Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

I do not understand how people were getting bad vibes. Funny thing is that I had straight jobs the previous 20 years and thought the Dead were likely very weird. I saw hippie types in cars with dead stickers and just figured I would not go to anywhere they were going.
Then an old friend of mine stated that they were at the Coliseum and I really had to see a Dead show before I or they died. (A few years later Jerry was gone.)
As we approached I realized the shortcut roads he guided me to travel were known for horrible things at night. I had worked that area as a sales rep and always was told to get out before the sun went down and saw it getting scary many times.
He told me that I need not worry because the people who "followed" the band and actually arrived to camp out before they arrived would fill the area with so much happiness and good will that the bad guys just would not be there. And he was right. Everywhere you looked were good people and no bad to be seen.
Inside I did not plant myself in our seats. I tried it but was a smoker so did a lot of time out on the concourse listening to the music and peaking in various doors to see the show from all angles. Everyone I saw was having a great time and even the cops were just milling about in the crowd and not doing anything negative. I thought it was great but I made it a point to let myself be drawn to good vibes and maybe there was some negative stuff but my instinct took me to the good. Or maybe it was something I ate! Sorry you did not see the good stuff. Concerts are supposed to be fun and Dead shows were supposed to be an experience of happy goodness. Anybody for a veggie burrito?

All these comments about negative events confuse me. Maybe I found the wrong event. I was looking for concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum because that is the one and only Dead show I ever attended. All my life I had listened to them on the radio back when DJs did not announce names except in long lists before or after. When a friend insisted that I must attend a Dead concert before I died I relented even though it was my impression that weird people went to their shows. That night everything changed. Fantastic show. The computer graphics were awesome and unlike anything I ever imagined. I walked about much of the time going up to the concourse and venturing to various doors to see different perspectives. People were literally bouncing off the walls and the cops I saw were just peacefully cruising around. One time I looked at one and he just held both hands out to his sides with palms up like "what are you going to do?" They seemed content and peaceful with the overwhelming size of the crowd and the fact that people were not causing trouble. Everyone was having a good time. People were lighting up everywhere and were just being ignored. Maybe there was another concert at the coliseum that was the one I attended because all I saw was a major happy success that made me wonder why I waited so long to know all those songs I had heard for 30 years were by the Dead. Even though the report says only 50,000 tickets were sold, I did not see half an empty stadium. Someone told me that Jerry opened the door for a huge number of the Jerry's kids groupies that arrived at the venue before the first concert and moved on to the next location where the band would be. i was actually stunned at how many people were cruising around obviously on acid and smoking joints out on the concourse. So if we have the same date, I believe what you saw was cops going after people lighting anything down inside the venue where fire is prohibited. Out in the smoking allowed area they did not seem to care what you were burning.