets to each of the Chicago shows and very generously volunteered to have his recordings posted here at NYCTaper. I’ve met Bill and I’ve known him in taper circles for a while, and acidjack has spent time with Bill down in New Orleans, but this joint venture is more about a camaraderie between relative strangers bonding over a taper ideal that began back in the old days of the Grateful Dead. In a way, its our tribute the band’s last shows that we can come together to take the original idea and transform it to a 21st Century version of the old “taper’s section”.

The second of these three shows was a standard Saturday show — that is to say it was a show longer on songs and shorter on jams. A show not necessarily for the diehards, but more for the “weekend fan”. Its been a phenomena for these weekend runs in Grateful Dead lore for years. The Friday show is a high-energy party, the Saturday is a song night, and the Sunday show is a night for obscurities and jams. We’ll find out in a few hours if this final run follows the old trend. However, that’s not necessarily an indictment of this show. It certainly had its moments — a surprising spry first-set “Friend of the Devil”, the Jerry-tribute “Bird Song” to open the second set, and a wayback machine drive along “The Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion” (streaming below).

This set was recorded by Bill in the same manner as the July 3 show and the quality is equally excellent. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “The Golden Road”:

Grateful Dead
2015-07-04
Soldier Field
Chicago IL

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Taper’s Section

Busman BSC2 + AKG 480/CK61 + Sennheiser MKH-8040s > Tascam DR-680 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded by Bill Walker
Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:22:19]
01 Shakedown Street
02 Liberty
03 Standing on the Moon
04 Me and My Uncle
05 Tennessee Jed
06 Cumberland Blues
07 Little Red Rooster
08 Friend of the Devil
09 Deal

Set 2
[Total Time 2:02:16]
10 Bird Song
11 The Golden Road
12 Lost Sailor
13 Saint of Circumstance
14 West LA Fadeaway
15 Foolish Heart
16 Drums-Space
17 Stella Blue
18 One More Saturday Night
19 [encore break]
20 US Blues
21 [Fireworks]

If you download this show from NYCTaper, please support the band and buy anything from the plethora of available music and merch at Dead.net.

Grateful Dead: July 3, 2015 Chicago – Flac/MP3/Streaming

July 4, 2015
By

gd screenie 3
[screen capture from video stream]

If you follow my twitter or read my taperssection posts, you are abundantly aware that I have been brutally honest about these five “Fare Thee Well” shows. There are clear problems with this twenty-years-removed version of the “Grateful Dead” beyond the obvious absence of the band’s deceased emotional core — the tempo is way too slow, the aged players are making way too many simple mistakes, and there is no way on Earth that Phil Lesh should be permitted to sing lead vocals, particularly on Jerry Garcia’s songs. All that being said, the first two shows in Santa Clara did have some serious high points. Trey Anastasio’s lead guitar work has been thoroughly inspired and engaged and he seems completely committed to these performances. Additionally, the band’s setlist selections have been quite imaginative — perhaps the worst aspect of the late-era Garcia-led Grateful Dead was their predictable sets. These 2015 selections are both diverse and unpredictable. At the first night in Santa Clara, the threesome of primal Dead “Born Cross-Eyed”, “Cream Puff War” and “Viola Lee Blues” was my own personal highlight of last weekend and not coincidentally featured Trey on both lead vocals and extended lead guitar work.

But that was Santa Clara. These Chicago shows have a different feel from the outset. Early views of the crowd pre-show indicates a significantly more rowdy and celebratory air. As the show begins, there is definitely an East Coast/MidWest vibe and the band is pretty much into a groove from the beginning. The set begins with the song that ended the band’s last show ever, “Box of Rain”, in a nice bit of synchronicity which also shows that these guys are both aware and willing the celebrate the history. Trey is engaged throughout and actually takes the lead vocal on Bertha and is centerstage for all of Crazy Fingers. Its also nice to hear that the keyboards are right there in the mix and both Chimenti and Hornsby are playing well. The first set ends in typical fashion, but Bobby is also seemingly focused and the song is tight. A nice set, albeit with a fairly standard setlist.

The second set began with another one of those breakout numbers, the early 70’s unreleased and obscure track “Mason’s Children”. From there, it was another instance of Trey dominating the day, with a superb take on Garcia’s “Scarlet/Fire”. The early drums and space segment left much room for the “post-Drums” and the band did not disappoint. The primal “New Potato Caboose” was unfortunately a vocal lead for Lesh despite that Bob sang the song on the Anthem of the Sun album and all of the late-60’s live versions. Trey again shone during the “Help On The Way” and with his guitar throughout the entire Help/Slip/Frank suite. The band completed the night with a very sweet “Ripple” that featured a full crowd sing-along.

This show was recorded by friend of the site Bill who was in the taper’s section. He produced a 6-microphone mix that included a pair of Busman BSC2 mics, two AKG 480/CK61 mics and my Sennheiser cardioids that I sent to him especially for the occasion. The sound in the section is quite nice and this ambitious mix of microphones is indeed excellent. Enjoy!

Download the First Set [MP3] / [FLAC]

Download the Second Set [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream “Passenger”:

Grateful Dead
2015-07-03
Soldier Field
Chicago IL

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Taper’s Section

Sennheiser MKH-8040s > Tascam DR-680 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Please support this legendary band:
http://www.dead.net

Recorded by Bill Walker
Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:11:01]
01 Box of Rain
02 Jack Straw
03 Bertha
04 Passenger
05 The Wheel
06 Crazy Fingers
07 The Music Never Stopped

Set 2
[Total Time 1:53:58]
01 Mason’s Children
02 Scarlet Begonias
03 Fire On The Mountain
04 Drums-Space
05 New Potato Caboose
06 Playing In The Band
07 Let It Grow
08 Help On The Way
09 Slipknot
10 Franklin’s Tower
11 [encore break / donor request]
12 Ripple

If you download this show from NYCTaper, please support the band and buy anything from the plethora of available music and merch at Dead.net.

SUPPORT NYCTaper




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