Grateful Dead

You sold me on it! I just bought it!

to it's 'home stretch' and sell out so they can offer the digital download(s). I can still remember that fabled summer of 1978, when the Dead did actually did circle back to Nebraska......... They played the Omaha Civic Auditorium (in Nebraska), where the Dead played once before in 1973.. We got there and the venue was half full (about 4,000) but everyone was chomping at the bit in anticipation to hear them live. I took my Nak 550 into the venue and there was no hassle getting the deck in this time, but remember these were the days before ‘tapers sections’. And each venue or even staff may present a different challenge. But not here, thank goodness. Out in the hallway, the Hell’s Angels wandered about sporting full colors and big grins. They may have been transporting ‘party favors’ and decided to take in a show. Or maybe the Angels were just road tripping with the band (although I didn't see them at the next few shows). My buddy even brought his 68 year old mother to the show. She sat up in the stands “It is just too loud down there!” Anyway, I headed down to the floor with my Nak 550 to set up in front of the soundboard. When I started to get my gear set up and saw this guy beside me with a great rig. Luckily this kind stranger (I have since discovered he was famous taper Bob Wagner) then let me patch out of the back of his deck, which was wonderful as he had a great 8 ft. tall mike stand set-up. He had a Sony deck and mics, but with that high stand his mic’s were well above the crowd noise. We were about 15 to 20 feet in FOB. So Garcia treated us to a blistering Sugaree opener, the kind that drove the crowd wild. His leads mounted into a wave that crests, recedes, regroups, and comes back rolling in with such power and delight that adds a synergistic effect to our frenzied response as his rolling/soaring guitar work lift and subside with the band. Then Beat In on Down the Line, TLEO and now it was Bob’s turn in the spotlight with a Look’s like Rain. About halfway through the song, I suddenly noticed something shimmering in the air between the band and me. I thought “what a fantastic light show! Or have I have shifted into fifth gear just a little early that I scheduled?” I staggered towards that disturbance in front of me to investigate. People were dancing wildly in the middle of the floor as a waterfall played over them. It was about 25 feet in circumference. I put my hand in, water…hand out, no rain..I am standing in front of an indoor waterfall. what to do? I jumped into pouring rain that was INSIDE the middle of the auditorium! Then I stepped back and was out of it. I shook my head and then lunged back into the deluge and danced through Looks Like Rain & then during Direwolf as well and a delightful All Over now. (Complete with Donna in perfect pitch!) Then Candyman and Lazy>Supplication before Bobby informed us “We’re going to take a short break”. I staggered back to reload a new tape and then I did look for some validation of my experience. And I asked my friends if I was not in fact ‘soaking wet’ as I patted my soaked shirt. They grinned knowingly and affirmed that, yes, in fact I was “all wet”. And then this unique show continued, (nice indoor water-feature, boys !) with a killer second set complete with a transportive Estimated> Eyes> drums> Wharf Rat> Truckin> Iko Iko> Around. And then after a lengthy absence from the stage the boys returned to play us ‘Promised Land” as an encore. As I left the auditorium I noticed the water standing on the ground outside, a summer storm? Was this a case of a leaky roof or didn't the Dead just conjure up the forces of nature as they were so prone to do? But back to the important stuff, what were the Dead going to do next? Would Phil rev up his reverse gravity machine and pummel us with Phil-bombs at the next show? Would they levitate the crowd, and have us all dance while floating in the 'cool Colorado range'? I HAD to follow them to those Red Rocks shows in 1978. So a road-trip to Colorado it was. This was the Dead’s first Red Rocks jaunt (and my first as well, although my girlfriend (now wife) had seen Joni Mitchell there previously and raved about the venue) so my anticipation was so ‘high’. (In many ways.) So I packed my taping and camping gear and off we went. When we walked up to the Rocks entrance, the Feyline security crew (or were they the John Scher guys?) were stopping people and inspecting any 'carry in' bags. A security behemoth that I will call “BigBoy’ stopped me at the entrance to look through my Boy Scout backpack. He hefted my NAK 550 out of the pack and held it aloft with one beefy paw, exclaiming “Hey, you can’t take this in!” I gave him my best perplexed look and said “What? It’s just a tape player.” (first lie) Then the giant BigBoy instructs me to “take that back to your car”. I retorted “I can’t, I hitchhiked to the show” (second lie). Beefy Bruiser BigBoy points to my ticket and says “the ticket says no recorders on it, you can't take it in” and I tell him “look, I don’t have any microphones” (third lie) and hold up my arms to be searched (of course my comrades had the mics with them). Then I sighed loudly and popped open the back of the Nak deck and let eight D cell batteries drop onto the ground. “Look, I dumped out the batteries, it can't record”. (lie number four) BigBoy stood there with his arms crossed in front of me, but I could see a small crack in his resolve. So I pulled that thread “Look, I hitchhiked all the way here from Nebraska to see this show, would you hold onto this deck for me? It cost me $600 (which in ’78 was a lot of dough) but if you just hold it for me, and then I will find you after the show. You look like an honest guy.” (fifth lie, this guy didn't look trustworthy). I push the Nak towards him, and this deck is huge and weighs a ton, (a goddamn boat anchor). I really played my trump card here and was trying to hold my ‘gameface’, Suddenly all the heads waiting in line behind (and all my friends) erupt with yells at the BigBoy to 'hurry up' and started chanting “let us in”. BigBoy gives his mullet a shake and then he points into the venue and looks at me and exclaims “Go on, get out of here” and I dive headlong into my first Red Rocks show with a grin a mile wide(high)! Followed by Mary with my mics and my buddies with my fresh batteries (re: lie number four) and my blank tapes. The batteries that I dumped out for BigBoy were already ‘dead’ (pun intended). I again ran into that ‘kind stranger’ (Dr. Bob Wagner, FOB right side)) to plug out of his Sony again. Those two shows were stupefying, and the band obviously enjoyed playing there. Bobby's deer joke, and I remember Phil leading the boys through “Cold Rain & Snow” with his bass punching that tune into a triumphant ‘strut’ that evening.I recall Jerry broke a string during the Scarlet>Fire, which really didn't slow the pace of that perfect evening. On into Dancin' >NFA > Black Peter > Around & Around and then a dual encore of US Blues & Johnny B Goode. The next night was much the same. Each night we would watch the clouds chase each other in the sky as the band serenaded us. Until it became dark and then we looked out ‘over’ the Dead to see the distant lights of Denver sparking in the background. Second night second half, we were treated to a tremendous Estimated > Other One> Eyes of the World > drums> Wharf Rat > Franklin's Tower > Sugar Mag. The crowd was especially raucous as Wharf Rat wound down to that tender quiet poignant pause, and then Phil (or was it Bobby) gave a "shhhhh" to quiet us in preparation for the wonderful 'launching' platform/crescendo that night..."I'll get up and fly away" and the band soared with all of us in tow. Those evenings the Dead's aural wonders were matched with the Red Rocks astounding visuals as we were perched in between those massive stony slabs jutting into the sky (and the Dead had a good view as well looking back at us from the stage). As the Dead those two evenings took us all on an astounding journey of Americana, myth, rock and roll, country, space, jam, fable, fun, roller coaster, and turn on a dime delights, it all 'rolled into one'. And then as the Dead finished us all off with “Werewolves of London” we were all crooning back to the dead with our own howl of “Aoooooo”. And Garcia was grinning ear to ear as he bid us all a “good night”. Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.

It's a crime that this box isn't sold out yet. The shows are all great and the sound is some of the best I've heard from the recent live releases. I had to hit up drrhino@rhino.com for some bad discs I got in the 50 Trips box. They sent me replacement discs quickly. That's definitely the way to go.

The best service is dealing directly with Rhino (Drrhino@rhino.com, I believe). If you give them your order # and describe the issue, they will help. I have found them to be much more responsive ( often the same day) than contacting dead.net. They helped with bad digital files, and even got me a replacement disc for the May 1977 box that had been out of print for a couple of years. Good folks.

Mine just arrived in the UK, ordered on jan 1st. Looks great. It's no. 14318, so for anybody still wondering whether to get it, now might be a good time to take the plunge.

So what's the status here? Will it actually be coming back digitally as I truly no longer own a CD player. I'm probably not alone here... Thanks!

This has been an issue for me as well-both on this and the May 77 box. I want to spend money here. Please help!

I would just like to give a BIG thank you to marye & the customer service/Rhino team for sorting out & sending me a replacement disc after I found out that I had a duplicate disc in the box set by mistake. I'm really glad that I bought one of the box sets from the store while it is still available. Happy days!

It says the digital download isn't available. Any idea when it would be available again? Thanks, Steve, Founder, DSLR Buying Guide

This is the first time I've posted anything so here goes... I decided to treat myself to one of July 1978 Complete Recordings CD Box Set from the Dead.Net store. It arrived safely to my address here in the UK & was well packaged to avoid damage. However when I inspected the CD's I found that CD1 from July 5 Omaha Civic Auditorium was missing. Instead there was a duplicate of CD2. I emailed customer services twice in the last couple of weeks about the problem with a photo attached of the missing/duplicate CD but haven't received a reply yet. How long does it normally take for customer service to reply? If anyone can give me any advise then it would be greatly appreciated. As there doesn't seem to be much activity here anymore I will post this somewhere else on the website as well. Thank you.