Grateful Dead

i was back stage for this show and my friend bumped into sting as they were coming in out of the rain. a moment i will never forget

My wife and I were married on 6/18/03, and I thought I would have to skip these weekend shows (you only get married once, right?). Much to our surprise, we received tickets to this show as a wedding gift from the best friend a Deadhead could ever have... Covering The Beatles' "Rain" as an encore was incredibly fitting, as the skies opened up prior to the show...

I went along to Soldier Field with some heads from St. Louis (Lita and Mark) and had no idea of what I was in for. We arrived at the venue several hours before the show w/out tickets to see what we could do to get in. After meeting dozens of other deadheads and sharing many varieties of mind-altering "party favors", we found a group who decided to crash a gate. On the count of 3, we hauled ass toward security and I, being in the center of the horde, was literally carried in with the crowd. Once inside the outer ring of the stadium, we stood around and listened to the music as the 2nd set began, until an older gentleman approached and asked why we weren't inside enjoying the show. We confessed that we had no tickets and didn't want to get thrown out as we had just made our way in. He laughed and said no one would check for tickets for the upper bowl sections and he escorted us into the stadium where the crowd was in full swing in the middle of "China Cat/ I Know U Rider". I had never had a better time dancing and melting under a starry sky to the most amazing sounds and sights orchestrated by Jerry and Co. I remember being so touched by Jerry singing "SOTM" in that white light and that I had some tears in my eyes. 14 years later, memories of this show are vivid and warming to my soul!

This was my first dead show i had no idea what i was in for. first off THE LIGHTING STORM!!!! that was the most awsome show of lighting i had seen! sting called us all crazy and bailed cause it got pretty much scarry, the croud tryed to squeese in all into the insie at once so we stayed and stuck out the worst part of the storm. we went in to potty and get warm and we heard the dead come out and start we ran out to the best seat we could find and i remember the people who had the tix for the seats we we in came by and the whole section kinda one minded the away for us . it was cool cause that was a sweet spot to c from!! the show was life changing i seen the world in a whole new point of view from that day on!!! and the fire works we mind melting that night i was hooked the grateful dead had totally took me in and made me c that we really are all one!! THANK YOU JERRY!!! ALWAYS KEEP A HAPPY THOUGHT IN FRONT

I am not sure , but I think this is the show where when we where going into the show, crossing over the bridge there was noise everywhere people moving every direction. The rain was coming down. We were all bunched up like cattle. When a bolt of lightning hit the flag pole in front of the stadium as we where crossing. It seemed like a very long time when everything went silent. Then a big cheer went out when everyone realized they were still alive. Very weird. I also really like the Standing on the Moon that night.

What I wild one! I remember Sting playing like only 6 songs and then literally running off the stage when the skies opened. The band came out and was pleading with people to get away from the metal chairs on the field. Every time that lightning would strike nearby the crowd would just roar. I believe it was during their break that the lights went out in the stadium for a bit, and whenever the lightning lit up the sky all you could make out were the balloons everywhere. I also remember the second set starting out with a SYF/Bulls logo that set the crowd wild. When I got back to the hotel I found out that we were partying away through a severe thunderstorm warning. Oh and Ripple1 has it exactly right, Jerry's Standing on the Moon from that night is still in my playlist on my ipod.

my least favorite DEAD show. no good pre-party. traffic sucked. weather sucked. hard to hear. pretty good set list though.

This was the first time I ever really noticed cops at a show - out in helmets with shields, standing in a ring around a kid passed out (I hope that's all) - glaring out at us and making the crowd part around them as we walk out of the show. I'm sure the East Coast heads had been dealing with it forever, but having come up on the Midwest swing campground shows (Alpine, Deer Creek, Pine Knob), that was it for me... Having that night seen one more Vince show than I had seen Brent shows - it seemed like a good time for a break...

I remember how sting only played a few minutes it seemed like ,,, but the show in the sky above took my attention... FULLY... It was an amazing show... I miss these days, my type of cool people, and , of course the LOVE.

Wil never forget that day... Driving into the city from the suburbs with majestic skies, that deep blue Midwest sky with impossibly white and fluffy clouds brushed in almost too perfectly. Electricity in the air! But I did not know what was to come. Great parking lot scene. I hadn’t realized that was where it all happens. I expected tailgate and this was anything but. Cruised around and met a bunch of beautiful people. Grubbed something or other. And then it was time to go. I remember at some point we lost my buddy Roy. He had taken some shrooms like the rest of us, but they were slow to kick in and so he doubled down with a random dose off of a random guy. And as soon as he took it, the shrooms kicked in. We found him hours later, huge smile, and missing all of his top front teeth!! Crossed the bridge over to Soldier Field. Lightening starting to trigger. Enter the stadium. Sting comes out and plays a few jams, and then the rain picks up and the lightening is really to speak, and Sting got the hell outa there in a hurry. We were kid lawn on a metal screen that had been laid out to protect the grass. And someone came out and announced that we’d all soon be electrocuted if we stayed. So we walked back towards the shelter at the back of the lawn, and just as we reached cover, the band came out, the rain stopped, and those sweet and sentimental notes of Touch of Gray began to play. We all turned around. And danced our way back out onto the metal lawn. The next major thing I remember is the first time I ever heard China->Rider live. Honestly I was not even that familiar with those songs yet. But after that night I could never quite get it out of my head. And I’m not complaining. It was magical! Truly. Life changing. I’ll never forget it.

This ended the era for me. I was on a different trip, both musically and socially, and as I remember I had to be convinced by an old sweetheart with spare tickets to go to this run of shows.

Maggie's Farm and Rain were the highlights for me. It seems appropriate in hindsight that the last song I ever saw them perform was a song I had never seen them perform before that.

At the time it seemed like it was the end of my love affair with the band, I'd seen them over 50 times and felt like they had lost their spark and magic. I turned towards different things, different people, different expectations, and felt deep sadness two years later when Jerry passed, and also a sense of relief that I wasn't still wrapped up in the scene when it happened.

Now I'm 50 years old, I circled back to their music again many years ago, and now I'm happily building up a huge collection of GD vinyl. I appreciate this band so much, I am so happy I made the decision to drop out of high school and see as many of their concerts as I could over a 3-year period, and have nothing but good feelings about the choices I made, the people I met, and the huge number of places I got to visit while pursuing these guys across the country.

I was 14 the first time I saw them live, 15 when I quit high school to follow them around, 17 when I decided that living on the road wasn't a good life for me, and 19 years old the last time I saw them live. It seems so, so long ago, and as a man who is now a father it strikes me as such a bold, risky, dangerous proposition I embarked on. I would be horrified if my kids did the same thing.

I don't regret a thing, the Grateful Dead gave me a view of the world few ever get, the experiences on tour gave me street smarts and a personal confidence none of the people I grew up with had, and led to bigger and better things that never would have happened if I hadn't had them as a springboard to bounce off of.

All before it was legal for me to drink a beer.

Thank you, guys, for the amazing experiences I had, and which I will never, ever forget.