July 9th, 2002

Memories of 7-9-95...

On July 9th, 1995, the Grateful Dead played what would end up being their last concert at Chicago's Soldier Field. A month later Jerry Garcia was found dead of a heart attack and their 30 year run came to a sad end. I was moved to write these impressions of that last show on it's 7 year anniversary.

Beautiful Summer night, I had only been home from Europe for several days and it felt good to be back in Chicago.

Last night of the tour from hell. Gate crashing, balcony jumping, and death threats against Garcia.

The show the night before had been uneven and Jerry seemed off, flubbing a lot of lines, but he woke up at the end of the show for a show stopping "Visions of Johanna" that floored me and was worth the price of admission alone.

The Band opened the show with a nice bluesy set including "Up on Cripple Creek" which I had been waiting to see them do for 6 shows or so. Little did I know it would be the last time I saw them perform as well.

We had good seats on the field and the set opened with "Touch of Grey" which was just fun at the time, but now seems prophetic. First set was solid with a nice "Little Red Rooster", "Masterpiece" and Phil's new song, "Childhood's End".

Second set started with "Shakedown St." into a "Samson and Delilah" with Weir taking the whole stadium to church. Next up was the single most heartfelt rendition of a song I have seen by anybody, anywhere to this day. Garcia belted out "So Many Roads" with such passion and delicacy, it seems corny, but it really was like he poured everything he had left into it. 60,000 people were hanging on his every word. I remember looking over and seeing Ken Nordine standing by the soundboard with his jaw open. They did release this version on the boxset a few years ago and you can feel the power of this performance, but you had to be there.

A fun "Drums" followed as well as a surprise appearance by "Unbroken Chain" out of "Space". I had really wanted to see it since they had finally played it live that spring, but since they had played it two days before in St. Louis and since Phil had sung one song in the first set, it seemed unlikley.

A crunchy "Sugar Magnolia" finished off the set. The band returned for the encore and we were treated to a nice slow version of the recently revived "Black Muddy River". Jerry nailed it and in retrospect the lyrics are heartbreaking. I think everybody thought that was it as the closing chords of song were played, but Phil prompted them in to a nice "Box of Rain". The band rarely did double encores at this time so this was a real surprise. I couldn't believe I had just witnessed 3 Phil tunes in one night which was unheard of back then. Phil sang the last words, "Such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there" and the Grateful Dead played their last notes. They walked off stage and the fireworks began to the accompaniment of Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner". We all walked out not knowing that this was the end, but it ended on a high note for me....