The Grateful Dead has joined into the online concert arena with the latest archival video initiative from a veteran rock band to entertain fans while live shows remain on indefinite hiatus.
Branded as “Shakedown Stream,” the band will air concerts from over the years every Friday via their YouTube page beginning with the broadcast of the Dead’s Truckin’ Up To Buffalo film of their July 4th, 1989 performance at Buffalo, NY’s Rich Stadium. You can watch in real-time below:
Each broadcast will begin with a live pre-show featuring the band’s archivist, David Lemieux, alongside Dead historian Gary Lambert. Fans can even submit their own questions to be answered by the two Grateful Dead experts during the broadcast. The 7/4/89 performance will air this Friday, April 10th, at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST. Next week’s broadcast will be The Grateful Dead Movie, set to air on Friday, April 17th. The April 24th broadcast will 6/11/93 at Buckeye Lake. You can watch the live broadcast below:
Grateful Dead – Live at Buckeye Lake – 6/11/93 – Live Stream
The webcasts will be free, but the band is encouraging fans to donate what money they can to help benefit MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund to help support members of the music community.
Related: 25 Concert Films & Music Documentaries To Stream While You’re Self-Quarantining
Lemieux added with the announcement,
We’ve decided to start the streaming video series with the Buffalo ’89 show for a couple of primary reasons: it’s excellence is indisputable and is something that we think pretty much everyone will enjoy in the absence of actually being able to see live concerts; and, as a tribute to the many rabid, loyal Dead Heads from the hard-hit tri-state area, which has been affected more than anywhere else in the country. To all of the Dead Heads in New York State and beyond, this one’s for you.
The band has gradually rolled out select footage from the 1989 Rich Stadium show via their “All The Years Live” weekly archive video series, including “Cold, Rain And Snow”, “Stagger Lee”, and “Touch of Grey”. Watch the performance of the latter below.
Grateful Dead – “Touch Of Grey” – 7/4/1989
[Video: Grateful Dead]
The launch of “Shakedown Streams” follows the previously-launched archive concert webcasts from other Dead-related projects including Bob Weir & Wolf Bros‘ “Weir Wednesdays” and Dead & Company‘s “One More Saturday Night”.