Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

Probably high in my top 5 shows of all time. Powerful sound. There was a guy who brought his Down Syndrome brother to the show right in front of us. He got ALL coked up (we saw him) and my group was all frying on multiple hits of yin-yang, after a while, coke head started hitting his brother who was retarded and possibly tripping, too, then he fell down and hurt his head..all too wierd, but the Terrapin was mindblowing and we had a great time otherwise. Ticket guy tore up our good tix on Friday saying they were counterfeit. They weren't tho. Asshole.

Lots of ticket weirdness during that entire run. I have never seen a staff that was more paranoid about counterfeit tickets anywhere, anytime, and a lot of people's good tickets were in fact torn up right in their faces, both mail order and TicketBastard tickets. This is absolutely true! It happened to some poor schlep on the bus I took getting to the first show. Imagine that happening after the ol' nearly-cross-country trip, and what it took to get Red Rocks tickets in the first place! Want an even better story? Two days before the shows began, one of the people supposedly going with us called to say that her golden retriever puppy had CHEWED UP her Red Rocks tickets into little micro-pieces! Oh, fabulous. She managed to tape them back together (sort of), but needless to say they looked like shit. Once we got there and got a whiff of the ticket paranoia, I said "There is NO WAY that they're letting you in with those!", but of course even with people getting perfectly good tickets shredded in front of them, they let her in all three nights! What was it about the Dead that caused the staffs at ordinarily reasonable venues to simply lose their minds when it came to the Dead? Why was everyone always so fucking nervous about a bunch of damn hippies? "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

Well, I had no idea until reading here about people getting denied entry to these shows with real tickets...talk about uncool...However, one of my fondest memories from attending Dead shows, happened here at this run. I was entering the amphitheater at around 5-6pm, it was still sunny out. I believe there are several small entrances and you have to walk on narrow, winding concrete pathways. At the end of my pathway, there was a small entrance with two turnstiles and just a handful of people there entering. The guy just in front of me in line did not have a ticket and tried to run the gate by jumping over the turnstile. Needless to say, he was caught immediately by these brute security guards. And one of them said to him,"Where's your ticket?" At which point some guy who was already inside the amphitheater produced a ticket for him! They definitely didn't know each other for I could see the panic on the guy's face, followed by relief...(the guy was a serious tourhead and was out of his tree, speechless the whole time- including after her received the ticket..though he did produce a grin). I'll never forget someone 'miracling' someone like that, right in front of me, on the other side of a turnstile...As for the shows, I thought they were uneven. The highlight is the electrifying Estimated solo...Jerry nails it...short but powerful.

it was after this show or maybe the following night that some poor dude lost his life in the campground after being turned on to the needle and the spoon down the road from the rocks..he supposedly did some dope,apparently too much,then stumbled off,only to die outside of my tent..i know the person who turned him on was questioned,but dont know if he was ever charged with anything..rumor had it the band knew of this dude,a long time follower,and that the following shows " he`s gone" was dedicated to him..painful dose of reality on what was other wise an incredible trip.............. I T S E E M S L I K E A L L T H I S L I F E.......... W A S .... J U S T A D R E A M "

dude in question was a well known part of the parking lot scene.

My First dead show. A friend of mine said I got these two tickets to see the Grateful Dead at Red Rocks (who? Where?). I had no idea who the Dead were or what a magical place Red Rocks was but I wanted to see Colorado. We drove up from Louisiana after graduating high school that year. Crashed at some random persons house in Boulder and there were tons of people there. I am pretty sure we slept on the roof over the entrance way. Had some Huevos Rancheros at some little gas station turned breakfast nook and then off the the rocks. Too mind blowing to put into words. If I tried it was a divergent reality that somehow I knew existed even though I was clueless yet I could feel it in my bones that it was where I was meant to be. From the moment to entering boulder, to sleeping on the roof, to waiting in traffic full of peddlers, to walking into the amphitheater: to the music and to the man It was just other worldly and yet felt like I was HOME. I went again the next night and hundred+ more.