Ask anyone who goes to concerts, and they’ll tell you that some of the most memorable aspects of a show don’t even come from the band themselves.
Musical history is littered with artists who desire to turn their show into something more of a spectacle than just a regular performance.
Why, Pink Floyd built an actual wall for their The Wall tour in the early ’80s, Tool’s shows rely on lights and effects rather than the stage presence of the band, and Rammstein’s concerts are so fiery that their frontman became a licensed pyrotechnician for his own safety.
However, there’s one tour out there whose performance was accompanied by something so special that it was rumoured to have cost more than anyone could have expected.
A bit of history
There are few bands out there who can boast an influence like the Grateful Dead. First forming back in 1965, the group soon became a staple of the Californian live scene, touring and recording relentlessly as they honed their musical skills.
Playing a mesmerising mix of folk, rock, psychedelia, and anything that they felt like, the Grateful Dead quickly spawned a dedicated fanbase who took on the name of Deadheads.
While the band soon became known for their sprawling, theatrical live shows, their audiences soon gave a whole new meaning to the word fans.
Between following the Grateful Dead all over the country and bootlegging their live shows, Deadheads viewed these concerts as more of a communal event than anything, turning into something of a rite of passage for those fond of the band.
In fact, retired US basketball star Bill Walton boasts a rather impressive achievement of having seen the Grateful Dead over 850 times. The strangest thing? That could potentially be a low number for some of the most dedicated fans.
As the years went by, the ’60s melted into the ’70s, and on into the ’80s, the band kept on truckin’, delivering stunning live shows at every turn, and continuously recording some of the most acclaimed music of all time.
By the time the ’90s rolled around, the group were a little bit worse for wear. Leader Jerry Garcia had experienced a few health problems in the previous decade, and fans will tell you now that their shows weren’t quite up to the standards of their 1977 Cornell University performance.
In August of 1995 though, Garcia tragically passed away, causing the Grateful Dead to disband soon after. Fans were understandably devastated, as this wasn’t just a band that were calling it quits after a period of time together, rather, this was the end of a way of life for many of them.
The aftermath
Following Jerry Garcia’s death, fans desperately clung onto the side projects of members of the Grateful Dead, hoping that their music would in some way mirror that of the former group.
While various members performed in groups such as The Dead, The Rhythm Devils, Further, and Dead & Company, it was 2015’s Fare Thee Well that marked the closest thing fans got to a reunion.
Featuring Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, Fare Thee Well formed as a way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, and also as a way for fans to say goodbye to the previous members, with these shows being advertised as the last time these members would perform together.
Throughout June and July of that year, Fare Thee Well performed five shows in California and Chicago, raking in more than $50m at the box office.
While these shows were a celebration of the band, their music, the lives of previous members, and the memories of years gone by, there was a rather intriguing event that occurred during the tour’s first show.
Some truly special effects
On June 27th, in Santa Clara, California, Fare Thee Well were nearing the end of their first set as they jammed through a 17-minute performance of ‘Viola Lee Blues’.
Accompanying the band wasn’t any form of mesmerising light show from the stage, but rather a breathtaking rainbow that appeared in the sky above them.
Many concertgoers couldn’t believe what they were witnessing.
Following the concert, respected music outlet Billboard published a review of the show, noting the “spectacular rainbow” that appeared above the venue.
While the author noted that fans in attendance had debated the authenticity of the rainbow at the time, an unnamed source reportedly informed them that the band had put down $50,000 in cash to produce such an amazing lighting effect.
As the reviewer of the show explained, if it was indeed a $50k effect, “it’s money well-spent as the jubilation that came with it, certainly was.”
Fare Thee Well’s performance of ‘Viola Lee Blues’ is one for the history books
However, some fans soon became a little suspicious of this supposed lighting effect. After all, Billboard had been the only one to report on it, leading many to believe that what they saw was a real life miracle of nature.
“It didn’t just turn on,” argued one fan on Reddit. “It was gradual and surrounded by dark rain clouds in the sky. It rained on the crowd after they set ended. If we can literally make it rain I can think of a couple uses for the cloud/rain generator in CA.”
Soon, a fan tracked down the Facebook account of the band’s lighting director, Paul Hoffman, asking him what went down that night.
“What’s with the rumours that y’all created that rainbow?” a fan inquired. “If y’all did, how does something like that happen?”
Paul Hoffmann soon responded by explaining the effect was made with “600 [Vari-Lites] on a building 2 miles away.”
Now, a brief look at the price list for Vari-Lite products shows that their average cost for an item averages around $500 USD, meaning that if Fare Thee Well did indeed utilise 600 of these lighting effects for their show, they’d be looking at roughly $300,000 instead of their reported $50k.
Before long though, Paul Hoffman returned to Facebook to come clean, letting us down gently by simply stating, “Guys. The rainbow was real.”
Truth is better than fiction
Of course, while countless fans were devastated to learn that what they had witnessed wasn’t actually an expensive light show, this disappointment soon turned into jubilation as they realised that the truth was even better than the fiction.
After all, this was one of the final chances fans would get to see anything close to the Grateful Dead on stage, and with this even happening during the final song of the first set of the band’s first show? Well, it sounds almost too good to be true.
However, others will tell you there was nothing miraculous about this event, rather, it was the spirit of Jerry Garcia shining down on his former bandmates, giving them his approval, and joining in as best he could.
Whatever the case, it’s clear that the spirit of rock and roll was well and truly alive in California on that June evening, and fans were left with something exceptional that will go down in history as one of rock music’s greatest and most monumental moments. Now that’s something to celebrate with a cold one between friends!
