Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead
Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead was a series of concerts that were performed by most of the surviving members of the Grateful Dead: Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, joined by Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead. The performances took place at Santa Clara's Levi Stadium on June 27 and 28, 2015 and Chicago's Soldier Field on July 3, 4 and 5, 2015. These performances marked the first time Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann and Hart had performed together since the Dead's 2009 tour and was publicized as the final time the musicians would all perform together.[2]
Location
with
Simulcasts[edit]
Due to the high demand for tickets to these concerts they were simulcast on large screens at multiple movie theaters and concert venues in the United States as well as made available live, for a fee, on YouTube and various pay per view services.[10] Satellite radio service Sirius played the concerts, with a slight delay, on their Grateful Dead channel.[11] The concerts were also simulcasted at movie theaters in the United States.[12] The pay-per-view set a new record for a music event with more than 400,000 subscriptions, surpassing a 1999 simulcast by the Backstreet Boys which drew 160,000 subscriptions.[13]
Use of the "Grateful Dead" name[edit]
Since the initial announcement of these three (and later five) concerts, there has been much debate among fans as to the name of the band playing these concerts. Most media outlets, including Rolling Stone, and Ticketmaster have referred to these concerts as being performed by the Grateful Dead. However, the event's website and band member Bob Weir have only referred to the event as "Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead" (this is also the name printed on the tickets).[16] This means that the band technically had no name, although it could be considered another version of The Dead, which is the name Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann and Hart had sporadically performed with since the Grateful Dead's 1995 disbandment.[17] It is also referred to as The Dead on the taper's archive site Relisten. [18] The band has also been called simply "Fare Thee Well", e.g. on The Grateful Dead Channel and music trading site etree.[19]
Over the course of the five shows 81 different songs were performed, not including "Drums" and "Space," which were played all five nights. Only two other songs, "Truckin'" and "Cumberland Blues," were repeated.
June 27 – Santa Clara, California
June 28 – Santa Clara, California
July 3 – Chicago, Illinois
July 4 – Chicago, Illinois
July 5 – Chicago, Illinois
The Chicago "Fare Thee Well" concerts were released as a live album on November 20, 2015. There are three different versions of the recording:[20]
A concert ticket for the July 3, 2015 Chicago show
The band playing on July 3, 2015
Lighting effects at the July 3, 2015 show
