Grateful dead shows

basscamel 420 · #1 07-17-2011, 12:27 PM

Have you ever been to see the grateful dead? If so please share with me your story's

fjadams · #2 07-17-2011, 03:25 PM

First time I saw them was in 69 or 70 at the Capitol Theater in White Plains. First was the acoustic band set, followed by the New Riders of the Purple Sage, followed by the Dead's electric show. They started playing somewhere around 8 or 9 at night and when we left the sun was already up for the next day. Longest craziest show by basically 1 band I've ever been to. Lesh was such an amazing player.

Saw many, many great shows there. Allman Brothers opening for Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, Edgar Winters White Trash opening for Johnny Winter And, Grand Funk (before they became a pop band) playing so hard and loud they thought the big chandelier was gonna fall as it was moving and shaking so much. Can't remember every band, but sometimes went there 2, 3 or more time in a week.

mongo2 · #3 07-17-2011, 03:28 PM

I went to several GD shows in the early-mid '70s...nuff said.

James Hart · #4 07-17-2011, 03:36 PM

Saw them a couple times in the late 80s / early 90s... details are rather fuzzy. I do recall enjoying them though

basscamel 420 · #5 07-17-2011, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjadams

First time I saw them was in 69 or 70 at the Capitol Theater in White Plains. First was the acoustic band set, followed by the New Riders of the Purple Sage, followed by the Dead's electric show. They started playing somewhere around 8 or 9 at night and when we left the sun was already up for the next day. Longest craziest show by basically 1 band I've ever been to. Lesh was such an amazing player.

Saw many, many great shows there. Allman Brothers opening for Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, Edgar Winters White Trash opening for Johnny Winter And, Grand Funk (before they became a pop band) playing so hard and loud they thought the big chandelier was gonna fall as it was moving and shaking so much. Can't remember every band, but sometimes went there 2, 3 or more time in a week.

That's awesome! The new riders are pretty good, I never listened to them till a guy at the local record shop showed me some of their stuff, now I'm a huge fan! It sucks Jerry passed away I was 2 years old in 1995 so i didn't get to see any shows but I wish I could of. Phil is one of my biggest influences, I hope one day I can be half as good as him. I'm currently trying to get his style of playing down (not using the root note all the time) do you have any tips?

geeza · #6 07-17-2011, 04:27 PM

Don't play the root note all the time.

BTW - only got to see the Dead once, it was in '81 or '82 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

fjadams · #7 07-17-2011, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by basscamel 420

That's awesome! The new riders are pretty good, I never listened to them till a guy at the local record shop showed me some of their stuff, now I'm a huge fan! It sucks Jerry passed away I was 2 years old in 1995 so i didn't get to see any shows but I wish I could of. Phil is one of my biggest influences, I hope one day I can be half as good as him. I'm currently trying to get his style of playing down (not using the root note all the time) do you have any tips?

Saw the NRPS a couple of times, but the first time was the best, probably because of the whole rest of the show. When I started playing I just listened to everybody, but Casady and Lesh were definitely influences, along with Chas Chandler, and many others. As far as tips, when I started I took some lessons from a jazz player and he told me, figure out all the notes you think the song needs, and play half of them.

basscamel 420 · #8 07-17-2011, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjadams

Saw the NRPS a couple of times, but the first time was the best, probably because of the whole rest of the show. When I started playing I just listened to everybody, but Casady and Lesh were definitely influences, along with Chas Chandler, and many others. As far as tips, when I started I took some lessons from a jazz player and he told me, figure out all the notes you think the song needs, and play half of them.

Yes I'm also a big fan of jack, I like the airplane and hot tuna. In my opinion I think you need to know your scales pretty good, you can play say the major 3rd or the 7th instead of just using the root when you change the chords. I hope that makes sense to you haha I understand it inside my head but it's hard for me to type it

Passinwind · #9 07-17-2011, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjadams

First time I saw them was in 69 or 70 at the Capitol Theater in White Plains.

I used to go to The Capitol all the time in 69-71. Never saw the Dead there though, it was always a tough ticket.

First Dead show I saw was April 6th, 1971. The whole show's recording is free and can be found here or here. A few tunes ended up on Skull and Roses. I'm fairly sure I had a good time...

PhiDeck · #10 07-17-2011, 05:21 PM

Saw the Dead once, while in college in the early 1970s, at Cincinnati Music Hall. Had to sit through the insipid opening act (Bachman-Turner Overdrive) before the Dead played for a very long time. Enjoyed their performance, although I would have preferred if Donna Godchaux had refrained from "singing".
After I graduated I worked in the recording industry for 3 years, during which time my ears improved immensely. Since then I can barely listen to the Dead, thanks to their unusual concept of vocal harmony.

scaldin · #11 07-17-2011, 05:27 PM

Saw them in '86 on July 4th in buffalo. Hot as hell, got a contact buzz and fainted in the heat. Loved the show.

jayhoward · #12 07-17-2011, 05:35 PM

I agree--if you want to play like Phil Lesh, avoid hanging on the root note. Play around the root, and only hit it when you want it to count. It helps if the rest of the band follows the same Phil-osophy.

Peepaleep · #13 07-17-2011, 05:38 PM

Deadhead here - saw them about 200 times between 1987 and 1995 including the last show in Soldier Field in Chicago with The Band. Phil is great - I'm glad he got that new liver.

kesslari · #14 07-17-2011, 05:40 PM

I followed the dead for a few summers as a teen in the mid-1970's.
As a band, when they were good they were beyond great, and when they fell flat, they... fell pretty flat. Which is why people would follow them - to try to be there when the really transcendent shows happened.

One of the best musical "complete-the-circle" experiences of my life was when a world music band I was in played a gig at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara. Geoff Cook, former soundman for the Grateful Dead, mixed the show using the same mixing board he had used to mix the first Dead show I had seen (at the Tower Theater on the Blues for Allah tour).
That was pretty cool.

ninerfan · #15 07-17-2011, 05:51 PM

I saw them 20 some-odd times from '91 to '95. Oakland, San Diego, L.A., Vegas....

Some of the best, craziest times of my life!

tekdiver500ft · #16 07-17-2011, 05:55 PM

I can't recall ever having seen them. I have seen pictures of me at a GD concert in the 1980's, though...

FretlessMainly · #17 07-17-2011, 06:00 PM

I've seen about 20 shows, mostly between '82 and '85 in Providence, Worcester, Springfield, Portland, and SPAC. Arguably the best Morning Dew was June 18, 1983 at SPAC - Phil was just hammering power chords from the start and after the quiet part where Jerry noodles around and laments the whole tragedy of the situation, the whole band sort of churns up to the final climax, and this churn was just ridiculous. I have a lousy copy of that show that still gives me goose bumps to listen to it. There are better copies on internet archive, I believe.

Phil has had a great influence on my playing style - he makes choices that just don't normally come to mind and he has this uncanny ability to hold the band by a string and let them go when he chooses to. He handles that power very well, I might add.

basscamel 420 · #18 07-17-2011, 06:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayhoward

I agree--if you want to play like Phil Lesh, avoid hanging on the root note. Play around the root, and only hit it when you want it to count. It helps if the rest of the band follows the same Phil-osophy.

Phil-osophy haha!! The past 4 months or so I have been trying to avoid the root. After playing for about 4 years and always using the root it's been kind of hard to break the habit but I'm slowly getting it. Just takes time like every thing else

basscamel 420 · #19 07-17-2011, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peepaleep

Deadhead here - saw them about 200 times between 1987 and 1995 including the last show in Soldier Field in Chicago with The Band. Phil is great - I'm glad he got that new liver.

200 times! Damn your lucky! And yes phil is a master

Ursus Tyrannus · #20 07-17-2011, 07:13 PM

I saw them in the early 90's. I'm not a Dead fan and hippies give me the hives, especially all the fake part time college hippies who liked the Dead because it was the "in" thing to do the Dead had found huge favor with at that time.

First time I went with a friend who was way into the Dead but we went with his older frat-boy brother and his meat-head buddies. We were in that parking lot for more than 48 hours with him and his drunken buddies...I wanted to kick a cop just so I could get arrested and get away from the never ending parking lot of doom.

The next year I went with the same friend but a different bunch of guys (hey, it was a free ticket) who swore they would not get drunk and decide to camp out in the parking lot for the weekend. After a few hours I had my fill of fake hippies and went back to the van for a nap. Low and behold two older biker lookin dudes had parked next to us and were cranking old Motorhead, Saxon and Deep Purple! Yes! I never went in the stadium. I gave my ticket away for some herbal libations and instead grilled hot dogs, talked old metal, people watched from lawn chairs and had a grand old time with the only two other metal heads in a one mile radius! It was a blast!
Oh..and the Dead played.