Grateful Dead

Thanks for info, Blue, and for the namedrop. I agree with pretty much everything you said there. Luckily for me I have a hotel near the venue that includes parking. It saddens me about the money-grab for the parking situation (at both venues). Agree about the scene towards the end in the mid '90s too. It was hard to watch and see the degradation of the scene, crowds and how the newer deadheads were disrespectful of the venues and surrounding communities (and each other). One would hope that the scene will be better again now that the young disrespectful heads from the '90s are now grownup, and we are all so lucky for this last run that everyone will be right and make a whole new positive-vibe new millennium scene. If the Sunshine Daydreamers have any say in it, that is what will happen. We will make the scene better and rub off on those who need to be rubbed... "We can make it happen, yeah!"

Howdy folks, I’ve been lurking on this thread since the whole business started back in January, watching people come and go, watching the interaction between mkav, truckineric, Eyes of Rocklin, the 11, and of course our beloved alcalde, Master Klangstone. I see a fair amount of bitterness and trollish behavior, but mostly I see kind people looking to get together in celebration of that twinkle in the eye you don’t need to have been there to understand. You can hear it in the music. I was very fortunate to have been initiated into the Grateful Dead in October of 1969. A lot of people felt Pig was the leader of that band, and I think Jerry might have agreed. But Pig left that band, Jerry had to step up, and the music changed and survived, while other bands crashed and burned. I remember how we all felt at the “retirement” concerts in 1974, no one (including the band) knowing if we would ever do this again. We cried goodbye that night, and they stamped our tickets “The Last One” and gave them back to us. Wish I still had mine. It ought to be good for admission to one of these Farewell shows :-) They came back in ‘76 and played for almost 20 more years, carrying on the unabashed 60’s traditions through the dark Reagan years. We almost lost Jerry in ‘86, but he bounded back and we had a swan song of great concerts in the late 80’s. We did lose Brent in 1990, and I feel like the band, Jerry in particular, never recovered from his sudden death. I got off the bus in December, ‘94, after a particularly difficult parking lot scene. I have journal entries going back a year prior to that about how the music was no fun anymore, the audience full of mainstream, cell phone-wielding, clueless “Touch Heads”. I skipped Mardi Gras and saw Jerry for the last time at the Warfield on a pair of free tickets I won by being caller number nine on the Deadhead Hour. Thanks, David :-) I had decided to break my Dead fast and was about to buy tickets for September Shoreline shows, when Jerry died. In recovery and trying to stay clean. I decided to part with a piece of information I was going to keep “for locals only”, because it’s a limited resource, although I’m surprised it hasn’t come up on this thread yet — maybe it has, and I just haven’t seen it. It’s literally right in front of your nose if you look at a map of the Santa Clara vicinity. It’s no longer clear to me what gives me the right to keep information for myself and my friends, when it’s the people from out of town who really need it. They are exactly the folks scalpers are trying to get $200 out of for a place to park their car for 4 hours. Anyway: MINETTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IS JUST OVER 3 MILES FROM LEVI’S STADIUM. Tons of public transit access, plenty of long-term parking if you take your car, plenty of taxis for the short ride to the venue (unless we all try to do this) or you can take public transportation which runs right down Lafayette Street. Getting back to the airport after the show might be a little harder (200 taxis and 10,000 taxi seekers) but if I can’t make arrangements before the show, I’ll bet I can find some friendly Deadhead who wouldn’t mind making 15 bucks to drive three people 3 miles. Some might even call that walking distance ;-) I hope this has opened up some travel options for people, if only backup options. Of course they’ll play "Dark Star", though they may save it for Chicago, and Trey will do it understated justice. Laissez les bons temps rouler, gens. Maybe they’ll open the run with that one! Blue Mike

Anyone out there know if the bike trails north of Levi's are a good way into the stadium? If so, where is a good place to park and ride in? Thanks in advance!