Grateful Dead

Kdingijhingn! I nondkopanot a cindoijck apnna fgop an ekijgnaihihythajkhga.That should do it... works every time for me. (~) ;- } "The task is, not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees." - Erwin Schrödinger

phil put it well when he said (and i am paraphrasing): 'a dead show is one part sports event, one part church.' this explains the two 'poles' of how deadheads view the experience. some heads see the show as a raucous good time rock-n-roll event, and nothing more. some see it as a religious experience (i.e. jerry is god) and refuse to see the more down to earth (sometimes negative) aspects of the show. most of us are somewhere in the middle. here's my take: the grateful dead provide a space for a psychedelic dance experience. this happens to take the form of a rock concert. in actuality, people have been doing this for tens of thousands of years. we just happen to live in a time and a culture where this sort of thing is rare and marginalized, so it seems unique. not so. other 'jam' bands have been able to get in on the act, to a degree. (none of them come close to the dead's subtle blend of bucolic pastoralism and cosmic terror.) in the late 80's / early 90's house music and rave culture came very close to matching the grandeur and heady rush of the dead scene. in fact, for a brief period from about '92-'93, the rave scene was kicking the dead scene's ass. (i was doing both, so i know.) of course, that scene has now been co-opted by alcohol, speed, and bad attitudes, but sometimes you can still find a kind party. one final point: a dead show is PARTICIPATORY. the band and the audience feed off each other's energy. there are good nights and not so good nights. it is never exactly the same twice. it is a huge, ever-growing, pulsating brain that rules from the center of ...

You know, to sum it up, every time I think of a dead show, I just imagine hippys twirln and the eleven playin in the backround."You can never stop learning," Phatmoye

sparky colorful ball of anticipation

A dead show is pretty much like Christmas, that would be a good way of putting it."You can never stop learning," Phatmoye

Aww yeah Shoreline 89 my first Grateful Dead show. What a journey ever since! Shoreline 2009 will mark the 20 year anniversary of those shows. I am so excited that I will be there!! Thanks for sparking up those memories! "Everybody's braggin' and drinking that wine, I can tell the queen of diamonds by the way she shines. Come to daddy on an inside straight, well I've got no chance of losing this time"

Hey now! Great topic! The best way that I've heard a Dead show described was when they interviewed people on the solstice FM broadcast from Shoreline in 89 (Great show, look it up!). Lots of folks had different things to say but they kind of summed it up with the last comment from a sister who said, with dead conviction in her voice, "GREAT MUSIC!!!" The Grateful Dead is an acquired taste. Think of things you love that you didn't even like at first. It kind of grows on you if it's your pint of brew. If not, well, leave it if you dare. With me, it was pure delight in the freedom of the music and the positivity of the space created to enjoy it. If you took it as a lifestyle then you were on a journey somewhere. Wherever you go, there you were -- for sure! I think members of the band described it like this: People come and go for shorter or longer periods of time and take from it what they will (very loose paraphrase there). Did you like the music? Did you like to dance, spin, swirl, dervish? Did you like to make new friends? Did you enjoy the variety of people? Did you enjoy the trip? Did you enjoy the travel when touring, every second of it? Did it keep you young? Did it stimulate new ideas and ways of doing things and looking at the world and your life? Did it make you kind? I think it is all those things that made a Dead show a Dead show. Love to know if anyone else agrees with me...

You all have been quite helpful to me on this topic. My way of explaining it is probably that you just have to go to understand it. Or lots of beautiful colors. Hee hee heePhatmoye

eat the crystal, touch the sound, it's calliopes and clowns, come and dig my earth, transitve nightfall of diamonds, all his children ran an hid, creepy, nothings for surtin it can always go wrong, sunshine and river , while the boy's sing round the fire! stranger ones have come by here, hey man dropped your sock, can you catch the rabbit, listen to the river roll ' roll, roll and flow and breath in the air maybe cheshire will take you to the other side, ishall be released from a bucket of what the hell was that? rrrrr lookin through a hole in the sky, uh O here comes suuuuuuuuuun shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. give be Liberty or give me Dead, what the fuck are we watching for, you'll get your eye poked out, out to the ends of the mind. And shall "IT" never end, breathing Dragons in a rainbow of sound, is that really the time man, get rid of IT cause IT might just kill you, IT is uphill both ways, IF is the middle word of Life, and if maybe I had only had????????????????????, Charlie Chan WTF gotta say FUCK, in every windowpayne, raining again, come sit by my fire is always warm as are our hearts and, support wildlife everything you touch, is touched, if there is no pebble tossed or wind to blow than how do we Breath with knee's in the Breeze. the earth and sky be my mother and and al that is, is my brother, sun and showers, wind and sometimes don't say that word.......................... Be happy with what you have , because Death awaits you, and when you accept that you are alive forever. it

I would have to agree with Dedhed4ever which is the most concise way to say it, but that doesn't give those who genuinely want to know any info, and for the most part, we really can't explain it. It's like an ancient esoteric teaching, it's so abstract to the everyday mind that it can't be easily explained and thus comprehended. I once had a hallucination while I was inside a show and the "heat" from the boy's was intense. The only way that I could explain it was that I felt like I was IN a bowl of jello, and that jello around me was God, I was IN God. I was just browsing through on of those Grateful Dead books or almanacs, can't remember the title, but in one of the interviews the questioner offered a very viable explanation to "our" phenomenon....He made the point that this communal feeling we get by being around so many people that are striving for this kindness and peace that we so all want created...scientifically...the Alpha wave state. I think that what he is infering is that...with everything that went on...The Grateful Dead brought us closer to that vibration that is just a bit closer to God. With all Love, Light, and Laughter....CM