Grateful Dead

Photo by Jay Blakesberg

Every Deadhead knows the Grateful Dead offers taper section seating at their shows, special spots where folks with high-quality recording devices can capture the entire set on tape. Of course that wouldn’t change for their final run of Fare Thee Well shows at Chicago’s Soldier Field, and now NYCTaper has made the entire July 3rd concert available for download.

Sure, NYCTaper usually focuses on their hometown area, but how could any live recording fan miss a chance at the Dead’s last ride? As NYCTaper explains on his site, his friend Bill Walker was on hand to record the show with “a 6-microphone mix that included a pair of Busman BSC2 mics, two AKG 480/CK61 mics and my Sennheiser cardioids that I sent to him especially for the occasion.” The result is downloadable in MP3 and FLAC formats, with the bundles split into the show’s two sets.

Download it all for yourself at NYCTaper and take a listen to the midway point of set one, “Passenger”, below. Also, if you haven’t yet, check out Steven Arroyo’s review of this very show.

Grateful Dead at Soldiers Field, July 3rd, 2015 setlist:

Set 1:

[Total Time 1:11:01]

01. Box of Rain

02. Jack Straw

03. Bertha

04. Passenger

05. The Wheel

06. Crazy Fingers

07. The Music Never Stopped

Set 2:

[Total Time 1:53:58]

01. Mason’s Children

02. Scarlet Begonias

03. Fire On The Mountain

04. Drums-Space

05. New Potato Caboose

06. Playing In The Band

07. Let It Grow

08. Help On The Way

09. Slipknot

10. Franklin’s Tower

11. [encore break / donor request]

12. Ripple