Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site opus.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!hao!nbires!opus!rcd From: rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) Newsgroups: net.music.gdead Subject: Twenty Years So Far Message-ID: <1247@opus.UUCP> Date: Tue, 18-Jun-85 01:18:08 EDT Article-I.D.: opus.1247 Posted: Tue Jun 18 01:18:08 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 20-Jun-85 20:50:18 EDT Distribution: net Organization: NBI,Inc, Boulder CO Lines: 140 The "theme" of the twentieth anniversary shows at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley was "Twenty Years So Far". Throughout, the message was that the Grateful Dead are marking a milestone and celebrating, but they're nowhere near ready to hang it up. If anything, it was a renewal and a rebirth. Jim Mayfield has posted songlists and some comments, so I'll avoid that and just try to give some of my random observations to give you a feel for the shows. The showtimes were offset--Friday, June 14 started at 7 PM, Saturday at 5, Sunday at 3. Interesting variety of conditions. Sunday would potentially have been blazingly hot, but that the fog started to come in early in the second set (obligingly, to add some atmosphere for "Looks Like Rain"). Of the three shows, almost everyone that I talked to thought that the first two were a lot better than the third--Sunday was a good show and had some interesting material, but the magic never really happened. Saturday was generally best liked; several people said it was the best show they'd ever seen. Overall, it seems that the Dead are reaching back for older songs--some of their own as well as some rock standards--to add to their repertoire. The Greek shows included the Derek & the Dominoes song "Keep on Growing", "Smokestack Lightning", "Stagger Lee", Dylan's "She's an Artist" (?), "Gimme Some Loving", "Midnight Hour", "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo" (I've probably scrambled that one), "Lovelight", and more of "The Other One" than I've heard in the years I've seen the Dead. "Lost Sailor"/"Saint of Circumstance" were there and solid. Comments on these: "Keep on Growing" is yet another song for the Phil/Brent duo. The audience loved it; I think that they've hit on something with Phil and Brent doing some of the old hard rock. "Smokestack Lightning" surprised everyone. I haven't talked to anyone who remembers them doing this in recent years. Bobby sang it, of course. It seems as if he might be ready to take some more chances on material which Pigpen would have done in the past. "Stagger Lee", "Midnight Hour", "...Toodleoo", and even "Lovelight" were not complete surprises; they're not from the distant past but they have only made rare appearances. "Gimme Some Loving" sounds real solid now; I think it could become a staple. The requirements for particular instrumental parts and vocal characters are a fine match to the Dead's talent. The additional pieces of "The Other One" fit a little roughly with the standard middle section ("Spanish lady"..."Cowboy Neal"). I think it will round out the piece nicely but it needs practice. [I'd better straighten out titles here: What we tend to call "The Other One", because of the way it's labeled on the skull&roses album, is actually titled "Cryptical Envelopment" in the songbook. The material that was added in the Sunday show is what is actually titled "The Other One" in the songbook, although it was played wrapped around the "Cryptical Envelopment" section.] Sailor/Saint seemed to disappear a few years ago. I heard of it being played once about a year ago (at Lost Wages, perhaps?) and it didn't go well. Saturday's version was hot; I hope it's back to stay for a while. There was a Jerry song that I haven't heard before. I don't know whether it's a new song or a traditional folk song--part of the lyrics are "Comes a time when a blind man takes your hand and says `Don't you see?'" Anybody out there have any info on this one? There were a few downs to the shows...Mickey had some sort of equipment problems during percussion time (no, I will not call it "the drum solo" 'cause it's not a solo and not just drums...:-) and got into some sort of hassle with the backstage help--we couldn't really tell what the problem was, except for seeing what looked like a large aluminum drumstick bent almost 90 degrees. He turned some of his anger toward the music--the Beam came out with some impressive sound that day. The sound was good on Friday and excellent on Saturday...until the second encore (a rare event). This was U.S. Blues, and it was played so incredibly loudly that both the equipment and people's ears suffered real distortion problems. I can't imagine what the hell the idea was. I like music loud, but there's no excuse in the world for pushing it to a painful level. (One of the things I've always appreciated about the Dead is that they DON'T try to prove that they can make your ears bleed.) Sunday the sound was almost as loud as Saturday's encore, and where we were sitting it sounded distorted--like a dying speaker or a clipping amp. Due to the extra volume and residual irritation/ringing in my ears from the night before, I heard most of Sunday's show with tissue stuffed in my ears. I'd like to hear from other people about this--did you also have problems with Sunday's sound? Where were you sitting? There were some hassles with the police and security folk, as some netters had warned. I watched a little routine on Sunday where someone got hassled for spraying water on the crowd. Of course, this is standard practice for an outdoor show; it's just a nice thing to do for people to help them stay cool. The problem was that the squirter caught a cop with the water and the cop took offense--to the point of taking her name and confiscating the water bottle (allegedly to test its contents for acid, if you can believe such a crock of shit!). Anyway, she somehow managed to get to one of the REAL security people working the concert. It had a happy ending--she got her water bottle back (with an apology) and the cop was asked to leave. I'm glad it worked out, but it pisses me off to think that at an event where you've got thousands of people who are there to have a good time-- and with a Grateful Dead concert there's rarely even any potential for real problems--you get cops assigned to the show who don't know their asses from a hole in the ground when it comes to crowd control, and they go around causing trouble. I KNOW it's not that hard to find good cops; I've seen lots of them that can deal smoothly with trouble, keep a low profile, and even be friendly with people and enjoy the show...why do they even hire someone with an ego-trip problem, let alone assign him to such an event. (Rant! Rage!...sorry) The interplay of people on the stage was much more obvious to me--it seems that playing "at home" lets the band and the crew loosen up a little. I noticed that the guy who works the board on stage (don't know his name; help out there?) bopped over to Brent at the start of Cassidy and sort of talked/sang to/for him--he was emotionally very much into it. (Perhaps he's one who knew Cassidy very well?) Three hot-air balloons were launched during the second Sunday set--some green/orange imagery that I missed (but green/orange are Prankster colors), a lightning-bolt pattern and a huge red rose on white. After the Friday and Saturday shows, staff at the exit had little half-page handouts for the crowd. One side has the theme picture for "Twenty Years so Far"--a Minuteman-in-front-of-flag sort of picture with the Minuteman a skeleton and the musket replaced by a guitar. The other side of the handout had some verse written to fit with various standard numbers. (Example: "Just like Grandma Moses / Just like Auld Lang Syne...") There are a couple of comments that make the message for 20 years completely clear-- "Thanks for 20 years of being an audience which is the envy of every other rock and roll band alive." and best of all-- "Long as you keep coming You got a band." -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...I'm not cynical - just experienced.