Grateful Dead

I had gone to college in Grand Rapids, so I knew the territory. I went to the show and absolutely loved it. I had seen Little Feat with Lowell George in this venue a couple years prior and wasn't a bad place for a show... no seats but lots of dancing, especially the spinning hippie chicks with big skirts. I brought in my camera and hopped up on the stage to shoot some photos. I was astonished that it was tolerated - even if Phil's bass tickled my ears standing in front of those frontal speakers. Althea was probably my highlight song that I remember... I loved the show so much I went to Pine Knob near Detroit a couple nights later to see them again. Sadly, those were the only shows I was lucky enough to catch from them.

Ha......this was my first Dead show and in the town where I was born. I had just turned 16 and long before my "coming of age" and pretty clueless as to what the whole thing was about. I remember being so in awe of the scene.....the heads, tie-dyes, jesus freaks, etc..... I barely recall hearing the music but I was there and had found my tribe! In hindsight one would be hard pressed to find a town more unlikely to host the Dead than Grand Rapids.....ultra conservative and wacko religious..... but there they were and that's one of the things I loved about the Dead family....they took their music to all corners and bless em for that. Musically its hard to knock a show with a Passenger and it began a journey for me that would'nt end until the last GD show in Chicago. But in reality the show never really ends and I'll be catching "The Dead" in Chicago on May 5 in what must be some sort of my own personal "joining of the circle"........................................Unbroken Chain!

I'm curious how people dug this show; I'm originally from Grand Rapids. Very religious town. I was not there; lived in MO at the time. One friend said he was there and was glad to finally see the Dead, but not a banner concert as he put it. Grand Rapids does weird things: they got 'The Far Side' removed from the Sunday funnies because one time the comic made fun of the concept of Hell. ????? Then the day after the Columbine massacre dozens of protesters were outside a Marilyn Manson concert screaming at concertgoers telling them they were going to Hell. One of the protesters had an 8' tall wooden cross. Sure makes me want to go to a church. But someone told me that the Dead were thereafter banned from Grand Rapids because a dead head bathed in the fountain near the Gerald Ford museum (whew, mortal sin there, heh heh). The set list for that show looks impressive, although I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to the Dead.