Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

This was my sixth and last live Dead show. I heard the show advertised on the radio just a couple weeks before, which I thought odd since I figured it had sold out. When I got the tickets I assumed they were in the nose bleed section. When we got there, rather than going up, up, up, we kept going further down and down, and ended up pretty close to the stage. Having been a huge Traffic fan in college, I was in heaven when Traffic ended with Dear Mr. Fantasy and Jerry participating. This was my first and only time hearing half-step. It was an ideal starter for me. And this was the only show that I later found a review in the paper (the NY Times printed August 5th). The article mentions "28 arrests at the concert, 17 of them for possession or distribution of nitrous oxide..." What a long strange trip.

I fell into a couple of last minute tickets in Milford,CT around 6pm and called everyone I knew that I thought would enjoy going to the show and nobody could make it. I ended up going with a friend of a friend who was NO fan of the Dead but wanted to see what it was all about. After waiting an hour for him and a two hour ride with him getting piss drunk and throwing bottles out the passenger window, finally got inside in time for Traffic to walk offstage, a real let down as Traffic is one of my all time favs. Seats were way at the top of the stadium side stage, and had trouble hearing over the crowd singing Half Step. We made our way down to the field and found a couple empty seats. After an hour or so of putting up with the drunk asshole complaining about how he wasn't enjoying himself and being an obnoxious prick to everyone around us I got fed up and left as I was now not enjoying myself and was embarrassed to be there with this prick, only caught the first set. On the way home, pulling up to the toll attendant at the GW Bridge, the alternator died and we were stuck dead at the toll. The tolls were shut down and a huge truck with a big fiberglass bumper gets behind us and pushes us to the side of the road out of the way of traffic. We waited over an hour for a tow truck to show up, and when it did, it was a flatbed with a driver and a helper in a truck that only had room for three people. I rode in my car on the flatbed all the way home to CT to avoid listening to the asshole I went with. In retrospect, I should've left his ignorant ass stranded on the GWB. I have never spoken to or seen him again, which is probably a good thing, as I would surely beat the shit out of him out of principle!!!!

I was at this show when I was 18. I had a sky blue longsleeve shirt on and I remember because some dude said "That's a cool color shirt" in the parking lot. I was skateboarding in the lot. I noticed the port-o-johns were overflowing. I was out in the lot and some dued was talking to me as he walked by. He said, "This place is a shit hole. They killed Adam Katz." Soon after someone else told me that the guy walking by was Bill Graham's son. Adam Katz, by the way, was a kid who was (allegedly) killed by security at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey and was found dead, dumped on a median. On a lighter note, I remember that I somehow got into this show with no ticket with my skateboard and managed to skate down the spiral ramps inside the stadium. Don't remember the show so much, but I do remember Crazy Fingers from the hallways. Also remember Attics of my life. This was the last Dead show I ever saw.