Grateful Dead 50th Anniversary

Afterthoughts

So... Sitting here at the office on my first day back at work since the Chicago shows. First of all, it was one helluva weekend! While the music was always the priority for me, I'd forgotten the sense of community one can feel at a concert. The crowd for all three shows was into it, and they showed the love. I'll never forget the whole crowd singing "you know our love will not fade away" for the entire break between the end of NFA and until Phil came out prior to the 1st Encore. The atmosphere was electric inside the stadium every night. While I have been to MANY concerts and sporting events over the years, it dawned on me that I hadn't felt that feeling since... well... 20 years ago when I attended my last Grateful Dead show at RFK Stadium in 1995. I won't wax poetic about whether or not these were "great Grateful Dead shows" or not. I will simply say that I had a fabulous time. I thought Friday night's show was the strongest, followed by Sunday and then Saturday, but I enjoyed them all. And the 1st Set on Friday was REALLY good. How many times could you say after a GD show that the 1st Set was better than the 2nd Set (especially when the 2nd Set included a Scarlet>Fire AND a Help>Slipknot>Franklin's)? Personal highlights for me were: 1) opening with "Box of Rain" (after all, the end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end); 2) "Passenger"(!!??!!), which they nailed; 3) Scarlet>Fire; 4) encoring with "Ripple" on Friday night; 5) "Shakedown Street" and "Deal" to bookend the 1st Set on Saturday; 6) "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)... Are you kidding me?!!?; 7) a really beautiful "Stella Blue"; 8) Trey singing "Althea"; and 10) a very fitting, and haunting "Days Between". I'm not a big Phish fan... I like some of their stuff, but I've never really been into them. But for anyone who was/is/or will be negative about the selection of Trey... they can kiss it, because I thought he was fantastic!! His enthusiasm alone was great, but I thought he really shined through and he should be proud of the performances he gave. All-in-all, it was a fantastic experience. I'm so glad I went. It was closure to a certain degree, but man was it a good party! See you all down the road. Be kind.

amazing weekend

That was an amazing three nights and ones that will remain with me till the end of my days. To me, night one was strongest-- truly not a weak link in that setlist and it smoked. The Help/Slipknot/Franklin's Tower to close was simply amazing. Having seen many fine shows over the past 30 years (GD, Clapton, Stones, myriad blues artists), that night ranks up near the top for live events I have attended. Some of it is that so many circumstances fell into place to make the entire night perfect-- and then the music made it ever more perfect. Night two highlights: Standing on the Moon, not one of my favorites, was delivered beautifully by Trey-- I had tears flowing the whole song. Golden Road was hot and Foolish Heart jammed. Trey really delivered all weekend-- big props to him. Night three was about delivering needed songs-- Estimated, China/Rider. Set two had a purpose-- songs about closure, togetherness and the sense of moving on. While the last two nights had a couple ballads I could have done without, I saw where they were going and enjoyed it. BTW, they did show Keith and Donna in the slide show. They did it a little awkwardly by transitioning from showing a bunch of random slides to all of a sudden showing each individual member. The crowd didn't realize it until Brent came up.

Body Block

<? // pull in news from "50th Anniversary" feature type taxonomy $news = views_embed_view('story_lists', 'block_50news'); echo $news; ?>

Grateful Dead Original Members Add Two Dates To Final Concerts

April 10, 2015

The original members of Grateful Dead have announced two additional shows at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on June 27th and 28th, as part of their “Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of Grateful Dead” run. Along with the three shows at Chicago's Soldier Field on July 3rd, 4th, and 5th, the run will mark the original members' last-ever performances toget

Custom Sidebar

Shop the 50th Store»

Facebook

body .rhinoSocialWidget .rhinoWidgetInner { padding:0; } body .rhinoSocialWidget { margin:0; } body .rhinoSocialWidget .rhinoWidgetInner .posting { padding:0; } ,

Free Grateful Dead Art

Check in throughout the year for new additions!

Display on homepage featured list

Off

dead comment

CID

just got an email from CID stating that there was another swanky hotel involved in the 3 day ticket 3 day stay with travel back and forth to the stadium. 2600 and some change for 2 people. I know, it's 2015 and things aren't the way they used to be but.... I paid 20 bucks for a nice seat at the last Grateful Dead show I was at.... and there was an opening act (black crows) I just want everyone to see these numbers... 2600.00 plus change plus tax 2600.00$ 2600.00$ Does anyone else thing that that is a lot of money? Sure, money can't buy me love, money can't satisfy, reminds me of that tax refund commercial out now I think that Jerry's spirit is not in this, Jerry was an artist, but now days in this world, who knows what Jerry would do. I Just can't see him being involved with this. I can see why the rest of the remaining band wants nothing to do with Pill. 2600.000$ Is there anyone out there really considering this? Really?

Still waiting.....

No news is good news and no news came today, which means I am still in the running.

CID

I agree its a total mess. This whole thing could not have been done worse.....

who's Pill?

$2600 is indeed a shtinkle of money. to me at least. I took a used car we bought recently to get the interior detailed (it smelled...funny.) As I shopped at three different places, i went to one place that was a Porsche ranch. so $2600 is pocket change for some. not me. what a wacky process.

Please everyone just chill!

Please everyone just chill! It's not GDSTOO, CID, or Ticketmaster that is making things a total mess. It's the negative comments and attitudes that are doing that. First of all the mail order process. I do agree that GDSTOO should have been more prepared. But from what I have heard through blogs, friends, and social media is that most that have received pink slips requested all three nights. Personally, I requested 4 res. tickets for the 4th only. I am still in the running. I have never been so happy for the mailman to blow by my box as I was today. My theory is, if they truly want as many people to see the shows as possible, they will eliminate the "Greedy" people along with the scalpers. Think about it. My friend requested two tickets each night and got his rejection letter two weeks ago. I think it is because six people could go instead of two. I'm sure they have some type of system to it and are doing their best. Secondly the CID VIP and Travel Packages. These are only in limited numbers. The VIP packages include the limited edition event poster. According to the e-mail I received from CID they are only making 400 per night. So that is only 400 VIP tickets available per night. I'm sure the Travel packages without VIP tickets are limited as well. Ticketmaster is what it is. There is a 4 ticket limit per night though. Hopefully this will limit the amount of tickets the scalpers will get. I wish everyone luck and hope to see you at the show. Fare you well my honey. Fare you well my only true one!

Tenn2Maine

They don't have to pay postage to send back money orders &/or rejection letters because they will be sent in the SASE you had to send in. They can notify winners via email or phone as they asked for both of those on the 3x5 card. So if they awarded a partial order, potentially, one could get the email explaining such & would likely have to wait to get the rest of their money back with their tickets ...which I'm realizing as I type it was what you were talking about, lol, long day, sorry :-) If you get confused listen to the music play! So far I've had 2 dreams where I got the tix & 1 where I did not ...hope it's majority rule!! Good luck to all!!

No love at the Post Office

To add insult to injury, I went to three different post office branches in Charleston, SC and could not cash my rejected money orders because the PO is broke most of the time! Some people spent a lot more than I did, so hopefully your PO has more cash on hand than mine. Nothin' left to do but smile, smile, smile (but it's getting harder!).

Goes to show you don't ever

Goes to show you don't ever know. Watch each card you play it, play it slow! Wait until that deal go down.

No way for them to know that,

No way for them to know that, hindsight is 20-20

total conspiracy

I think the real problem was that only western union and their agents could issue the money orders or the us post office. When people went back to rerun them, especially to a particular 711 on the north side of chicago to a western union agent named jonathan who worked at a 711 store as a western union rep, he refused to returns peoples money orders, he was rude, he would not call the western union agent and even went so far to look at security footage and question whether the ticket purchaser was the actual purchaser, I'm not even going to ask who's bright idea was it that we use those two companies and those two companies only who were charging ridiculous surcharges where other companies would not have. I understand you want to make the experience as authentic as possible but its not those times anymore and people representing you and your product are not going to necessarily hold your beliefs. By implementing this system it did have the capability of staying true to the dead but now the dead are bigger than the dead and all this experience costs was a lost of missed work, time,high blood pressure, headaches and hives, I was at the last show and did not have to experience anything like this. this was exhausting. Peace out and Good Luck NFA

Black Thursday....

Southeast Florida is about as far away from Stinson Beach in the continental US as you can get and ka-boom, my rejection letter arrived yesterday. What a cluster-F nightmare this entire process has been. I used CID in '09 for the Philly shows and they came through huge. But the was The Dead and there was a tour; this is different and demand is ridiculous. I suppose we're down to Ticketmaster now and then Stubhub. This sooooo blows....soooo bummed. Congrats to all who scored on the lottery.

Returning MOs

Having trouble returning your money order??? Your usps office may not have the cash on hand. Mine did not. This is not a problem. Have them exchange all of your MOs for one MO and make it out to yourself. Deposit in bank and done. This process had been frustrating for all, but it's no different than the New Years lotteries back in the day.. The $1.65 charge per mo is still cheaper than a surcharge that would need to be added to pay CC companies! We're almost at the end, good luck to everyone who is still in the running!

Please stop crying.....

Are you kidding me? If you are crying about this, my guess is you have never been denied a ticket before? Get a frickin tissue. I am sure the dreaded pink slip is no fun to get but please show some maturity. If this is your first time denied a ticket, you are very lucky. May have been easy during the acid test, not now. If you come to the show looking for a miracle, please wear a sign that says "I am a jack ass" so we know who deserves the miracle and who does not...Thank you. I hope the band is not reading this BS. One more thing....USPS in a government run entity if you did not know. This = inefficiency, lost mail, stolen mail, wrong postmark date... etc... I am expecting my pink slip to show up in August.

T Fonts

Dude, so sorry to hear. Where in South Florida and what was the postmark return date? Did you F&^% up the instructions, or not decorate your envelope? I am in Jensen Beach, FL (southeast...near Jupiter), and didn't get the knife yesterday, but now I am concerned. This is weird because when I woke up this morning, I thought to myself that I have not seen or heard of anyone in Florida that has been rejected...and that we are all getting in the show. Uh oh

Black Thursday....

Hey Snapperhead: I'm in Wellington, FL (W. Palm Beach) and the postmark date from Stinson Beach, CA was 2/12/15 (nine days ago). You are in a totally "no news is good news" situation. My other buddy here who also sent in on 1/20 did NOT receive an envelop - that's what you want. This totally blows...now I need some ticket master luck or worst case, stub hub - if even affordable. G'luck to you and here's to hoping USPS is a no show in your mail box :-)

this makes sense

think about it? a flood of ticket requests and all the scalpers are going for all 3 nights with one envelope. Well that's the first batch they'll return... My buddy sent in for 2 nights rejected, I sent in for one night(Sat) for gen admission pit$99 and or $59 reserved in a plain white envelope and followed the instructions to a tee so far so good. I think they are trying to get as many different people to see the shows over a three day span as possible

One Night Here

Same here. Requested 2 tix for just one show in a plain white envelope. No pink slip as of yet. Not sure how much more of this I can handle..."but at least i'm enjoying the ride!"

process

None of us know the process. Other than weeding out late postmarks and those they may believe are scalpers, I believe it is totally random. Picking envelopes and filling as they go along regardless of the request until they are out of tickets. Including myself, I know of three requests and nobody has gotten a rejection yet-- one request for 3 tickets to last two nights, one request for 4 to all three nights, and one request for two tickets to 7/3 and 7/5. If these are all lucky ones, it shows the randomness of it. Thanks for that tip on returning postal money orders-- that could come in handy later! If they are planning on notifying people by email that they will be getting tickets by Thursday, I would think they are going to have to start emailing soon. Thousands of emails to be sent. I hope to start seeing happy notes soon!

The foot is up...

The foot has spoken. I believe they said it was random...why is that so hard to believe? They want to avoid ticket brokers and select at random... They had over 66,000 envelopes and said they were getting 2-3000 rejects out per day starting somewhere around 1/26. That means 99% of reject letters must be delivered or on their way. Now its up to USPS to get them to us as we wait in limbo... Im telling you, there will be many folks with rejection letters in the postal abyss for weeks or even months from now... You can call this song the United States PO Blues....

the band ain't reading this

someone in the organization is reading all this, but not the band. you know...they can't stop at nothing, they're just playin' in the band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTA6vjPyeoQ lmfao

USPS Blues...

Good one there. I have friends that only requested 2 tix for one night and got the pinky a week and half ago. I've also seen rejections of 1 ticket per show. So far, it does really seem like a mixed bag in terms of rejection types (multi-nights, one night only, smaller orders, larger orders). It seems like the GDTS did not have the time to be selective and discriminatory with the envelopes. So it actually does seems to be pretty random and lottery like. Bottom line is you just gotta hope you are on one of the lucky envelopes that made it to the 20% score pile. We gotta be getting pretty damn close to the end here.

Another Day

Another day and another nothing in the mail. No news is good news!

everybody wants to get some pinky

but not THE pinky

The race is on...

One day I ventured in mail order, never once suspectin'What the final result would be How I lived in fear of waking up each morning And thinkin' that I'm getting pinky! No pinky today! The race continues...

Ticket Request

I requested two tickets for all three nights.....no scalper here. If I'm going to Chicago for this, I want to try for all three nights. I was not being greedy, I just didn't know that so many people would be sending in mail order requests. If I am so lucky to get tickets, and if I am wiped out after the Saturday show, then some lucky couple is getting a miracle for Sunday. That is how it usually works with my wife and I. We go to two consecutive shows, and than we are too tired....no more energy. Still in the game, but a little worried considering that people are getting rejection letter that were postmarked 10 days before it arrived. Ughh

We're all confused, what's to lose...

MO's still matching on USPS tracking line but no pink mail. Asked for two to all three nights and put me and wife's name of 3X5 for good measure. Sent 7 of 9 possible MO's. St. Pete, FL. Post office put a priority sticker on my sase and cant find return tracking on the envelope using number they provided. Wondering if they can get all the rejections out in time. Would they move back ticketmaster again? Anyone heard of a 2/14 postmark?

Rejections still are a coming

@ cyclesam - you asked if anyone had seen any postmarks dated 2/14. I have not heard of any postmarked 2/14, but my good buddy received his rejection in Brooklyn postmarked 2/17, so they are still coming. My buddy is an experienced mailorderer, he got his out 1/20, decorated it nicely, and requested 4 tix for each night, any tickets. Best of luck to all.

My rejection arrived

My rejection arrived yesterday to south Florida and was postmarked 2/12; asked for a pair for each show; go figure... Pretty bummed given the night before the wife and I saw Marshall Tucker Band here in W. Palm and after the show I was talking with Doug Grey (original member) about their Sept. '77 Englishtown, NJ concert where they opened-up for the Dead. Thought the stars and moons were aligning... Onward to the ticket master chaos we go...happy for all thus far with no pinkies !! Cheers!!

all 3 nights

I saw some people post on FB GD pages that their Western Union money was cashed and they mailed for all 3 nights. My thought was that "real" deadheads always mailed for all nights.

all three nights...

...supposed to...and I don't think that was a factor...just sayin.

I like licorice.

I really like licorice!

I like...

Licorice.... Ok, I'll bite.

Licorice

"Not a lot of people like the Grateful Dead but the ones that like the Grateful Dead REALLY like the Grateful Dead"......like licorice. Or maybe it's the other way around... Or maybe I'm just hello!

if it's licorice you like...

it must be related to the Dead... Thanks, Sir truckin, for shining a light on that topic. Yes, you have jogged this old head's memory banks, and I can whole-heartily agree...I like licorice too. Thank you Jerry...may the music never stop!

RIP Sam Andrews

:_(

Who was Sam Andrews?

Re: Licorice

We’re like licorice, not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice. ~ Jerry One of my favorites...

M.O.

MO can be deposited into your bank account, you write "not used for intended purpose" where the endorsement is and then sign the endorsement line. The bank will then deposit the MO for you and the funds will be available tomorrow. Save the extra trip to the post office they don't do enough cash sales to cash the MO's, don't bother getting all the single MO's turned into one MO, and I'm not sure what a "true/real" deadhead is but I know it's not something anyone person on here can claim they know the exact definition of with no exceptions to their rule. And why would GDTSTOO after all these years change the way they did things for the last shows? Makes no sense; as broken as it looks from our end with no insight we really have no idea and everyone here is guessing based on their subjective experiences, the uniformed social media sites and tales of friends of friends. Remember such a small amount of information on the internet should be taken as infallible truth, especially the public portion of it, you most likely would not listen to some guy/girl ranting on a soapbox in the far corner of the park without some skepticism.

Sam Andrews

He was guitarist & songwriter for Big Brother & The Holding Company

Tickets and MO's

Blah blah blah blah.....this is getting old

Money orders

I used western union but can't figure out how to check if they've been cashed. Anyone have any insight on that? Also, I thought I read in the directions that they were going to be taken by priority of the post mark date, not necessarily when it was received. I dropped mine in the box the night before, I'm thinking people who mailed later in the day may have been too late. Anyway, good luck for those still in the game.

The Best

Direwulf - That was the best post on this thread. No one knows and no one can really claim to know what is going on with GDTSTOO nor can they determine who here among us is a 'real' deadhead. It's almost as if the waiting is making people crazy. GDTSTOO was inundated with requests that they couldn't possibly fill and now they are trying to do their best to make it work. I don't envy their job. All I can do is check my mailbox and inbox and cross my fingers. Meanwhile... the Estimated -> Eyes from Dicks 6 fills the air.

while you wait

Trans Europe Express :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

Television Marquee Moon

Blue Cheer Vincebus Eruptum

another week

mail just ran nada in it, it's getting down to the nut cutting now my friends, good luck to everyone still waiting

That is hilarious!!!!!

I totally agree with your comment about the post office. Ineffiency at it's best. I am sure my pink slip will be in August also, but you may get mine and I will get yours. It is all good, I will celebrate The Dead, where ever I may be on the 4th. I am brewing a "Cherries Jubilee Brown Ale" for this most special occasion. If I get tickets, I will drink it in Chicago, if not, I will drink it here in Colorado. Good Luck to all and be Grateful.

So...if you think tix for these GD shows are hard to get.....

...just try getting badges for San Diego Comic-Con! I sat in the online waiting room for about an hour this morning and got completely shut out. First time ever that I've been denied. My GD MO's and rejection letter arrived this week too. What a lousy week. I must have done something to anger some powerful gods and goddesses. Still hoping for GD tix on Ticketmaster next week. Good thoughts to all who are still in the mail order lottery!

Recent

Recent Oldest A to Z Z to A

Reset

Items displayed

KYTrips

9 years 5 months ago

Afterthoughts
So... Sitting here at the office on my first day back at work since the Chicago shows. First of all, it was one helluva weekend! While the music was always the priority for me, I'd forgotten the sense of community one can feel at a concert. The crowd for all three shows was into it, and they showed the love. I'll never forget the whole crowd singing "you know our love will not fade away" for the entire break between the end of NFA and until Phil came out prior to the 1st Encore. The atmosphere was electric inside the stadium every night. While I have been to MANY concerts and sporting events over the years, it dawned on me that I hadn't felt that feeling since... well... 20 years ago when I attended my last Grateful Dead show at RFK Stadium in 1995. I won't wax poetic about whether or not these were "great Grateful Dead shows" or not. I will simply say that I had a fabulous time. I thought Friday night's show was the strongest, followed by Sunday and then Saturday, but I enjoyed them all. And the 1st Set on Friday was REALLY good. How many times could you say after a GD show that the 1st Set was better than the 2nd Set (especially when the 2nd Set included a Scarlet>Fire AND a Help>Slipknot>Franklin's)? Personal highlights for me were: 1) opening with "Box of Rain" (after all, the end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end); 2) "Passenger"(!!??!!), which they nailed; 3) Scarlet>Fire; 4) encoring with "Ripple" on Friday night; 5) "Shakedown Street" and "Deal" to bookend the 1st Set on Saturday; 6) "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)... Are you kidding me?!!?; 7) a really beautiful "Stella Blue"; 8) Trey singing "Althea"; and 10) a very fitting, and haunting "Days Between". I'm not a big Phish fan... I like some of their stuff, but I've never really been into them. But for anyone who was/is/or will be negative about the selection of Trey... they can kiss it, because I thought he was fantastic!! His enthusiasm alone was great, but I thought he really shined through and he should be proud of the performances he gave. All-in-all, it was a fantastic experience. I'm so glad I went. It was closure to a certain degree, but man was it a good party! See you all down the road. Be kind.
Citrusdeadhead

9 years 5 months ago

Recordings from SC shows
Anyone know of recordings available for the SC shows?Thanks !
estimated-eyes

9 years 5 months ago

amazing weekend
That was an amazing three nights and ones that will remain with me till the end of my days. To me, night one was strongest-- truly not a weak link in that setlist and it smoked. The Help/Slipknot/Franklin's Tower to close was simply amazing. Having seen many fine shows over the past 30 years (GD, Clapton, Stones, myriad blues artists), that night ranks up near the top for live events I have attended. Some of it is that so many circumstances fell into place to make the entire night perfect-- and then the music made it ever more perfect. Night two highlights: Standing on the Moon, not one of my favorites, was delivered beautifully by Trey-- I had tears flowing the whole song. Golden Road was hot and Foolish Heart jammed. Trey really delivered all weekend-- big props to him. Night three was about delivering needed songs-- Estimated, China/Rider. Set two had a purpose-- songs about closure, togetherness and the sense of moving on. While the last two nights had a couple ballads I could have done without, I saw where they were going and enjoyed it. BTW, they did show Keith and Donna in the slide show. They did it a little awkwardly by transitioning from showing a bunch of random slides to all of a sudden showing each individual member. The crowd didn't realize it until Brent came up.