Grateful Dead fan critically hurt in fall at Soldier Field

The Grateful Dead has played their final concert and, apparently, the news has hit Republicans harder than Democrats.

 Although there was no proper segues between these two, the formula of opening with two solid tunes and letting each breathe has been a nice recipe for this band over the last four shows.

Fans started clamoring for auction item after Bob Weir played the guitar on stage the next night on June 28 during a performance of “Row Jimmy”. Jeff Chimenti and Bruce Hornsby played keyboards for the Chicago shows.

By one measure, the Grateful Dead are 2015’s top attraction, drawing 65% higher sales per show than concerts by pop superstar Taylor Swift, according to ticket resale site StubHub.

Under some of the best weather Chicago has seen in more than a couple summers, the Dead ripped open the evening calm with China Cat Sunflower into I Know You Rider followed by Estimated Prophet.

“They hardly ever talked to the audience, but we would all feel part of what’s going on”, she said.

While the Grateful Dead were in the midst of their 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well dates at Chicago’s Soldier Field, the band received a once-in-a-lifetime public tribute hundreds of miles away. “They do so many different things”. Maybe it was an illusion of the PA mix at the Bowl, but Anastasio and Lesh were the primary, conversing soloists; Weir’s eccentric, dissecting rhythm guitar, a vital wild card in the Dead’s charge and jamming, often seemed to be more backdrop than the engine.

“I never could have imagined in my wildest dreams, what a long odd trip this would be”, Lesh told a sea of Deadheads. We had a “Me and My Uncle” and blistering “Tennessee Jed”.

Known for their music that fuses folk, rock, bluegrass, jazz and psychedelia, the band has become a model for the musical formation of other bands like Phish and Blues Traveler to mention a few belonging to the “jam movement”. They come as much to be there and enjoy each other.