Grateful Dead In Movie Theatres

[acududeman]

We've played that game...just from 10 seconds of some random section of something (no vocals!).

It's harder that it seems to get the exact year (even with the one drummer years).

You probably would have kicked our asses by zeroing in on the drums though!

Very smart.

Dave,

I'm not sure I would have "kicked your asses"........lol...... but the drum sound provides a huge clue.

It's a fun game to play when I'm driving around listening to the GD channel on XM.

[Island Bro]

Had a blast with an old friend catching the movie this week....not sure how many times I've seen this movie, but I've been wanting to see it on a big screen, in a theater for over 20 years....FINALLY!!!

Caught it in Anacortes, WA where there were maybe 30ish people there or so....fun to meet a gal right in front of us whose first show was in '69,,,,,

The sound was turned up really well and the sound system definitely did the trick. Was certainly also a fun novelty to experience puffing right there in a movie theater while the flick is rolling along....

There are so many things I love about this movie and every time I watch it, I have new discoveries (especially this time on the big screen!!) but I have to say, hands down, the absolute highlight for me tucked into all of this wonderful footage is the look on Jerry's face when he starts to bring it back into Playin' after taking the jam WAY out there....it is other worldly....and if you haven't noticed it before, I highly recommend taking note of that moment and the look/feeling in his face and eyes as the music plays through him....

Such a master.....

It was also fun to know this show was happening all across the land at the same time......

[Dstone5553]

There are so many things I love about this movie and every time I watch it, I have new discoveries (especially this time on the big screen!!) but I have to say, hands down, the absolute highlight for me tucked into all of this wonderful footage is the look on Jerry's face when he starts to bring it back into Playin' after taking the jam WAY out there....it is other worldly....and if you haven't noticed it before, I highly recommend taking note of that moment and the look/feeling in his face and eyes as the music plays through him....

Such a master.....

I haven't seen this in a bunch of years but I will remember to look for that moment your are referring to during the Playin. One of your comments reminded me of a fairly heavy interview he gave in the late 70s for Feature magazine where he's talking about the car crash and a life altering LSD trip and the relationship between consciousness and atoms and a bunch of other heavy stuff that I can't even begin to recall....but at one point he was talking about the danger aspect that is inherent in crowds and how he's never really trusted them completely. He starts talking about one night when he looked up in the middle of a song to see some guy in the front row take out a knife out of his jacket with a look on his face like he was about to lose his mind. No one else noticed (in the crowd or on the stage) cause they were lost in music. It was so interesting how Garcia put it and this is what your comment reminded me of...he was talking about how the he was looking at this guy and thinking 'wtf am I going to do?" and telling the interviewer (Lee Abbott) how the music was coming to this really climactic point and he was the only one who noticed what was going on because the music was EXPLODING.... and he was talking about it as if he had very little to do with it...as if he was along for the ride and was able to step out of himself for those moments and try to figure out what do to while the music kept on playing through him.

I was also reminded of an interview with the Indigo Girls, who opened for the GD in Eugene '93 and were pretty impressive with just those two acoustic guitars filling that whole stadium, and they were answering a question about what it was like to open for them. One of them said something like she'll never forget standing onstage and watching Garcia and how, as she put it, the music simply came out of his pours and how she had never witnessed anything like it.

Any of us who have seen him on a good night know. It seemed different than other musicians, no matter how talented they were. Like playing music for him was almost like breathing for us.

[jfolks]

it was sold out in portland.. they had to open up a 2nd theater!!

no puffing in the theater (but i had to leave half way through)

twas a dream come true to finally see the cartoon on the big screen!! it was a transcendental experience!!

[Island Bro]

I haven't seen this in a bunch of years but I will remember to look for that moment your are referring to during the Playin. One of your comments reminded me of a fairly heavy interview he gave in the late 70s for Feature magazine where he's talking about the car crash and a life altering LSD trip and the relationship between consciousness and atoms and a bunch of other heavy stuff that I can't even begin to recall....but at one point he was talking about the danger aspect that is inherent in crowds and how he's never really trusted them completely. He starts talking about one night when he looked up in the middle of a song to see some guy in the front row take out a knife out of his jacket with a look on his face like he was about to lose his mind. No one else noticed (in the crowd or on the stage) cause they were lost in music. It was so interesting how Garcia put it and this is what your comment reminded me of...he was talking about how the he was looking at this guy and thinking 'wtf am I going to do?" and telling the interviewer (Lee Abbott) how the music was coming to this really climactic point and he was the only one who noticed what was going on because the music was EXPLODING.... and he was talking about it as if he had very little to do with it...as if he was along for the ride and was able to step out of himself for those moments and try to figure out what do to while the music kept on playing through him.

I was also reminded of an interview with the Indigo Girls, who opened for the GD in Eugene '93 and were pretty impressive with just those two acoustic guitars filling that whole stadium, and they were answering a question about what it was like to open for them. One of them said something like she'll never forget standing onstage and watching Garcia and how, as she put it, the music simply came out of his pours and how she had never witnessed anything like it.

Any of us who have seen him on a good night know. It seemed different than other musicians, no matter how talented they were. Like playing music for him was almost like breathing for us.

Yes indeed....the interview at the beginning of the movie (go see it on Thursday on the big screen if you can!!!!) also shows Jerry talking about that space of just getting "out of the way" and letting the music come through....without any effort, etc.

Definitely came natural to him....

Never heard the Indigo Girls quote before...thanks for that.....those were great shows in Eugene and it was an amazing balance to have those gals open up and kick some ass before the boys came up and dished out their magic....Good times....

The Jerry moment that I speak of is a zoom in on his face just after an intense close up on Keith's face while the jam is still way out there....enjoy it!

[Octal]

I saw Jerry give a weird (it looked frightened) facial expression and then shake his head back and forth right after they went into the main Playin' riff at the end of the jam. No idea what he was thinking at the time, although one can only wonder.

[cm_hayden]

I saw Jerry give a weird (it looked frightened) facial expression and then shake his head back and forth right after they went into the main Playin' riff at the end of the jam. No idea what he was thinking at the time, although one can only wonder.

For me, it was always hard to read his expressions when playing. I've seen and heard him play his best with a pissed look and with a smile.

[Octal]

For me, it was always hard to read his expressions when playing. I've seen and heard him play his best with a pissed look and with a smile.

According to Jerry's interviews in the movie (which he never really liked interviews, so who knows how valid any of this is) what he was feeling and how it was coming out didn't always have such a direct relation. Obviously how he felt affected the music, but the music wasn't always a proper representation of how he felt. We can hear how the music felt, not how Jerry felt. However, there is a mutual interaction: his feelings alter what music comes out, yet the music acts as a stimulus and begins to affect him--he gets in the groove--and then, consequently, the music is affected.

Although musical feeling is probably (outside of the physical vibrations within the wave, i.e. an octave will always have no pulsation, 440 Hz and 880 Hz, and a minor second will always have faster pulsation than a major second) just an associative tendency we pick up. We unconsciously expect melodies to resolve on certain tones because of the scales we have invented and heard so many times (listen to eastern Indian music: they use entirely different scales from the western world), certain rhythms produce certain feelings because of where we have heard those rhythms, what we have associated that music to. It's a language, basically.