Grateful Dead

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Philippe drove the bus, we had Scott whom I met at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and his beau Kara; there was Hugh and a couple of others on board. Jill flew in from California and joined the tour at this point, blissing us all out. When we rolled into Berlin, there still were obvious signs of the big political events from ten months earlier. The Berlin Wall was down, and remnants of the crumbled concrete were still there. Christmas presents for back home! The ICC was an even smaller venue than the Gruggehalle. It was also an all-seated show with plush congressional seats, complete with pull down trays to get all of our things together neatly for the show. Given the wall coming down, everyone was calling for Shakedown, and we got it right after Let The Good Times Roll. It was the highlight of the set, and for me the rest of the set was fun and pretty mellow. A woman in the front row changed her baby’s diaper on the stage, which was a first for me. Went up front during the intermission, and met some cool Germans who were completely blown away by the scene. I stuck around with them for the second set, three rows in front of Phil Lesh’s shoelaces. A blistering Scarlet Fire opened up, Looks Like Rain quenched it a bit, and then Jerry took us all to Terrapin. The intimacy of these European venues was magical; my memories of these shows always recall that distinctive aspect. Billy and Mickey played an inspired drumz, and the Other One was coming around. It was a strong version, but the strongest was yet to come: after Wharf Rat, I figured Round and Round would close out the set, but they then launched into Sugar Magnolia….I have a tendency to overextend on my “favorite” versions, but this one was un-freaking-believable. Phil was crunchy and LOUD. Linus, a German I met at the intermission told me years later that this Sugar Mag was his all time favorite, anywhere. How true. We got back on the bus, drove around Berlin and settled into one of all too many wastelands in the east which would eventually grow into part of the city.

Horsby was going to into his Grammy instrumental and Bobby was just staring him down, until finally he sat down on the edge of Mickey's drum stage and just shook his head like "What the Fuck" your on the Dead tour, looking over at Jerry like, " You brought along this guy"... than Bam, Phil cut off Hornsby little solo gig and Belted out an "Unbroken Chain"... all of Our emotions screamed and cheered, the unfamiliar presence of new members shook the UN building.. Our loyality was tested and a new beggining erupted,.... I felt so much pain for all of them.... It was never going to be the same, Brent's death had finally hit us, He was gone, and we all felt it....

Listening to this one in its entirety on Sirius XM as we speak. The fist set is coming to a close with a rollicking version of "Deal". I LOVE the set opener, "Let the Good Times Roll." Hornsby is a terrific player and his backing vocals are tremendous on this tune -- he even sings lead on one verse. Tons of energy. A fun, fun, fun first set. And just look at the setist for the second. Need I say more? How 'bout a release of this one? I don't think there is an official release from Europe '90 (unless memory fails me). Can't hurt to ask... :/

We left Essen during Lovelight and booked to the train station to catch the last train that night to Berlin so we could sleep on the train. Even though the Unification of East and West had happened, Eurail still stopped at the old border and switched crews. We where sleeping in the aisle of a car when some boots to the leg woke us up; Tickets!!!! We showed them our Eurail passes and they told us no good, the women conductor must have been in the old East German track and field program as a shot putter. They moved the four of us to a compartment and tried to shake us down for 200 Marks; after going back and forth for a 1/2 hour we agreed to pay 20 marks a piece and got some sleep, Berlin. Berlin was so cool to wander around parts of the Wall still up and parts torn down; the beer and the goulash were awesome. The day of the show we got over to the site early and had fun meeting everyone as they showed up; as at most of the shows in Europe the Electrics were in good supply and handed out freely. The building from the out side was huge but were they held the concert was just a large conference hall within this massive complex, we took long escalators up and into the space ship. This was the craziest place I ever saw them play, plush sheets - each seat had a light, a place to store stuff, a fold out table and more. Needless to say everyone was fooling around with their seat the first 5 to 10 minutes once we were in. The show what can I say just one kick ass version after another, crystal clear sound, The Shakedown is one of my favorites and the ScarletFire Looks Like Terrapin was great. After the show back at our pension or at a bar I can't remember we listed to the Reds and A's Game 3 of the World Series on Armed forces radio.

Wow, when is my time machine going to be completed, Jerry giving Bruce the nod on Fire to take the lead and it was awesome. Great shows, great times and glad I can still remember. I said a hold me tight and don't let go, don't let go.