Man injured during Grateful Dead concert at Soldier Field

The Deadheads, young and old, gathered to pay tribute to original Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart.

The band’s final set was preceded by a fireworks display as the crowd cheered the band back on stage to the opening notes of “Truckin’“, the first tune the band performed on the opening night in Santa Clara. If you don’t get it by now, no worries, try to get in tonight and see the light.

The band was joined for its farewell dates by the Jeff Chimenti, slapping away at his keyboards, the pianist Bruce Hornsby and Phish’s Trey Anastasio, filling in on lead guitar for the late Dead leader Jerry Garcia.

From the start of the first song – when hundreds of joints were instantly lit up and passed around – Anastasio proved to be the dominant presence in the reformed Dead.

Deadhead Patrick Leahy, the senior-most USA senator, told AFP after the concerts were announced that the Dead had a “unique sound” and revolutionized interaction with fans. They come as much to be there and enjoy each other.

Finally, the band’s core demographic has reached an age where for a lot of them, money isn’t really an issue. It was just as easy to imagine Garcia, who wrote the song with Hunter, singing it in 1970 to a greater good: the America that slowly coalesced around the Dead’s music and outlaw idealism, then survived Garcia and his band. As was long the case during their peak popularity, the Dead’s improvisational bent at Fare Thee Well sometimes meant rough musical passages-“Estimated Prophet” was particularly shaky-and Weir and Lesh’s voices showed major age. “You helped me through the hardest part of my life”.

 The Grateful Dead is known for their unique and eclectic style, fusing different elements in their performances as well as for their lengthy instrumental jams.

The foursome have toured with other musicians under various names previously.