Grateful Dead

I've racked my brain, but still have no recollection of this Detroit Band playing that night. Another friend in attendance said same thing. Never even heard of them until yesterday, when I discovered a Kinetic Playground Theme Page. Always thought it was The Grass Roots who opened. Odd combo, given the other 2 groups, but that was Russo's plan, mixing acts up to expand their fan base. Bill Graham did same thing later. I must have spliced a memory in from another show, but not earlier one with Dead that year, that's where my confusion arose. Grass Roots were a Top 40 band, but people liked their songs, had some pretty big hits. Whenever I did see them there, only the one time, they seemed out-of-place, but did their set perfectly, but without much improv. Couldn't find them again on their history of scheduled acts, but know I saw them open for someone, probably Zeppelin or The Who. Velvet Underground were only memorable for female drummer's horizontal bass Drum orientation, with pedal coming up from floor. Very Odd, I thought. Less than stellar set, partly because I guess Lou Reed was absent, presumed ill. Didn't know the band that well, became a fan later. The Heroin hype was a kinda turn-off, though many bands were doing it. Hear he & PigPen got into it the night before, when order was reversed, & Lou came onstage to tell em to wrap it up, eliciting the finger from PigPen, probably. That couldn't have had anything to do with it, could it? Pigpen became my idol that night, with blues, soul & R & B tunes, especially Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Love Light," which really hit me right where I lived, that night. After his demise, my interest in Dead wavered. Lovedvthe jams, always. But unimpressed with his "replacements." Hard to survive intact when the Heart & Soul of band passes on... Still haven't seen any SRC material available anywhere, wonder if they played both dates, as advertized. Granted, I was coming up from burbs in car filled with HS people I barely knew then. We might have just arrived late & missed it.

I think I might have seen this show. If so, it was the Dead and the Velvet Underground. I flew back from the desert to visit with some old college buddies and twist up the old cortex. The nice part about this hall was there was no backstage behind the stage. The band had to step into the crowd to get to their dressing room. I remember walking up to Pigpen and starting to rap with him, but then the Velvets started off and it got so loud and dissonant that Pig looked scared and split for who knows where? Some time earlier I'd seen Procol Harum at that venue. If you ever caught them, they were a very good band. Especially Gary Brooker, the singer and pianist, and Robin Trower (yep! THAT Robin Trower) the guitar player. Gary did the greatest version of Wolf's "Going Down Slow" I've heard from anyone except Wolf himself. The band had a roaring instrumental on their first album and they closed the show with it. It showcased Trower's considerable chops and when he was done the crowd rushed the stage like it was a prizefight. Ahh, the memories I can still recall. Not much after 1975, tho

Grateful Dead Live at Electric Theater on 1969-04-26 - Grateful DeadDupree's Diamond Blues > Mountains Of The Moon > China Cat Sunflower > Doin' That Rag, It Hurts Me Too > Hard To Handle, Cryptical Envelopement > Drums > The Other One > The Eleven > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopement > It's A Sin > Morning Dew, Sitting On Top Of The World, Minglewood Blues, Silver Threads, Baby Blue, Saint Stephen > Turn On Your Love Light ENCORE drums > Viola Lee Blues > Caution jam > Viola Lee Blues > Feedback > What's Become Of The Baby > Feedback > And We Bid You Good N... Keywords: Live concert