No one in attendance at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995, had any way of knowing it would be the last time they would ever see Jerry Garcia play live. And if anyone who wasn’t there read the Chicago Tribune review of the Grateful Dead founding member and his fellow ensemble members’ concert, they might not have wanted another chance at a show.
Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. What was first perceived as a rather lackluster night turned into a historic moment after Garcia’s death one month later made the concert the Dead’s last with their fearless leader. Moreover, the scathing review by the Tribune rock critic became almost ominous in the context of the pioneering musician’s demise.
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The Grateful Dead Didn’t Wow the Music Critics on Their Last Show
By the time the Grateful Dead took the stage at Soldier Field in Chicago that summer night in 1995, they had already been writing, performing, and prolifically touring the country for three decades. While their following might have changed in appearance and personnel in the years between their 1965 debut and the mid-1990s concert, it was still very much there. Although crowd size varies by source, one Grateful Dead group estimated the crowd at around 100,000 people at the Chicago Bears stadium.
And if the overwhelming majority felt anything remotely close to what Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot felt, that crowd of around 100,000 was probably less than enthused about the night. Kot described the band’s leader, Jerry Garcia, as playing “with the grim, head-bowed earnestness of a foot soldier. His voice sounded tired, he muffed lyrics, and he sometimes dispersed with entire verses altogether in a remote performance.”
Other long-time members, like fellow guitarist Bob Weir, caught some flak, too. Acknowledging both players’ impeccable guitar skills, Kot added, “There was a decided lack of groove in many of the songs, as drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann often played around the beat instead of pushing it. It’s an approach that can make for marvelous, jazzlike interplay. But on this night, it merely sounded lazy.”
Jerry Garcia Died of a Heart Attack One Month Later
Greg Kot’s review of the Dead’s final show with Jerry Garcia might seem a bit overly critical in the context of Garcia’s death one month later. But he was hardly the first person to remark on the hit-or-miss nature of the Grateful Dead’s 1995 shows. That was a complaint among even the most loyal Deadheads even then. If fate had dealt Garcia a different hand, that review might have just been one of any other number of negative critiques the band had endured over their decades-long tenure.
But of course, fate had other plans. Exactly one month after the Grateful Dead’s show at Soldier Field, Garcia died of a heart attack, likely exacerbated by other health conditions, like diabetes, in a rehabilitation clinic in Forest Knolls, California. His death was the end of a long battle with addiction and poor health. On a broader scale, it was also the end of a specific era and sound of the Grateful Dead. Indeed, Garcia’s musical and cultural legacy was far greater than any one poor review could topple.
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns