Dead Shows

haha yes please continue sunfighter.

i'm headed to atleast one of the furthur shows, but if i can get more money i will go to more.

i love the dead though. for me they just feel so connected to psychedelics. some dead songs do some pretty crazy shit while your tripping. the other day i was listening to an old dick's picks on mushrooms and it just completely shook my soul. unfortunately i have only had one chance to see bob weir and no other members of the band. it was a good show, but the vibes just felt so off. some people were discontent with the opener(moe.) and just kept yelling for bob weir to come on which i felt was disrespectful as moe. is one of my favorite bands. so i eventually just had to distance myself and enjoy bob weir and ratdog from a distance. that kind of stuff, can really be a bummer at a concert.

but i'll never forget when bob weir first came on(keep in mind this is my first time seeing any member of the dead live). he steps up on stage and picks up a guitar with moe. and plays a song with them. it just blew me away. i think the song was 'the race is on' the energy from bob weir combined with moe was amazing. i felt i enjoyed bob weir with moe. more than with ratdog.

 

I had the pleasure of catching about 75 to 90 shows from 87 to 93 or thereabouts. One show stands out, Red Rocks in Colorado,I think it would be the last time the band would play there as the Grateful Dead. We drove from NY to the show without stopping, driving down the thruway and we see this giant banner going over the road saying " CHIEF HOSA CAMPGROUND WELCOMES DEADHEADS " in big letters so we went there. So did about 20,000 other heads, it was totally insane! The shows were spread out over a 4 day period, first 2 days, shows, day off 1 show. We only had 1st night tix, but anyway, the campground was crazy, there was a big vat of electric kool aid at the bottom of the mountain that everyone was tossing various quantities of acid into and freely passing out. Every day these guys would fill up jugs and go through the whole camp passing out shots. We went to the first nights show, which I remember none of, the second night we climbed the mountain behind Red Rocks, where you could hear really good but could not see. Unfortunately a few people tried to climb the Red Rocks themselves and several fell to their deaths, which is why the band was never invited back. Quite a few fatal overdoses at the campground also. But that is in the top 10 Dead experiences for me, I'll throw another up when time allows, always fun to take a trip down memory lane.

 

ill be hopefully doing the north east part of the furthur tour. im so making a HF sign for the lot so i can meet u kind folk!

 

OK, so, previously I've written about my first show in 1973 and how I became a Deadhead when the Dead were taking their break in 1975. I did not know if they would ever play again. Then, since I had responded to the "Dead Heads Unite!" message in the Skull Fuck album, I got in the mail the announcement of the next tour, starting in June 1976, along with mail order instructions. Meantime, I was listening to the weird and amazing Blues For Allah album and a growing collection of cassette tapes.

I mailed away and got great seats for one of the comeback shows in the Boston Music Hall. Two loge seats, under the balcony at the end, great view of the stage. I took my new girlfriend. It was one of our first dates.

The Boston Music Hall was a great place to hear music. It was one of those wonderful old ornate theaters, built in 1925 and could seat about 3500. The acoustics were good and it was easy to smoke pot in your seat. It only lasted until about 1979, when it was rehabbed and didn't have rock concerts anymore.

I went to the Friday, June 11 show. It was a good show. My main impression was that they were playing a little more slowly than they used to, compared to the tapes I had of the early 70s. This was especially apparent when they started the second set with St. Stephen. I would have preferred a wilder version, but it was good.

The main thing I remember was the sequence of Sugar Magnolia> Eyes Of The World> Stella Blue> Sunshine Daydream. That was soooo good. Our loge seats at the end of the balcony were almost like being in a private box, and here I was with my new girlfriend. At one point, a Deadhead tried to get into our box, but I didn't let him. My girlfriend was wearing a long skirt and when they launched into Sunshine Daydream, my hand found my way under that skirt and I discovered she wasn't wearing any underwear! Well well well, you can never tell. Might as well. She had a great orgasm during that last song, and she still likes Sugar Magnolia a lot. I know, because we've been married for over 30 years now.

 

Thats awesome man. Im going to see Furthur soon with my girlfriend, hopefully she doesnt wear any panties either

 

:deadxmas:

 

Sweet, I have a older friend who has told me some crazy Red Rocks storys too. I got the chance to see them last spring in Denver on tour, cool, but just not the same I'm sure with no Jerry and all.:deadxmas:

 

this one time, my friend had a yellow VW bug.. my gf and I was headed to deer creek when we see this yellow bug broken down on I70.. I said thats adams car.. and sure enough it was. In a crowd of 50k people this dude found me cause I always fly a kite off my bumper, so I can find my ride myself at time.. ;p I was getting ready to drive home when I was smoking a bowl of hash in the car, this dude comes up to my window "omg im so glad I found you, I need a ride home" .. I think this was the year of the great porch collapse.. yeap it was.. only weeks before our g-d died..

 

I loved Deercreek, Did you go to the town park for camping, that place was awsome! I dont know how many years they did that, but the one time we went they had free camping in the town park. They were very cool and laid back about it, that was another really good time. They had miniture golf, swimming pool, and a rec. room with pool table and video games, turned into another 3 day party.:deadxmas:arty::window:

 

John is a dead ringer for Jerry as far as guitar and vocals go. Seriously dead on the money.

Now is your chance to see what it was like, musically.

 

when we stayed in deer creek it was free camping that I can remember, but we didnt stay over night, just chilled there pre concert..

I used to go to Richfield runs alot and there was a bowling alley not far down the road, that always broke up the day a little... some good times..

 

so then, june '76, the pace slows. what was it like after that sunfighter?

what i'm curious to know is if there was an abundance of lsd at these shows. what was the 'market' for such things like at dead shows way back then?

 

I don't remember anything about LSD at that show. At the time, I had not dared to take it anywhere except at home with friends, so I wasn't looking to buy at the show. It was a year since I tried it for the first time. It was a year or so later that I started to trip at shows, but even then only at shows I could get to on public transportation and I would only trip at one show out of three-show run.

My impression of the late 70's was that only a small portion of the audience was dosed. If I had to guess, maybe 10%.

 

I have a question. I am a member of Old hippies, but cannot figure out how to post or "say" anything in there. Can someone tell me how to do that????