Grateful Dead

There were a few days off before this show after Hamburg. Most of the Heads zipped over to Amsterdam. It was a fest for sure. You must go if you've never been. Then on the Paris. Royals w/ cheese and all that. The show was in a state of the art futuristic tentlike venue. The sound was incredible. It was built for dynamic acoustics. It was in the middle of a huge art museum complex/grounds area. There were monstrous works of art-amazing metal sculptures and off the wall wind/sound/water pieces. Before and after the show Heads were frolicing to and fro, playing on and under all the outrageous stuff. After the show we along with 10 or so others climbed atop this magnificent metal dragon that was 20 ft tall and 60ft. long. It had a path up it's back to it's head and a long rolling slide to the ground out of it's mouth. It was raining as it did everyday in france when we were there so a huge puddle at the bottom of the slide was an exciting finish. The shows were blistering. Phil even spoke some french at the end of one. I was introduced to Bear at this show. The French Heads were in full efect and the Love was in abundance. Our hotel was across the street from the venue so there were no worries whatsoever. I need these shows on cd. Please help.

I posted another comment under the Essen show but I'll expand here...what a wonderful show and wonderful scene. Everything about the futuristic hall was a trip (pun intended). It was at this point where I had been travelling for almost 2 weeks with random deadheads I'd meet in hostels and trains. A strong contingent of folks had emerged, many associated with Hampshire college, but tons of others too. One guy from San Francisco who brought a zillion "we are everywhere" stickers to the shows and was giving them out (I saw them all over Paris!). A guy named "Moke" who apparently had connections with the crew. We thought he was full of it until he hit up some of our group with backstage passes. So in the middle of the first set, I'm dancing, looking around, and I'm surrounded by about 10 people how had come together as a "touring family" of sorts, and as cliche as it sounds, I had this incredible feeling of connection! Absolutely wonderful memories.

Man what a blast this show was!! We got there really early and were just hanging out, the Dead were sound checking and we heard "Saint" the door was open and we were allowed inside!! Freakin Awesome..They let us hang out and we were in the front row for the show. We could pretty much lean on the stage--it was such a great atmosphere--nobody was pushing forward-plenty of room to dance etc I was tripping pretty hard and just havinga ball. At one point I was taking a picture of Jerry who was only a few feet away and he leaned over and put his face right next to my camera and smiled--it's a great pic!! Ahh what a night!! Eric

I also traveled the who;e tour by train and met a random group of Deadheads on my travels, including a Doug and an Eric whether these are the same as above i doubt. Non of the group i was traveling with went to Hamburg they all wanted more time in Amsterdam. The Zenith was in an arts park and was like a big tent, including a leaky roof where the rain came in Bob W - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

I sold my entire record collection to get to these shows and I took my brother with me. It was his first show ever and the first show I'd seen in 3 years so I was pretty stoked. We were on the floor and we felt very close to the stage. You could see that the band were really enjoying themselves. We dosed. Unfortunately as I was peaking and really going for it some jerk standing behind me started hassling me telling me to cool it which really bought me down. He obviously thought he was someone important, and didn’t like having me dance so furiously next to him. To be honest I shouldn’t have let him get to me but he did. I told him that if he didn’t like the heat he should get out of the kitchen and he eventually left. I wish I hadn’t let him get to me. Oh well that’s just the unpredictability of drug experiences I guess. Other than that the show was awesome.

the rating says it all.and as paris has its very own and special atmosphere it just melted with the the dead into a perfect mix of"ooh,where am i and how are these guys making those uncredible sounds......!in the space section i had the feeling that the tentlike zenith was ripped out of the ground and went up to mars.but that was maybe due to the little papers with mr.gorbatchovs portrait on them,hehe.

Wow what a treat. Yeah I taped Europe and all west coast thereafter up to the Jerry Memorial. I patched into Ed's Schoepps hypercardioids that night maybe, and he was religiously dead center for perfect ORTF (a French configuration coincidentally) and I had such a great show.... The real kicker was that I really didn't come overseas with any party supplies, and we were all running to Amsterdam between countries, and the last train to Paris was just so filled that there were no seats on the train, people filled the aisles the luggage racks and the decks between cars. It was 2 weeks into the tour and everyone figured it was finally safe enough to stop tossing out what they couldn't finish so it was like the bulldog cafe on the train, total Cheech and Chong. At 4am about 60 miles out of Paris Nord in the middle of pitch dark French countryside, the train slowly came to a stop..... By then everyone was blitzed beyond belief and totally passed out snoring. The Gendarmes tried to get onto the train with drug sniffing dogs but couldn't get through all of the bodies. I've never seen a more confused police dog in my life. He cried because it was all around and he didn't know who to point at. Fido just whimpered. The cops realized it was a lost cause to get through, so instead they started doing a big show in the bathroom with a lot of Inspector Clusseau "Aha! look what we found!! Aha! Zoot Alores! Aha!" oinked the frog..... They must have fished a pound of contraband out of every conceivable nook and cranny of the Potty Palace and then got off the train before half of the group even woke up and realized. What a laugh! Anyway, at Paris, word had it that Bear had a massive Chrystal of a particularly magnificent Circa 1966 suspended in oil and properly stored for 24 years for a special occasion. This was only mythic rumor perhaps, tribal murmurings of dreamers in imaginary landscapes . As the legend goes, and conveniently, a Mr. Jerome Garcia had misplaced a few plain white business cards, which also happened to be printed on unusually soft and absorbent paper, which then accidentally became totally saturated with this old legend and rumor and then managed to get mysteriously materialize all over the place up front near where my brother had always hung out on tour. He came running up to find me in the taper zone and handed me a tiny damp half gnawed piece of imaginary fable, which I thought was an incredibly thoughtful gesture, but really only a symbolic one...especially since there was no way such a tiny minuscule random notion caught between your teeth could have any real effect, even if it had been countless months since the last time, and even then, it was all just so ho-hum to me. But with a story like that, I'd have eaten a old sock, just to be a good sport. WTF, its Paris, and if this isn't fun then nothing is... But EVERYONE was in such a great mood and so cool and beautiful and groovy that night and then the music started and it sounded so zesty and clear and I just really began to groove and dance and dance and dance like I haven't danced since Jerry at the Orpheum or that night up front left Loge when I felt like Dirk Diggler at the L.A. Forum. I mean I just was sitting in the sweet spot, in the sweet show and on FIRE ...and Old Ed (Abe Lincoln type) caught the wild hippy groove, more than usual, and then everyone near us got completely totally dialed in, more than usual, and we just danced our asses off like it was the floor at Jerry's feet, even all the way back in the rafters of that sweaty French Blimp. It hadn't rained in Paris for months and months but that night it just got so incredibly steamy in that big tent that we were totally crazed and drenched I mean it was just the first fucking awesome show that I had had since maybe Laguna Seca or an odd Shoreline or Cal Expo, and few shows since then ever approached SUCH FUN for me (as fun as it all was). It was high energy , totally visual tinsel sparkle wonderfully pulsating zippity-doo-dah day yippy yahoo merry-go-round and yet not flabby, intoxicated, loud, dizzy, tepid, belching, or zoned out. Ooma-sacka-reamy-packa-lomar. It was big eyed and bushy tailed. Even farts smelled like roses. INTENSE as it was there was always REAL clarity and joyous, blithe, lighthearted, exhilarating relief and openhearted connectedness - that we all find in occasional moments, from time to time, now and again - but which we rarely sustain all night long while so in sync with an entire room on tour together. It musta been my imagination... It was a sublime moment on a tour which, for me, up until then, really was hard, working through Brent's absence as well as the hard slog of flu season in a complicated, fast moving "trudge" (sic) through Europe. This night was a surprise, as it turned out. I had underestimated the French. Oui, oui. They too had seen the Promised Land. When you see a bunch of shows and commit to taping, and you've been around a while, you get a little hard to surprise. Its nice when you get thrust into the miracle of a really groovin' show that is so much more than can be experienced at a dozen other nights that sound just like it on tape. They were always sounding great really. Its more than that. There is no recipe, its just sometimes it happens. It was happening. We all tried so hard to get that experience onto the tape or burned into film or memory or described a million different ways, but when it happens, and it happens, its just so nice, and so disarming.......and such a release, and all you can do is just smile smile smile. Oh Dead cliches abound like bumper stickers at times like these! And it DID rain that night in Paris, and for the first time in many many months, and that show went on way too long and was way too fun and we all just stayed so long that we missed the last subway out of Le Zenith, (that spece aged distant corner of the town) and we walked miles and MILES to the Mercure Montmarte, as fifty taxi cabs drove by with fares, since nobody in Paris had umbrellas, and we were just TOO American to leave any "cheese eating surrender monkeys" (I quote Robin Williams) out in the rain. We were totally wet, our gang, and we caroused all the way through that beautiful wet city making friend along the way until we finally got to our hotel at Jim Morrison's grave at 4:20 a.m. It was a beautiful night and it made the whole trip through Europe worth everything just for that one night. It was just Omnipotent Serendipity. Or as I like to call it: OMNIPOTYDIPITY Thanks for that tree link, friend. I know about that web site but I just hadn't rolled tape much since I stopped taping shows. Its weird but the recording was a collaboration for me. And so I didn't have much interest doing it outside of the shows, as strange and as unexpected as that may seem, considering my dedication to making and collecting incredible stuff. I would mix 2-AKG 414b with 2-C460b CK1 or CK63 ULS and roll up to 20 decks (once or twice) on tour. I was the "mad taper from hell" and my gear bag weighed 100lbs. I had batteries and tape for everyone. It was a labor of love to be part of nights like these with the coolest people. So I guess I deserve to just download now and then... Actually I haven't spun a DAT for years and I really need to digitize my stuff onto hard drive before the masters totally self destruct from lack of use since 1995. I just need to find an antique DAT machine, before they go extinct.....anyway, when I get my shit together I'll be sure to mass produce CD's for everyone. My alma mater, UCSC just received the Grateful Dead (non vault) "archives" of memorabilia and literature and historical stuff, so I am getting motivated to get this stuff online so I can give them everything I have. The novelty is that I was not a shotgun taper like almost everyone else, and I like f a t w i d e ambient recordings that clearly captured the vibe and tone of the audience. I roll for minutes before and after the band left the stage and even record post show "green sleeves" or whatever on the P.A. and all of the comical shatter and shenanigans you'd get in a room full of the coolest people I knew. Man, its all coming back to me now. Thanks for stimulating the memory again. Sometimes I forget how much fun it can be to remember some old fun. Peace, Uncle Bob

Wow!i wish i could get a copy of this show.i did all of the europe tour except london,and Paris was the best!It didn't hurt that it was my 20 th birthday and i got miracled a back stage pass!I didn't even care about being backstage though~i was dancing my ass off!o the memories...i feel so blessed to have had this amazing experience that will live forever in my mind!

One of my favorites China Cat Sunflower > I know you rider !

My night in Paris had many similarities to the one you described, including some random scraps of white paper being freely passed around (though I didn't hear any Bear story, just a "thank you very much sir"), and the walk back into town because we missed the train. The walk must have taken 4+ hours and it was absolutely, positively wonderful.

We had caught the Train from Innsbruck after seeing burning spear perform there instead of going to Hamburg. Good fun as we partied with the band back stage after the show. Got to Paris and checked into the Hotel Stella (Sweet). That night we showed up and bumped into some friends outside the Zenith - we all had wine bottles and baguette's we picked up walking there from the train, we finished a bottle and broke into mine. We were all feeling pretty good and started to head in; the person ripped my ticket and the next person put something in my hand and said enjoy the show (we did and were not disappointed). Sound was great inside this venue crystal clear like Berlin but louder. Pouring rain after the show and had to wait in the rain for hours the next day for tickets for that added show. Well worth but think it brought on my tour cough by London. China/Rider/Saint/Crazy/Playing was off the wall fun; place was like a circus tent just like the tickets for this tour.