Young likes Old
AED-PD
From Bill Weisman:
|I was there for one of the shows that weekend (my first!), although I don't
|remember the exact date; maybe the 7/1/73 show (whichever one they played
|He's Gone at). I still have the program ;-), lost the ticket stub ;-(
Does anybody else have any stories of thier first show? Especially from a
long time ago when tickets were cheap, etc. (or for that matter, *any*
show from a long time ago)
I don't know about the rest of you "young" people, but I like to hear
about the Dead before thier more "pop"ular music!
p.s. I am 24 and have listened to "Live Dead" and "Europe '72" about
a million times more than I've listened to thier two new albums....
what are they called again?
peace.
John Cef
Unbroken Chain
>Does anybody else have any stories of thier first show? Especially from a
>long time ago when tickets were cheap, etc. (or for that matter, *any*
>show from a long time ago)
My first show was Sunday at Ventura in '84. A friend of mine had one
ticket and he was going by himself, and he wanted to drag someone
along. That was me. :-) I basically had never heard the Dead
before, except for Truckin' - I jes figgered they were 'another
band.'
We drove from Tustin to Ventura, and if I remember right, there's a
park on the beach about 1/2 mile south of the fairgrounds. We parked
in one of like 20 parking spots in the park - just pulled right in
and found it. We walked up the beach to the venue - there were lots
of wandering around, selling stuff, playing guitars, you know, the
usual. At least, it's usual *now* but I'd never seen this kind of
carnival before.
Anyway, probably like most people, my first impression of the show was the
crowd. We sat up in the bleachers (Ventura is a fairground, and they
have rodeos, that kind of thing. It was laid out kind of like:
****** **********rickety wooden fence they wouldn't let you sit on ***
* * *
* S * *
* T * *
* A * *
* G * *
* E * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
****** *
----------------------grandstand seating--------------------------------
| |
| |
| |
| |
----------------------grandstand seating--------------------------------
Actually, this isn't quite right. I don't think the grandstand was
as long as the field was. Anyway, for the first set, this is where we
sat. Ventura was not that big, maybe 8000? people. Anyway, I had
never seen this many colorful people, and they were all dancing! I
was pretty wasted, and I was noticing little rivers or poskets of
people not dancing. Then I started watching this black guy in a
super bright green Hawaiian shirt dancing away, his dreadlocks
bouncing along... Jim and I at the same time said "check out the
Rastafarian guy!" at the same instant. Whoa, synchronicity.
During the break we went down to the floor.... some random guy came
up to Jim and said to him, really fast "You look just like my
brother will in five years!" and split. Whoa... trip! The music
seemed much more alive on the floor. We went behind the soundboard
to the blind spot where all the dancers and twirlers are. They were
doing what Jerry calls the falling dance in some interview. Very apt
name for it, very serene, very beautiful... the dancers blew me away
during D/S... every time Phil or Micky made a low, loud sound, they
would all sway in perfect synchrony, like fish when you tap on an
aquarium. I was pretty blown away by the whole experience.
Actually, the only thing about the music that I remeber was this
loud feedback howl during a song - now that I have a tape, it turns
out it was Bobby doing these incredible feedback howls during the
last part of Terrapin. Too cool, I wish he'd do that every now and
again... I haven't heard any other terrapins where he goes way out
into a feedback like that. By the way, my copy of this show isn't
very good - anyone have a super clean copy? :-) I think this might
have been during the "trouble ahead, Jerry in red" era, but I really
don't recall.
Anyhow, I came not knowing what to expect, which in retrospect is
probably the best way to come to a show - with no baggage of any
kind. On the drive home, KMET played Althea (which I didn't know at
the time). Ah, now those were the days...Ventura....KMET.... sheesh,
it was only 6 years ago!
I lived in Hell Paso for the next two years, so I didn't see another
show until Irvine '86 run.
Dave
--
*********************** Dave Chesavage ****************************
* dches...@ucsd.edu *
* "Earth is 99% full. Please delete anyone you can." *
Roland McGrath
little dark in there for a setlist ;-)
--
Roland McGrath
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
rol...@ai.mit.edu, uunet!ai.mit.edu!roland
Jason Rusoff
don't remember the set list. It was summertime in the early seventies
('73?) at the Civic Center in Philadelphia. I went with the older brother
of a friend (since he could drive, I was 13 or so). I liked the show
overall, but didn't really much care for Space (still don't, usually). My
strongest impression was of wonder at the general feeling of lethargy in
the crowd after the show. I was really speeding along, all jazzed on all
the good music, while everyone around me seemed to be walking around in a
stupor. Does anyone out there have any idea if this was the Let's Explore
Herione phase of the Dead's history?
The show definately started me down the wayward road I travel today :-)!
I didn't catch the boyz again till the summer of 76 (Bicentenial tour, I
think) at the Tower theater in Philly. A much smaller place, though all
seated, so dancing wasn't too easy. Since moving to the left coast I've
been able to catch more shows, and manage to the see the boyz every now
and then while still hanging on to a reglar job.
Jason