The longest, strangest trip embarked upon by a rock ’n’ roll band ended 30 years ago this week at Soldier Field. On Sunday, July 9, 1995, the Grateful Dead played what would be its final concert with its full lineup at the stadium — the harmonious echoes of “Box of Rain” concluding a fascinating musical journey that began in May 1965 at a small pizza parlor in California and encompassed more than 2,300 shows.
Coming just before a stifling heat wave engulfed the city, the Grateful Dead’s two-night lakefront stand remains memorable for many reasons — some better off forgotten. While the sextet rebounded from a Saturday production that witnessed lead singer Jerry Garcia forgetting lyrics, flubbing notes and demonstrating clear signs of ailing health, the uneven closing show concluded what’s now known as the “Tour from Hell” — a trek haunted by uninspired performances, gate-crashing incidents, weather-related injuries, death threats and deplorable behavior from some fans.
Take it from someone who was there: It was a bad scene.
An anomaly, really, in the Grateful Dead’s local history. Though the band’s newest archival trove — “Enjoying the Ride,” a 60-disc box set themed around the group’s ties to select venues — spotlights what was then Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana, and Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin, to represent the Midwest, the Dead made Chicago its go-to base in the heartland. Far surpassing the number of its respective appearances in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City and St. Louis, the Grateful Dead played some 70 dates in the Chicago area.
Not included in that tally: The regrouped collective’s three “Fare Thee Well” shows in July 2015 at Soldier Field. Clever marketing lingo aside, nothing disguises the fact that the band ceased when Garcia died of a heart attack shortly after turning 53 in August 1995.
Here are 10 of the most significant visits from a band that looms perhaps even larger today than during its existence.
Kinetic Playground on Nov. 27-28, 1968
More than three years after forming, the Grateful Dead arrived for its Chicago debut at a bygone Uptown venue that hosted legends such as Led Zeppelin and The Who before they became massive. Freshly discharged from the Air Force, keyboardist Tom Constanten officially joined the collective earlier in the week. The Grateful Dead is nascent enough that no definitive setlist information survives for either show. Reporting on the second night for the Tribune’s youth music column, Robb Baker amusingly observed: “They have no good vocalist; their material itself is not that memorable (you don’t go around humming Dead tunes); and it takes them forever to really get warmed up.” Ultimately, he succumbed to the band’s eclectic charms and gave it a rave. The Grateful Dead returned to the same location the following January and again that April. A portion of the latter visit is documented on “Dick’s Picks Volume 26.”
Auditorium Theatre on Oct. 21-22, 1971
Mirroring the right-into-the-fire experience of his predecessor, Constanten, whose brief tenure ended in early 1970, keyboardist Keith Godchaux had one show under his belt when the Grateful Dead arrived for its second of a career total of four residencies at Auditorium Theatre. He was tasked with spelling the playing of beloved original member Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, on hiatus due to health problems that led to his death in early 1973. Adding to the pressure? The Grateful Dead premiered an array of new tunes (“Tennessee Jed,” “Comes a Time,” “Jack Straw,” “Mexicali Blues” “One More Saturday Night” among them). And Oak Park radio station WGLD-FM broadcasted night one, which contained the final performance of the obscure ditty “The Frozen Logger.” Godchaux, who stayed with the Grateful Dead until 1979, passed his test. Both concerts sizzled. The first, which prompted the Chicago Sun-Times to predict “a revival for dance halls” and Tribune critic Lynn Van Matre to deem the band “relaxed, yet very much together,” featured a “St. Stephen”-led encore. The second, chronicled on “Dave’s Picks Volume 3,” sparked with a transcendent “That’s It for the Other One” suite.
McGaw Memorial Hall in Evanston on Nov. 1, 1973
No regional Grateful Dead show witnessed more back-and-forth planning drama than the band’s sole Evanston date. Daily Northwestern archives show that attempts to book the group began in April 1970. Efforts to land the band for the university’s 1973 homecoming unfolded over several months. Debates pitted organizers against administrators fearful of issues related to security, safety, cost and behavior by non-campus attendees. Despite opposition from the dean and contractual uncertainty that stretched into mid-October, the student government — with a big assist from Jam Productions — secured the artist it wanted. Northwestern students paid $4.50, one dollar less than the public. But more money than the estimated 50 to 100 people who gained entrance by buying discounted admission from entrepreneurial kids who found untorn tickets discarded under the bleachers by a careless Jam attendant and re-sold them outside. Inside, amid Halloween decor and a capacity crowd, the Grateful Dead played four hours despite guitarist-vocalist Bob Weir reportedly feeling under the weather. Part of the show can be heard on the two-disc “Wake of the Flood” reissue.
International Amphitheatre on July 25, 1974
The Grateful Dead’s second and final concert at the now-demolished Canaryville arena marked the only local appearance of the band’s complete, near-mythical Wall of Sound. The subject of “Loud and Clear,” a brand-new book by Chicago-based writer Brian Anderson, the pioneering sound reinforcement system became as famous for its spectacular fidelity as its immense size. Because the 75-ton array proved incredibly labor-intensive and expensive to schlep from show to show, the group retired it in October 1974. In addition to marking the group’s last area gig for nearly two years, this excellent mid-summer performance remains noteworthy for a collaborative interlude between Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh and Ned Lagin. The electronic composer experimented with Lesh nearly two dozen times using the Wall of Sound and released his quadraphonic “Seastones” album on the group’s record label.
Rambler Room on Nov. 17, 1978
Garcia, Weir, Lesh and percussionist Mickey Hart’s afternoon appearance at Rambler Room — a hybrid cafeteria/gathering space in the now-razed Centennial Forum on Loyola University’s Rogers Park campus — doesn’t technically qualify as a Grateful Dead show. But few Chicago dates harbor more intrigue than this impromptu “Bob Weir and Friends” gathering. Seated in front of a hand-drawn Hunger Week poster, the band members performed acoustically together for the first time since 1970. They dug into chestnuts — Jelly Roll Morton’s “Winin’ Boy Blues,” the traditional “Tom Dooley,” the Memphis Jug Band’s “K.C. Moan,” Weir’s “This Time Forever” — the Grateful Dead never before or again attempted in public. The first rendition of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” a Bob Dylan number the full group wouldn’t play until 1987, anchored the set. After finishing with a romp through Buddy Holly’s “Oh Boy!,” the quartet headed a couple miles south to Uptown Theatre for its second show of a three-night run.
Uptown Theatre on Feb. 26-28, 1981
Though the Grateful Dead usually kicked off the year in California or on the East Coast, Chicago got the honor in 1981 when the group launched its spring jaunt at Uptown Theatre — an architectural gem that still sits, decaying, awaiting its second act. The three-night run marked the Grateful Dead’s sixth and final hurrah at the movie palace, which closed its doors for good that December. (Jerry Garcia returned in June with his namesake band.) Due to an intimacy and acoustic signature that would cause the balcony to vibrate from certain frequencies, Uptown Theatre quickly became known among fans as a magical spot to see the group. The feeling seemed mutual. In the span of 37 months, the band headlined an astonishing 17 shows at Uptown Theatre, which hosted the Grateful Dead more times than any local venue. A-list examples of early ’80s Grateful Dead, these shows should be short-listed for the band’s ongoing archival series. Relatedly, the group’s Dec. 3, 1979 date at Uptown Theatre comprises “Dave’s Picks Volume 31.”
Poplar Creek in Hoffman Estates on June 27-28, 1983
As the Grateful Dead waded into the mid-’80s, the odds of catching a truly great show declined. Garcia, his disheveled hair increasingly gray, ballooned in weight and often lost a beat. The band shunned the studio, releasing no original albums between 1980 and 1987. Yet the concert vibes remained healthy and the scene mellow, free of the toxic misconduct that violated the Deadheads’ unspoken “do no harm” ethic after the group’s popularity exploded in the late ’80s. Plus, the group still channeled bursts of imagination. This pair of dates represents the Grateful Dead’s only appearance at a welcoming outdoor venue that ultimately gave way to a new, far inferior option 60 miles away in Tinley Park. Too bad. Once a favorite among tape traders, June 27 saw the band scamper through one of the first performances of “Hell in a Bucket” and lock into a fervent “Scarlet Begonias” into “Fire on the Mountain” coupling. The next evening sounded nearly equally on point and culminated with the New Orleans staple “Iko Iko” unveiled as an encore for one of just three occasions in the group’s career.
World Music Theatre in Tinley Park on July 21-23, 1990
Given these concerts capped the Grateful Dead’s stellar 1990 summer tour, a trek that piggybacked onto a spring trek that stands as one of the most acclaimed in the band’s history, they should evoke only joyous memories. As delightful as the performances remain, they are overshadowed by the death of keyboardist Brent Mydland — whose drug overdose on July 26 permanently altered the trajectory of the band and sent Garcia into a dark spiral — and nightmarish management. Frustrated with limited road access into the venue and impassable traffic jams, fans parked their cars on the highway and walked the rest of the way. Commercial truck traffic ground to a halt. State police closed westbound lanes on I-80 from I-57 to Harlem Avenue, and ordered hundreds of vehicles towed. Unaccustomed to large concerts in their area — World Music Theatre opened that June — neighboring residents also complained about the alleged invasion of Deadheads who cleaned out stores of certain supplies and foodstuffs. Then, there were the insurmountable shortcomings of the venue that, in the words of renowned Grateful Dead sound engineer Dan Healy, constituted “the most awful sounding place I’ve ever heard in my life — it’s beyond my wildest imagination.” Suffice it to say the band wasn’t asked back.
Soldier Field on June 25-26, 1992
The Grateful Dead collaborated onstage in the ’90s with esteemed jazz saxophonists Branford Marsalis, Ornette Coleman and David Murray on the coasts, the same regions its brief 1987 trek with Bob Dylan unfolded. Local fans starved for a similar treat lucked out at the first of the band’s two-night Soldier Field engagement when opener Steve Miller joined the ensemble for four songs in the second set and an electrifying encore of Them’s “Gloria.” Extending the bluesy motifs, Chicago-based harmonica virtuoso James Cotton also guested on the latter number as well as on a smoky version of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and charged take of Bobby Bland’s “Turn on Your Lovelight.” Such location-cognizant nods and unexpected twists — which extended to a blaring train whistle during the psychedelic “Space” sequence — confirmed the Grateful Dead could still surprise and awe, even in stadium settings.
Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont on March 9-11, 1993
The Grateful Dead commenced its spring 1993 outing with a radiant “Here Comes Sunshine” and didn’t look back until its second-to-last residency at Rosemont Horizon concluded a few nights later. Reinvigorated with a batch of promising new songs (“Liberty,” “Days Between,” “Lazy River Road,” “Broken Arrow,” “Eternity”) and eager to refine recent material road-tested a year prior (“So Many Roads,” “Wave to the Wind,” “Way to Go Home”), the band strongly suggested it had more to offer in its fourth decade together. And yet, bittersweetly, Garcia’s beautiful, gospel-etched timbre and choice of poignant material — a somber “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” a spiritual “Standing on the Moon,” a symbolic cover of Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” — indicated an acute awareness of endings and mortality. Both would wait. On March 10, the band stunned everyone with the rare, and final, “Mind Left Body Jam.” At the finale, Chicago word-jazz poet and radio announcer Ken Nordine further shattered sensory perceptions by reciting “Flibberty Jib” and “The Island” during the “Drums” into “Space” improvisation. We never saw it coming. In other words, signature Grateful Dead. Then, and now, a band beyond description.
Bob Gendron is a freelance critic.