Grateful Dead

This was my first GD show. Floor seats in the old Kiel Auditorium downtown. I only knew a few of their songs, but when they started the show with Promised Land, with that thumping rock and roll beat, and the girl in the row in front of me standing on her seat, dancing and shaking her butt in time to the beat....I was hooked. I remember everyone went nuts for China Cat/Rider since they had just broke it out on that tour after being gone from the set lists since 1974 (one in 12/77) and it really was intense. There is nothing like the live sound of the Grateful Dead when they had it dialed in, and it sounded good. I remember liking the vibe of Donna Jean on stage swaying in rhythm with them while they jammed. It felt like more of a family band. I also remember Weir blew the roof off the mothersucker at the end of Good Lovin' and while the audience was going nuts cheering, Donna Jean walked over and gave Bob a big hug and we cheered even harder. It felt good. This was the last show of the last tour with Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux. They played one more show with them in Oakland a week later.

I was 15 when a friend and I were looking for something to do that night. We noticed in the newspaper that The Grateful Dead were playing tonight. We couldn't find anyone to drive us to the concert so we did what we frequently did; hitch-hike. That night it was around 10-15 degrees with about 4 inches of snow on the ground. We walked about 3 miles to the highway on-ramp (I270) and began hitch-hiking. By this time we were cold. Just tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirt and a winter coat. After about 20 minutes someone stopped and asked us where we were going. They said OK but there is no room in the cab of this pickup truck. We had to hop in the back. There was a lot of snow in that pickup and we were sitting on snow the entire way there. We are traveling about 60 miles per hour for 30 minutes. It was sooo cold. The wind chill must have been -50 degrees. We were both shivering the entire way. After we arrived we purchased our tickets and went inside. After a period of time, as usual, we made it on the floor and to the stage. The stage was about chest height with the musicians about 10-15 feet away from the edge. I thought it would be a good idea to hop on the edge of the stage and look out at the audience, which I did. For about 2 minutes then I hopped back down. If you happen to remember some kid sitting on the edge looking out at the audience, that be me :) After the show we attempted to find someone there that could take us back. After 20 minutes we noticed around the corner people carrying speakers and equipment out to a large truck. So went over see what they were doing. We have never seen that before. By this time the musicians had long left the building. There was no guard at this side entrance. I wanted to see what was in there... so we both just walked right in. No-one looked at us strange. In a matter of seconds we were at the back of the stage looking out the auditorium. That was cool. After a couple minutes we left and eventually got a ride back to the place we started (inside a warm car). That was my Grateful Dead night. It was a lot of fun.

No magic in set 1 until the Music set-closer. The highlight of the 2d set is China > Rider, but Terrapin, Stella & Miracle are all very good, and the Playing is generous (as noted by someone on Archive) if not mind-blowing. Decent set 1, VG set 2, 7.5/10 overall