The kids they dance and shake their bones...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Wolf, I was at that show too - man, what an encore! Among other things, the boys sure could sing. I was sitting on Phil’s side, about five rows up from the floor and about 2 sections back from the stage…unbelievable.

And plnnr, thanks for bringing back another memory - March 1990, Nassau Coliseum, I was on the floor standing right in front of the soundboard (again on Phil’s side), when they came out with “Attics” as the encore - WOW! They had just started doing it again on the fall 1989 tour.

Hey, rhythmdvl, thanks for starting this thread - I’m really enjoying it!

22

Hey Now.

Yes Rythmdvl the disco truck sure was fun. I remember one time were were staying in this hotel near Sandstone after a show (can’t remember what year) when the post show retro-disco thing was in full swing. Anyway we are out in the hotel parking lot and some kids had disco blaring out of their little Honda and about 15 of us are dancing our butts off, working off some, um, excess energy. Anyway there were these two security guards driving around the parking lot, one in a rent-a-cop car and the other in this old Monte Carlo. The one in the Monte Carlo pulls in front of the Honda and gets out. He takes the tape out of the the Honda’s tape deck. We are thinking he is trying to shut down the party, but no; he takes the tape sticks it in his tape deck and opens his trunk to reveal much larger speakers. We were rockin’ to disco on the hotel security guard’s stereo system.

Later, some real cops came and the other security guard stoped them from coming on to hotel property. He came by a little while latter and said “I chased the cops of the lot.” Pretty hilarious at the time anyway.

Thanks Rythumdvl, I had forgotten all about the disco guards.

By the way, I going to see Ratdog in a couple weeks in a local (Columbia, MO) bar. The only thing I have seen Bob do since the Dead is sitting in with the David Murray Octet at the Fillmore. Phil sat in too. That was fun. I’m hoping this show is going to be good too. I saw a Phil and Dylan show this summer that rocked.

23

A particularly wonderful memory of the 1983 Merriwether show: My first experience with mushrooms, so I’m having a very interesting time on the drive from Fredericksburg to Columbia (“Lilly, please turn down the radio. Why, Lee? Well, we’re at an intersection. Oh, well alright then.” It made a helluva lot of sense at the time.) We get there (how, I’ll never know - dead reckoning I suppose), park the car and there is a guy right next to our parking spot obviously lost from his friends. “Wayne! Wayne! Where are you Wayne?” The guy is just yelling this at the top of his lungs over and over and over again. Later that night, after the hardest rain storm I’ve ever encountered, a “Music Never Stopped” that I could swear was actually written out and distributed to the band (it was that well played, so complex and shifting and yet the band never missing a lick), Bob introducing “Hell in a Bucket->West L.A. Fadeaway” by saying “We’re going to badger you with some new tunes until we get 'em right (oh for the days when Bucket/LA were “new”)”, the aforementioned “Wharf Rat” (“I’ll get a new start…and live the life that I should. I’ll get up and fly away…” BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, CRACK (lightning strike)), and a Sugar Mag you’ve got to hear to believe, I wandered back to the car, waded a creek that had flooded out a little pedestrian bridge, AND THE GUY IS STILLIING THERE YELLING “WAYNE! WAYNE WHERE ARE YOU WAYNE?” To this day when I see the friends I attended the show with (and I only see them about once or twice a year) they automatically ask “Hey, Lee, have you seen Wayne?” And to top it all off - I had lawn seats and never once saw the band. Not even the slightest glimpse. It was just me, the music, and the weather. Probably the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life.

Thank you, for a real good time.

24

heh, heh. plnnr, i was on the lawn that night too. I saw the band though. Getting across that bridge, that was a test for all of us chemically enhanced citizens that night. I had to drive home to Delaware later that night. Oh, what a long strange trip it was. Buck naked in the car (all my clothes were soaked thru), trying to pay the toll on I-95 and halucinating that the toll collecters tongue was about a foot long. One very interesting night. Wish I had a tape of that night. An excellent Wharf Rat.

25

Oh man, it’s been a while. And the 80s were kind of hazy to me. But I remember a hot summer night at Alpine Valley on the big grass hill when I was relatively lucid. It was the only time I have ever been to a concert and had someone ask if it would bother me if they smoked. I don’t meet people that courteous at restaurants.

…maybe the sun is shining, birds are winging or rain is falling from a heavy sky…

26

I had to dig my tapes out of the closet last night and give the 6/20/83 show a listen. Nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile.

Dave, I’ll spin you a copy of the show if you’d like one. Drop me a line with your mailing address and I’ll see what I can do. The email is in my profile.

In all fairness I do have to say that I also remember a few really sorry shows. Uninspired song selection, sloppy or lazy playing, equipment problems (I once saw Weir do a Pete Townsend on his guitar he was so pissed), Jerry’s very fuzzy memory of lyrics, etc. I kept going back, though, because there was always the chance that they’d really hit it, and when they did, well, like David Crosby said, “Something happens when the Dead get it on that doesn’t happen when Percy Faith gets it on.”

I was fortunate enough to also see these shows:

Merriwether (see above)
Richmond 11/1/85 (a riot outside, the never-ending second set with a “Gloria” second set closer inside)
The Cap Centre return of electric “Ripple” (Jerry in a Hawaiian print shirt and no glasses. Supposedly “Ripple” was for a terminally ill person arranged through the Make a Wish Foundation.)
The Cap Centre return of “Black Throated Wind” (new lyrics that fell by the wayside pretty quickly).
Hampton return of “Box of Rain.” Also during that run “So What?” to open the second set.
The 85 Rectum Shows: Midnight Hour-Walkin the Dog-Big Boss Man first set opener.
“Formerly The Warlocks” - ring, ring, ring (I’m at work during this episode)- “hello? Lee, this is Doug. You’ve got to run up to the Coliseum, right now. What’s going on? The word is the bands gonna play in Hampton in about a week and they’re keeping it really quiet. Tickets are supposed to go on sale at 10. See what you can find out.” I walk up the hill and there’s not a line, nothing. Walk up to the window and ask “Are the Grateful Dead playing in Hampton next week? No, but a band formerly called “The Warlocks” are. OK, in that case give me 4 tickets for both shows.” One night’s ticket was day-glo purple, the next night was day-glow yellow. Under a black light each ticket had a separate word imprinted and if you put them together they read “He was a friend of mine” (in memory of Brent). Still have my second night ticket (they didn’t rip them in two that night).
Spilt a beer on Robert Hunter at “Hard Times” (a tiny little club here in Richmond (may it rest in piece).
Also saw Hunter in a high school auditorium in Charlottesville. He took requests the entire night.

Anyone care to complete this quote?

“We’re gonna take a short break, so…”

27

hmmmmm. I still turn down the volume when approaching intersections. Makes perfect sense to me.

28

“…kick back and make friends with the buds.”

I met Mickey Hart at a post-concert party in Las Vegas in 1990 (Dennis McNally, the Dead PR man, asked me along…he also sent me free tix and backstage passes to most of the NYC-area shows between 1990 and 1995), then shared a cab with John Barlow back to the hotel.

Okay, Hart and Barlow are perhaps the LAST band members you’d want to hang with, but it’s all I got to share.

29

Man, what great memories. What any of us wouldn’t do to see even a “bad” show again…

After both of Jerry’s little episodes, I decided then and there that I would go to as many shows as I possibly could, 'cause you just never know when you might be seeing your last. Of course I’m sad that the ride came to an end, but I am so glad I went to as many shows as I did. Sure, there were some sub-par performances, but to be able to catch those shows that were just stellar was a bonus beyond belief. Hey, anybody manage to save all, or most of their stubs? I’m missing a few ("Hey man, is this your real seat? Cool. Can I borrow your stub? I promise, I’ll be right back…)

I loved those mail order tickets. Hell, I loved mail order! What a concept. Dial…“Thank you for calling the Official West Coast Mail Order Hotline…”. Dial a few days later…BUSY-BUSY-BUSY. Shit! New message! Frantic speed dialing, sometimes for HOURS! I found the SF number to be updated quicker than the NJ line (wasn’t it 201-something TOKE?)

Some more notables:

Jerry and Phil switching sides, sometime in '79 if I remember correctly

Watching Jerry go from black hair to gray, from thin to heavy

Seeing a ripped Brent wail on Dear Mr. Fantasy and Never Trust a Woman

After a Bobby show at the Ritz in NYC, walking down the side street about 1/2 hour later and almost walking into him as he left the side stage door.

2 hours before a Ratdog show at 5 Points in Birmingham, seeing Weir, Wasserman, and Kelly walking down the street with guitars in hand. They were walking away from the hall, maybe heading for someone’s house or something.

The stark contrast at MSG shows between hipped-out, hopped-up Heads and Manhattan businesspeople. The sweet aroma of street corner pretzels mixed with Killer Kind.

30

Hey, plnnr, I was at that show - the second set opener was Revolution. Man, they were smokin’ that night. Great song selection for the Rectum shows that year, and also for the Philly Shrivic Center shows in '83 or '84 (including a great Scarlet -> Fire and an awesome Wharf Rat, or maybe it was just the chemical enhancement that made them seem so good).

31

I picked up that 4-CD set on the way home tonight…LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE GRATEFUL DEAD: FILLMORE EAST, 1971. I’ve listened to the first two discs so far, and there is an ASTOUNDING “Lovelight” ringing in my head at the moment.

All you guys posting on this thread, walk, don’t run, to the nearest record shop. It’s like thunder rolling up on the horizon.

Phil comes up strong in the mix, and I have NEVER heard him sound so niiiiiiiiiice. Brilliant drumming from Kreutzman, who’s holding down the percussion job all by himself in this manifestation. Pig is in fine fettle. And nobody needs to be reminded of how Garcia was playing in 1971, right?

And the price is certainly right…thirty bucks for four discs, about 75 minutes of music on each. Why are they so GOOD to us?

32

And the correct completion to the quote is…

“We’re gonna take a short break, so everybody hang loose.”

And then the loooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggggg wait for the bathroom began.

33

Hey, Ike, based on your recommendation and [shameless sucking up]the enormous respect I have developed for you while lurking here over the last few months[/shameless sucking up] I just ordered it from amazon - $25.36, including shipping. Of course, I have to wait a week…

34

So rather than start a new thread I figured I’d just resurrect this one to tell everyone who posted here that you should immediately, without stopping, go out and get “Might As Well… The Persuasions Sing the Grateful Dead”. MAN! You know, I never liked “Liberty” very much when the boys played it, but boy is it a fun tune.

The Pers do an absolutely AWESOME version of “Ship of Fools” and “He’s Gone” (uptempo, believe it or not), a beautiful “Ripple” and “It Must Have Been The Roses” yet. Vince and Peter Rowan play, too. Oh, man, “One More Saturday Night” just came on - funky with a capital “F”, especially the break. “I Bid You Good Night” is a bit uptempo for my taste, although the vocals are gorgeous.

The Persuasions also do an entire album of Zappa tunes (which itself is pretty awesome), but that’s another thread…

Oh, and Uke, I got the Fillmore set - great music, but the fourth disc is hands down my fave - I’d heard that Alligator, etc. before, but not with this clarity. Thanks. :slight_smile:

35

String Cheese opened for Dylan and Phil Lesh in June at the Gorge…I quite enjoyed them. They sounded a lot like some of the Dead tapes I’ve heard, some really nice spacey jamming stuff and lots of energy.

I never got to go to a dead show, I’m too young and a new deadhead, but the crowd at that concert was the best part, drums all night long and lots of wonderful people who I’ve run into everywhere since.

36

Hey, Tie-Dye, welcome to the SDMB. :slight_smile: There was an Incident at the Roseland Ballroom in October, but I didn’t make it. In retrospect, I’m sorry I didn’t, but I’m sure there’ll be others.

And if you think the world is small now, just wait… :smiley:

37

Thanks, Cantrip! I just checked Napster, and I found He’s Gone, Ripple, and My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama. It’s definitely different! (I had never heard of The Persuasions - and somehow I can’t shake the image of those “California Raisins” as I listen…)

[/quote]

Tie-Dye, now you double-suck!!! :stuck_out_tongue: (although I’ll let you slide since you never got a chance to see the Dead)
I still haven’t gotten to see Phil, since he never plays within even a thousand miles of me. And I’ve been dying to see String Cheese - they were in Birmingham last month, in a 2000-seat theater, and I couldn’t go! They always put on a great show though, from the tapes I’ve heard and reviews from friends. If anyone hasn’t heard them, check out “Footprints” or their dynamite version of “Take Five”.

38

Yeah, Dire Wolf, but the Raisins never sang “Ship of Fools” quite so hauntingly. :smiley:

I just checked out the String Cheese Incident site - their West Coast tour looks awesome, including special guests Little Feat and Del McCoury (at two dates in Denver). sigh

I got the Persuasions disc at cheap cds for $11.90 plus shipping:[ul][li]Here Comes Sunshine (excerpt)[]Might As Well[]Lazy River Road[]Loose Lucy[]Ripple[]Brokedown Palace[]Liberty[]Sugaree[]Ship of Fools[]He’s Gone[]It Must Have Been The Roses[]One More Saturday Night[]Bertha[]I Bid You Good Night[]Black Muddy River[/ul][/li]
And I have to say, Rhythmdvl, re-reading this thread brought yet another smile to my face.

39

BTW Dire Wolf, what disc is “Take Five” on? I love their “Lonesome Fiddle Blues”, and “Take Five” is one of my favorite tunes when Dave Brubeck does it - I can only imagine what an SCI version sounds like.

40

Cantrip, pick up “Carnival '99”, a 2 disc set featuring Take Five, Birdland, Hey Pocky Way, Mauna Bowa, Footprints, and Jellyfish among the standouts (well, imo, anyway). Unfortunately, no Lonesome Fiddle.

SCI’s Take Five is my personal favorite version of the song - extremely sweet.
Those guys are also avid skiers, so those Denver dates kick off a nice stretch for them.