The Dead has always been known for being at the forefront of music distribution technology, and they just showed off what they’ve been cooking up for their 2009 tour with the release of an iPhone / iPod Touch App called simply The Dead on the App Store.

From JamBase:

The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart are joined by keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and Allman Brothers Band/Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes on their first official Dead tour in over five years. Join Jay Blakesberg, the official tour photographer, and Justin Kreutzmann, the official tour videographer, as they document this fantastic musical journey.

Features include streaming audio from all the shows, video and photo blogs from rehearsals, backstage and concert footage, an interactive Photomosaic of The Dead 2009 tour logo made up of over 500 photographs of the band, news feed with live updates, set lists within seconds of a song being played from each concert, and an MP3 download consisting of two hours of live music from the tour.

All of this for $19.99 exclusively from the App Store. Expect to see many more bands doing this for future tours, especially considering that’s where the bread and better in the industry is headed.