Grateful Dead live for the last time
WHEN Jerry Garcia died on August 9, 1995, the flagpole at city hall in San Francisco carried a tie-dyed Grateful Dead flag at half-mast. Not every musician gets such civic acknowledgement, but Garcia and his Grateful Dead band ain’t ordinary musicians. They’ve left a huge footprint on music and on North American culture, since springing from San Francisco’s hippie neighbourhood, Haight-Ashbury, 50 years ago.
The band’s surviving members will play their final live concert at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Sunday night, 20 years after Garcia’s last gig with them at the same venue. It will be screened in Irish cinemas. Phish’s singer and guitarist, Trey Anastasio, will step in for Garcia. The band are also joined by Bruce Hornsby, who began playing live with them in 1988, and Jeff Cheminti, a member of post-Dead bands, The Dead, and Further.
