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.
i remember the BS at Pitt. I just ate more funghi and chased it with a guiness and ran inside to get away. Brendanbyrne, Remember a stabbing at the gates to one of the lots. there was the gate and and a cement short wall just inside, think one of the guys was dreddy freddie, no matter anyway was stabbed over dope, i was right there bad shit. Remember at Red Rocks on same day baby was born and think it was father died of heroin OD same day. Had alot of fun at all shows but agree that 88-90 there were some bad things going on. I think that more heads started to get to much in to white powder stuff and took away their aura and lively hood. Had a couple friends that hit that seen and just got lamer by the year, One would always find us and call asking to stay in our hotel or hang at our campsite, always told yea cool for you but none of your junk buds an no fucking needles and crack. man that shit used to piss me off. stay natural the high is better. And yes we created this scene so lets keep it cool. Most of us go for the whole deal the music, people, fun and stuff, the woderful experience that is all in deadland. Some only see it as a money making oppurtunity andyes those frat fucks who don't give a shit about what is really going on. Wish all a grate spring tour and pass on the vibe, strangers stopping strangers, love each other, share, and pick up some trash. Show others who have not had the opportunity to experience the Jerry times how grate an experience this is. There is so much shit going in the world let's make sure our little piece is just that Peace.
32 teeth in jawbone
Yeah, things definitely went down hill fast after the crowds got too big in the later 80s. It got really, really ugly in certain places at certain moments and some places were just all-around bummers.
Though I was at the Pit. Arena shows in spring 89 and saw some shit gettin' out-of-hand the worst things I ever ended up in was a riot at Unn. of Ma. (known even then as Zoo Mass) that started after a long afternoon with a couple of opening acts and most of the tickets going to the local college students. There were a ton of heads without tickets. The Dead started up with Jack Straw and that was it. You just felt it in the pit of your stomach as you watched about 5000 heads start circling the stadium and breaking off in 2s and 3s and climbing and knocking down fences while terrified students doing crowd control just turned in horror and ran. Well, that wasn't enough, everybody wanted in and kept circling that place until they opened a gate to let an ambulance out. There was no way to close that gate after and no cops in enough force or mood to do anything about it. Everybody who wanted to got in, thousands and thousands of heads. These wern't the students mind you, they had plenty of time to get heavily discounted tickets.
It kills me that there are a lot of righteous people out there who look down their noses at people who got into shows for free, but even in the late 70s, and probably earlier, people always found ways to get in. You just had to be smart about it back then. When the crowds got larger later on so did the ugliness of the cops and people started to fight pitched battles. I never participated in such things and thought people who did were stupid. Those were the days when there seemed like a witching hour set up 1 - 1:30 hours before the show, get your butt inside if you had a way because it wasn't going to be very nice outside once the music started inside!
I've seen things gettin' outta hand.
I guess they always will
All I can say is gangsters selling fake tickets with a very strong sense of intimidation all around. It was weird. My friend got shut out when they did the "burn" test upon entry and his ticket went up in flames literally. Somehow I got in with a fake ticket.
"Everybody's braggin' and drinking that wine, I can tell the queen of diamonds by the way she shines. Come to daddy on an inside straight, well I've got no chance of losing this time"
They had a giant sunflower at the back of the auditorium on wheels to roll through the crowd at midnight. I think it was like a scafollding covered in paper mache. Anyway some guy got the bright idea he was gonna climb it and as he got near the top (about 30 feet up as I recall) he fell off and split his scull open on the concrete floor. We found out later he died from his injuries. The show went on and the only people who knew about it were those of us twirlin at the back of the arena.
There certainly were a lot of fake tickets out there in the late 80s. Whoever would do that or sell fake paper of ANY kind was UNKIND to the EXTREME. Those were two things that could really kill your mood.
A favorite trick of heads in the 70s & early 80s, when TicketRipya was printing all it's tickets off the same master blanks and, say you were in Hartford, you bought a ticket for a Whalers AHL game and then looked for the most eyes-glazed-over 18 year old kid ripping tickets and get in that line. More often than not they wouldn't even look and just rip your ticket.
As for people dying. Well, that is a subject that should have it's own title... I'd vote for Rest In Peace. People died in so many different ways while on tour. I have no direct experience of this happening in my circles of friends but plenty of second and third-hand stories. I'm not sure it's a subject people would have a lot of stomach for. I just wish that every Head who had a premature demise is in a good place now.....
The parking lots were fenced off in such a way as to move people like cattle through certain paths to the gates. Everybody wanted a shortcut so some very unthoughtful people knocked down fences, next to port-o-potties. This resulted in people getting stuck in port-o-potties with a fence over the door and people walking over it. My friends and I rescued several very unlucky, but very grateful, people.
You have to ask yourself what kind of person would walk over a fence on top of a port-o-pottie with somebody screaming for help inside and do nothing. I guess the people caught inside must have been fur trappers in previous lives!
I was at the last show at JFK,tOOK MY WIFE THERE for here first show,from what i remember that show was a show stopper,do not remember to much bad stuff at that show
.this stuff is giving me chills like I've never ever had before and now tears are running.
I remember the brendan brn days they were gunning for us.I was there,I was the driver,I was not high,so there was no distorting of facts
They wouldn't let people in,had the line down to single file , one....by...one...stop. ...one....by one...
we could hear the show going on ,it was like deliberate instigating. People tried to break through,It was soon after the Who crush and some of us linked arms and faced the pushers to make them stop,don't know how but they did
the whole staff was on junkyard dog mode-why?how?
when we heard about the murder we tried for the next few days to make phone calls-cops,sherrifs,any city in the area NOONE said anything except"not our jurisdiction call someone Else"
There is no doubt that the people who ran and worked security at Brendan Byrne Arena were big-time ASSHOLE MOTHERFUCKERS! They did kill people with impunity. I'm not saying that controlling a crowd of 20,000 freaks is any picnic, but for God's sake they didn't have to kill us!
Why did the Grateful Dead continue to play there? Why did they play so well there? Well, you have to consider the lack of venues in the area large enough to accomadate the circus the Dead had become in the 80s. After the murder of a deadhead in 84(?) there were rumblings from the band about never playing there again but nothing ever came of it. They even released a CD from there in 89, Nightfall of Diamonds.
There was definitely a dark element to the Grateful Dead.
The trash from the tanks...PICK UP YOUR BALLOONS for gods sake's! If you do em pick up your trash! Philly lot was covered in balloons and how easy is it to put in your pocket!!! They even gave out trash boxes too! USE EM!!
Be kind clean up!!!!
Peace,Gigi
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Joined: 05/26/07