Now to celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of the band’s formation, and the twentieth anniversary of their
final concert in Chicago, the surviving band members are reuniting for three
shows. The three original surviving members – Bob Weir on guitar and vocals,
Phil Lesh on bass and vocals, and Bill Kreutzmann on drums – as well as Mickey
Hart, who joined so early on as to basically be an original member, and Bruce
Hornsby, who was a member of the band in the early 1990s, will be playing
together in Chicago in July. Joining them are Jeff Chimenti on keyboards, in
place of Vince Welnick who died in 2006, and Trey Anastasio on guitar in place
of Jerry Garcia who died in 1995. It’s this last addition of Trey on guitar
that is the first thing to give me pause about these shows.
Jerry Garcia had such a
distinct style. You could pick it out anywhere. Trey Anastasio likewise has a
distinct style, but it is so different from Garcia’s. I’m afraid it’s going to
sound like Phish covering the Grateful Dead (which of course they often did).
And don’t get me wrong: I like Phish. I saw them in concert many times between
1990 and 1999 (the last show I saw, however, was so awful that I never went
back). But Phish and the Grateful Dead are completely unalike, except for the
fact that both bands have accomplished musicians and both bands jam. I don’t necessarily
want to see them combined.
The second thing that troubles
me is the ticket prices. If the band is taking its fans back to Chicago, then
how about we return to the ticket prices of the summer of 1995? Not only are
the tickets for these three shows very expensive, but the band is using tiered
ticket pricing, something they never did back in the day and something that I
find completely repulsive. (The only thing close back then was that the lawn at
Shoreline was slightly cheaper than the seats.) Tickets range from $95.50 to
$215.50 for the mail order (supposedly some cheaper seats will be sold later). This
means that it won’t be the biggest fans at the front, but the richest. That is
so unlike the Grateful Dead.
The other thing that strikes me
as peculiar is that these three shows are billed as farewell shows. Now these
guys have played together several times since Jerry’s death. I myself never
went to any of those Other Ones or Dead concerts, because it just didn’t feel
right. I did, however, go see RatDog and Phil Lesh And Friends and always had a
great time. But now the band is saying this is it. My question whenever a band
does a farewell show is, How do you know? I mean, what if next year you want to
do another show? Will you abstain because of this year’s promise?
I’m so torn. I would love to
see these guys play. I would love to see some of my favorite songs performed
live again. But the tickets are so expensive. And the world is a different
place. I don’t want to see a sea of cell phones at a Grateful Dead concert. I
don’t want to see a lot of blue lights in front of me. And how much is a sheet
of acid these days? I have no idea.
Mail order starts on January 20th,
so I have a few days to decide (and to raise several hundred dollars).
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