The four surviving members of the Grateful Dead are launching their farewell mini-tour in Northern California, where the legendary jam band got its start 50 years ago.
The first of the Dead's five Fare Thee Well shows is scheduled to take place at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, not far from the pizzeria where a five-man blues-rock band called The Warlocks played its first gig in May 1965.
The group changed its name to the Grateful Dead seven months later and shortly after moved to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood, the counterculture hub with which the Dead are still identified.
They will perform a second two-set show in Santa Clara on Sunday before heading to Chicago for three shows at Soldier Field on July 3, 4 and 5. Soldier Field is where the Grateful Dead last played as a group before the death of lead guitarist-songwriter Jerry Garcia in August 1995.
The band's so-called "core four" - rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh and percussionists Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann - insist July 5 will be their last concert together.
They have recruited Phish frontman Trey Anastasio as Garcia's stand-in on guitar and vocals. Keyboardists Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti, best known for his work with Weir's band RatDog, will round out the lineup.
The Grateful Dead made 65,000 tickets available for each of the California shows. Online ticket reseller StubHub said that as of Friday the average ticket had gone for $US171 ($A221.04), although sellers had posted asking prices as high as $US725.
The Chicago shows, which were announced first and are opening over a holiday weekend, are fetching higher prices, $US674 on average, StubHub spokeswoman Jessica Erskine said.
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