Grateful Dead

I was in Missoula at the time, but unfortunately could not attend.There is a persistant rumor in Missoula that something that happened in the show made the Dead angry and they said they would never play Missoula again, Does anyone know anything about this?

I think someone threw a bottle and hit one of the band members (Bobby?). That is what I've heard over the years. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. Wiliam Blake

It was an empty plastic pitcher after the first encore.

It was a plastic Aber Day beer pitcher from the ill fated days of 18 yr old drinking age and a student council that got away with scheduling a massive drunk fest in the dust with 250 kegs of beer dumped in troughs the stoned and tripping student body dunked their cheap plastic pictures in while Doug Kershaw and Elvin Bishop among others took the stage and people stumpled about dodging bouncing rocks and falling to roll in pukey mud. We were awfully uncivilized.... The Dead came to Missoula in part because Ed McClanahan was teaching there and had recently published "Greatful Dead I Have Known" in Playboy Magazine. Ed was with the pranksters and was a major source of Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool Aid Acid Test". Anyway there were a bunch of real drunk guys down in front of the stage wearing cowboy hats shouting "ROCK N ROLL!" as the Dead went into the usual intrumental jamming and riffing, but it was hard for them to get the groove cause some of these guys were out of their minds drunk. Then boink, it happened. Off Weir's face. I remember it vividly because it was so....totally...uncool and a heart freezing drag. The Dead coming to Mssla was a big deal. Friends made tea to bring the band. We wanted them to feel at home, you know? The student paper the Kaimin prounounced the Dead might not be able to play because their contract stipulated that they had to have the right to play for four hours or more if the right things were aligned. Plus...they had this sound system that....for the time....maybe this time even...was AMAZING. And yes...the Dead left the stage. So did the drunks leave the field house and at least half the crowd. But then word spread...the Dead were not to be undone by drunken twirps. They came back. They played some more. And then some more again. Breakfast was served and the Dead left no question in any who remained, that they really weren't just a band....they were a family and created that vibe that was uniquely theirs. They were increadibly cool and had imense amounts of class. They weren't a band all look at me dig our trip...they were a sound, a music of possibility, an emanation that dissolved the walls that exist between people. Here and there for a while, anyway.

I lived in the Zoo for a long time and always lamented the fact that the Dead apparenlty wouldn't be back because of that fiasco. I just heard the show for the first time on Sirius, and it was awesome! Can anyone tell me if the show is available, either through here or somewhere online? I'd love to have a copy to groove on....thanks!

Just getting ready to spin the CDs. I hear its getting ready to flood up in Missoula. "Crash on the levy Mama, waters gonna overflow".

Aside from the fact that drunk cowboys do not belong in a Grateful Dead concert, it was a great show. We were about 10 rows back to the right of Bobby Weir, and it was loud, and it was good!!!The first time I heard the replay of the show on Sirius XM, I thought I recognized it and when they came to the end of the first set and broke for the announcement of the second, they said Missoula 1974 and I had to pull over to the side of the road and cry. It was and still is a great memory!!!!