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Grateful Dead reunion

#122
the harp unstrung said:
That sounds like a FANTASTIC day out! I cast the green eye in your direction... :thumbsup: Congrats!
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This is my 'little splurge' for having a really bad year and a half. Starting last Winter (January 2014), my mom in declining health was in a downward spiral. 4 or 5 hospital emergency visits and stays, rehabs, she ended up in an assisted living apartment, then on Hospice care before dying in September. I live 5+ hours away and spent much of my time driving back and forth during that period. After September, funeral, estate wrangling, etc (which is still ongoing). My wife and I figured out that I did more than 20 trips across a year not only while she was alive but in doing things like preparing her house for sale, etc. I was doing all the stuff that no one else wanted to, or would do.

This came up, a good friend who lives/works out west gave me a call and said "I have tickets, you're coming and staying with me".

So, yeah...it ain't cheap, but I think it will be a nice thing.
 
#123
nutdog said:
Wow, I remember passing on a Stones concert in the 80's because they wanted $50.

I'm sure it will be fun. Enjoy.
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I'll have to dig up some of my old tickets...I think most of them are in the 12-25$ range. Previous to this, the most I've spent was Leonard Cohen, which ended up being about 75$ each.
 
#124
BurningSkies said:
Nothing. :( Blotter is cheap anyway (or at least it was when I paid attention to such things). I'll be going alone and driving back and forth by myself in an area I don't really know. Probably not the place for me to revisiting recreational psychedelics after 30 years. Maybe a few nice beers? I dunno. I've got all day on Saturday to myself, so my plan is to head over early in the day and check out the scene until the show happens.
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If you think Grateful Dead tickets costs more than when you were a teenager the cost of LSD would blow you away... it's absurd.
 
#126
BurningSkies said:
This is my 'little splurge' for having a really bad year and a half. Starting last Winter (January 2014), my mom in declining health was in a downward spiral. 4 or 5 hospital emergency visits and stays, rehabs, she ended up in an assisted living apartment, then on Hospice care before dying in September. I live 5+ hours away and spent much of my time driving back and forth during that period. After September, funeral, estate wrangling, etc (which is still ongoing). My wife and I figured out that I did more than 20 trips across a year not only while she was alive but in doing things like preparing her house for sale, etc. I was doing all the stuff that no one else wanted to, or would do.

This came up, a good friend who lives/works out west gave me a call and said "I have tickets, you're coming and staying with me".

So, yeah...it ain't cheap, but I think it will be a nice thing.
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Ah, man, that's rough. I bet the show will be great and the atmosphere will be cool because everyone will be nostalgic and cognizant of the historical nature.

My last dead concert I didn't have a ticket. The girl I was dating at the time wanted to go hang out before the show. I wasn't crazy about it because I figured the only thing that could happen was we would get in trouble but she had a way of convincing me to do stupid stuff. We get there and hear a hissing sound and she makes a beeline right toward it. I walk up and she's already bought a balloon full of N2O and is breathing it in.

She hands it to me and I look around the parking lot and figure, "what the hell" and suck some up. About then I hear, "EVERYBODY FREEZE AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP" and we're surrounded by what looks like a SWAT team. So, wahwahs in full force, I put my hands up and the balloon goes flying. The cop next to me doesn't like this and shoves me up against a car with a gun in my back. They're part of Atlanta's 'Red Dog' anti-drug team and they've found some easy pickins. Obviously you need to be in full blown military gear to meet the deadhead threat.

The owner of the tanks managed to slip away so the rest of us and all the other menaces to society they were rounding up were put on a bus and taken to lock up. They said we could face possession of a dangerous drug charges and fight it in court or pay a fine for disorderly conduct and go home. A few hours in a nasty holding cell and $600 later we were back home and we and the nation were all better for the experience. At least I wasn't the guy that was having a bad trip and turned himself in while holding several sheets of acid.

Think I'll sit this one out.
 
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#127
nutdog said:
Ah, man, that's rough. I bet the show will be great and the atmosphere will be cool because everyone will be nostalgic and cognizant of the historical nature.

My last dead concert I didn't have a ticket. The girl I was dating at the time wanted to go hang out before the show. I wasn't crazy about it because I figured the only thing that could happen was we would get in trouble but she had a way of convincing me to do stupid stuff. We get there and hear a hissing sound and she makes a beeline right toward it. I walk up and she's already bought a balloon full of N2O and is breathing it in.

She hands it to me and I look around the parking lot and figure, "what the hell" and suck some up. About then I hear, "EVERYBODY FREEZE AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP" and we're surrounded by what looks like a SWAT team. So, wahwahs in full force, I put my hands up and the balloon goes flying. The cop next to me doesn't like this and shoves me up against a car with a gun in my back. They're part of Atlanta's 'Red Dog' anti-drug team and they've found some easy pickins. Obviously you need to be in full blown military gear to meet the deadhead threat.

The owner of the tanks managed to slip away so the rest of us and all the other menaces to society they were rounding up were put on a bus and taken to lock up. They said we could face possession of a dangerous drug charges and fight it in court or pay a fine for disorderly conduct and go home. A few hours in a nasty holding cell and $600 later we were back home and we and the nation were all better for the experience. At least I wasn't the guy that was having a bad trip and turned himself in while holding several sheets of acid.

Think I'll sit this one out.
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I always remember this as my last show, but it isn't. I think it's just the show that pretty much made me decide to not do it any more:

Take a moment and sample about the first 30 seconds of "Crazy Fingers" to see why it was so bad. Also there were some heavy drugs being done in the crowd, a surly mood and just bad vibes. It was Easter Sunday.

My real last show (no matter how my mind tries to shuffle them around) was Oxford Plains Speedway 7/3/1988.

Which was a fun night and a good place.

My all time favorite set of shows was Fall 1987 East Coast, particularly Providence. This night still sounds great to me:

With some interesting song choices in there too.
 
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#128
Also, while the idea of Chicago didn't sit well with me, Santa Clara just feels right. I never got a chance to do any west coast shows during my time, and I just feel like these will be the ones. Less pressure, home town crowd, and they always played 'different' on the west coast, especially at home. Any shows I had from the Greek always had a very different vibe from the east coast shows.
 
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#129
So.... the two Santa Clara shows are in the books.

I've now watched about an hour's worth of video from the two shows on Youtube -- after of course, getting myself into the <ahem> proper frame of mind -- and based on that admittedly small sample have come to the following conclusions:

1. The reunion of the complete rhythm section -- Weir, Lesh, Hart, Kreutzmann -- is everything I'd hoped it would be. The many GD offshoot bands over the past 20 years that have involved various subsets of this quartet have approximated the "real" GD sound to varying degrees, but having all four of them onstage together changes everything: It really sounds like "authentic" Grateful Dead in a way that nobody else could.

2. Trey was definitely the right choice for the lead guitar role. His playing is very Jerry-inspired, but not in a way that sounds like mere imitation: Rather, it sounds like a genuine part of Trey that is being released in this setting. Moreover, he seems to be finding exactly the right balance between leading and following, much as Jerry did. He seems on the one hand to know "his place," and on the other hand to be willing to step out and take control of a jam. I don't think any of the other potential alternatives for that spot would be able to do that at the level he is.

Eager to hear others' thoughts, especially from anybody who saw the shows.
 
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#130
Watched both nights and came away with mixed feelings. Definitely some gems within some of the jams but there were some gristly beginnings (Brown Eyed Women) and endings (Loser- where it looks like Phil wants to rip off Bruce's head at one point). Looking forward to Chicago!!
 
#131
miacomet said:
Watched both nights and came away with mixed feelings. Definitely some gems within some of the jams but there were some gristly beginnings (Brown Eyed Women) and endings (Loser- where it looks like Phil wants to rip off Bruce's head at one point). Looking forward to Chicago!!
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Hearing that doesn't give me mixed feelings at all: It tells me that they're really going for it! They could have approached this by choosing the easiest songs, carefully arranging and rehearsing beginnings and endings, and doing perfunctory jams that don't take any risks. Granted that some of those moments can be painful, but -- as I'm sure you well know -- that's always been the price to be paid for the gems.
 
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#132
Hmm, I don't really have any opinion about that, if the band think he'll be a good leader, then I am sure they know best.

I admire what they do/have done, but other than that I think they are hopelessly boring to actually listen to.

I would like to see them live though.

I really think that would be a major experience, and maybe even possibly would be able to convert me to a regular fan.

Most jams in my opinion are fun to participate in, also really great to experience live, but mind numbing boring to just listen to.

Anyway, I won't be able to attend any of the concerts anyway, since I live in Danmark and am kind of poor, but I wish them the best of luck.

You got to have respect for what they have done with music, their skill, and that they have the courage to once again to play live.
 
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#135
Overall I'm pretty impressed. I expected this to be much more song-based and celebratory/good time, but they came out on night 1 with serious intent to jam and take risks and go deep. Musically, Trey and Phil in particular sound really on point to me and yes, Trey is proving he was the best choice if the goal is to make creative improvisational music rather than perform a recital of the catalogue. Regardless of how the music comes off, I'm really appreciative that they chose the former path as their primary focus in Santa Clara.

A friend in attendance commented that night 1 had a psychedelic birth/acid test feel - deep jamming and all old songs (60s except for Truckin) just miles from where it all started, and night 2 was heavy with death themes.
 
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#137
Got back Monday night from the shows. I'll go into more depth, but my first thought was that they were both fantastic, but that Saturday night was utterly awesome. For the record, I was in the GA/Floor section and the original map of the seating was pretty far off from the reality of it, and was MUCH closer to the stage than I originally thought. I was something like 15/20 yards from stage, to the right, in front of the piano. I was 'on the rail' for both shows, standing on the barriers (if you saw Bill Walton in the crowd on night one, I was about 6 or 7 people behind him).

18708150243_8e37ff4b2a.jpg
 
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#139
catcauphonic said:
those were my favorite years/tapes to listen to
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Yep. My favorite stuff tends to be 77, 72-74, 70, and then older stuff...(in that order). They were closer to that vibe on Saturday than any of the shows I saw in the 80's. And while I'm not a Trey fan, I feel that he pushed them into some new improvisational spaces than what they did with later era Jerry. I didn't mind the rough edges shown on Saturday (hell, they forgot just as many words and blew just as many beginnings and endings in their heyday)...because there were times that they really were PLAYING together and hitting some very interesting places.
 
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