So, 'fess up. How many Grateful Dead shows did you go to? How'd you get started? Why'd you stop (aside from Jerry dropping dead, of course). My favorite show was the Hartford Civic Center in 1986. They played "Box Of Rain" after a years-long hiatus. We did whippets and drank Pabst Blue Ribbon and Lasha took a hit of acid from a strange young boy on the train.

Spill.

-- Sara Astruc (saraastruc@aol.com), June 16, 2000

Answers

i lost count a long time ago and i don't really care what the number was. the only reason i stopped was the breakup of the band. *sigh*

the magic is still around; it tastes and sounds and feels and smells a little different now. but it's still there.

peace, ellen

-- ChinaCat Sunflower (ellen@fruhead.com), June 16, 2000.

Sara, you and Rich have definitely been to at least one show together--he was all over Hartford in 1986--and MSG and RFK and all the others that you both, near NYC, would have gone to. He also followed them a couple of semesters (maybe that's why it took him five years to get a BA?).

My favorite was my first, Buffalo 1993 when Sting opened. Also Philly in spring 1995 when they brought back "Unbroken Chain" after 20 years.

Only six: Buffalo in June 1993, Philly in September 1993, DC in July 1994 (we were on the road to DC during OJ's great slow-speed getaway), Boston October 1994, the "Unbroken Chain" Philly show in spring '95, and the second Highgate show, June 1995 in Vermont.

Since then, I've gone twice to the Furthur Festival, in 1996 and 1997: Phil (who did sing), Bill, Bobby, Mickey and his Mystery Box, Hot Tuna, Los Lobos, Bruce Hornsby: family. Although Fiddler's Green is the most regimental, unkind (ahem) venue possible, it does afford a wonderful view of the mountains and in 1998 they timed a "China-->Fire" to coincide with sunset. Also the best "Little Wing" ever, and, finally, "Ripple," my favorite Dead song and one I'd never heard the boys play.

I can wade in a drop of dew.

-- Lisa Houlihan (lisa@penguindust.com), June 16, 2000.

I wandered into the Fillmore East in June 68 the first time the Dead played there (no, it was not sold out). I was in 11th grade, taking that F train from 169th Street Jamaica to Second Avenue was a big adventure. Saw them about eight or nine more times at FE after that: five times with the Acoustic Dead/New Riders/Electric Dead lineup (talk about your Box of Rain...). Sept. 17, 1970: I guarantee you, Best Dead Ever. (And my last tabs ever.) Once with the Allman Bros. as the opening act. Once with Savoy Brown opening, once I think with Hot Tuna, and at least two other times... it was sacred. After the Fillmore East closed, there was a Cowboy Dead show at the NY Acadamy of Music... three shows at Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City) - one of those with the Band, who actually cut the Dead that night. (Ah, The Band... saw them - the originals, i mean - about a dozen times too.) But then the Dead started moving into bigger stadiums, and the crowds started doing ludes, and getting a little full of themselves countercultural movementwise, and I lost interest for a while. Then my kid brother, who became a Deadhead by listening to Aoxomoxoa through the walls of our bedrooms, and ended up going to hundreds of shows, started taking me to the occasional show. Probably saw 10 more or so with Josh over the years... Saw the Hartford Civic Center show where they trotted out Estimated Prophet and Terrapin (but that was before '86, no?), saw Dylan-Dead... Snuck in a couple of Jerry Garcia Band hits there as well. Last time must have been early '90s, I guess. They still had their moments, but were kinda Dead on Their Feet half the time by then, I thought. Speak to so.

But yes they (like the Band, like Beefheart, etc.) had their alchemical roots in the blues, and bluegrass, and jazz, and all that Weird Old American Music, and with few exceptions that just seems to be gone from what gets out there now.

-- David (dvdbelkin@aol.com), June 16, 2000.

Five, the last five shows in Eugene. I hate to drive.

I've lost the stubs for the shows I actually went to, but I've still got the cancelled GDTS tickets from the Field Trip in '93(?) that was called off at the last minute due to Jerry's health.

-- Dirk (dirkm@awenet.com), June 16, 2000.

Lisa: Because of you, I have opened a new forum topic. Where we you when OJ was running? Not quite as compelling as "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?," I'll admit.

-- Sara Astruc (saraastruc@aol.com), June 16, 2000.

I started going to shows when I was around a year old, I was one of those dirty tyedyed kids playing in the mud. But we usually only went to 10 shows a year, my parents were not the crazy ones who lived on the road. I stoped going to shows when I was around 15 because my parents divorced and that was the end of the family "vacations". Shortly thereafter Jerry died so there were really no more. This whole topic reminded me of my Dad's good parts he was really fun on those "vacations" thank you Sara.

-- Sarah (srhb@yahoo.com), June 16, 2000.

Hm, how'd I start? A deadhead boyfriend in high school. I don't know how many shows I went to... more than a few dozen.

The reason I live in California today is that I followed the Dead out here from the east coast back in 1987 as a teenager, and decided I liked the place and would return some day. Sara, I remember that Hartford show where they pulled out "Box of Rain"! And the next year in Hartford too, when Jerry had just recently come out of the coma and they played "Black Peter", oh my god what a moment.

I've got too many Dead-show stories to tell in one post. They're all pretty colorful, and come to think of it, they nearly all involve some interesting drug use too. Hmm... :)

I really miss them. I miss the instant magic that every show brought into my life. Nah, it wasn't only the drugs. (Although I sometimes miss those, too, or at least I miss the freedom of thinking "what the hell, why not?" and letting myself go with it.) The Dead really gave something beautiful to the world. I'd like to think it lives on inside those of us who loved them, and that in time it'll blossom into something new and good.

-- Karen (karen@alyx.com), June 16, 2000.

How many? Impossible to count. I was such a diehard Deadhead for 10 years. My first show was in 1978 at San Jose State U.'s football stadium. My last show was in 1988 at the Oakland Coliseum for New Year's Eve. I always surprise poeple when I tell them I was a Deadhead. Even better, I was a punk Deadhead with a mohawk and a black leather jacket and boy did I look out of place at concerts. My big Deadhead celebrity moment was snorting cocaine with Robert Hunter.

-- Lucy Huntzinger (huntzinger@mindspring.com), June 18, 2000.

Wish I'd seen those late 70's and early 80's shows, Lucy. The tapes sound so good. I found the Dead just a couple years before that _In the Dark_ album came out and suddenly yuppies started flocking to shows. The music went on, but it was sort of hard to ignore all the clean-cut people standing stiffly in the middle of the crowd with their arms crossed, wearing their brand-new tie-die shirts because they wanted to be dressed "correctly" for the occasion, frowning whenever strangers got too close to them. It did take a little something out of the atmosphere.

-- Karen (karen@alyx.com), June 19, 2000.

I'm a poser! It was a Scarlet-->Fire, not a China-->Fire. I forget my seques.

-- Lisa Houlihan (lisa@penguindust.com), June 19, 2000.

minor league, late version deadhead. 6 shows only, but all memorable, particularly the first one (Dark Star) and the series of 3 I went to the last year of college at Rosemont in Chicago. Never got to see my Scarlet-fire, my favorite series, but I did get a help-slip-frank.

oy vey. I saw a lot of phish too. they used to be a lot easier to stomach.

I was kind of an indie rocker deadhead. I saw a lot of punks at the later shows I went to though.

-- jen popbomb (spiralstars@hotmail.com), June 22, 2000.

Karen: At a show in Long Beach, CA circa 1988, a young girl in her brand-spankin'-new tie-dye asked me how many shows she had to attend before she was officially a DeadHead.

-- Sara Astruc (saraastruc@aol.com), June 23, 2000.

5, if I remember rightly.

1st - Rochester, NY, fall of 78. I believe it was one of the last (if not the last) show Keith and Donna played. Great show, made all the better for the 8-hr. drive from the other end of NY State for the show and IDing other Deadheads on the road. Heady experience for this never-been-away-from-home college freshman. 2nd - Frost Amph. on Stanford Campus, summer 87. Took some acid; the music sucked. A long-incubating case of the flu popped up its head during the second half of the show. 3rd - Oakland Coliseum, winter 91. Had the flu (sense a trend here?) and left during drums/space, though not before seeing "New Speedway Boogie" performed for the first time in 25 years. The Persian Gulf War was just about to start and that song was the most scathing political commentary on it I've heard to date. 4th - Oakland Coliseum, spring 91. Took a friend to witness the Dead Experience. She was more of the Burning Man type. Good show, nothing memorable except that I couldn't make out if Hornsby was playing with the band. 5th - Oakland Coliseum, sometime in 95. It took me 5 shows to have my transcendent Dead experience - dancing on the floor to a 25-minute "Scarlet/Fire." I loved it. Some of my pleasure was due to being accompanied by my experienced friend (60+ shows) and having show me the ins and outs of an Oakland Dead show.

I don't miss 'em, any more than I miss REM in their heyday.

Abbycat The Devil You Know http://abbycat.diaryland.com

-- Abbycat (mistercat@mindspring.com), July 14, 2000.

109 1/2 (left one middle second set cause: bad ruben on rye)

-- cat (catnnun31@yahoo.com), August 11, 2000.

This forum is closed! Visit ThreeWay Action to post!

-- Sara Astruc (astruc@astruc.com), September 10, 2000.