Grateful Dead

Never be belly up at the stage for a premier...the sound leaped over our heads in a curve (musta been the shining lite) keep your character, enjoy living, share your fortune, OXOX Merple Reddin

I grew up in Fontana, just down the road. I was 15 back then and went to most concerts at the Swing. When the Grateful Dead played this show me and a buddy got tickets mostly for the party.......Or maybe only for the party. We knew who the Grateful Dead were but that was about that. I remember the visual of it more than the music. We were blown away by the audience and of course the party. We jumped right in and ended up having a blast. I have had a chance to hear the show since..........Fantastic!!!

I was 21, attending college, and going to a large number of the concerts that were playing at the good ol' Swing Auditorium. The venue accommodated just over 6,000 people, and it was set up in a horseshoe shape, about twice as wide as it was deep, with a large open floor area and a permanent raised stage that was recessed into the back wall. For the Dead shows, no chairs were set up on the floor; instead it was standing room, and that made the place look much less full than it would have appeared if chairs had been set up (there was no difference in the maximum number of tickets available for fixed-seating or standing room setups). All tickets were General Admission, meaning that you could either race for the front of the standing crowd or race to get as good of a view as possible from the center area of the lower level or balcony permanent seats. I headed for the floor, and got to see the show from about 30' away from the front of the stage. As anybody knows, it was almost impossible to hear Grateful Dead tunes on the radio back then, unless you lived in the Bay area (and I'm not sure how much airplay they got even up there). Back then I didn't own any Dead albums; my college friends had very few Dead LPs, and almost never played them--it was much "cooler" to play Zeppelin, Stones, Floyd, and the more esoteric groups (ELP, Yes, etc.). As a result, I really had no idea what I was getting into. I did know that the Dead were supposed to be a good live band, and the ticket was cheap enough (remember when concerts and ball games were affordable?). So, just for the hell of it, I bought a ticket and took my chances. There was no way to compare the band to anything I'd seen live before. They wandered onstage instead of setting off explosions and going for a bombastic staged opening. They tuned up for a couple of minutes, the way a small combo at a cheesy bar might do, and then they went from that hesitant-sounding tuneup into the first bars of Terrapin Station (which I had heard for the first time only the day before, after I bought the album). I played guitar back then, so I was mesmerized by Jerry's fluidity and by Bob's strong work. More than anything else, though, I saw a bunch of musicians who were enjoying themselves even more than the audience. It was like spending time in a very large living room with a bunch of friends, listening to some of your buddies crank out some tunes, rather than attending a concert. I saw them two more times at the Swing, in '78 and '80, and a few times after that at other venues. Although I probably saw 40 concerts or more at the Swing Auditorium before it had to be demolished (a small private plane crashed into the roof of the building on September 11 (of all days--what a bizarre coincidence), 1981, it was my three Dead shows there that I look back on with the fondest memories, and those shows are the biggest reason why I miss that odd little building. I'm trying to remember whether it was the '77 or the '78 show that had the large backdrop of an eagle... memories fade. At least the music is still with us, thanks to the generosity of the band in allowing tapers to record and share most of their shows (and the recording of this show is my most-played concert).