Seattle, Friday May 26, 1995.
Click photo to enlarge
In many reviews, people describe 5-26-95 as the last great Dead show, and one of the best of the 90's after the departure of Bruce Hornsby. It's been ten long years since this final Seattle Dead show. After leaving Seattle, they played 25 more times, with their final show on 7-9-95. In this picture from that day, Jerry looks happy, and healthy (angelic almost, with his halo of white hair and beard in the spotlights); he smiled throughout the show. He was in the zone.
Dave Hokit and I went to the Thursday and Friday shows. Thursday, we each brought our oldest children (then ranging from 8 to 10 1/2). Thursday, The Dead played another good set and played one of my favorites, The Wheel, for the last time ever. Friday we hooked up with a show buddy we'd witnessed with some envy the previous night; we merged our commisaries, with us kicking in copious amounts of gin, tonic, bitters and a backpack full of ice we smuggled in. The temperature was in the 80's and I don't think I ever anticipated a show as much in my life. They opened with the sacred trilogy Help-->Slipknot-->Franklin's Tower. Halftime was a frantic, zoo. And it was on to a great second set and encore.
The music lives on. The band still frequently releases selected shows and DVD videos of the band. There are hundreds of stellar shows, and about 2,900 entire shows available for downloading (legitimate and free) on archive.org.
Setlist for 5-26-95: Help On The Way-> Slipknot!-> Franklin's Tower, The Same Thing, Loose Lucy, Eternity*, Don't Ease Me In Scarlet Begonias-> Fire On The Mountain-> Playin' In The Band-> Uncle John's Band-> Drums-> Space-> Easy Answers, Stella Blue-> Good Lovin', Encore: Liberty
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