Fare Thee Well.

Tonight marks the first of three final Grateful Dead performances at Soldier Field in Chicago, IL, with the Core Four surviving members of the band (Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart) playing with Trey Anastasio on lead guitar and  Jeff Chimenti and Bruce Hornsby on keyboards.

For those that have been following this story, these three 50th anniversary celebrations are the culmination of extensive planning, rumors, discussion, debate, progress, and, ultimately, music. We wanted to take a moment to reflect on this long, strange trip.

In November of 2014, Furthur – the band containing Weir and Lesh that toured regularly since 2009 – posted a message that quickly spread through the Deadhead community. The band had taken a hiatus since the end of 2013, and Bob Weir had cancelled a 2014 summer tour just weeks before it was scheduled to begin. Furthur’s message was a grim one:

We’ll all be keeping very busy over the foreseeable future, and it’s time to let Furthur take a bow. We enjoyed the ride more than we can possibly express.

With eyes on the band’s 50th anniversary in 2015, fans feared that there would be no response from the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. How could they not celebrate their legacy?

It was unofficial Grateful Dead biographer Scott W. Allen that shared the first rumor to the contrary. Of course nothing was official at the time, but, in looking back, it’s interesting to see what he was right about. The discussions were in their early stages at the time, and Allen shared what he knew:

The Dead, apparently, are looking to headline a single festival or two and play a series of West Coast and East Coast residencies – in arena settings or a handful of stadium dates. – This was almost the case, as Bonnaroo and Coachella reportedly both made offers to the Dead camp, which they ultimately declined. The residencies became Chicago, a central location, and Santa Clara, a later addition.

This is what I am hearing about the Dead lineup in 2015: the Core Four plus Bruce Hornsby on keyboards. Apparently, to my disappointment, Jeff Chimenti will not be involved. – One-for-two.

Should this reunion unfold, the band is seemingly committed to, and working with, the concept of using more than one lead guitarist… The guitarists are known to be John Kadlecik, Steve Kimock and Warren Haynes, with a fourth, unnamed guitarist, possibly Trey Anastasio or Barry Sless. – As the elaborate tour dwindled down to three nights, the rotating guitarist idea lost steam. It is worth noting that Anastasio was mentioned this early on.

As the rumors continue to circulate, the announcement was made on January 16, 2015. The Core Four were reuniting, there would be three final shows, and Anatasio, Chimenti, and Hornsby were all on board.

Of course, that announcement also had another side to it. Tickets.

With a ticket lottery announced as the initial means of acquiring tickets, hundreds of thousands of fans mailed in money orders to the small GDTS TOO ticket office in Stinson Beach, CA. The response was overwhelming, to the point that promoters Peter Shapiro and Madison House were scrambling. When ticket prices reached $1,000,000 on StubHub, Deadheads became outraged.

The peak of the negativity, in my opinion, was symbolized by a Huffington Post article, written by Stewart Sallo, called “Ladies and Gentlemen, Not the Grateful Dead“. The piece criticized the promoters for grabbing money any way they could, starting from the strategic announcement, and even going so far as to accuse the Dead of choosing Trey Anastasio for the sole purpose of drawing in Phish fans.

That’s when I penned an op-ed called “Let’s Be Grateful For The Dead’s 50th Reunion“, because, to summarize in a sentence, I was annoyed by how people were criticizing musicians for playing music. Of course, Peter Shapiro personally contacted Stewart Sallo shortly after his article circulated, and Sallo published a second column essentially backtracking on every single claim he made.

Looking back, the frenzy surrounding ticket sales seems incredibly over-dramatic. The supply and demand quickly reached an equilibrium, with tickets running as cheap as $300 on StubHub now. Not exactly face value, but certainly a lot less zeros.

So what brought the price down? The biggest drive for decreased Chicago ticket prices was the April announcement that the “Fare Thee Well” band were adding two shows at Levis’ Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. Of course, for those paying attention, Bill Walton let the cat out of the bag a couple weeks early.

Around this time, concerts surrounding Fare Thee Well Chicago began to pop up. L4LM had the pleasure of announcing one of the first such shows, a July 4th after party at Reggie’s Rock Club featuring the hybrid tribute fusion group, Pink Talking Fish, who would be adding some Dead covers into their usual repertoire.

Once “The Music Never Stopped” series was announced a few weeks later, featuring Ed Sharpe, Thievery Corporation, Greensky Bluegrass, Railroad Earth, Karl Denson and more, the Chicago shows really picked up… to the point where we had to create a Complete Guide just to keep up with it.

Of course, other factors like ticket re-releases and canceled plans helped to drive down prices. As we all witnessed last weekend, these shows certainly have the right vibe to them. And, friends, the rainbow was real.

For their part, the performers have been very open and forthcoming about their work leading up to Fare Thee Well. Anastasio has been especially vocal, giving several interviews in Rolling Stone about the shows. His genuine excitement has shined brightly on each and every article.

And here we are. Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right. See you at Soldier Field!