Grateful Dead to record final shows

The Grateful Dead will record next month’s Fare Thee Well shows for a live package to be issued on November 20.

Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir will play three concerts at Chicago’s Soldier Field on the weekend of July 3, 4 and 5 – and they’ll mark their swan song with a series of releases.

A standard ‘Best Of’ double CD featuring highlights from the three shows will be joined by a 4CD/2DVD, Blu-Ray edition which will include the final gig in audio and video formats.

In addition, they’ll release what the band call “the complete Chicago experience” in a 12CD/7DVD, Blu-ray box set. A total of 20,000 will be made available, each individually numbered and will contain full audio and video from all three performances, along with a disc showing behind-the-scenes footage.

The live packages are available to pre-order directly from the Grateful Dead’s website.

The band set up an extra two dates this weekend in Santa Clara, California after ticket prices for the trio of Chicago shows soared on the secondary market.

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