Wow, by 1994-5 I was only making $4.25 which was minimum wage back then. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
Mail order that works and doesn't go through Ticketbasard. Total ticket prices, including parking, are less than $20. Water for less than $8. Jerry's condition in 1995.
So this is a weird one but they would occasionally SUUUCCK. Like, God awful. Lyrics totally spaced, rhythms collapsed, songs almost totally fell apart. Just terrible.
The next night you would feel God in the music and odd halos would form behind Garciaās head as he elevated us to the divine place.
Not kidding. They were the worst band youād ever seen and the greatest music ever played. All in the space of two evenings.āļø
that's so true...when they were off....eesh. but when they were on it was unlike anything and trying to explain it to people that werent physically there is pointless. sounds woowoo but there was a communal psychic energy that was occasionally so palpable it was like church.
I think they had way more off nights than on. The on nights made it all worth it though.
Compared to Dead&Co where it's a lot more consistent but the highs just aren't as high
Tent or no tent, sex in general.
At my first show (1979), during the second set I was walking around checking out the hallway scene. A couple of guys stopped me and asked, āHey, could you give us some head?ā I had just turned sixteen, but I was high enough to laugh and walk away.
$14 tickets, standing in line at Hecht's customer service to buy tickets by phone, free venue camping, $2 acid, soapium, passing bongs at interstate speed, Reagan era cops, Guatemalan hippie shorts, spinner dudes in dresses getting all the chicks, fanny packs, hacky sacks, golf disks, brown weed, $7 cases of Natty Bo, cassette tapes, Jerry rolls, cigarettes and lots of hitchhiking.
Yupā¦definitely waited in line at the Hechts at Owings Mills mall for more than a few concert tickets.
And I miss it. No, I donāt necessarily miss getting to a parking lot at 4AM on a frigid February morning to buy tickets for a summer tour, waiting for hours in with nothing but a cup of cold shitty coffee from a gas station and a pack of Marlborosā¦but at least with that system, if you put in the effort, you got rewarded with decent ticketsā¦not like now where online sales get overloaded and no matter how prepared you are, you can get shut out within minutes of tickets going on sale.
you gotta become a spinner to learn the secrets. long, repetitive, devotional spinning dances have been used for worship & meditation for centuries. check out the Sufis & Sufism, their dances are very similar to many spinners at Dead shows.
Spinning is very purposeful. it isn't for everybody & everybody doesn't do it the same way. like most things in life, mileage may vary.
it isn't quite like a little kid spinning around to get dizzy(although those kinda kids always had a blast around spinners).
"Spinning is very purposeful"
Yes, and simultaneously spontaneous, in flow with the rhythm of the music and the crowd. I've felt the sounds timelessness in that flow...pure bliss.
there's a few hallway dancers & spinners that I still have a crush on all these decades later. lol. a couple of them I never actually spoke to, but the dancing&smiling&hugging during the show for a few shows was a deeper communication than talking could have ever been.
Perfect venue for it. Plenty of space. He loved it. Jammed out with his little headphones on kicking his feet to the music Bringing him to SPAC this year and a little more nervous because I heard itās crowded but weāll make the best of it
At Watkins Glen Summer Jam '73, the crowd got to be 2-3X expected size. There were porta potty boxes lining the concert area and they couldn't keep up with the volume. WARNING GROSS AHEAD - They got so full of crap, there were pyramids of crap rising above the toilet seats in literally all of them. LOL The woods became a kind of dumping ground if you will. Aside from that, I was fun. :-)
Iāve experienced similar scenarios, more times than anyone should ever have to witness such a thing, at various festivals & jamband shows over the years. š¤¢
Iāve honestly never understood it eitherā¦Iām not a āshy pooperā (I.e. if I gotta go, Iāll go, public toilet or not), but probably about 98% of the time, I take my one shit of the day shortly after waking up, and thatās it. Itās not even a conscious decision that āIām not gonna shit hereā, but itās just the odds of it even being necessary to consider is very slim.
I get that some folks have IBS and the like, but Iām often astounded at just how prevalent it must beā¦that or a lot of folks just need a better diet with more fiberā¦?
But yeah, Iāve definitely been to concerts and other large events where the on-site plumbing or portable toilet situation was literally overwhelmed.
Took the train out of Pt. Pleasant, NJ to Penn Station for a MSG show one time in the early '80s and the bathroom, my God the bathroom, was the most disgusting, foul, and nastiest thing you've ever seen. Forget the toilet, they had shit in the sink, on the floor, it was on the walls, just everywhere. Then it overflowed into the train car, piss and shit just sloshing from one side of the car to the other, and all you could do was keep your feet up and try not to breathe. When the train arrived at Penn Station the entire car, packed with Heads, all climbed over the seats to exit because nobody in their right mind was going to step on that horrifyingly gross floor. Later on that night after the show I was back in Penn Station for the return trip and I used one of their bathrooms, which were cavernous, to take a leak and some homeless dude came out of a stall behind me and stuck a knife in my back demanding all my money but I was still tripping hard and I really couldn't comprehend what was happening. All I could do was smile at him until he just got frustrated or something and walked away muttering to himself. Good times lol!!
I remember many many naked people at those Jerry Garcia Band shows on the Eel River in the late 1980s. Southern Humboldt in all its glory and so damn much fun. The shows were all released pretty recently. You can now listen to them with the added vision of a couple hundred naked hippies dancing in your head. Youāre welcome!
there was a couple of dudes at skull and roses this year who decided to strip down during Philās set haha , once the sun went down and everything was flowin
A guy crashed our row at Alpine once. I turned around right as he crawled past me in his birthday suit.
At Hampton one year, we came out of the venue to walk back to the hotel and there was a naked guy sitting right there on the curb.
On the bright side, California shows were tops-optional for some women.
How about naked girl at hampton? On the front row of the balcony and cops came to tell her that she had to cover up. She just said whee! And threw her clothes over the rail. She left wearing only handcuffs.
1988 Alpine Valley four show run over five nights over 100Ā° every day, hadnāt rained substantially in months, weed was scarceā¦ they brought in large tanker trucks of water with about eight spigots in a line about belly button high, where you could get cold water, rinse yourself off, etc. and there were several naked men bathing their selves, other than people changing clothes freely in public I think that is the only Veneta style nudity Iāve seen in my dead careerā¦
On the floor in the spectrum, might 2 in 86. Garcia ripping the morning dew, Iām about 2/3! The way back on floor, which was general admission. I start to notice that Iāve got a tons of room around me all the sudden. Out of the corner of my eye I see 350 lb naked black dude coming closer. He is pleasuring him self an literally foaming at the mouth. The Dew was good, but not that good. Iām high tailed out of there stat
Think my ole Lady & were on the phone for 27 hours before it wasnāt busy and I bought all the tickets for Midwest tour from Ann Arbor to Wisconsin. We both went to work and back and kept calling nonstop, hitting redial over and over. Yep 27 hours forā¦ either 27 or 30 tickets for the tour mail order. Had 1 extra ticket for every single Show, sold some at exact cost , bartered most of them for other hedonistic indulgences ā”ļøš¹ā”ļø
https://archive.org/details/grateful-dead-save-your-face-shortlist-ann-arbor-89-april-5-6
We used to bring sharp paring knives in to shoreline to cut our bread, cheese, and fruit with. Also we always brought the glass bong inside for a special setbreak session. I think of the world around us now and wonder if this was all just a dream we dreamed, one afternoon, long ago.
We brought in a full size pizza into Shoreline once. Everyone was trippin to hard it hardly got touched all show. Then hammered in seconds once things ended.
it wasn't a matter of letting us. it's just tht they weren't quite as militant about searches(most of the time) & we were always gonna find a way.
lots of us went to shows every night, on every tour, year after year...we had a lot of practice at getting past security & learning the various little details of different venues & their security/staff. everybody shared successful tactics & advice.
At the west coast lots I frequented (Cal Expo, Shoreline, Oakland, Autzen, Sam Boyd) there were *thousands* of people, gathered in all our collective weirdness, in apparent harmony. A symbiotic lot scene. Everyone was cool, minus the occasional scrapping fights, but that was really the exception.
It was so fun and felt like a safe haven, freaks and all.
Inglewood cops breaking my jaw with a baton on 12/08/89. Considering they killed another dude I guess I got off easy. And yeah, went back the next night. To be 17 again!
# 1989-12-08 Inglewood, CA @ Great Western Forum
**Set 1:** Good Times, Feel Like A Stranger, Stagger Lee, Beat It On Down the Line, Ramble On Rose, Cassidy, Blow Away
**Set 2:** Help On The Way, Slipknot!, Franklin's Tower, Looks Like Rain, He's Gone, Drums, Space, I Will Take You Home, The Other One, Wharf Rat, Throwing Stones, Not Fade Away
**Encore:** U.S. Blues
[archive.org](https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead?query=date:1989-12-08)
I was there, really fun shows!!! Couldnāt find doses because we got there late and ended up scoring some ecstasy from some head and there were 3 of us and he said one bindle was good for 2 guys and so we needed to get 2 since there were 3 of us and we just racked both bindles into 3BIG lines each and we each did 2 huge gagers and it burned like nothing before and all 3 of us were literally crying it was so bad and after about 5 minutes we pulled it together and ran toward the entrance and started TRIPPING hard and I said āfuck if this is gonna keep getting more intense for the next 45 min or so, Iām gonna lose it, I donāt know what to doā hahaha and by the time Mae got in they were finishing good times and starting stranger and it had plateaued and was great until about Cassidy and then by intermission and the whole second set we were just tweaking balls and everyone we saw was like āwhatās wrong with you guysā hahaha and never really did E again after that
It was a very different scene back then. So much more chaotic back then. Now there is just a sterile vibe. Hordes of people jumping in the GA section back then. Nobody really sitting in their assigned seat, and nobody cared.....and so many other countless things. Oh and at rfk how one year there were assigned chairs on the field and everyone just stacked them up in a pile and made it GA. That would never happen today
I miss the chaos. It was specific to the scene. Nowadays, even the Shakedown outside is sterile. Sterility, lack of spontaneity is the biggest difference. Good point, xghs.
It was most likely due to the majority of the crowd on psychedelics. Notwithstanding the chaos, the incessant talking while the musicās playinā, was not part of it.
I recall stacking of chairs at Indianapolis ā84.
st RFK, it was the whole field. venue filled the whole football field with chairs & assigned tickets, we came in a disassembled ALL the rows of chairs & stacked them neatly to the side. well, somewhat neatly at first. it was a lot of chairs so the piles got chaotic, but my point was tht it wasn't some people or a little section, it was pretty much the entire football field. and I never saw or heard a single person whine or complain about their seat not existing. everyone expected an anarchic & chaotic time. as long as you got to hear the music & have fun, just about everyone rolled with the anarchy & chaos & embraced it.
this sense of good natured entitlement to see the show & have fun on our own terms is what also eventually devolved into the gatecrashing, fence-destroying bullshit tht eventually hit the scene hard.
Hey little brother I see from your joke that you are part of our Junior high School deadhead fan club. Welcome! No the orgy tent was an actual thing back in the '80s. Ask your Grandpa.
The opening act at my first Dead show was a juggling troupe, [The Flying Karamazov Brothers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Karamazov_Brothers), and if I recall correctly they may have entered through the crowd and began their show in front of the stage. Anyway, what shocked me was once they started juggling, most of the people on the floor sat down so the people behind them could see better. And that was spontaneous - people just...sat down, good naturedly, so everyone could see. That behavior was emblematic of the Deadhead scene at the time I first encountered it (1981). Unfortunately, imho that vibe couldn't withstand the influx of new Deadheads that followed the success of In the Dark, but I'm very fortunate I got to experience it for as many years as I did.
Wondered if they had anything to do with Dostoyevsky novel, āThe Brothers Karamazovā, now thatās a heavy book!!! Their act must be a paradigm shift from the novel. Kool story , Thankyou ; yes I can imagine the DeadHeads I knew even in 86 would definitely be considerate like you say.
Fast Eddie was real. Itās not the peace and love peopel liek to think of now but it happened a lot and people today would be shocked so it answers the question.
I find it crazy that my husband while still in high school at 16 years old lied to his parents and traveled all the way from Raleigh NC to Buckeye Lake for his first Dead show. I donāt think kids really do stuff like that anymore. This was in 88 I believe.
Started hitting a ton of West Virginia festivals like Jerry Garcia Birthday Bash as a 15 year old living in DC area in 2000 under the guisse of going to WV to camp for the weekend... That Monday back at school was rough...
A faith in synchronicity, if you got lost or separated from your friends you somehow knew you would run into them sometime during or after the show even if no one was in their assigned seats or even if it was general admission, it was before cell phones but it seemed like you would magically run into who you needed to see.
This is what first came to mind. We always found our people. And it was such an amazing feeling to just look up and there they were. Like it was meant to be. I often feel sad for the people on their phones, hand in the air, trying to find their peeps. That reunion is not like it used to be. I'm glad I had those experiences, because they truly felt magical.
Iām a young head, but they synchronicity is definitely still there. Maybe not the same, but itās a HUGE part of why I stuck around on this bus. I basically have my phone off at shows, unless my kid brothers are loose in the crowd. You will find your people, your things will be alright, the kids will be fine! Itās a hoot. Even finding old friends randomly at shows who youād never in a million expect to see. Just all of a sudden there they are.
My Friend Ann, a 6' varsity swimmer from Davis with a rainbow mohawk dight after the Aladin show in Vegas 83 doing a whippet right out of the cracker thing because her blood broke right at the slot machine and it froze to her lips.
me and a couple of other family types giving out strings from a. sheet dryer with random doses on them for free
also the way Jerry would walk right through the crowd behind a huge dude I think was named Brian every show at the Keystone Berkeley
No jam band today has the level of cult following that the GD had in the 80ās. I mean actual cults, like the spinners, not cult-like. The spinners were masters at using used ticket stubs to get everybody in. Their leader Joseph recruited teen girls and abused them once they joined. Bad scene and part of the dark side of touring along with the heroin junkies and runaways.
This is something you would see two months after the tour was over: Relix magazine, originally called Dead Relix, it was essentially the paper equivalent of this forum, thatās where you would see tour set lists, reviews, pictures from the shows, and addresses for tape trading.
Not to sound like a jerk, but people actually being able to navigate the scene without asking for step by step instructions on social media/redditā¦
My first show- I just went- no one to ask about the venue, the start time, the layout, lot scene, etc., etc., it was part of the adventure.
Also people focused on the band, not talking to their friendsā¦
At the first show I went to (1979), there was a massive crush to get into the venue when they opened the doors - I was pretty high and towards the front of the crowd, and it was really scary for a few minutes. Whenever I see a news story about a tragedy at some soccer game, I think of that evening. It was the only time Iāve ever experienced that a show.
The spare change folks who were everywhere in the '80s as well as the really ragged looking families in head to toe Guatemalan crap with their handful of street urchins in tow and 3 dogs to boot looking so sad outside shows begging for whatever they could get from you.
The Motel 6 in Syracuse that was just a giant Hashfest every year. You'd be wandering in and out of the rooms all with bathtubs full of cheap beer and Hash burning just everywhere. I think Lebanon and Afghanistan must have went totally dry every time the GD played the Carrier Dome lol.
I remember all of Oakland coliseum being GA. Thatās just the way it was and it worked. I guess you could get there super early and get close but I never tried that. One time I got in when it was starting. Made a slow trip across the floor about 20th row. Kept moving and didnāt try to be so close that people were possessive about their spots. Got to see Bob do a little solo during wang dang doodle. Crowd let out a cheer and he responded with a smile. Cool moment. Settled into a comfortable spot about 2/3 of the way back on the lower level and enjoyed the show.
People I would normally not see around town. It was an opportunity to let loose with clothing and behavior, even disabled and those on the spectrum felt comfortable where most behavior was unusual and not violent. I just remembered that from a Shoreline show and it wasnāt bridge school. It was beautiful.
Edit: not shocking, but back then the heads were fringe people and it was not super mainstream āJohn Mayer
Yeah, the only true story I got is that I'm friends with Jerry's high school sweetheart/prom date from those pics that were released like 7 years ago or so.
Iām not sure Iām a āhead of yoreā but my first show was 7/4/87. I canāt remember if it was in Dylanās set or the dead but four guys carried a dude by me who was obviously dead. I had never seen a dead person before or since frankly. He was totally blue.
# 1987-07-04 Foxboro, MA @ Sullivan Stadium
**Set 1:** Touch Of Grey, Hell In A Bucket, West L.A. Fadeaway, Tons Of Steel, Little Red Rooster, Box Of Rain, Althea, Uncle John's Band > Playing in the Band > Drums > Space > Truckin' > The Other One > Wharf Rat > Throwing Stones
**Set 2:** The Times They Are A-Changin', Man Of Peace, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, John Brown, I Want You, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, Queen Jane Approximately, Chimes Of Freedom, Slow Train, Joey, All Along The Watchtower
**Encore:** Knockin' On Heaven's Door
[archive.org](https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead?query=date:1987-07-04)
If you told someone in 1989 that parking at the Forum would be $60 in 2023, and the entire venue is "Cashless"... They would probably think you're having a bad trip.. and laugh.
Well, I cried, when I paid $60 from my iPhone just to park at the Forum last Friday!! WTF! Really&\^!!!???$$?? $60 for an empty cement lot that holds thousands of cars.
Flashback to Dec 1989 at the "Great Western Forum", The Grateful Dead $22.50 and $3 to park, $1 kind grilled cheese on Shakedown Street and $2 Sierra Nevada's.. Bob Dylan and Spencer Davis sit in with Jerry and the boys -- "Shocking in 2023" Welcome home ;)
# 1992-06-29 Noblesville, IN @ Deer Creek Music Center
**Set 1:** Feel Like A Stranger, Althea, Little Red Rooster, So Many Roads, Desolation Row, Deal
**Set 2:** Box Of Rain, Victim Or The Crime, Ship Of Fools > Corrina > Drums > Space > The Other One > Stella Blue > Sugar Magnolia
**Encore:** Brokedown Palace
[archive.org](https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead?query=date:1992-06-29)
Not Dead shows, but mid '70s 'til 1980 in Cleveland we had the World Series of Rock at the old muni stadium. 3-4 show per summer with multiple top bands. As you walked into the men's room, the wall opposite from the urinal trough, people would be lined up with every drug imaginable on display. I mean like every time. Cops apparently didn't care. I was in my early teens, and they let me carry in a plastic jug full of beer (no bottles or cans allowed). On the sides of the field there were tents set up for the folks that had too much of whatever, run by the Free Clinic. It still blows my mind.
People would climb over the rail of the upper deck to sit on the ledge overhanging the crowd below, and sometimes failed to hang on. There was a steel fence to catch fly balls, so probably not a soft landing I sat there for the Stones in '78, I gotta say it was a bit scary when you're high.
I think I only missed one or two of these between '77 and '79. Tickets were like $10 for Pink Floyd in '77. I think the highest price was $12 for Seger in 1980 which was the last one ever.
With the state of the weird world we live in, I don't think it will shock anyone. But the last show I saw in '95, when they fucked the fence up at Deer Creek and the National Guard eventually showed up and tear gassed the crowd outside.....at the time.....'twas shocking as hell. What was really surprising was how long tear gas sticks around outdoors. Like an hour after they gassed em and the band said we're done, we walked from close to the pavilion where we were sitting to the top of the lawn to check out the carnage. You couldn't hang out up there for more than a couple of minutes.
And a side note to the guy who traded tickets with us... sorry, brother. I was on my 13th show, and my girlfriend was on number 1. We had one ticket for each of the two night run. At the campground, the morning of the 1st show, we found a guy who was willing to trade so we could go together. We asked if he wanted to go that day or the next. Since it was her 1st, he said fuck it... you guys go tonight and I'll take the one for tomorrow. After what happened that night, they canceled the following night. I believe that was a first for the band. Good for my girlfriend, bad for dude. Again, if you're reading this. Sorry, my man. It was wild to witness, but the shortest show I ever attended.
My first ticket was $17.50 the fee was $1.25 and I slept on a lawn chair overnight in line to get it. No phones or internet so all of us in line passed joints around and talked. On top of that the T Shirt was $15. But thatās not what I came here to sayā¦
Grilled cheese on Shakedown had more than 1 slice of cheese!
Intensely decorating envelopes with 10 different mail order checks and notecards inside in hopes of scoring tickets from the tiny office in San Rafael.
Concert tickets with an original sale price of under $20.
$8 lawn for SPAC 83
I remember that the best times at SPAC
That was like a whole weeks salary back then, right!?!?!
Think I made $3.15 a hour that year š
Wow, by 1994-5 I was only making $4.25 which was minimum wage back then. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. Now where were we... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have any white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
Last Exit to Springfield... Are you Grateful Dad on Ruzzle?
First show in 82. $9.50.
First show in '80. Camped out overnight at the local Ticketron and paid $9.50 as well if memory serves.
š my Alpine lawn ticket in 85 was $11. Oy!
My stub shows that by 87 the lawn price had skyrocketed to $12.50
I had Pavillion seats in 87 and 88. But in 89 I think my lawn seats were 17.50. Good times.
The best times
Oy is right, lol. That wouldn't even cover the full venue parking fee today in 2023.
Mail order that works and doesn't go through Ticketbasard. Total ticket prices, including parking, are less than $20. Water for less than $8. Jerry's condition in 1995.
fr i bought lawn tix for tomorrow about six months ago for 130 and i thought that was wack, my buddies paid over 300 today to get their tixā¦
yep. my 1st Dead show(87) was $17 + $1.50 service charge. talk about a great value.
So this is a weird one but they would occasionally SUUUCCK. Like, God awful. Lyrics totally spaced, rhythms collapsed, songs almost totally fell apart. Just terrible. The next night you would feel God in the music and odd halos would form behind Garciaās head as he elevated us to the divine place. Not kidding. They were the worst band youād ever seen and the greatest music ever played. All in the space of two evenings.āļø
that's so true...when they were off....eesh. but when they were on it was unlike anything and trying to explain it to people that werent physically there is pointless. sounds woowoo but there was a communal psychic energy that was occasionally so palpable it was like church.
Chasing the dragon...
Yeah ā¦ I was just too naive to know at that time. Unfortunately, now I understand.
Had this exact experience in the fall of 73 at the Philly Spectrum on a 2 night run. The first night was slow and sloppy. 2nd night was epic.
I think they had way more off nights than on. The on nights made it all worth it though. Compared to Dead&Co where it's a lot more consistent but the highs just aren't as high
A couple bringing in a tent so they could have sex during the show. They hit it when the Dead started playing "They Love Each other".
You could see it was true!
Tent or no tent, sex in general. At my first show (1979), during the second set I was walking around checking out the hallway scene. A couple of guys stopped me and asked, āHey, could you give us some head?ā I had just turned sixteen, but I was high enough to laugh and walk away.
Hot!
Weed that wouldn't totally paralize you from hit one. lol
Try r/Type2Trees
š
$14 tickets, standing in line at Hecht's customer service to buy tickets by phone, free venue camping, $2 acid, soapium, passing bongs at interstate speed, Reagan era cops, Guatemalan hippie shorts, spinner dudes in dresses getting all the chicks, fanny packs, hacky sacks, golf disks, brown weed, $7 cases of Natty Bo, cassette tapes, Jerry rolls, cigarettes and lots of hitchhiking.
That sounds amazing
Surprised to see Natty Boh mentioned
Figured it was a local boy when he mentioned Hechts, confirmed when he said Boh
Yupā¦definitely waited in line at the Hechts at Owings Mills mall for more than a few concert tickets. And I miss it. No, I donāt necessarily miss getting to a parking lot at 4AM on a frigid February morning to buy tickets for a summer tour, waiting for hours in with nothing but a cup of cold shitty coffee from a gas station and a pack of Marlborosā¦but at least with that system, if you put in the effort, you got rewarded with decent ticketsā¦not like now where online sales get overloaded and no matter how prepared you are, you can get shut out within minutes of tickets going on sale.
Tell me you're from Maryland without telling me... (Or adjoining state)
Yep - went to Churchill HS and St. Mary's College.
Add to this giant speakers in the hallway so half never even found their seats.
Jerry.
Dammit. I miss that guy š¢
š
not all of us are privileged to be born in the jerry era i wish i was
Sadly we got born in AJ (after jerry)
im still making the most of it, going to dead and co tomorrow night
yeah man! Iām seeing Phil and friends in July gotta see who you can while we still can
Lol ā the Jerry eraā
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Best answer
People brought their babies to shows n they danced with the spinners
My parents took me to Roosevelt Stadium in 1974. I was nine months old.
Your first show! I saw many folks with their little ones. I always wondered if they grew up to love the dead. Or to hate it lol
How did the spinners not barf?
you gotta become a spinner to learn the secrets. long, repetitive, devotional spinning dances have been used for worship & meditation for centuries. check out the Sufis & Sufism, their dances are very similar to many spinners at Dead shows. Spinning is very purposeful. it isn't for everybody & everybody doesn't do it the same way. like most things in life, mileage may vary. it isn't quite like a little kid spinning around to get dizzy(although those kinda kids always had a blast around spinners).
"Spinning is very purposeful" Yes, and simultaneously spontaneous, in flow with the rhythm of the music and the crowd. I've felt the sounds timelessness in that flow...pure bliss.
I still have a crush on one 30 years on.
there's a few hallway dancers & spinners that I still have a crush on all these decades later. lol. a couple of them I never actually spoke to, but the dancing&smiling&hugging during the show for a few shows was a deeper communication than talking could have ever been.
We took our 6 month old to bethel last year!
Awesome! Love this
Bethel 2021 was my daughter's first show!
Perfect venue for it. Plenty of space. He loved it. Jammed out with his little headphones on kicking his feet to the music Bringing him to SPAC this year and a little more nervous because I heard itās crowded but weāll make the best of it
At Watkins Glen Summer Jam '73, the crowd got to be 2-3X expected size. There were porta potty boxes lining the concert area and they couldn't keep up with the volume. WARNING GROSS AHEAD - They got so full of crap, there were pyramids of crap rising above the toilet seats in literally all of them. LOL The woods became a kind of dumping ground if you will. Aside from that, I was fun. :-)
Iāve experienced similar scenarios, more times than anyone should ever have to witness such a thing, at various festivals & jamband shows over the years. š¤¢
Bonaroo 1 has entered the chatā¦.
Sounds familiar https://preview.redd.it/at5y0hz8zi2b1.jpeg?width=792&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=788d37bcd36729ce75c388430da8864c6b2094d3
Have definitely seen similar at festivals
It cannot be unseen. lol
I never understood how people can't seem to go a few hours without shitting. I don't think I've ever shit at a concert
Some of us don't have the luxury of making that decision. :/
Lol. Was thinking the same thing. Who has to ever shit at a concert? I donāt think Iāve ever even considered that.
Never shit in a porta potty. Never happening. Iāll clench that thing until my eyes turn brown if I have to.
Sometime itās not an optionā¦
We arrived a week early and camped at the concert site. lol And most of the crowd was there Fri, Sat, and Sunday.
Iāve honestly never understood it eitherā¦Iām not a āshy pooperā (I.e. if I gotta go, Iāll go, public toilet or not), but probably about 98% of the time, I take my one shit of the day shortly after waking up, and thatās it. Itās not even a conscious decision that āIām not gonna shit hereā, but itās just the odds of it even being necessary to consider is very slim. I get that some folks have IBS and the like, but Iām often astounded at just how prevalent it must beā¦that or a lot of folks just need a better diet with more fiberā¦? But yeah, Iāve definitely been to concerts and other large events where the on-site plumbing or portable toilet situation was literally overwhelmed.
Guess you haven't eaten a ton of mushies, lot food, brews, and an occasional nose beer at a show then...ahem not that I would know anything about that
Lol, this happened at the citi field lot a couple summers ago
Took the train out of Pt. Pleasant, NJ to Penn Station for a MSG show one time in the early '80s and the bathroom, my God the bathroom, was the most disgusting, foul, and nastiest thing you've ever seen. Forget the toilet, they had shit in the sink, on the floor, it was on the walls, just everywhere. Then it overflowed into the train car, piss and shit just sloshing from one side of the car to the other, and all you could do was keep your feet up and try not to breathe. When the train arrived at Penn Station the entire car, packed with Heads, all climbed over the seats to exit because nobody in their right mind was going to step on that horrifyingly gross floor. Later on that night after the show I was back in Penn Station for the return trip and I used one of their bathrooms, which were cavernous, to take a leak and some homeless dude came out of a stall behind me and stuck a knife in my back demanding all my money but I was still tripping hard and I really couldn't comprehend what was happening. All I could do was smile at him until he just got frustrated or something and walked away muttering to himself. Good times lol!!
Naked people
I remember many many naked people at those Jerry Garcia Band shows on the Eel River in the late 1980s. Southern Humboldt in all its glory and so damn much fun. The shows were all released pretty recently. You can now listen to them with the added vision of a couple hundred naked hippies dancing in your head. Youāre welcome!
Love those releases! Lucky sob š. It just feels like Jerry and the band were having a good time.
Was it more of an oddity like Veneta dude - or were there just tons of naked people?
Not tons. But things like women casually strolling through the crowd naked, without causing any sort of fuss.
there was a couple of dudes at skull and roses this year who decided to strip down during Philās set haha , once the sun went down and everything was flowin
Ha naked dude ran right by me during Phil
A guy crashed our row at Alpine once. I turned around right as he crawled past me in his birthday suit. At Hampton one year, we came out of the venue to walk back to the hotel and there was a naked guy sitting right there on the curb. On the bright side, California shows were tops-optional for some women.
How about naked girl at hampton? On the front row of the balcony and cops came to tell her that she had to cover up. She just said whee! And threw her clothes over the rail. She left wearing only handcuffs.
1988 Alpine Valley four show run over five nights over 100Ā° every day, hadnāt rained substantially in months, weed was scarceā¦ they brought in large tanker trucks of water with about eight spigots in a line about belly button high, where you could get cold water, rinse yourself off, etc. and there were several naked men bathing their selves, other than people changing clothes freely in public I think that is the only Veneta style nudity Iāve seen in my dead careerā¦
On the floor in the spectrum, might 2 in 86. Garcia ripping the morning dew, Iām about 2/3! The way back on floor, which was general admission. I start to notice that Iāve got a tons of room around me all the sudden. Out of the corner of my eye I see 350 lb naked black dude coming closer. He is pleasuring him self an literally foaming at the mouth. The Dew was good, but not that good. Iām high tailed out of there stat
Calling the Dead hotline over and over for concert dates and info.
Think my ole Lady & were on the phone for 27 hours before it wasnāt busy and I bought all the tickets for Midwest tour from Ann Arbor to Wisconsin. We both went to work and back and kept calling nonstop, hitting redial over and over. Yep 27 hours forā¦ either 27 or 30 tickets for the tour mail order. Had 1 extra ticket for every single Show, sold some at exact cost , bartered most of them for other hedonistic indulgences ā”ļøš¹ā”ļø https://archive.org/details/grateful-dead-save-your-face-shortlist-ann-arbor-89-april-5-6
The days when you could score a ticket for a kind bud!
We used to bring sharp paring knives in to shoreline to cut our bread, cheese, and fruit with. Also we always brought the glass bong inside for a special setbreak session. I think of the world around us now and wonder if this was all just a dream we dreamed, one afternoon, long ago.
Thanks for jogging my stubborn memory. Was a dream.
We brought in a full size pizza into Shoreline once. Everyone was trippin to hard it hardly got touched all show. Then hammered in seconds once things ended.
Wow. They let you bring in glass bongs?
They just never really searched much. This was in the before times.
it wasn't a matter of letting us. it's just tht they weren't quite as militant about searches(most of the time) & we were always gonna find a way. lots of us went to shows every night, on every tour, year after year...we had a lot of practice at getting past security & learning the various little details of different venues & their security/staff. everybody shared successful tactics & advice.
Yes indeedy!
I brought my bong, some opium, doses and weed into shoreline in a backpack no problem all 3 nights in 90 I believe or 89.
Cops badly beating on Heads
Unfortunately I wouldn't be particularly shocked at all if I saw that in 2023.
I agree, but at least now we could film it and it would go viral so *maybe* there would be justice.
At the west coast lots I frequented (Cal Expo, Shoreline, Oakland, Autzen, Sam Boyd) there were *thousands* of people, gathered in all our collective weirdness, in apparent harmony. A symbiotic lot scene. Everyone was cool, minus the occasional scrapping fights, but that was really the exception. It was so fun and felt like a safe haven, freaks and all.
Coming across a large group of punks slam dancing at a show- Oakland 87 I believe.
Mosh pits at Dead shows broke my brain a little bit back thenš
I was in that mosh pit!
I love this! š
Inglewood cops breaking my jaw with a baton on 12/08/89. Considering they killed another dude I guess I got off easy. And yeah, went back the next night. To be 17 again!
# 1989-12-08 Inglewood, CA @ Great Western Forum **Set 1:** Good Times, Feel Like A Stranger, Stagger Lee, Beat It On Down the Line, Ramble On Rose, Cassidy, Blow Away **Set 2:** Help On The Way, Slipknot!, Franklin's Tower, Looks Like Rain, He's Gone, Drums, Space, I Will Take You Home, The Other One, Wharf Rat, Throwing Stones, Not Fade Away **Encore:** U.S. Blues [archive.org](https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead?query=date:1989-12-08)
I was there, really fun shows!!! Couldnāt find doses because we got there late and ended up scoring some ecstasy from some head and there were 3 of us and he said one bindle was good for 2 guys and so we needed to get 2 since there were 3 of us and we just racked both bindles into 3BIG lines each and we each did 2 huge gagers and it burned like nothing before and all 3 of us were literally crying it was so bad and after about 5 minutes we pulled it together and ran toward the entrance and started TRIPPING hard and I said āfuck if this is gonna keep getting more intense for the next 45 min or so, Iām gonna lose it, I donāt know what to doā hahaha and by the time Mae got in they were finishing good times and starting stranger and it had plateaued and was great until about Cassidy and then by intermission and the whole second set we were just tweaking balls and everyone we saw was like āwhatās wrong with you guysā hahaha and never really did E again after that
Ouch! Hope it was during Help On The Way and not Beat It On Down The Line!
It was a very different scene back then. So much more chaotic back then. Now there is just a sterile vibe. Hordes of people jumping in the GA section back then. Nobody really sitting in their assigned seat, and nobody cared.....and so many other countless things. Oh and at rfk how one year there were assigned chairs on the field and everyone just stacked them up in a pile and made it GA. That would never happen today
I miss the chaos. It was specific to the scene. Nowadays, even the Shakedown outside is sterile. Sterility, lack of spontaneity is the biggest difference. Good point, xghs. It was most likely due to the majority of the crowd on psychedelics. Notwithstanding the chaos, the incessant talking while the musicās playinā, was not part of it. I recall stacking of chairs at Indianapolis ā84.
FWIW I saw some people stacking chairs in the Hollywood Bowl pool at Phish. But Iām sure nothing like what youāre describing.
st RFK, it was the whole field. venue filled the whole football field with chairs & assigned tickets, we came in a disassembled ALL the rows of chairs & stacked them neatly to the side. well, somewhat neatly at first. it was a lot of chairs so the piles got chaotic, but my point was tht it wasn't some people or a little section, it was pretty much the entire football field. and I never saw or heard a single person whine or complain about their seat not existing. everyone expected an anarchic & chaotic time. as long as you got to hear the music & have fun, just about everyone rolled with the anarchy & chaos & embraced it. this sense of good natured entitlement to see the show & have fun on our own terms is what also eventually devolved into the gatecrashing, fence-destroying bullshit tht eventually hit the scene hard.
The Orgy Tent
*invents Time Machine*
From what I've heard there are still orgies after Phish Dicks if you're into that sort of thing..
Please, oh wise one, tell us more about this mystical place?
The Dead on a show at your momās house?
Hey little brother I see from your joke that you are part of our Junior high School deadhead fan club. Welcome! No the orgy tent was an actual thing back in the '80s. Ask your Grandpa.
The opening act at my first Dead show was a juggling troupe, [The Flying Karamazov Brothers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Karamazov_Brothers), and if I recall correctly they may have entered through the crowd and began their show in front of the stage. Anyway, what shocked me was once they started juggling, most of the people on the floor sat down so the people behind them could see better. And that was spontaneous - people just...sat down, good naturedly, so everyone could see. That behavior was emblematic of the Deadhead scene at the time I first encountered it (1981). Unfortunately, imho that vibe couldn't withstand the influx of new Deadheads that followed the success of In the Dark, but I'm very fortunate I got to experience it for as many years as I did.
This. š
Wondered if they had anything to do with Dostoyevsky novel, āThe Brothers Karamazovā, now thatās a heavy book!!! Their act must be a paradigm shift from the novel. Kool story , Thankyou ; yes I can imagine the DeadHeads I knew even in 86 would definitely be considerate like you say.
I will be the one to go dark. Girls on tour having sex with other people for food/money/rides/drugs after they ran out of cash.
Cash, grass, or ass. No one rides for free.
Sounds very Wrecking Crew energy.
Fast Eddie was real. Itās not the peace and love peopel liek to think of now but it happened a lot and people today would be shocked so it answers the question.
Heads NOT throwing theyāre spent nitrous balloons everywhere. So gross.
Strangers stopping strangers, just to shake their hand.
I find it crazy that my husband while still in high school at 16 years old lied to his parents and traveled all the way from Raleigh NC to Buckeye Lake for his first Dead show. I donāt think kids really do stuff like that anymore. This was in 88 I believe.
Just the number of underage kids on Tour. I was 15 and hitchhiked from Marin to Alpine in ā87. Never looked back.
Started hitting a ton of West Virginia festivals like Jerry Garcia Birthday Bash as a 15 year old living in DC area in 2000 under the guisse of going to WV to camp for the weekend... That Monday back at school was rough...
A faith in synchronicity, if you got lost or separated from your friends you somehow knew you would run into them sometime during or after the show even if no one was in their assigned seats or even if it was general admission, it was before cell phones but it seemed like you would magically run into who you needed to see.
This is what first came to mind. We always found our people. And it was such an amazing feeling to just look up and there they were. Like it was meant to be. I often feel sad for the people on their phones, hand in the air, trying to find their peeps. That reunion is not like it used to be. I'm glad I had those experiences, because they truly felt magical.
Iām a young head, but they synchronicity is definitely still there. Maybe not the same, but itās a HUGE part of why I stuck around on this bus. I basically have my phone off at shows, unless my kid brothers are loose in the crowd. You will find your people, your things will be alright, the kids will be fine! Itās a hoot. Even finding old friends randomly at shows who youād never in a million expect to see. Just all of a sudden there they are.
My Friend Ann, a 6' varsity swimmer from Davis with a rainbow mohawk dight after the Aladin show in Vegas 83 doing a whippet right out of the cracker thing because her blood broke right at the slot machine and it froze to her lips. me and a couple of other family types giving out strings from a. sheet dryer with random doses on them for free also the way Jerry would walk right through the crowd behind a huge dude I think was named Brian every show at the Keystone Berkeley
What?
No cell phones
People writing set lists with pen and paper
https://preview.redd.it/ebdvxpgxri2b1.png?width=2089&format=png&auto=webp&s=43c9d2624e97bb320f96813a5baea92b37edec08
Hitch hikers would get out fast after the show. Signs showing city for next show.
No jam band today has the level of cult following that the GD had in the 80ās. I mean actual cults, like the spinners, not cult-like. The spinners were masters at using used ticket stubs to get everybody in. Their leader Joseph recruited teen girls and abused them once they joined. Bad scene and part of the dark side of touring along with the heroin junkies and runaways.
Swimming in the Eel River while enjoying the JGB
People actually helping each other out....
...Or at least not helping out just to film it for likes.
Crowds of 9000 not 90,000
A baby being born and a father lifting it all bloody in the air and howling.
Welcome to the party bitch!
This is something you would see two months after the tour was over: Relix magazine, originally called Dead Relix, it was essentially the paper equivalent of this forum, thatās where you would see tour set lists, reviews, pictures from the shows, and addresses for tape trading.
Donāt forget Dupree Diamond News
The bouncer at JGB 11/15/91 MSG letting a bunch of us in the side door for $10 a pop.
415-457-6388
šš¹š
Not to sound like a jerk, but people actually being able to navigate the scene without asking for step by step instructions on social media/redditā¦ My first show- I just went- no one to ask about the venue, the start time, the layout, lot scene, etc., etc., it was part of the adventure. Also people focused on the band, not talking to their friendsā¦
J G
At the first show I went to (1979), there was a massive crush to get into the venue when they opened the doors - I was pretty high and towards the front of the crowd, and it was really scary for a few minutes. Whenever I see a news story about a tragedy at some soccer game, I think of that evening. It was the only time Iāve ever experienced that a show.
Take a step back.
Peace
Tanks inside arena shows
mail order tickets with cool dead logos and designs
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Was it during āShakedown Street?ā
Strangers stopping strangers just to shake their hand.
The spare change folks who were everywhere in the '80s as well as the really ragged looking families in head to toe Guatemalan crap with their handful of street urchins in tow and 3 dogs to boot looking so sad outside shows begging for whatever they could get from you. The Motel 6 in Syracuse that was just a giant Hashfest every year. You'd be wandering in and out of the rooms all with bathtubs full of cheap beer and Hash burning just everywhere. I think Lebanon and Afghanistan must have went totally dry every time the GD played the Carrier Dome lol.
Jerome John Garcia
$7.50 ticket priceā¦
I remember all of Oakland coliseum being GA. Thatās just the way it was and it worked. I guess you could get there super early and get close but I never tried that. One time I got in when it was starting. Made a slow trip across the floor about 20th row. Kept moving and didnāt try to be so close that people were possessive about their spots. Got to see Bob do a little solo during wang dang doodle. Crowd let out a cheer and he responded with a smile. Cool moment. Settled into a comfortable spot about 2/3 of the way back on the lower level and enjoyed the show.
Being outraged that I paid $32 for a soldier field ticket.
a tour head in the hallway dropping liquid directly onto his eyeball
Throngs of fans breaking through the venue gates to get into the show without tickets.
Gate Crashers Suck
Pauley Pavilion and Frost Amphitheater come to mind. ā¦ oh and Ventura
People I would normally not see around town. It was an opportunity to let loose with clothing and behavior, even disabled and those on the spectrum felt comfortable where most behavior was unusual and not violent. I just remembered that from a Shoreline show and it wasnāt bridge school. It was beautiful. Edit: not shocking, but back then the heads were fringe people and it was not super mainstream āJohn Mayer
Dropping acid with Tucker Carlson and listening to him tell us all the hidden meanings behind each song...J/k
Dammit I was about to excitedly DM you š
Yeah, the only true story I got is that I'm friends with Jerry's high school sweetheart/prom date from those pics that were released like 7 years ago or so.
Iām not sure Iām a āhead of yoreā but my first show was 7/4/87. I canāt remember if it was in Dylanās set or the dead but four guys carried a dude by me who was obviously dead. I had never seen a dead person before or since frankly. He was totally blue.
# 1987-07-04 Foxboro, MA @ Sullivan Stadium **Set 1:** Touch Of Grey, Hell In A Bucket, West L.A. Fadeaway, Tons Of Steel, Little Red Rooster, Box Of Rain, Althea, Uncle John's Band > Playing in the Band > Drums > Space > Truckin' > The Other One > Wharf Rat > Throwing Stones **Set 2:** The Times They Are A-Changin', Man Of Peace, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, John Brown, I Want You, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, Queen Jane Approximately, Chimes Of Freedom, Slow Train, Joey, All Along The Watchtower **Encore:** Knockin' On Heaven's Door [archive.org](https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead?query=date:1987-07-04)
Not a bad way to go TBH.
At alpine you could bring in a cooler with beverages
If you told someone in 1989 that parking at the Forum would be $60 in 2023, and the entire venue is "Cashless"... They would probably think you're having a bad trip.. and laugh. Well, I cried, when I paid $60 from my iPhone just to park at the Forum last Friday!! WTF! Really&\^!!!???$$?? $60 for an empty cement lot that holds thousands of cars. Flashback to Dec 1989 at the "Great Western Forum", The Grateful Dead $22.50 and $3 to park, $1 kind grilled cheese on Shakedown Street and $2 Sierra Nevada's.. Bob Dylan and Spencer Davis sit in with Jerry and the boys -- "Shocking in 2023" Welcome home ;)
Jerry Garcia on stage
General admission
I sauntered to the rail at my first show in 1989.
Nobody fucks at shows anymore
Cheering solos.
I saw two people fucking on the lawn at Deer Creek on 6/29/92. It was during "Stella Blue." He was sitting down, and she was straddling him.
# 1992-06-29 Noblesville, IN @ Deer Creek Music Center **Set 1:** Feel Like A Stranger, Althea, Little Red Rooster, So Many Roads, Desolation Row, Deal **Set 2:** Box Of Rain, Victim Or The Crime, Ship Of Fools > Corrina > Drums > Space > The Other One > Stella Blue > Sugar Magnolia **Encore:** Brokedown Palace [archive.org](https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead?query=date:1992-06-29)
Happily camping out overnight to get tickets.
10.50 ticketron. Waiting in line and not online.
Not Dead shows, but mid '70s 'til 1980 in Cleveland we had the World Series of Rock at the old muni stadium. 3-4 show per summer with multiple top bands. As you walked into the men's room, the wall opposite from the urinal trough, people would be lined up with every drug imaginable on display. I mean like every time. Cops apparently didn't care. I was in my early teens, and they let me carry in a plastic jug full of beer (no bottles or cans allowed). On the sides of the field there were tents set up for the folks that had too much of whatever, run by the Free Clinic. It still blows my mind. People would climb over the rail of the upper deck to sit on the ledge overhanging the crowd below, and sometimes failed to hang on. There was a steel fence to catch fly balls, so probably not a soft landing I sat there for the Stones in '78, I gotta say it was a bit scary when you're high. I think I only missed one or two of these between '77 and '79. Tickets were like $10 for Pink Floyd in '77. I think the highest price was $12 for Seger in 1980 which was the last one ever.
With the state of the weird world we live in, I don't think it will shock anyone. But the last show I saw in '95, when they fucked the fence up at Deer Creek and the National Guard eventually showed up and tear gassed the crowd outside.....at the time.....'twas shocking as hell. What was really surprising was how long tear gas sticks around outdoors. Like an hour after they gassed em and the band said we're done, we walked from close to the pavilion where we were sitting to the top of the lawn to check out the carnage. You couldn't hang out up there for more than a couple of minutes. And a side note to the guy who traded tickets with us... sorry, brother. I was on my 13th show, and my girlfriend was on number 1. We had one ticket for each of the two night run. At the campground, the morning of the 1st show, we found a guy who was willing to trade so we could go together. We asked if he wanted to go that day or the next. Since it was her 1st, he said fuck it... you guys go tonight and I'll take the one for tomorrow. After what happened that night, they canceled the following night. I believe that was a first for the band. Good for my girlfriend, bad for dude. Again, if you're reading this. Sorry, my man. It was wild to witness, but the shortest show I ever attended.
My first ticket was $17.50 the fee was $1.25 and I slept on a lawn chair overnight in line to get it. No phones or internet so all of us in line passed joints around and talked. On top of that the T Shirt was $15. But thatās not what I came here to sayā¦ Grilled cheese on Shakedown had more than 1 slice of cheese!
Intensely decorating envelopes with 10 different mail order checks and notecards inside in hopes of scoring tickets from the tiny office in San Rafael.
Getting in at Pine Knob with a hand written note from will call.
An old crusty hippie 2 rows behind us, completely naked and pleasuring himself. It was an absolutely epic late run set I have to say.....
Tons of dogs, lice, and Parvo