Grateful Dead

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Baby and I had spent the winter in Key West, and I had been playing in a little bar band called $1.98 at a biker dive called Scalleywags. I made a point of doing "U.S. Blues" every night, and our other guitar player always did "Ripple". We had to head back to Ohio for the summer jobs, and I advertised the Hollywood show from my "position of influence" - or, under the influence - it was pretty much a big can of Foster's per set - they were free to the band. We made it up to the Hollywood venue, as I remember it, and were with the drummer from $1.98 and his wife and son - they were heading back to Pittsburgh. We decided to sneak sparklers in, so I used an old Indian trick. My future wife had her sparklers confiscated when they found them in her purse, but I had mine shoved down the back of my pants and got 'em in. I remember the "Step Back" - first time I'd experienced that. I think that's where I got the T-shirt with the Eagles-style Southwestern Cyclops cattle skull image on it. The show was pretty much a shoulder-to-shoulder adrenaline filled crowd bumper as I recall, and I know it was a lot of fun, but I don't remember much more. During the encore, we lit the sparklers and bent the wires at right angles, so we could spin them in our hands like pinwheels - 5 people, 10 pinwheels out in the middle of the aisle - I think everybody dug it a lot once they figured out it was safe! Great show!

Went to see this Captain Trips fellow, thought Bob Weir was "cool" (I was young), could not figure out what that woman was doing on stage and when drums started I thought, oh shit, i hate drum solos and Billy and Mickey stopped me in my tracks. Wow, these guys are really good. Little did I know the pervasive influence this phenomena would have on my life.

Decrepit, run down, sports facility that was great for concerts. Drive west on Hollywood Blvd and keep going, keep going, keep going, out in the middle of nowhere, one road in, one road out, the traffic jams were great, gave us the opprotunity to get really lit before the shows, gave us enough time to straighten out before we got back to civilization.