Jerry Garcia & Friends—SNACK Benefit, Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA, March 23, 1975
In October 1974, following a five-night stand at Winterland, the Grateful Dead officially retired from the road. With the hiatus and reorganization fully in place, it was quite surprising when they appeared in concert (and on the radio) at Kezar Stadium in the spring of 1975. And to make things even more interesting, the band played an entire set of unheard new material, joined by guest keyboardists Merl Saunders and Ned Lagin.
The day's set was billed as Jerry Garcia & Friends, but it was generally perceived as a Dead show. And what did the band do? They broke out an instrumental Blues for Allah suite before the official release of the record, that’s what. The music was strange and challenging. It was, in fact, unlike anything they had ever played for a live audience. And it was classic Good Ol’ Grateful Dead—playing parts of an unfinished album live on the KIOI FM radio airwaves.
The performance documents the fertile period of exploration the band was engaged in during their “retirement.” In a larger sense, the Dead’s choice of material they played for the SNACK gig announced to their fans that they were not only recording, but they were also still busily carving a unique path that no one expected. The Grateful Dead were still in the game, even if the rules of the game were not yet known.