The Fourth of July weekend will forever signify a special anniversary in the history of the Grateful Dead as this is when the surviving core members got together for a blowout 50th anniversary celebration that kicked off today (July 3) two years ago at Chicago’s Soldier Field. 

Flanked by Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann took their final bow together but not before three shows celebrating the immense catalog they helped craft with Jerry Garcia and many others over the decades. 

Opening night in Chicago found the group more familiar with each other than they were during the two warmup shows in Santa Clara, CA, coming out of the gates strong with “Box of Rain,” an Anastasio-led “Jack Straw” and “Bertha” as well as early highlights like “The Wheel” and “Crazy Fingers.” The second set continued the momentum with Dead staples like “Scarlet Begonias” and “Fire on the Mountain” along with a lengthy segment of “Help On the Way,” “Slipknot” and an anthemic “Franklin’s Tower.” 

As we remember Fare Thee Well this week, watch both sets in full from the opening night show below. 

Set One

Set Two

July 4th, 2015

It was one final Saturday night for the Grateful Dead’s 50th anniversary celebration as the Fare Thee Well ensemble marked America’s birthday with seasonal offerings like “Liberty” and “U.S. Blues” as well as the “One More Saturday Night” set closer. 

Musically, the second of three shows in Chicago saw Anastasio assert himself both as a guitarist and a vocalist (as the “Let Trey Sing” movement reached an untouchable height) taking lead on tunes like “Standing on the Moon” and sharing vocals with Bruce Hornsby on a particularly joyful “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)” as the second of three nights proved to be full of fireworks, both literally and musically. 

Watch the full webcast below including Neal Casal’s setbreak music.