Like the Obama Steal Your Face logo created for the first of two Obama fundraisers during the campaign, it just doesn't get much cooler than this. The Dead will play an Inauguration ball in Washington D.C. the night the Best President Ever takes over for the Worst President Ever. Dozens of other prominent and awsome artists are taking place in events that will begin several days before the actual beautiful transfer of power. Other artists celebrating will be
Bruce Springsteen
Bono
Beyonce
Mary J. Blige
Herbie Hancock
John Legend
John Mellencamp
Usher Raymond IV
Shakira
James Taylor
will.i.am
Stevie Wonder.
Some of these concerts will be shown live by HBO.
I love America.
Phil Lesh: “...And that’s why I always say there’s nothing more American than The Grateful Dead.”
From Relix.com
https://www.relix.com/Features/Daily_News/The_Dead_to_Perform_at_Obama_Inauguration_200901153637.html
The surviving members of the Grateful Dead will perform in Washington, DC this coming Tuesday as part of Barack Obama’s Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball. Also on the bill is DJ Cassidy.
Other recent additions to the inaugural festivities include: The Derek Trucks Band with Susan Tedeschi and Wil Gravatt Band at the Southern Ball Common, Jack Johnson and Don Cagen Orchestra at the President Obama Home States Ball, Maroon 5 at the Vice President Biden Home States Ball, Sheryl Crow and Fabulous Motown Revue at the Midwestern Ball, James Taylor and Liquid Pleasure with Kenny Mann at the Eastern Ball, Yolanda Adams, Carole King, BeBe Winans and Dartmouth Gospel Choir at Finance Welcome Brunch, Carole King at the Bi-Partisan Dinner at Union Station, Honoring Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Faith Hill at the Bi-Partisan Dinner at the National Building Museum, Honoring General Colin Powell and Patti LaBelle at Bi-Partisan Dinner at the Hilton Washington, Honoring Senator John McCain.
The President-Elect’s staff had already lined up an impressive mix of musicians for the high-profile series of events, ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Beyonce to John Mellencamp to Usher to Bettye LaVette, Stevie Wonder and Bono.
The announcement should come as no surprise to Deadheads. Last February, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Heart put aside their differences to play a joint Obama benefit at San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre and, this past October, the reformed Dead played its first show since 2004 at an Obama benefit held in State College, PA. Likewise, Weir, Hart, Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Dead guitarist Warren Haynes, onetime Grateful Dead keyboardist Bruce Hornsby and Phish bassist Mike Gordon performed at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s inauguration party in 2007.
Weir cited RatDog’s election-night performance in Washington, DC as his 2008 favorite performance in the answers to his Relix "Year in Review" questionnaire. “Not because it was us, but because of the night,” he said after some thought.
When asked about the Grateful Dead community by Widespread Panic bassist Dave Schools in the February/March issue of Relix, Lesh remarked, “It’s not just the music. I mean, look what Obama did. It’s a seed of a community of various types.” He also used a question pertaining to Obama’s belief in a “team of rivals” to riff on the current state of American politics. “[The idea of a consensus has] been lost, it really has, with all this ideological culture war bullshit,” Lesh says. “And that’s why I always say there’s nothing more American than The Grateful Dead.”
The Dead will kick off its first tour since 2004 at Greensboro, NC’s Greensboro Coliseum on April 12. The group appears on the cover of the February/March issue of Relix .
