Weekend Ideas: July 3, 2015

The July 4 weekend’s usually pretty dead (pun to follow) on the live music scene, though there are a few things to consider. Boston’s early ’90s shoegaze pioneers the Swirlies reunite at Great Scott with Kudgel on Friday, part of a tour that’s the Swirlies’ first with guitarist/singer Seana Carmody since 2001. Earlier in the night, Ruby Rose Fox gives a rare solo performance at the Institute of Contemporary Art on the Seaport waterfront as part of the museum’s First Fridays series.

Sadly, Friday also marks 16 years since local icon Mark Sandman died of a heart attack onstage in Italy with Morphine, an event sure to lend extra resonance to Vapors of Morphine’s usual Saturday residence at Atwood’s Tavern with Dana Colley and Jerome Deupree. Of course, there’s also the Boston Pops at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade on Saturday (with Friday warmup). And on Sunday up in Rockport, blues-swing revivalist Pokey LaFarge leads his group at the beautiful Shalin Liu Performance Center.

For many folks, however, this weekend means the final joint concerts by Grateful Dead survivors Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart (with Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti) in Chicago. For those without the time/inclination/cash/luck to attend the “Fare Thee Well” shows in person at Soldier’s Field, there are local options to catch a live video feed via home webcast, limited movie theaters and, perhaps best of all, simulcasts at the Sinclair for only $5 a night. It’s been 50 years for the Grateful Dead (though Jerry Garcia died in 1995) and 30 years since Anastasio played Dead covers with Phish in Vermont bars; now he’s channeling Garcia licks on a stadium stage with the Dead clan. Here’s a taste of that “Fare Thee Well” band from last weekend’s two-show tune-up in Santa Clara, Calif.


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