the last of the dead

Some 20 years after the death of Jerry Garcia that institution of counter culture The Grateful Dead have announced the gathering of the remaining core members Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart for the final time. They will reunite for three shows at the Soldier Field in Chicago over the Fourth Of July Weekend this year.
Ex member Bruce Hornsby, Furthur/RatDog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio will all make appearances on this 50th anniversary of the group.
Weir told Billboard. "These will be the last shows from the four of us together,"

And here's the thing, with the passing of their guiding light all those years ago and in a world where you'd maybe think the The Dead were very much part of the 20th Century, the online booking agents Ticketmaster broke all sales records when the Chicago dates were announced and sold out in seconds with half a million queueing up for sales. "Requests for tickets are believed to be in the millions.".

No doubt the whole extravaganza will be captured for posterity in every known medium and in true Dead tradition every type of bootleg going. Failing that call into the Internet Archive after July where, apart from being the only group to have an entire category to themselves, you'll probably find some genius has uploaded the entire concert including the sound check! For as we all know, The Dead Heads are a law entirely to themselves.
So after all this time these Dead Heads were just lying dormant waiting for the final calling. Surely the like of this pop culture phenomena will not be seen again.

Here's 'So Many Roads' from their last concert together and their last performance with Garcia in 1995.

tuning in to the grateful dead tuning up

Grateful Dead's reputation for playing extended live performances are legend, they became marathon tests of stamina for the musicians and their legion of dedicated and near obsessed audiences.
So this "audio supercut" will come as a truly joyous thing as Michael Murphy has edited an entire year of the 'Dead' tuning up. Yes tuning up!
As he describes the project "chronologically sequenced, this remix incorporates every publicly available recording from 1977, examining the divide between audience expectation and performance anxiety".
The source of all the material comes from the extensive Grateful Dead collection at the internet archive and you can download the whole 3 hours via the embedded player below. Click the icon to access the page.
The audio here is is just half of the marathon and it's a strangely hypnotic experience. True Dead fans will not be tested by its length.
So now who can spot the altered tunings.