In today's Today in Deadhead History, aud mentions a show she never wants to revisit, even on tape, because the scene was so ugly. And I think the same is true of various shows for a lot of us.
Thug security. Gate crashers. Drunken concertgoers puking on your bare feet. You know. Bad scenes. Post here.
"You created this sceene, you'll end this sceene."
Well, to me this was typical example of bad communication.
At this point on tour the crowds were so big the band couldn't just go walking out in the lot to see what was up themselves. They had to rely on info from band management and others who obviously didn't know the real deal or were just coming at the problem from a money angle.
The quote above seems like a big cop out. Putting the blame on others. Who is the YOU???
The band, the management and the heads created the scene. It's all one!!!
I can't imagine the band would have worded it that way.
Sure things happen at shows. Not just Dead shows either. Dead shows were renown for being peaceful and family-like compared to other bands concerts. But when u have a town sized crowd there will always be incidents. Like in a real town there will be deaths, there will be babies born etc..! OK, but it IS a bit different obviously!
The media reports after Irvine 89' were all about a riot at the front gate. I don't remember any about two bikers fighting but I can imagine it being commented upon. There was no riot as I mentioned. Fights happen, everywhere and anywhere. That's life.
The fact is that the pigs of this world wanted to stop the second flowering of the sumer of love which the Dead and the deadheads were at the forefront of. A lot of those venues seemed to be run by pigs or they folded under pressure from pigs.
We shouldn't forget how Bush 1 started the persecution of deadheads on a nationwide federal level. He was in the CNN tower, Atlanta during a Dead show and saw the heads out the window in the lot below. He commented that he thought that stuff had died out with the 60s and that he was disgusted by it and that something had to be done to stop it. The birth of Operation Dead End. The effort of the feds to destroy the scene. Pressure on concert venues, flooding the lot with cheap heroin, busting masses of young kids dealing in the lot and giving them 20 year sentences, spreading misinformation to confuse folks and make them not trust each other.
If there were not enough portatoilets or garbage receptacles then who is responsible? You or the management?
If some locals got to drunk on bud and had a fight at the show instead of at the local bar and pee'd on someones lawn who is responsible? You or them?
If a lost soul od's because they had a shit upbringing in a hard world who is responsible? You or the kid, the parents, the system?
The tourheads were the best audience a band could dream of. They were the ones reading those stupid flyers, not the locals who made the little problems. What a slap in the face! The ones behind the flyers should have been doing more to help the scene, they didn't do their job properly. And as for the feds... who are they serving that they put kids into prison for 20 year terms? You? I think not!
We did SO MUCH good!!!!! I am proud of that and so should everyone involved! Somehow the band picked up on it despite the misinformation too! When they would sing, we will get by, don't u let that deal go down and such lines in times when many had been busted on a particular day etc..!
Don't buy the misinformation about why we couldn't play certain venues KJ7XJ and family!!!
Peace!!!
Are you kind?
I noticed that the crowds (NYC, LI, NJ, MD, PA and CT) started to get rowdier towards the late 80's. I saw more "Frat Guys" that couldn't hold their beer causing trouble as the 80's wore on. MSG and Giants Stadium / Meadowlands got pretty ugly at times. If you crossed the NJ Turnpike in the elevated walkway you know what I mean.
True, u have brought back a strange rememberance there. That elevated walkway..!
Weird scenes inside the gold mine indeed!
Are you kind?
what was the dealio with the elevated walkway ???? i was never in it, at least i don't think i was. ?memory?
nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile
nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile
Lots of people 'mooing" in the walkway after the show as we were herded like cattle back to the parking lot. Always a strange and fun experience to end the evening.
Marye,i do not want to sound to clever,but when you take a seriouse dose of ...than the action of this substance,which starts to enter your system might in some cases induce a very heavy nausea,which as we all know ends up on the floor in little pieces!.... is very powerful and i think it is not fair to stick the people whose body cannot handle it,into the most horrible events column.after walking barefoot on the parking-lot all day,you have to wash your feet anyway.
I agree with the 'frat boys' there for the parking lt scene and the broken glass everywhere.......so unsafe I was always ashamed to think that DHs were so slovenly, uncaring, and unsafe! My last show at RFK '95- the police had on RIOT GEAR as they cattled us out of the show. Sooooooo uncalled for and utterly unecessary. I was made to feel criminal. The scene absolutely changed for the worse at most venues as each decade went on. Stadiums in the major cities, yea, there's always a certain police presence- but even outdoor shows in the 80's and 90's got more hostile. it wasn't even the ability of DHs not practicing what they preached, it was a lot of others infiltrating the scene and making it turn bad....Ami
i followed all the east coast some west alot of mid east shows from 84-95-went to all the last shows,ive got stories to every show,everytime i left ky to go to shows something wild happenedgood things bad things wierd things i never went to a boring dead show i partied in the lot,made friends money love, a lot of times i even made it in the show,got drunk,high,busted,good food,lost,found,and turned around,i came out broke,but anytime i get bored i can sit and think of all those"trips"out on the road and its better than cable t.v ! i tried telling my neighbor some of it and he dont beleive it but he says theirs no way you could come up with stories like that, my whole point is you have to remember the bad.its part of the whole experiance as i look back at the storm at the last st.louis show,the gate crashers of deercreek,the unbeleivable alpine parking/vending restrictions,even when i did90days in the cook co. "motel" at the very last soldier feild show i just have to think ---what a long strange trip it was !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was lucky to have missed the truly bad scenes but the 2 that stand out were Richmond '85. the beginning of rowdy, crowded shows (in the '80s at least). I was standing by a door when some DHs broke thru and the crowd began streaming in without tix, including my buddy beside me. I couldn't move, was sure they'd be rounded up and sent back out and maybe something inside me was telling me it was the wrong thing to do. in any event, my buddy made it in, had a great time and I got to walk around outside watching cops bust people left and right and had a huge angry dude with an aluminum baseball bat wave it in my face for being too close to the building. oh yeah, I had already dosed with the expectation of scoring a $15 face value ticket so the whole thing pretty much sucked.
the other was 1st night of Hampton '87. only had tix for the 2nd and 3rd nights so I was happy to hang out in the parking lot where the party was getting started. but it was very mellow, you know, pre-In the Dark and just what we were used to. nothing close to being out of hand. luckily I had met friends and we, for some reason, got into their car to do bong hits. just down the row was a van with huge speakers pumping out "Estimated prophet" with some folks boogeying and just hanging out when all of a sudden a paddy wagon rolls up and cops are coming from everywhere. those poor DHs didn't know what hit 'em. I saw a dude dragged down and arrested, cops were brandishing night sticks and slapping cuffs on anyone they could. people were just scattering and we, of course, put the bong down and just watched in horror, finally, when it had calmed down a little, one cop was walking around and noticed us and said, "stay in that car if you know what's good for you!" so we did until we saw people coming out of the show.
I heard the next 2 nights were saner but it was still dicey on that run. the next year, with way more people there, didn't seem to have any problems. I always thought it was strange that Hampton cops would be so harsh given the good relationship the band seemed to have with the city. a friend of mine's uncle was the mayor of Hampton and he told me his uncle loved the Deadheads because they bumped up the tourism intake each spring. never got an explanation for that night of terror though.
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Joined: 05/26/07