Grateful Dead

A week or so before this show some Very Bad Things involving the Longarmes happened to me, but as I already had tickets, I was able to make it to the show while out on bond (for the despicable crime of possession of a known assasin of youth). A few days before the show, I had a dream that I was there, and the set list played out! While the show was great (the waking one, that is) the dream show had its benefits, that of not having: 1) a date who wasn't really into the band, or of 2) a traveling companion who insisted on repeatedly asking in his harshest tone possible "so when they gonna start jammin'? I'm no fuckin' deadhead, I'll tell ya that!" The best thing I do remember is Jerry with this nasty-ass grimace on his face on one solo (Scarlet/Fire?) that sent the Kundalini exploding into my skull...... The jail term (couple months) wasn't so bad that fall, I got to read the Dune trilogy and escaped the physical constraints while pondering the piloting of starships through the cosmos, and of Spice, striking blows against the empire, planetary ecology, and so on....

My first Dead concert. I clearly remember Phil's bass pushing me back into my seat. I've never felt bass like that since.

This show forever cemented me as a lover of the greatest band to ever play a concert. The version of Sugaree I can still hear for every waking and also sleeping moment for the rest of my life. I was 21 years old at the time and i will never be the same musically since that show.

This was the last time I saw the Grateful Dead play live. I remember as I surveyed the crowd I felt, at 25, like the old guy. On the floor some guy standing behind my wife reached around and grabbed her boob, creeping her out for the rest of the show. And the bottle rockets and cherry bombs going off didn't seem too cool to me. I remember watching them play the first set thinking these guys are done. They're all turning grey and stuff....and can't they pick up the pace a little? Boy, was I wrong, and listening to the show on GDH a couple decades later confirmed it. Maybe I _was_ the old guy....living in the past. It was a sweet show and one of my favorite tapes now. I only wish the Wharf Rat survived; I remember it as a great rendition and the high point of the night.

Was there but remember it as not the best show.

My older brother dragged me up from Milwaukee (via Madison to pick up a few more guys) to see this and the Chicago shows afterwards. I always enjoyed Skeletons In The Closet, but seeing the Dead live at these shows made me a life long Head. I just remember having a gas with my brother. Barely 18, partying and rambling around the midwest with him and his friends - lots of ludes and frisbees. It was a great time and I miss my brother terribly, but this music always brings me back and I can remember how happy he was at the shows we saw together.