Grateful Dead

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My First In Person Show.Was Attending UCSanta Cruz (Go BananaSlugs), My Hallmates Said To Me, "You've never seen a Grateful Dead Show ?", I Said, "No. Aren't They Dead ?", "No way, they're still on tour. You got to go to the Greeks.", So I Called The Telephone Number They Gave Me And Got The Information About Where To Send For Tickets. Being A Newbie I Did Not Understand Most Of The Instructions But At That Time The Dead Office Was Very Understanding, And I Got Tickets To All Three Shows, With A Hand Written Letter Saying - "You Are So Lucky. No 3 X 5. No SASE. And You Still Got All Your Tickets" I Still Am Eternally Grateful For My Miracle. So I Went To The First Show and My Friends Told Me, "Oh We Don't Need To Get There Until 7pm" As That Was When The Show Was To Begin. They Immediately Abandoned Me On The Walkway Above The Concrete Seats And Told Me To Meet For A Hacky Circle At The Break. The Boys Came Out And Opened With Cold Rain And Snow. From The First Album, I Was Impressed As Any Band That Plays Material From Their Debut Album After 18 Years Is Okay In My Book. Found A Guy With Mickey Mouse And The Rest Of The Night Was A Delight !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Especially The Second Set China>Rider>Estimated>Eyes(45 Minutes)> Drums>Space>Throwin'>Other>Wharf>Around>GLovin'. No Encore As It Was 11+pm. Back At The Motel, They Sat Down And Wrote Out The Set List, Best Part Was The New Bob-Tune, They Named It "Enjoyin' The Ride", We Now Know It As "Hell In A Bucket". The Desk Clerk At The Motel Wondered Why We Were In Oakland And We Told Her That We Had Seen The Grateful Dead, She Said, "Why Do They Give Those New Bands Such Strange Names ?". The Sky Was Yellow And The Sun Was Blue People Stopping Strangers Just To Shake Their Hand.

All of the Greeks I saw were fives just from the venue alone. Well I saw twelve Greeks and I remember at least one that was short and lackluster. I will remember when I get to it. Dougles

I was a typical high-school stoner from California and proud of it. This teacher of mine, Sam Moniz (where are you?) would observe me & friends starting 1st period reeking, laughing and wearing t-shirts with the Beatles, Pink Floyd and such. He had this big poster of Garcia with the Tiger on the back wall. I had 3 albums by the Dead, Workingman's, Terrapin, & Go to Heaven. I really wasn't blown away by the albums but had never been to any kind of a concert before(except the Everley Brothers and Neil Sedaka with my parents. Anyway, Sam thought we should check out a Dead show so what the hell. We did speed and smoked weed but Sam's friends were eating little paper squares. We just didn't make the connection...yet. I remember songs like Rooster and Greatest Story (very cool) but it was the 2nd set China Cat with a really long beginning vamp that started to get my attention. someone was flipping playing cards from the top of the stands and they magically floated to the floor with many people marveling at the wonder of it all. Watching 2 drummers mesmerized me and during Drums, Mickey makes this funky sound and shouts, "that sounds like shit!" the whole audience laughs. I remember Good Lovin' and no encore but felt that I just witnessed something special. It would be 2 years before the next show where I traveled, camped with the heads, get dosed, and begin a magic journey that altered my life for good. the funny thing is that show is considered one of the all-time worst shows ever (Boreal Ridge 85), but boy I am glad I was there. we all shine on

I ran away from home in VallejoI was 12 years old and ended up in berzerkley at the shows, never got in could hear it ,was trying to sell doses, (I think they were libertys and purple microdot on wax paper) then \I was transplanted to the haight for my mom to come and find me there, because of her friends a Salano Community college, knew who I was a saw me there. it lasted two weeks ,

One of my favorite China>Rider combos, 83 was a great year for China>Rider. Smokin show, several good AUD's are available on the web.