The Empire State Building Celebrates July 4th With Grateful Dead’s ‘U.S. Blues’ In 2015
By Scott Bernstein Jul 4, 2017 • 8:27 am PDT
On this date in 2015, the second of three Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years Of Grateful Dead shows at Soldier Field in Chicago took place featuring Dead members Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart and Bob Weir aided by Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti. The July 4th concert came to its conclusion with a “U.S. Blues” encore and at the same time lights synchronized to the encore were displayed atop the iconic Empire State Building in New York City.
ESB lighting designer Marc Brickman teamed up with the band to create the vision and technical design of the music-to-light show, which featured an assortment of Grateful Dead imagery in the mast of the building on Independence Day. The feat was then repeated for New Yorkers featuring a “U.S. Blues” soundtrack the next night. Watch video of how it went down:
The feat was repeated using “Touch Of Grey” to coincide with Dead & Company’s encore at Citi Field in nearby Queens on June 24, 2017:
