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    FennarioXRDS
    9 years 10 months ago
    Songs and Failure
    The two things that separate the Dead from other bands, IMHO, are the songs of Hunter/Garcia and thewillingness of the band to go together wherever their collective or individual inspiration led, even if it meant they sometimes got lost along the way. It was that willingness to fail on stage that freed them to achieve the transcendent moments.
  • One Man
    9 years 10 months ago
    Nail
    Y'all are hitting the nail on the head with the jamband discussion. You're saying what I've been thinking -- that most of them are too quick to go for the easy groove without enough unpredictable exploration in the rhythm section. No one does it like the GOGD and that's a big part of it. The superior songs themselves are another vital ingredient. There are exceptions of course and your mileage will certainly vary. I'll take raggedy old space case Keith Godchaux over that Furthur virtuoso any day. Interestingly, there is a parallel discussion on classical music going on back at the Dave's #11 board (if you can find it). It also favors expression over technical "perfection".
  • mustin321
    9 years 10 months ago
    Bands (Jam or Not)...it all starts with a song.
    There are tons of bands/artists that stretch out songs and improvise on stage but they are never labeled as a Jam Band or heard on the Jam Band station or whatever... Why not? Who knows/who really cares? I think the main problem is that the bands that generally fall under the "Jam Band" Umbrella aren't the best at songwriting and place most of talents in the jam part...well, it shouldn't be a surprise that if you jam out a boring song, its still going to be boring. I say this but there are some "jam bands" I like but some really are just utterly boring, to me at least. Since I'm posting this post on Dead.net, I obviously think that Garcia/Hunter & Weir/Barlow are some of the best songwriters that ever lived. There were definitely songs that were built with heavy improvising being the main purpose but, for the most part, they were trying to write nice songs and the jams came later (I know some of this was already pointed out in previous post, but its correct). Playing In The Band, Dark Star, & Thats It For The Other One all started out as nice little songs, am I right? I don't really care if a band is considered a jam band or not or jams or not...if they write a good song, I'll listen to them and go to their shows.
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<? // 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

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9 years 8 months
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Lunar Covers Moon Rocks I got wild imagination Talkin' transubstantiation Any version will do I got mass communication I'm the human corporation I ate a rock from the moon Moon in the rock, rock in the moon There's a moon in my throat You might think I'm wasting time You might laugh but not for long Hey! I'm working it out . . . (work it out)
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11 years 7 months
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It is a good thing that Arnold didn't blow up the moon like he suggested he would when he was governor...he said something crazy about eliminating the tides...amongst other things...but really it was to keep scalpers prices - er - down to earth? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Y4B3tU_t8
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Other fun things to do in Chicago... Lincoln Park Zoo - it's free! Garfield Park Conservatory (a seriously cool place, especially the Fern room). Any of the museums on the campus; the Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum of Natural History (my personal fav) and the Museum of Science and Industry. Also free -- Grant and Millennium Parks. Take selfies in the Bean! Walk the beautiful Lurie gardens. Splash in that weird fountain with the huge faces (unless like me, it gives you the creeps.) The Maxwell Street market. Farmer's markets all over town. If you get outside the city, the Chicago Botanic Garden is a world-class facility that should not be missed. Admission to the garden is free, but the parking fee is high. But, if you have a love of flora, it's worth every penny. Pack as many folks as you can in your bus! There is an (expensive) café, and you could easily spend an entire day. Eat (except, resist the Billie Goat Tavern, it's awful.) Chicago *LOVES* its neighborhood festivals, and there are bound to be plenty over the holiday weekend. (One area where Chicago sorely lacks nowadays are Fourth of July fireworks. We used to have an awesome Third of July display, but they cut that out a few years ago for budgetary reasons. There will still be fireworks off Navy Pier worth viewing, but a shadow of the former display, which was a tandem-show synchronized between Navy Pier and Buckingham Fountain.)
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9 years 9 months
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If there is additional shows in CA., I hope the Dead find an equitable way to get tix to fans and not scalpers. Maybe another mail-in with a copy of a photo ID and a limit of four, so the tickets could be printed in your name only?...just an idea. I may be naive but I'd like to think it's about getting the music to the fans instead of making money scalping the fans.
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I think that's a great idea! I'm a loser trying to get Chicago tix 3xs over: MO, CID and TM then (sigh) tried this past Friday with Dear Jerry and sold out in 13 minutes. I can't seem to get a break. Like many, now if I go, I'll have to pay the scalpers hundreds of dollars - which isn't fair. I am a true fan, and I just can't believe I was not able to get tix the "normal way"...But if they do more shows, it would be great if there was some process to weed out the scalpers. I hope they consider something!
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17 years 1 month
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Is the CityPASS worth it? I'll be traveling alone and will probably do stuff during the day for a few hours Sat and Sun before turning on each night. I really don't see myself doing the afterparty until daybreak and sleep all day unless I can hook up with old friends. Quit FB a while back and lost touch with folks, so I just might be the lone wolf geek at the museums. Geek wolfin' is what I do best. lol
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If you will really make full use of the Pass, I would say the CityPass would be worthwhile. I saw them listed for $96. We're local, so I could see going into the city for a long weekend and making REALLY good use of those passes (especially with the Art Institute as one of the options.) For the weekend of the Fourth, though, between the zoo, the parks, the lakefront and the scene, there is going to be enough free amusement for us!
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12 years 10 months
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VIP presale on the second Tuesday of this week for special commemorative oxygen/nitrogen breathing mix, and additional heat for the 'Dark Side seating package' available for those born on February 31st only. Enter; "wontgetfooledagain" code after third failed attempt to purchase. All other buyers must purchase at the Marianas Trench Ticket Bastard location. Contact promoter for GPS Geo-cache co-ordinates.
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11 years 7 months
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I could only get lower crater seats...there's no view, but I'm in! Bought them off this guy named Branson who said that he also offered VIP flights to and from the shows... Wait, I am making fun of people who actually have some form of tickets to the shows in Chicago - albeit bad seats, but they ARE still better than me...damn I suck. A pox on the scalpers...that way I might score tix to Chicago and my comments will be worth while...
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Hey now rgergelis - Sept '77 Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ my first Dead show too dude. NERPS, MTB and the Dead - I remember we parked 9 miles from the place and were jumping on car hoods to get us there. You never forget your first....
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Been thinking about it, but knowing that hotel rooms are brutal to come by and not having any tix, it is hard to justify...still thinking about it though since I suspect finding tix in the parking lot will be a lot easier than with StubHub.
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17 years
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Happy Birthday Phil.
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17 years 1 month
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The way I figure, many folks will just hold tickets for the simple lot transaction. Tickets ate being mailed late and folks would probably just rather hold them instead of dealing with emails, phone calls, money transfer, ticket transfer. Simple and clean in the lot. I would work it early on Friday though before things get scarce as the weekend gets along.
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11 years 10 months
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I'll be on Shakedown well before the shows, but I'm thinking for my two late lunches: Lou Malnati's for some deep dish BopNgrill for Asian fusion burgers If someone can suggest a great Chicago dog place near/in the loop (Grateful Dawg on the menu??) I may skip BopNgrill.
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9 years 8 months
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II was just thinking about what the caller on the show with Siri radio said about the Facebook page called GD50limbo: that there is a fantastic and supportive group of heads on it. I do not do FB, but I know from this forum there are lots in limbo
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...is not suffering that I can tell. Lowest non-obstructed reserve ticket I could find was $680. It's so sad because you know on Ebay and StubHub there are plenty of deadheads cashing in. I can't believe that all the tickets for sale are from the brokers. A sad world we live in where a buck is all that matters... On ebay, 14 Fans are bidding on $1600 buy it now price tickets, have bid $1400 but the RESERVE IS NOT MET??? I am gonna be sick...
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9 years 9 months
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I did find one site with 385 but obstructed. I check in on TM daily just to see if any released. Really hoping you get tics! And me too actually. Since last batch of returns went out Sat it will be a week or more of waiting for myself. Still keeping that positive vibe going but the only emails I get are ads for GAP.
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9 years 8 months
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There's a very slight chance I'll get to buy all three nights for 1 from a buddy who got lucky with the mail order. If that happens, you can buy my Friday GA pit for face value Klangstone. While there are so many deserving folks out there you have made it quite clear that you REALLY want to go. So do I, but if I'm lucky enough to get three tix after having been shut out at every other attempt then I'm going to at least make someone else lucky enough to get one of those nights. Sorry, I'm going to play my greed card and keep the Saturday and Sunday :) It's still a dream but the closest I've felt to going since I got my MO's back. And maybe if you're hoping it happens too then I'll have a better chance :) Check your inbox for details.
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9 years 10 months
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Cashed. My money orders and canceled. My hotel room and paying off my rosebud replica guitar I'm having built.
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9 years 10 months
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Holy shit are you kidding me???? I would LOVE a GA pit. OMG. I am speechless, well, I will be speechless if it comes through. You guys are incredible people... Even if it falls through, I am honored!
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It was on stub hub, single ticket for Friday night. Now its 724, the 680 is gone. Sec 214 row 13 $724. I urge people to not buy at this price. But it does seem the prices are dropping, slowly.
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Some idiot still has 1 million dollar tix for sec 123 row 13 for Sunday on stub hub. Others nearby have similar in the low 1000 range. Priced at $999,999.99. F#ckin' jackass! Someone has a sick sense of humor. Or is it rumor, hahahaha... :- [
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15 years 10 months
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This is the most fantastic thing I've ever read on this site! God I hope that it plays out. I haven't met clown guy yet, but I've been pulling for him to get his ducket. Thank you! That's a shot across the bow to the scalper bastards. Our love will foil your schemes. I'm smiling all day for YOU!
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Yeah, that's alright for me, but I gotta partner!
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16 years 7 months
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Hey now Klandstone - that's a truly grateful offer by seeing red and so very much in the spirit of the Dead. Kudo's to seeing red's offer to you and hope things work out for all. I'm the recipient of that same spirit with tickets to Fri and Sat and now I'm down to needing a pair for Sunday. Watching all the secondary market resellers, Sunday show is the highest priced (no surprise) but to your point, prices are still way, way high. From everything we're all hearing and reading, GDTS TOO and TM will be sending out the tickets by mid-June. IMO, this will be the time when the flurry of deals go down. Deadheads that are too far to travel with air & hotel costs through the roof; Bears and PSL owners who've been listing on ebay, StubHub, etc...and no one has bought their over-priced tickets. By then, Shapiro will have announced the simulcast/PPV also (my guess) which will also ease the pain of those not able to attend. So, Klang (can I call you "Klang"?...lol) if I were you, I would have already booked my air/hotel to get yourself to Chi-Town and as a last but perhaps most fortuitous resort, get to Soldier Field Friday afternoon with a fist full of dollars and a seat map in your pocket and you will score. Unless I find another grateful fan to part with a pair for Sunday for my wife and I, that's going to be my strategy for Sunday tickets.
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Looks like prices held over the weekend. Crappy seats dropped a bit last week while good seats held. Wait for end of June....long ways off
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I understand the frustration with tickets but checking IDs at a venue that holds 60K+ people is simply insane. It basically makes all tickets equivalent to "will call" - it is a logistic nightmare and no one would even consider it at a stadium - it is just too labor intensive to be feasible. We heard the rumors of this show at the Leftover weekend at the Stanley and the rumors included the fact that if the west coast show happens it will be strictly a Ticketmaster sale with perhaps 10% of the tickets available via a dead online pre-sale. I have absolutely nothing to support these rumors, just reporting them. Personally, I'd like to see a mail order because that does limit the scalpers a bit - nothing is perfect. On another note - the weekend was fantastic. Felt like early times with the Dead (but we've all got more money now so physically we were living in comfort). Find a scene that does it for you. I'm 64 now and still finding new music and family - sure, the roots are all Dead, but the Leftover scene has grown its own personality which closely resembles what a Colorado small scale Dead scene might be today. Over the years the band that once brought us "Pasta on the Mountain" has evolved and found their true voice - and it is amazing. Several hundred of usd (I don't know the capacity of the concert hall at the Stanley but it is small and I'm terrible at judging crowd size) had a joyous weekend of music and mirth at one of the coolest locations on the planet - the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. Oh yes - a fellow named Sam Bush sat in on Friday and Saturday as did Billy Pane for the entire weekend - life is good. And the whole thing most definitely felt like family - because it was. So - find your bliss - you might be surprised what's out there. And if the Bay Area show happens I hope everyone who wants to go will be able to.
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Rgergelis calls me clownstoner, and although somewhat unflattering I haven't objected...yet. Klang is a good nickname, but as long as I know you are referring to me it's no big deal what you call me. Hell, I don't care what you call me if you sell me a face ticket! Thanks everyone here for supporting me and my quest. If I somehow get an extra. I will pay it forward here for sure! Y'all are kind hearted good folks! So strange, a couple of months ago I wasn't even a member of this forum. But now it seems like I have been on here all my life and you are all my family and closest friends. What a trip, man! (it's all very humbling, and renews my faith in humanity)
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Klang, Congrats on the ticket. *thumbs up* At the end of the Phil show last night they delivered a cake to Phil. He said, thanks and see you in Chicago. Santa Clara... not gonna happen.
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SSIA. (If you read it backwards) ;p "...in the strangest of places, if you look at it right."
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...looking for a face value ticket anywhere inside the stadium. I had a career change from corporate geology to urban middle school science teacher this year and was hoping to finish up the process by celebrating one more time. I have cash, vintage music equipment, and all sorts of interesting trades or combinations of all three for a ticket to get me in the door. Any help would be appreciated from anyone who is willing to help out a second generation deadhead get into one last show! I've asked before and I will ask again. If I sound like a broken record help fix me right!
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We should arrange a quick meet and greet and hold a toast to all the lucky bastards who are getting inside the walls. Any ideas where or when? I suppose we can figure that out via our smart phones that weekend. Boy, that was not possible before, it was all set up beforehand in the day. I'll bring some shots, unless someone has Kool Aid.
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This announcement of the fare thee well show allowed me to wake up from my 25 year slumber and look around. It seems like many scenes and festivals have sprouted in the wake of what we had back then. I have changed as well. I no longer think sleeping in the back of my 1981 Datsun 310 is a great experience. It was great then it really was. So I missed out on 3 attempts for Chicago, Mail order, CID and TM. But... I learned how things work in 2014 and was able to get pre-sale for "Dear Jerry". Pre-sales suck for the masses and often help the scalpers but it is what it is and I adapted. I also grabbed tickets for a Bruce Hornsby show, and a widespread panic show. Really the combination of these events is likely going to be closer to what I experienced in my era, I did not like stadiums. Stadiums are for football games gladiators and other spectacles. Dear Jerry will have the music I loved, Bruce will have the virtuosity I respect and a small well behaved crowd, and Panic will have the tour feel but more like 1981 rather than 1991. So I am good, I am celebrating the anniversary with a mix of what I hope to experience again. So really the grateful dead is not just the grateful dead anymore, it is a whole family of bands doing a very similar thing. Respecting the fans, playing innovative music and improvising. For a modest sum any one of us here could get tickets to some very good combinations, Billy in New Orleans, Billy and Bobby at Peach, Phil at Lock'n, Disco Biscuits at Red Rocks, Panic at Red Rocks. Is it the same ? Not quite, but it NEVER was the same, really. Also Chicago is not as much the same as you think it will be. Enjoy the summer, somehow someway !!!
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Don't congratulate me yet. You can congrat me for having found new friends here, but NO TICKET YET. Remember "seeing red" said it is only a remote possibility. Can't let myself get excited yet, but knowing there is a possibility does bring some hope to what would seem an otherwise hopeless situation.
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9 years 8 months
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Hey guys, Here's my article on the "Fare Thee Well" concert shows later this July in Chicago, in which I interviewed a few Deadheads from this forum and got their perspective on what the Grateful Dead means to them. Figured I'd post it here since this was a big help to my story in the first place. http://www.columbiachronicle.com/arts_and_culture/article_fab108c4-ca03…
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1) I would love to meet up with some people here in Chicago, I think that would be a hoot. 2) IF I get a ticket, then I would definitely be down to meet up somewhere in Chicago and get together. 3) But first things first, not flying out there without at least 1 hard ticket or the promise of meeting up to get that miracle... With the support of a lot of the folks here (again my utmost honor), it seems my chances of getting to go are looking up and getting better! Still hoping...
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16 years 7 months
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And great to see a few deadheads help you out on the job. Have to say, this quote gave me an "oh shit" moment though: “We look at it as sort of the Super Bowl of concerts,” Serra said. “You’re looking at a band that with this announcement had almost 4 million people that were looking for tickets. It is a pretty coveted ticket at this point.” Yeah, no shit it's a coveted ticket - I NEED A PAIR FOR SUNDAY :-) Anyway, let's hope your professor give you an A !!
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Don't know if I would want to see the dead in SF without Phil if they are gonna attempt it without him. If it's not the Grateful Dead without Jerry, then it is not even close without Phil. Gotta have those improvisational bass lines, there is no (and can be no) alternate to Phil (and still call it anything related to the dead). There is no one other than Phil that can play a bumblebee on the bass... (besides who is gonna sing Box of Rain? I guess Mickey could do a rap to it! NOT!!!!)
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17 years 4 months
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only saw Hornsby one time. Aug 9 2005. small wooded outdoor amphitheater in the midst of a very urban area (Cleveland Hts, Ohio). Anyway...great show...anyway, based on the date, he did two very moving tributes: lady with a fan and black muddy river. Good call seeing him! and Panic is always a blast!
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9 years 8 months
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Thanks for the well written article and for keeping it simple and about the scene, rather than about the corporate aspect. Hope that you get to pull some media-credentials out and get in to see the show. Let me know if you need an assistant to carry your note pad :)
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Thanks for the well written article and for keeping it simple and about the scene, rather than about the corporate aspect. Hope that you get to pull some media-credentials out and get in to see the show. Let me know if you need an assistant to carry your note pad :)
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And if the note pad carrier assistant needs an assistant, I would love to be the assistant to the assistant note pad carrier - especially on Sunday :-)