The Dead Confirm Obama Benefit Details

The surviving members of the Grateful Dead have fleshed out the details regarding their upcoming benefit for the Presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama. As previously reported, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart will perform together for the first time since 2004 on October 13. The group has now confirmed that the benefit will take place at State College, PA’s Bryce Jordan Center, with the Allman Brothers Band and an undetermined opening act also set to appear. Confirming numerous reports, guitarist Warren Haynes and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti will augment the core members of The Dead.

Last February, Weir, Lesh and Hart performed together for the first time since 2004 at a Deadheads for Obama show held at San Francisco’s The Warfield. In May, Weir also joined Phil Lesh & Friends onstage as part of the closing of the Warfield celebration. At that performance, Weir helped Lesh and his band through “Cream Puff War,” “Morning Dew,” “New Minglewood Blues” and “Viola Lee Blues” as part of the group’s recreation of the Grateful Dead’s self-titled debut. Hart and Weir have also shared the stage a few times in recent memory, most notably in Golden Gate Park as part of the Green Music Festival.

Though reunion performances are scarce, the members of The Dead have played together a few times since 2004. In 2005, all the core surviving members of the Dead sans Phil Lesh shared the stage at the Comes a Time benefit. A year later, Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann collaborated with former Grateful Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay at Gathering of the Vibes and, in early 2007, the three musicians performed with Haynes and an assortment of guest musicians at an inauguration party for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. If the October 13 benefit goes well, The Dead is expected to tour in April and May of 2008.

Relix Magazine was launched in 1974 under the name Dead Relix. In its earliest incarnation, this hand-stapled, homegrown newsletter was an outlet for Grateful Dead tape traders—avid concertgoers who taped and traded Grateful Dead concerts. The first issues were small (less than 20 pages), had hand-drawn black-and-white covers, and focused on taping tips and Grateful Dead news. It also provided a forum for tape traders and music fanatics to communicate with each other. Even as early as the second issue, non-Dead editorial found its way into Dead Relix’s pages and, with the addition of an editor, the young magazine expanded its scope to cover the music of the Bay Area psychedelic scene.