Grateful Dead

Ouch- it was my 1st show, having seen and been blown away by The JGB(w/ Nickie Hopkins)in New Haven as a high school junior the previous spring-so the anticipation was pretty great, 1st GD show and all...and the first thing I saw after gaining entrance to Colt Park was two biker dudes who were vastly bigger than the hippie kid they had latched onto, pound him with a 2x4 !!!(really)-for booze smuggling or sneaking in, I forget- right in front of me-he was all bleedin' from the face- these guys were huge, and I remember thinking, they don't need the 2x4, they were so big, this is very excessive ! but you got the impression that they were trying to scare people and also discourage gate crashing, as there was some of that goin' on- I'm almost positive that the bikers were "Huns" or some other local group- not Hells Angels, but they were tough and mean. The band blew me away. The first set seemed to go on forever. Seeing the set list posted reminded me of hearing and seeing a really awesome Lazy Lightning/ Supplication(I think). Samson and Delilah and Candyman also made a big impression on me, and then the jam!! It was somewhat of a kind of life changing day. I was able to get past the ugly violence- I remember not wanting anything to ruin my first Dead show, though I never forgot it, and can see how it could have easily spoiled many peoples day and turned many off to that kind of a show-the violence was surely disproportional to the infractions! When I moved to S.F. four years, and many shows later, I was happily impressed by the general mellow, peaceful energy that prevailed at most west coast shows. Usually no cops inside the venues, and mostly polite security and good energy for the most part....need...more..good..energy!

Got married the day before. Planned on the Dead for the first day of our honeymoon. The Angels forced everyone through a narrow gate wide enough for only one person where they frisked and shook down everyone looking for booze. Saw them beat up several hippies who tried to smuggle bottles past them. Show started while we were still part of the mass of humanity struggling to get through this gate. When we finally got in we were so bummed out by the Angels that we couldn't appreciate the music. The only open areas on the lawn were muddy so we left after about half an hour. The only concert I ever walked out on and I loved the Dead. That night the Legionaire's disease scare in Philadelphia story broke. Bad vibes all around. Oh, and the marriage lasted one day shy of 10 years.

Yeah, the Angels really took their job seriously that night. I saw one guy that got more than his fingers smacked. :-P Very good show...