Grateful Dead General Thread

[PDX_Horn 24]

On 6/10/2021 at 2:56 AM, WhatTheBuck said:

The cheers from the crowd when they launch into Dark Star still give me chills. The MIDI instruments really breathed new life into Jerry and the collective creative effort. Those shows were billed as “Formerly the Warlocks” because GD fans were getting out of hand and the Dead were banned from playing at Hampton Coliseum (aka the spaceship). I tried to see my first Dead show there on spring break in ‘87 but couldn’t find tickets in the lot. I didn’t know what a popular place it was to see the band.

Bought some acid and when the cops ordered everyone with tickets to go into the show and everyone else to clear out of the lot, we went across the street to a theater and watched Platoon. That was a trip. I wouldn’t get inside the venue until years later to see Phish. 

The Boise Bag

 

[WhatTheBuck 28852]

44 minutes ago, PDX_Horn said:

The Boise Bag

 

That Bag sucks as soon as Trey starts in with that delay loop bullshit. I’m pretty sure there’s a Phish thread here. You wanna talk Phish? I can talk Phish. I’ve actually seen them more times than the Dead. Not during 1.0 but I surpassed my Dead show count during 2.0 (and if I had my life to live over I would’ve stopped after 1.0).

I was at Halloween ‘94, ‘95, ‘96, and ‘98. I was at NYE ‘94 and ‘95. I was at Clifford Ball and The Great Went. I saw the show at FLPAC with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters just before the Went. The greatest mistake in my concert-going career was probably attending SCI in Portland, OR on NYE ‘99 instead of Big Cypress. (I was actually a volunteer who helped push floats around during the show. That was an educational experience.) The shows in Vancouver that preceded the Portland shows were way better  

There would be a reasonable argument to be made that I should’ve stopped seeing Phish after NYE ‘95 because I often refer to that as the best concert I ever saw. (Coventry in 2004 was definitely the worst, an unusual distinction for one band.) I still would’ve liked to have been at the Warfield on 4/15-17/99. But early Phish peaked at MSG on 12/31/95 and after that they had to evolve. Trey on the drum kit, or the delay loop, or that little keyboard thing, just didn’t work, imo. (I don’t even want to see the “marimba lumina.”)

To tie this back to the Dead, Mike was the big Deadhead in the band. Trey was influenced, but Mike was the bigger fan from everything I’ve ever heard. Bobby used to host a free online concert in HD with high quality audio from his TRI Studios every week (called “Weir Here” and featuring Steve Parrish during the “On the Couch” panel discussion segment which was also awesome).

On what would’ve been Jerry’s 70th birthday, he hosted a show featuring a bunch of musicians that lasted for like 5 hours or so. It was amazing. Phil showed up to play for a song or two but then Mike played bass for the rest of the show (and kicked ass). Track it down if you can. It’s incredible. Not every song works but there are times where everything is clicking and the music is playing the band and you can see it on the young musicians faces as they’re getting it. The Eyes of the World is a good example. Also, Bobby’s performance of The Days Between is particularly moving. I’m not sure I ever really appreciated that song until then.

I should’ve seen Phish for the first time in ‘91. I could have. I remember every year seeing more and more cars in the lots at Dead shows with Phish stickers on them. I could’ve seen them in ‘92. But I didn’t get around to it until ‘93. I always felt like I was late to the game. Partied with Page at a friend’s apartment after that first night, though. Back then 4/20 didn’t have any significance.

[WhatTheBuck 28852]

Ooh, also, what is now the Newport used to be called the Agora back when the Dead played there. 

[Hate 20167]

Tonight is 6/18/76 from the Capital Theater in Passaic, NJ.  This is a terrific show.  It was released as a Download Series along with songs from 6/21/76 at he Tower Theater in Upper Darby, PA. 

 

 

[PDX_Horn 24]

On 6/18/2021 at 8:11 AM, WhatTheBuck said:

That Bag sucks as soon as Trey starts in with that delay loop bullshit. I’m pretty sure there’s a Phish thread here. You wanna talk Phish? I can talk Phish. I’ve actually seen them more times than the Dead. Not during 1.0 but I surpassed my Dead show count during 2.0 (and if I had my life to live over I would’ve stopped after 1.0).

I was at Halloween ‘94, ‘95, ‘96, and ‘98. I was at NYE ‘94 and ‘95. I was at Clifford Ball and The Great Went. I saw the show at FLPAC with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters just before the Went. The greatest mistake in my concert-going career was probably attending SCI in Portland, OR on NYE ‘99 instead of Big Cypress. (I was actually a volunteer who helped push floats around during the show. That was an educational experience.) The shows in Vancouver that preceded the Portland shows were way better  

There would be a reasonable argument to be made that I should’ve stopped seeing Phish after NYE ‘95 because I often refer to that as the best concert I ever saw. (Coventry in 2004 was definitely the worst, an unusual distinction for one band.) I still would’ve liked to have been at the Warfield on 4/15-17/99. But early Phish peaked at MSG on 12/31/95 and after that they had to evolve. Trey on the drum kit, or the delay loop, or that little keyboard thing, just didn’t work, imo. (I don’t even want to see the “marimba lumina.”)

To tie this back to the Dead, Mike was the big Deadhead in the band. Trey was influenced, but Mike was the bigger fan from everything I’ve ever heard. Bobby used to host a free online concert in HD with high quality audio from his TRI Studios every week (called “Weir Here” and featuring Steve Parrish during the “On the Couch” panel discussion segment which was also awesome).

On what would’ve been Jerry’s 70th birthday, he hosted a show featuring a bunch of musicians that lasted for like 5 hours or so. It was amazing. Phil showed up to play for a song or two but then Mike played bass for the rest of the show (and kicked ass). Track it down if you can. It’s incredible. Not every song works but there are times where everything is clicking and the music is playing the band and you can see it on the young musicians faces as they’re getting it. The Eyes of the World is a good example. Also, Bobby’s performance of The Days Between is particularly moving. I’m not sure I ever really appreciated that song until then.

I should’ve seen Phish for the first time in ‘91. I could have. I remember every year seeing more and more cars in the lots at Dead shows with Phish stickers on them. I could’ve seen them in ‘92. But I didn’t get around to it until ‘93. I always felt like I was late to the game. Partied with Page at a friend’s apartment after that first night, though. Back then 4/20 didn’t have any significance.

That’s awesome man. Thanks for sharing the insight and info as I only got into Phish last year and it seems they’re a shell of their former selves (1.0 era).
 

How was partying with Page? He seems like a pretty nice guy. 

[WhatTheBuck 28852]

7 hours ago, PDX_Horn said:

That’s awesome man. Thanks for sharing the insight and info as I only got into Phish last year and it seems they’re a shell of their former selves (1.0 era).
 

How was partying with Page? He seems like a pretty nice guy. 

It was fine. I had a couple female friends who lived up the street from me. One hot, one not. They’d been to a show before and met the band. They put out the invitation. Everyone was hoping Trey would show up but all we got was Page. Lol. But he was a totally regular guy. He’s not much older than I am and I had just seen my first show and wasn’t awestruck or anything. We smoked some of my fine homegrown. I happened to have brought a couple CD’s by Zappa and King Crimson just to play at the party and he was interested in looking at those.

I really didn’t know Phish music at all. A friend had loaned me Picture of Nectar and I’d listened to it a couple of times. I never took the time to tell Page I enjoyed the show and was looking forward to the next night. And then there were more people wanting to smoke him down and I don’t recall seeing him turning down any offer. I’m unaware whether he scored with either one of my friends.

Speaking of my friend who turned me onto Phish, he was a best friend from high school. He figures prominently in a lot of my concert going experiences including why I missed the Dark Star in Greensboro, NC on 4/1/91. I’ll call him Rick. (Not his real name.) We used to get together a few times a year, drop acid or eat mushrooms, and share music. Usually we’d make mix tapes, later mix discs. The first Phish song I ever heard was Guelah Papyrus which he put on his mix tape. I’d heard of Phish. At the time they’d been on the HORDE tour with Blues Traveller and Spin Doctors and I wasn’t aware of any difference between those bands. But I thought Guelah Papyrus was pretty good and that’s what led him to loan me Picture of Nectar.

So when Phish came to town for two shows in ‘93, I went ahead and bought tickets for both shows. The first night wasn’t heavily attended, got right in, only ran into a few acquaintances from the local Deadhead scene. But I decided they deserved the acid test for night two. Apparently word had spread after night one and there was a huge line to get in. I missed the start of the show. I didn’t get in until the fourth song of the first set. That song? You guessed it - Guelah Papyrus. Great show. Check it out if you can. The jam in that Split Open and Melt is the one that appears at the end of Demand on the Hoist album. And I think it was during Forbin’s > Mockingbird, during the storytelling phase, where they essentially did their version of Space. Trey told a story about how gremlins were on the outside of the building, sanding down the corners and the edges until the building was a big ball. All the while the other guys were making sanding sounds, shooka shooka shooka or whatever. Then the theater basically became the ball that was used in that old Labyrinth maze game. It was pretty cool. I had bought in by that point and totally got it.

[Hate 20167]

Tonight is 6/19/89 the middle show of a 3 night run at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA.  These were their last west coast dates before heading east for what is probably my favorite run of shows, July of 89. 

 

 

[Txslnghrns 1356]

I’m new to this thread. So SIAP. But I’ve always loved this song.

[Hate 20167]

Which song?

[Txslnghrns 1356]

Which song?

Sorry brother. Had to drunk edit.

[Hate 20167]

That's an all time great song.  My wife and I named our first dog Althea.  Great song!

[Txslnghrns 1356]

[Tylerocks 2557]

On 6/18/2021 at 8:34 AM, PDX_Horn said:

The Boise Bag

 

Very random....I was at this show in Boise.

Was living in Sun Valley at the time and made the trek over.  

Solid show.

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by Tylerocks

[Hate 20167]

They brought back Shakedown Stream for what would have been Robert Hunter's 80th birthday today.  It's 7/14/90 from Foxboro, Mass.

 

[Hate 20167]

So at the suggestion from @Druggist from the MSG 1987 thread, I am listening to 9/18/87 from Madison Square Garden in New Your, New York.

https://archive.org/details/gd87-09-18.sbd.samaritano.20025.sbeok.shnf

 

Edit:  I'm not far into this show yet, but the recording is fantastic! 

Edited June 25, 2021 by Hate

[Hate 20167]

What else is there to do during a rain delay but listen to the greatest goddamn band that ever was??

 

[Hate 20167]

Quote

 

This may have one of the best Crazy Fingers of all time.  This is fucking awesome!

[Hate 20167]

Tonight is 6/28/83 from the Poplar Creek Music Theater in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.  I don't listen to a whole lot from 83 so I'm excited about this show.

 

[Hate 20167]

That show was pretty damn good I have to admit.  Tonight is 6/30/85 from The Merriweather Post Pavilion in Colombia, Maryland.  The sound is great from this show except Brent is playing the weird keyboard a lot.  It's not awful, but it's not as good as the keyboards and organ he was playing later.

https://archive.org/details/gd85-06-30.sbd.miller.30158.sbeok.flacf

[Hate 20167]

@MAUFRAIS, you a Dead Head yet?

[MAUFRAIS 6680]

No, but I am seeing more deadhead stickers on cadillacs these days. I bought some potatos off this guy and he was glad to hear I’m going to my first show.

[Hate 20167]

Have you gone back through this thread and listened to any of the shows?

[Hate 20167]

How about a show from 48 years ago?? Tonight is 7/1/73 from the Universal Amphitheater in Universal City, California?

 

[MAUFRAIS 6680]

I’ll put that one on this weekend. Thanks.

[Hate 20167]

16 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:

I’ll put that one on this weekend. Thanks.

I cannot more strongly recommend this show for this weekend.  It is my favorite show period.  Everything about this show is perfect, IMO.

 

[Hate 20167]

So tonight kicks off what is one of my favorite runs of shows, July of 89.  Tonight is 7/2/89 from Foxboro Stadium. It has one of my favorite Crazy Fingers, but really gets going in the second set.  He's Gone, Eyes of the World, The Wheel (After drums/space), and an epic Dear Mr Fantasy into Hey Jude.  Love this show and this time of the band.

 

[Hate 20167]

Tonight is 7/3/88 from Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine.

https://archive.org/details/gd88-07-03.sbd.ststephen.3908.sbeok.shnf

[Guest Lobo]

Today is also the 18th anniversary of the show that inspired me to wish that Pat Green was never born.  I curse you Pat, I curse you and every fucking cocksucking shithead that ever put that blue oval sticker of yours on their Tahoe with the tennis ball on the antenna in Austin in the late 90's/early 2000's.  I curse you and the day you were born!  Fuckmunch!  Holy shit, there's the tylenol?  

[Hate 20167]

I've been out of town since last week and under the weather since I've gotten back.  Tonight is the first night I've felt decent enough to sit up and listen to some music for a while.  Tonight it's 7/15/88 from the Greek Theater in Berkeley, California.

 

[Hate 20167]

I don't know where all of the Dead Heads went, but I'm up listening to 7/17/89-7/19/89.  This is the Downhill From Here show that is a compilation of their 3 day run in Wisconsin from Alpine Valley. 

 

[Druggist 303]

9 hours ago, Hate said:

I don't know where all of the Dead Heads went, but I'm up listening to 7/17/89-7/19/89.  This is the Downhill From Here show that is a compilation of their 3 day run in Wisconsin from Alpine Valley. 

 

I still have my VHS tape of that.  I love that run and era.  I haven’t heard better versions  of West LA Fadeaway or Deal than those there.  There is a part in the peak of the Deal where Billy is playing so hard his face looks like he is having a seizure.  Good stuff.

I am currently listening to the Billy and the Kids w/Billy Stings from red rocks last week through ReListen. Really nice shows.  There are some really good videos on YouTube including this So Many Roads

From night 1, there is an excellent sequence of Scarlet>Sitting in Limbo>Eyes>Bird Song>Other One>Bird Song followed by the SMR posted above.  The Eyes is really nice.

 

[Druggist 303]

I heard the 89 Alpine Valley Foolish Heart on the way home on #TIGDH.  Great version.  I love the middle jam in that song.  The version from Fare Thee Well is one of my favorites from that run.  Trey really nails it.

 

[Hate 20167]

That's a song I've never really gotten into for some reason.  I was checking out this show earlier and it has a Foolish Heart.  I've also been on a Row jimmy kick the last few days, which 7/19/90 has as well.  It's pretty good, but to wrap the night up I had to check out the best Row Jimmy ever, 5/8/77. 

 

[Prepuce of Doom 21141]

Stumbled over the Dylan/Dead shows recently when using the "favorite bands by historical" sort feature on Taper's Section. 

Basically a short run of Bob Dylan shows with the Dead serving as his backup band. Fun little change of pace - check them out... 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan_and_the_Grateful_Dead_1987_Tour

 

[stc 1474]

5 hours ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

Stumbled over the Dylan/Dead shows recently when using the "favorite bands by historical" sort feature on Taper's Section. 

Basically a short run of Bob Dylan shows with the Dead serving as his backup band. Fun little change of pace - check them out... 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan_and_the_Grateful_Dead_1987_Tour

 

 

there's an official album from that tour. deadheads routinely shit on it but i don't think it's bad. 

 

[Hate 20167]

Today is significant in the Grateful Dead universe for a couple of reasons.  It's the 31st anniversary of Brent Mydland's last show as well as the 41st anniversary of Keith Godchaux's death.  I'm going to listen to 7/23/90 tonight from the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park, Illinois.  I'll probably listen to some 70's Dead tonight as well to celebrate Keith. 

 

 

[Hate 20167]

It’s a perfect night for Standing on the Moon and this show has a great one.

[Hate 20167]

It absolutely breaks my heart to listen to “The Weight” from this show. We should be celebrating 60 years of the Grateful Dead instead of cursing what came to pass.

[Hate 20167]

Tonight is all for 7/25/74 from the International Amphitheater in Chicago, Illinois.

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by Hate

[Hate 20167]

I'm only a couple of songs in and this is already a great show.  The recording is out fucking standing!

[Druggist 303]

On 7/25/2021 at 9:30 PM, Hate said:

I'm only a couple of songs in and this is already a great show.  The recording is out fucking standing!

Love that show!  Is that the Dark Star where they go into the proto-slipknot?

[Hate 20167]

^^^yes it is.  Tonight is 7/29/88 from the Laguna Speedway in Monterrey, California.  I'm really looking forward to the China Cat>Crazy Fingers>I Know you Rider to start the first set.  This recording is fantastic. 

 

[Hate 20167]

Damn, I think Phil blew out an amp.  Cassidy gets a little "fuzzy".  Maybe the change the amps during the break.  Deal as a first set closer is always, always, awesome!

[Hate 20167]

Tonight is 10-19-89 from The Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA.  I've been on a late 88-90 kick lately and this show is damn fine. 

 

[WhatTheBuck 28852]

On 7/23/2021 at 4:35 PM, stc said:

there's an official album from that tour. deadheads routinely shit on it but i don't think it's bad. 

 

That’s kind of a ‘best of’ compilation from that tour. I own it and like it okay. But even the members of the Dead don’t speak highly of that tour. They were in awe of Dylan and it was a huge deal to rehearse with him. But when they got out on stage he was unpredictable and often changed things up and played songs differently than the way they’d rehearsed them. It’s a good thing the Dead were skilled at winging it.

[WhatTheBuck 28852]

My third show was Buckeye Lake in Hebron, OH on 6/25/88. I planned to post about it on the anniversary but didn’t get around to it. It was the first time I got to see a Dead show and sleep in my own bed that night. It was also the site of my last Dead show in the summer of ‘94. It was also the first time I saw the Dead with an opening act. Since it’s the 40th anniversary of MTV I figure I should post this because Bruce Hornsby and The Range opened. I wasn’t really a fan and thought that was a weird choice for an opener. I had no idea that Bruce would eventually become a member of the band. (I later saw the Violent Femmes open for the Dead at Buckeye Lake in ‘91 and that was just awful. I’ll never understand that.)

The Way it Is is a pretty good song. It’s just got that 80’s sound that was required to get your video played on MTV. Listen to later versions of it that aren’t so synthetic and are more acoustic and it sounds a lot better. (The drums the guy is playing in the video aren’t the drums being played on the recording.)

It wasn’t the best Dead show I ever saw, but it was an experience. I caught both my second Stranger > Franklin’s opener and second Terrapin in three shows. It would still be a little while before I really got Feel Like a Stranger. But Bruce came out and sat in on accordion for Sugaree and Memphis Blues. And the Dead don’t let just anyone sit in on accordion.

https://archive.org/details/gd88-06-25.schoeps-fob.unknown.8478.sbeok.shnf/gd88-06-25d1t02.shn

Buckeye Lake was a pretty cool place for a show. It’s an all GA venue, just a natural valley with the stage at the bottom of the hill. It will hold 50,000 people. We got in pretty early and set up not too far behind the delay towers. I was tripping pretty hard by the time showtime approached and needed to run to the restroom. I stood up and looked back to see this sea of people going up the hill behind me. Holy crap! How am I going to manage this? But I picked out some landmarks and managed to make my way all the way up the hill to the Port-A-Johns and found my way back to my friends. (Seven of them, six of whom were at their first show.)

It was scorching hot that day. The temperature reached 104. I’ve mentioned before about my conservative religious upbringing and how I was taught that dancing is evil, how my older brother and sister had to fight my mom in order to get permission to attend high school dances, and how I was involuntarily thrown to my feet in order to dance out of pure joy at my first Dead show. At Buckeye lake in ‘88 I danced in a way I never have before or since. I danced like no one was watching. I probably freaked out some of my friends. But I didn’t care. I was totally immersed and it felt like I was surfing on waves of sound. I was drenched in sweat by the end of the show. My ticket stub shows the stress.

[Hate 20167]

4/26/83 from The Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA.  This is Dave's Picks 39 that either was just released or will be soon.  It has a great Shakedown Street to start and a good TLEO for the era...so far.

 

[MAUFRAIS 6680]

Do they always start with shakedown street? Is that their whiskey river?

[Hate 20167]

33 minutes ago, MAUFRAIS said:

Do they always start with shakedown street? Is that their whiskey river?

Not really.  They have lots of songs to start shows ranging from Morning Dew to Bertha.  And Whiskey River is a song I wish they had covered.  It would have been a perfect song for them.

 

Edit: At my 3 shows I got Touch of Grey (twice) and Jack Straw. 

Edit #2: it appears that Jack Straw was the most song played to open a show at 192 times.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Hate

[Druggist 303]

1 hour ago, Hate said:

Not really.  They have lots of songs to start shows ranging from Morning Dew to Bertha.  And Whiskey River is a song I wish they had covered.  It would have been a perfect song for them.

 

Edit: At my 3 shows I got Touch of Grey (twice) and Jack Straw. 

Edit #2: it appears that Jack Straw was the most song played to open a show at 192 times.

I got Touch once , Mississippi half step twice, and Jack Straw once.  I got Dave’s 39 in the mail today and can’t wait to give it a listen.  Most early 80s shows, other than 11-30-80, fail to grab my attention,  so I hope this one does.