Grateful Dead

Summer Jam at Watkins Glen. 12 hour ride from Rhode Island in a breaking down 65 Ford on acid. Closing down the NY State Thruway both ways. The overrun town with all the cool citizens. The Dead set on Friday night. The magic amphibious bus. The wells for water. The resultant mud from the wells. Watching the dancers in the mud. An unfortunate parachutist. Trading a pack of Marlboro's for 10 Black Beauty's. Beautiful people. Did I mention the Frog acid? The Band and the Allman Brothers. Those were the days......

For me somehow form and formlessness became SEAMLESS at Hampton Roads 1984. During Playing in the Band. Tho altogether 84 was not a great year. The Other One at KC 85 was just a raw power moment. Being right in the orchestra pit didn't hurt the cause.

My first show was 10-1-76 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Several shows during this wonderful timeframe have been released, but I believe 10-1-76 merits its own release. Another show worthy of Dave's Picks consideration is the last night of a 3-night run at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago shortly before In the Dark was released (sorry I can't give you the date-I'm at work). They played a good part of the album that night, plus a Bo Diddly beat permeated the show, earning it the nickname "The Bo Diddly Show". It was awesome!

1st show was Jerry, on the evening news, talking about how the planets were going to align. I think I was seven or eight. Something about that name Grateful Dead caught my attention, not the news, as playing outside was more important at the time. I though Jerry was kind of a cosmic person. It's been unfolding like a road map melting into a dream with a waterfall over my back ever since that broadcast of that small T.V. on the back of the Mars Hotel Album.

The first musical show was in 91. I noticed an opening at one of the gates at the Coliseum as the gaurd had to attend to some person tripping out. So, like a lead goose I grabbed a bunch of people to my right and left and in a V formation lead us up the stairs to an opening into the venue. I expected to see a bunch of people in the stands. Instead there were deadheads with mile long streamers running on the track. While the field was filled with dancing and daisy chains of people passing glass and all sorts of things around to see into the future. This was cooler than the 84 Olympics.
We were the only people in the stands! Last Row. To the point where I thought the boys were pointing to us at the back row.... nah it couldn't be, as it was just "One More Saturday Night" for everybody. Well Thank God for the for the 15 or twenty minutes of an unexpected venture into the cosmos. It was a fun night.

That roller rink is a liquor store on rt 347 now. My first show was 9-18-87. So good I went back 137 times

I wrote a chapter on it for my book. Hope you can check it out
https://www.amazon.com/Drunk-Sunday-Ross-Warner-ebook/dp/B08BLTFWVZ

I had 4 older brothers and a sister who were all heads, never was I going to be a head, I was 20 feet from Jerry & Melvin for the whole show, blew my mind, the vegetables did not hurt. Soon come my first Dead show and the rest as they say was History. She takes the dark out of the night time and you know she paints the daytime black.........

My first show was at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands of New Jersey, just outside NYC. It was my sophomore year at The University of New Hampshire and my buddy Peter and I drove down in a lil' Volkswagen Fox for an overnight stay and an incredible concert outdoors. It was quite an experience and I wish I could go back to do a few things different. I would have bought a few more t-shirts in the parking lot and experienced the scene a little more. The show seemed to last forever in a good way - we were on the 20-yard line and the stage was in the end zone. Not bad.

Hampton 89 Dark Star return!!!!!! I was transported to another time and place... I still think about it frequently..

It was December of 1990, and my buddy called me and said - "Hey Flip, you want to catch the Dead at the Oakland Colosseum for New Year's Eve?" I said - "Tim, you're nuts. Nobody gets tickets to that show at this late date without paying scalpers." He said - "Are you sitting down?"

Well, we flew out to California and checked in at the 85 year old Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. We were given two fat envelopes that contained full laminate passes for the 12/30 and 12/31 shows and a notice that the band had paid our hotel bill in advance. How do this "deal go down?"

Tim and were both in the ski industry, and we were there to sign a contract to use the official Grateful Dead graphics on K2 skis and snowboards. We got to the venue mid-afternoon, wandered around the stage looking at the gear, and met with Kidd, Phil's tech and the person in charge of merch. We signed the deal, ate dinner with the crew, and then walked out to hear the show. Babatunde Olatungi and Bela Fleck were the opening acts.

I like the 12/30 show better than the 12/31, but it was such a treat to be able to feel like we were part of the inner circle for two days. The skis and snowboards were produced, and are now collector's items. This was one of the high points in my twenty-three years of Dead concerts - from Cleveland in October of 1972 (right after the Europe tour, and damn they were hot) to the my final sad show at Highgate in 1995 where I said to a friend as we walked back to our car: "One of these days Jerry's body is going to give out on him."

I play in a GD cover band, keeping the legacy going, and while there were many shows that I remember well, those two nights in Oakland will always be special.

I'm almost totally with you on this because I view 11-1 and 11-2 as all part of one long strange trip. if I had to pick one night, I was a little more blown away by 11-2 with all the Phil bombs during the monumental Morning Dew etc etc ...But I include 11-1 as all part of one long mind-blowing Richmond Dead fest that culminated in 11-2 and that blew my mind more than any other show (except maybe my first one at Hampton).