Jerry Garcia Plays His Final Show Before His Death, On This Day In 1995 [Video]

On this day in 1995, the Grateful Dead played the second and final night of their tour-closing run at Chicago’s Soldier Field featuring an opening performance from The Band. The show marked the completion of a long and winding spring/summer tour, a run throughout which lead guitarist Jerry Garcia seemed to many like a shell of his former self.

Once again, he was beleaguered by addiction—this time in front of huge, stadium-sized venues packed to the brim with excited fans. Garcia struggled through equipment difficulties all night, eventually having to replace his “Rosebud” guitar with the older “Tiger”. According to Bob Weir in his Netflix documentary The Other One,  he and Garcia shared some short but sweet words as they walked offstage: “Always a hoot,” Garcia said, “Always a hoot.” Exactly one month later, on August 9th, 1995, Jerry Garcia passed away, his heart finally giving out after years of hard living and declining health. July 9th, 1995 at Soldier Field became the Grateful Dead’s final show.

While not among their best shows by a long stretch, 7/9/95 still packs an emotional punch to this day in light of its significance as Jerry’s last performance. You can feel the weight of the show’s cosmic significance throughout, particularly on songs like the encore closer “Box of Rain”—which the band delivered so not as to go out on the solemn “Black Muddy River” that preceded it. And, of course, there was the gorgeous yet bittersweet mid-second set “So Many Roads”, with Garcia’s moving vocals ensuring that there was not a dry eye in the stadium by the time the tune was finished despite some musical struggles. You can watch a full video of “So Many Roads” from the final Grateful Dead show at Soldier Field on 7/9/95 below, via YouTube user taste4phree:

Grateful Dead – “So Many Roads” – 7/9/95

[Video: taste4phree]

Relive the emotional second set in the remastered YouTube clip below, along with full-show audio from Jonathan Aizen:

Grateful Dead – Soldier Field – 7/9/95 – Set Two Video

RIP Jerry. We miss you.

Setlist: Grateful Dead | Soldier Field | Chicago, IL | 7/9/95

Set One: Touch of Grey, Little Red Rooster, Lazy River, Masterpiece*, Childhood’s End, Cumberland Blues, Promised Land

Set Two: Shakedown Street, Samson & Delilah, So Many Roads, Samba in the Rain, Corrina -> Drums -> Space -> Unbroken Chain, Sugar Magnolia

Encore: Black Muddy River, Box of Rain

* Weir on acoustic
*(The Band opened)*

[Originally published 7/9/17]