Rude

That’s what happens when someone sprays you at a show. It’s like invisible ink at 1st

There are always lots of official and unofficial chemists at dead shows. That was right where we were dancing. No clue joe the chemist was really close to me. On a chemistry note, at the covington Dso show on Valentine’s Day 2015 there was a guy in front of us that also looked like a chemist. Well he had the molecular structure of LSD tattooed on his face, so I assume he was a chemistry professor. He must have taken pride in his PHD work at Cincinnati and gotten the tattoo to reflect that pride. It took up most of the right side of his face. I asked him what his LinkedIn profile was listed as and he said huh. I guess he didn’t want to talk about his job before a show. I don’t like to talk about work either.

Nice. So you did all 3 nights of their Hampton run. Hampton is definitely one of the dead central areas of the country. Nashville not so much. Maybe that had something to do with it. There’s always drunk idiots at most shows hollering so maybe I was just in the middle of that group. But I have been to several Dso shows where the crowd was pin drop silent. It’s such a rare thing that it’s super special. You def won’t get that with 10k person crowds. The law of averages will tell you that when you have a small town smashed into a venue there’s bound to be a few ultra obnoxious people but with 1000 people you have a small shot at a near perfect crowd. It’s rare but you can get a Stella where not a person makes a peep.

I need to find balance in the winter. Sitting at my desk in the house looking out at the green pool and leaveless trees with the long wait til life springs is so rough. The worst is now until a month after winter solstice. At least after that I can tell myself the days are getting longer. Think I just need a winter house in Palm Springs. We found out the hard way why every hotel in Palm Springs at the end of June is $60 a night. It would be reversed out there. U stay hidden in the summer and only come out after. I just need a balanced climate like Los Angeles. Well it’s not exactly balanced. It’s pretty much perfect all the time. Compton looks semi affordable plus you get free bars included on your windows in any house you buy and may live next to an aspiring rapper who gets his street cred by robbing you at gunpoint. I’d have a great story though and what is life without great stories.

That was pretty much the exact weather in my couple days in portland in February. If nothing else the weather is very predictable out west. Winters are joyous in SoCal and the kind that get you padded walls up north.

So after several shows I realized JRAD uses some filter that gives the arena type special sound like its bouncing everywhere. It creates a hollow type sound where you barely hear the high hats and cymbals. JRAD is awesome but wish they wouldn’t do that. Dso’s sound is direct and clear unless they decide to space it out at times but not the whole show. It sounds like a dead audience recording to an extent. The dead didn’t make the music sound like that. It just recorded like that from the bouncing in an arena but 30 feet from stage in a tall ceiling theater should be crystal clear live. At times all you hear are the toms. The highs don’t come through. I asked people at my 1st show what’s wrong with the sound. In the Anthem as well as Philly it was like that. That being said, they are a fantastic group musically put on a top notch show. We got to hang out with Tom Hamilton at the Philly train station, well he was next to us in line for the Train from Philly to DC for 30 minutes so we were interrogating him, and saw the rest of the band when w arrived in DC and asked them about Jazz Fest. Can’t believe the girls failed to get a pic with Oteill when we said hi. Really they should have gotten a whole band pic.

Yeah that’s a haul. Was hoping maybe for a 4 day weekend in SoCal. Did the northern portion in February and I can get dreary weather locally. Traveling in cold and rainy weather doesn’t get my juices flowing. Palm Springs>LA> San Diego would get me to pop a flight in February. At least that prob means a southern/Midwest run in April. Hoping for another Avondale brewery show outside to start the warm season.

I recall a quote from last weekend when you said wherever dso will be on 2-22 is where I will be. Hmm I was thinking that date in 69 was a 2 setter but only 1. I was hoping for a 4 show Key west run 2/27-3/2 or maybe a mini fest in the desert for 4 days celebrating all things 69.

Guess u will be in sandiego.

Saw Phish on Wednesday in Nashville. Amazing Pit tix. Pretty fun time. But....the phish crowd was not at all like a dead crowd. The panic crowd was half dressed in GD attire and most of the people were big deadheads too. Actually almost everyone I talked to at panic had seen dso within the last year or 2. The phish crowd was loud and obnoxious. Nonstop yelling and whooing. During quiet singing half the damn crowd was yelling at trey because their voice could be heard. If you think a dead crowd is a sausage fest, this was twice as bad. But they travel. Everyone I met was far from home. It was def not a southern crowd where everyone is chatting up their neighbors. There may be things I don’t like about the south but there’s no where I’d rather live besides Cali and who can afford to buy a place out there in today’s market. Abandoned properties in the desert are 200k and that doesn’t include a roof or windows or neighbors for 15 miles. That does include a metal fence though as all properties in the middle of nowhere are fenced to keep the cowboys out who are on the run heading to Mexico.

I didn’t know it until I heard Lisa sing it twice. Chimes of freedom in Portland right after trump took office was maybe the most emotional I’ve seen a crowd get even with most hearing the song for the 1st time. Masters of war is another powerful Dylan song and Lisa smokes it!!! At least in troubling times we these powerful songs to help us through as opposed to songs like “man versus bonesaw” or the new pat Robertson hymn “don’t kill an arms deal over 1 murdered person”.

Wait. Is that supposed to be me at a show??

That’s an epic start of a set for sure!! too much did u do the Louisville>Indy and ft Wayne>Columbus? U got the goods bro. That was an epic stretch. Just saw that. Every song transitioned into another. Edit: nvm. See they stopped after frank, but still the last hour was continuous

Raggy? (Scooby doo reference)

I tried to make this run work but I couldn’t. It’s tough missing Midwest shows. At least we have next weekend and I’ll prob do some phish in Nashville which won’t be the same.

Wow what a 4 show run. 69 pig, 79 Brent, 90 post Brent and original over these 4 days. You guys are ridiculous. You went through the whole spectrum of Grateful Dead over 4 days with the only repeat I think a 69 and 90 version of MAMU which are completely different anyway. I’m in awe as always even not being in Detroit rock city. I gotta see more shows obviously

That was a whopper of a 3 show run. You got it all. Can’t make em all and kicking myself for missing last night. But those 3 are about as good as you get in a row. But throw a 69 in any run and you can probably say that lol. Wonder what’s on tap for tonight? I’ll guess 92.

Lol. I thought he was your oldest because he’s so tall.

Likely. But when I was hanging with you guys last night I was perfectly in my element. Forgot you just got out of a show!!! Logistics didn’t work for me doing St. Louis with home town friends. Love that venue in Indy though. Dancing on carpet is nice. All the space in the world.

He actually said what do you think it is. I’m like it’s a 69 style original with maybe a 2nd set elective. He’s like I think it’s an 80s show. I was like cool and said have a great show. This forum is PHD level GD commentary so I knew people here would get a kick out of it. I didn’t want to burst his bubble at the show. The second I walked in and saw 2 drummers and the 2 red Gibson’s, I got so excite knowing it was 68-70. Ducks son who I brag on for being raised right texted him after seeing the setup before duck arrived that we were getting a 69 show. That’s gotra be proud papa stuff lol. Having an 18-19yr old who’s stoked about a 69 show is pretty cool. It’s hard for kids to get into dead at all with their peers overwhelmingly listening to hip hop and harder still to appreciate the old school style and harder yet for them to want to hang with their parent at a concert. No way at that age I wanted to be in public around my parents at all lol. At age 46 was the 1st time since youth I saw a show with my parents and took them to Dso and was excited for them to go with us. Maybe dead culture is just a superior culture. When we were 14-18 we’d crack on people who went to a concert with their parents(my low self esteem obviously) but at dead shows there were lots of teens who went with their parents and there wasn’t any stigma involved. Plus my parents would intentionally embarrass me saying things like she’s cute. You should go talk to her at a level the girl would hear and turn around and smile and I wasn’t socially confident at that point to do anything but turn an embarrassed red. Ramble ramble ramble. Can you tell I’m still on a show high . Thank you Dso. I’m beaming as I lay in bed exhausted physically but revived mentally.

A 69 then an early Brent show b2b. What more could you ask for. It was like a different band. The styles were so different. It was mind melter, shredding feedback 2nd set in Louisville. Last night was a happy groovy 2nd set. How they can do that so perfectly with limited practice boggles my mind and do it so different every time. So many songs over the 2 nights were played so differently than I’ve heard before. It’s like they get more and more creative every time I see them. On I think it was TOO, skip was coming in at unique times on his bass licks. Eaton was getting a kick out of it. They were having a blast and the music was fresh. Once the crowd thinned out at 11, the energy level got even higher. When the talkers leave the dancers flourish and after 3 hours of sweating, the crowd switched into a higher gear. I love everything about a Dso show. Hell we may do New Years run even though I’d prefer to go where the chilly winds don’t blow after Christmas. Miami or Dso New Years. One lacks warmth and the other lacks Dso. I guess I’ll see which I need more at that point. On a selfish fan note when Rob K’s cute son Levi came out and grabbed his hand as he was doing show announce in St. Louis, it reminded us that Dso won’t be retiring any time soon as they have families to support. I know rob b has said before that he chose the musicians life and this is what he loves to do and has no thought of stopping. The road is tough but the job satisfaction level has to be off the charts. Plus Rob B get to continue channeling pigpen and he still wont care if you are only 17 years of age even when he’s 90 .

That was your 1st pageant show wasn’t it. Little far from your territory. It’s a great venue. The no alcohol area always has lots of space with great sound. They usually remove most of the tables on the side tiers but this year with a weekday show they left them all in. That was a little bit of a pain but stacking chairs and moving tables worked well. I told the people next to us that once the show gets going, we can move these tables. They looked at me like I was crazy. They actually used the table and I think the girl was frustrated that we were dancing in front of her sitting. Oh well. If only they would open the balcony it would be wide open. I think this is the 5th strAight show I’ve seen there with it closed. My 2nd or 3rd Dso show ever was on a Saturday at the pageant with the balcony open. The pit used to be a no alcohol area which made it wide open for dancers. Last year they made the pit 21+ which gets it packed.

I think the gf has more fun at shows than I do now. She’s ear to ear grinning the whole show and I can no longer keep up with her when at 1st she danced very little. The more and more familiar she got with the people and the scene the more she could just let go and release the inner freak. I’ve had a couple friends who let go fully at their 1st show but they had really high self confidence. Her 1st show she didn’t dance for most of the 1st set just watching them play. Now she’s spinning and listening and watches the band less than I do and I may only be watching 1/4 of the show. During that 69 show I stopped dancing and just watched the band playing and interacting during a lot of the 2nd set and it just reaffirms how great these guys are. Their transitions are flawless. All 6 guys can transition perfectly together and make it look so simple. That’s where Dso is just heads above every other dead band. Heck, the most famous dead band no longer transitions songs with more than 2 members. The drummers or guitars will drop out on almost every transition to a new song and once the drummers establish the new beat the rest will join in or the guitarists will transition to the new song and the drummers will join in. Swapping in Phil would make a big chemistry difference but don’t tbink he wants to play Casey Jones at China doll pace.

Got to hang with lots of my peeps last night. Good times dancing with friends!!!! As you see some less and less, these times seem to mean more.

I had no clue the dead ever brought big boy Pete out in the 80s. I learn something every day. Last night I learned that no exercise for 6 weeks then hard exercise will make your calves so stiff you literally walk like a pirate with a peg leg. Edit: I had to modify my dance. Now I don’t let my heels touch the ground and stay on my toes. My feet feel good today but my calves are like wtf was that last night. In 4-5 days they should be good lol. What a drag it is getting old. Duh nuh nuh. Fuck it. This is what I love and I’ll do it until the wheels fall off. Wonder if I can pick up more shows on this run. I’m jonesing already.