[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]
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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.