Enough of politics, let's get on with the show.
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Never was a big dead fan. Something about Bob Weir just never sat right with me. That said there is a guy named Matt Rae that put out and album called "Twanging The Dead" and the songs play on his Tele with his style makes them really likeable and easy to listen too. If you are a Grateful Dead fan check it out it's a great album.

To answer the OP never went to one though I had a bunch of friends that followed them around the country. The party never ends!
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I was young and it was on MTV but I remember like yesterday when Gerry Garcia came onstage with AC/DC during Hells Bells. Everyone was banging the big bell on stage and the vibe was totally insane!

And yeah, fuck politics and more important FUCK Trump!

First saw them at the Capitol Center. Summer of 74? Maybe 73 - I was too stoned to remember.

Summer Solstice Merriweather Pavilion ~1983. Everyone was tripping except for me - never did that. It was pretty cool but the entire audience was in deep space. Some people were just dancing/spinning in a circle for 3 hours. Middle of the concert someone lit off an M-80 and it was the biggest collective 'bum-out' I have ever experienced. I asked my friend why the firecracker was such a bummer - I guess when you are tripping loud noises are not that great. I laughed at them.

The other thing was somehow all the deadheads knew the order of most or all of the songs played - that seemed weird. So glad I went. Ended up going to one more show too.

Firecracker Bob Wrote:
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> Summer Solstice Merriweather Pavilion ~1983.
> Everyone was tripping except for me - never did
> that. It was pretty cool but the entire audience
> was in deep space. Some people were just
> dancing/spinning in a circle for 3 hours. Middle
> of the concert someone lit off an M-80 and it was
> the biggest collective 'bum-out' I have ever
> experienced. I asked my friend why the
> firecracker was such a bummer - I guess when you
> are tripping loud noises are not that great. I
> laughed at them.
>
> The other thing was somehow all the deadheads knew
> the order of most or all of the songs played -
> that seemed weird. So glad I went. Ended up
> going to one more show too.

That was my first show as well. Great time. Those were the years before all the drunktards got on the bandwagon in 87, 88 and ruined everything. I gotta say though, I made a shit load of money off of those idiots. Always been an entrepreneur.

If you can remember, you were not actually there.

It was at the Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, Grateful Dead appeared with the Allman Brothers and The Band.

People were vending drugs as if they were selling hot dogs from a cart.

Picked up some primo Afghan hash and peyote buttons. Did not realize they taste bad and induce vomiting, but tripped for three days.

The Deads first set was interrupted by a hellacious thunderstorm. Then everything turned into mud.

The last hour, all three bands jammed. Magic.

There was no violence there. I did see a New York State Trooper the size of a horse push some kid that staggered into him and the kid flew quite a ways.



Still tripping , on the way home stopped to piss, walked on what I thought was a path off the side of the highway , it was a little dark too.
Turns out I actually stepped off a bridge and plunged into a river below. Not hurt , but soaking wet and embarrassed rode home seeing trails and having spiritual thoughts. Yikes!

Firecracker Bob Wrote:
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> I guess when you
> are tripping loud noises are not that great. I
> laughed at them.

Me and some friends dropped acid on 4th of July one year and ended up going to the town’s fireworks display. Holy fuck, the loud explosions sounded insane, almost panic-inducing, but we couldn’t stop laughing at them. That was a pretty wild experience IIRC.

i saw them. more late in their career though - late 80's or early 90's.

from what i see on youtube, 70's mariiweather pavilion MD, music was allot less refined (less sudio). more hometown and about working farming and being a hick, less far fetched. even and especially the bands that did that kinda stuff in the 80's

the fact for Fairfax 80's area was:

* marajuana was not arrestable. however people hated drug addicts or anyone who didn't work or came to work high. pot was a weekend thing, possibly something to help people "in a bad way" sleep (probably peopel poisoned by paint fumes in an era were OSHA didn't hardly exist in fairfax).

* because something was not "illegal" did NOT mean you were protected by nanny pelosi nanny government to do it safetly. people at work might punch you or something or you might be fired and have last paycheck withheld: the courts would not "protect your rights", you were a dumb ass for crossing your co-workers is how that would end up. why the hell aren't you already working your next job why are you here complaining, would be the question.

infact i sold my guitar for some mech parts i needed, and was never able to afford to get a new one due to "some changes" to my life i certainly didn't agree with

i didn't mind terribly: both groups i had been in a band with refused to learn songs "all the way through" or schedule to play for pay. on my own i figured i was not not a rodger daltry so began focusing on science - which i'd already started to do at least by age 12 outside of school on and off. studying to "qualified to be hired". i had no idea then political children could be put in a job to fuck things up i had been qualified for for (a decade or more). infact back then it would be less heard of and not to worry about

i wish i had an axe and had a band: but ultimately because of what i chose to study there is no time. i never ever have leftover time. ever. i'll die before 1/10 of the things on my list are done.

Grateful Dead is nothing more than a mediocre rock band full of hippies. I am less than impressed with any of their music.

both concerts i saw were great. girls were painted in neon dancing, music was great, everyone there loved it.

but i missed on the infamous tailgate partying. by then va police were cracking down and about all that was "sold" there was toasted cheese sandwiches. byob.

INFACT at one point "the world" started cracking down on rich rockers, jailing them and extorting them for cash. some rockers began denying they did drugs in public. Electric light orchestra Jeff Lynne claimed during this period he never did drugs ever, and has stuck with the story.

back in the 80's the word was Jeff Lynne said that to avoid police and court payouts other rockers had been experiencing: but the rumor was never confirmed

'Sweet talkin woman' i think was ahead of it's time, lamenting about telephones; disconnect before one knows the caller, line speed issues: it was flighty tech music before techno existed. (not to say Ozark Mountain Daredevils, barry manelow, or anyone else at the time hadn't really stretched the limits of music)

ultimately people got too busy with too much tech and too much rent

Summer of 1986 at RFK. The Dead were on tour with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. I Called in sick the next day and went back to RFK for the second show. Awesome!

I Saw them in the summer of 52 in Botswania,at the famous Blue Rocks Methatheater.
Jerry Garcia played some solo stuff, mostly phish covers and also a stirring rendition of Burl Ives, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. I was tripping on comet capsules and would up bleeding out of both nostrils. EPIC. Oh yeah, The
Chain Smokers opened for them.

The Watkins Glen show in 1973 had somewhere between 600,000-700,000 people. I have read that the promoters sold 150,000 tickets in advance and everyone else was let in for free.
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February 11, 1969...Fillmore East

They had the best PA system ever in 1974. But it almost killed them.
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The Wall Of Sound

First and last...RFK summer 1995...it was really cool to see one. The parking lot was great. I scored a half of mushrooms, some smoke and got ripped off on some Acid tabs (oh well).


Parking lot was total counter culture, dead heads and hippies totally took over....DC was violent and cracked out at the time. DC Police would just drive through the crowd with smiles happy just to people not shooting each other.

Summer of 1986 at RFK. I went to humor a guy I was dating. A nightmare of dirty looking hippies, body odor, lots of hairy armpit women. I think I was the only broad in attendance wearing a bra.

Such a long, hot day. The upside was that outing was a clear sign that the guy and I weren't a good match.

The Best Wrote:
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> They had the best PA system ever in 1974. But it
> almost killed them.


I read somewhere that JBL set up that "Wall of Sound" for the band for that date. Bet that was a rush playing in front of.

Great thread BTW. BEH dude you are lucky to be alive. Ahh the early 70s. Those were some great times.

The wall of sound was invented by Owsley Stanley who lived in Arlington, VA in the 1950s and either Alembic or Meyer people. I don't think JBL had anything to do with it. Maybe they used their speakers. The dead used to use Altec speakers. I know the amps were McIntoshes. Owsley made the best underground LSD in the world. The Dead wrote a song about him in the mid 60s called Alice D Millionaire. LSD millionaire.

Uptight Wrote:
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> Summer of 1986 at RFK. I went to humor a guy I
> was dating. A nightmare of dirty looking hippies,
> body odor, lots of hairy armpit women. I think I
> was the only broad in attendance wearing a bra.
>
> Such a long, hot day. The upside was that outing
> was a clear sign that the guy and I weren't a good
> match.

Tight, you say? If there's grass on the field, let's play ball...you sound captivating.

Thanks LSD Millionaire for the schooling. The speakers look like JBL with the chrome dust covers but could very well be Altec Lansing's. Both companies had a Lansing component. Good information. I had a McIntosh 240 back in the day and that was one loud fucking amp. Louder than my Twin Reverb for sure.

I was at the 1986 RFK show. I remember it was very hot temperature wise. Might have been my last Dead show.