The Grateful Dead – who’ve played Autzen Stadium five times (once with Bob Dylan), McArthur Court three times, as well as shows at the Oregon Country Fair, the Hult Center, South Eugene High School and the EMU Ballroom – will return to Eugene this weekend, by proxy, for the final time.
Although the Dead’s 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well tour is being sold as a webcast and pay-per-view experience online, the three final Dead shows in Chicago’s Soldier Field will be live-streamed for free at Eugene’s HiFi Music Hall (44 E 7th Ave) as well as Portland’s Crystal Ballroom (1332 W Burnside St).
The shows will be broadcast each night at 5 p.m. July 3–5.
Entry is free for ages 21+ at HiFi Music Hall; tickets for the McMenamins event are $8 in advance, $10 on the day of the show. Space is limited at both.
W.O.W. Hall has cancelled plans to simulcast the shows, since the Fare Thee Well site mandates a commercial license to stream the simulcast in a public place, and it would cost the venue $2500.
Four original members, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, are joined by Phish’s Trey Anastasio (guitar), Furthur’s Jeff Chimenti (keyboards) and Bruce Hornsby (piano) for these final shows.
Some Deadheads will tell you that they wish they’d never heard American Beauty, just so they could hear it again for the first time.