pokey 1

[Weather Command]

Great show ........eyes> dew highlight...rain soaked muddy night......bare foot mud between the toes....maybe more of the same tomorrow night.......trip here was a nightmare .....took 7 hours from Wilmington, de...got there 5 songs deep into set list > during birdsong

[John A]

Eyes->Dew?  Nice.  Elective?  Or could they have done that in '73 or '74 maybe?

[Rude]

Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, NJ (8/1/73)

Promised Land

Sugaree

The Race Is On

You Ain't Woman Enough

Bird Song

Mexicali Blues

They Love Each Other

Jack Straw

Stella Blue

Big River

Casey Jones

Around and Around

Mississippi Half-Step

Me and My Uncle

Row Jimmy

Dark Star

El Paso

Eyes of the World

Morning Dew

Sugar Magnolia

Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad

One More Saturday Night

F: golden road

Rowdy energetic soaked crowd. Literal non stop rain for 5 hours. Fun time dancing in the rain.

[Evangeline]

For me, this is a dream setlist! Wow!!

[Tom Banjo]

The rain sucked. We headed to camp after the dew. Despite the conditions and all mother nature could throw at us, I had a great time celebrating the fat mans birthday. Thank Jerry and thanks to DSO band and crew for all the do. The tears flowed freely during the Dew.

[jamminOnThe1]

The music was so good that you didn't have time to worry about the weather

[Supplicated Velvet Thunder]

sorry it took me so long to get to a computer.... we had to make it back to boulder and get our lives all unpacked back into a house after camping and traveling all summer.  I THINK i have some semblance of a brain remaining to now recall these most excellent shows and share my experiences.

I specifically avoided looking at the setlist so that I could maintain that good ol DSO feeling of surreal surprise.  a kid before the show started was trying to bet people $100 it would open with promised land and I rolled my eyes at him and told him that I felt it too.... though I didn't KNOW that was what it would be, I FELT it, as will happen at DSO, so it was nice to know my instincts were still strong even if it was all spoiled anyway.  we were soaked setting up camp, soaked througout the show, and were some of a handful of campers that did NOT have a soaked tent afterwards (thank you 70% off $550 3-season tent!!!!) I have never been to a show with rain like that.  thank goodness it was VA and it was a quite warm rain, or there would have been some trouble.  plenty of people in rain gear, we chose to just dance in the rain, instead.  was happy with this choice until the walk back to the tent from the camp ground parking - since I had never had rain like this I didn't think to have dry clothes in the car - brrrrrr!

anyways, the whole place was ready when the threw us into the promised land.  hard to tell we were all soaking wet.  by sugaree I was grateful that there was a bit of a patch of grass lining the area beneath the rail so I wasn't slipping around in mud yet.  race is on had everyone giggling and by the time Lisa was singing woman enough we were in a mud pit up front (though I was still surviving with the grass under the rail!) she made me giggle pretty hard as I had some interesting experiences at the retreat center this summer (something about this lady wanting my honey to raise her kid after only knowing him 4 days.... some kitties never learn!) and I was able to dance it all out and let it all go into the mud at our feet. 

bird song was lovely and after our long drive to VA through OH from CO, I was grateful again for the patch on my jacket that I earned with my ability to always fly through the night.  no sleeping in these stars!!! by Mexicali the shuffle in and out of the front area had begun, as the mud was turning to puddles and everyone had to keep the beer flowing to keep dancing.  kinda nice that when beer was spilled it didn't matter cause the ground was puddles anyway and we were all dripping regardless.  nice bonus.  they love each other was very hopping and giggly, lord you know that it's true! jack straw was when I really felt the electric energy of the crowd kick in.  i think we all finally realized it was gonna rain all night and with that recognition we all found some semblance of acceptance and hunkered down for the onlaught by weather and band.

first set stella, what can I say? when I cut my dreads on Ekajati peak at the retreat center, i sang Stella to open my ceremony.  I did a bunch of buddhist stuff, then I closed the ceremony by singing Eyes of the World (as it is actually a buddhist text.... still need to post it on here for ya'll, trippy stuff!) so first set stella and second set eyes bout made my night.  glad this was the first show I caught after so many changes this summer. it all really just kinda rolls into one, u know? no tears during stella, just perfect and harmonious joy.  ahhhhhh.

a lady asked me if that was the last song of set and I thought about it and said, "nah, one or two more.... actually, yeah, 2 more" and she said she would hold me to it.  they played big river and we all desolidified the ground into complete puddles and she asked, "sure that's not it" and I said, "no, definately one more!" and they played casey jones and I said, "yeah, that'll be it" and it was.  crowd didn't want the band to leave the stage, but the breather was needed.  wonderfully enjoyable first set. 

around squared to open the second set and it set the mood for the night in every way possible.  joint was jumping, that's for sure. during mississippi half step i finally GOT IT. I mean, I LOVE this song and it has always made me think of my step dad who died a few years ago, but this time I REALLY got it.  there is this heart essense mantra in buddhism that essentially means "gone, gone, gone beyond to the other shore" or something not disimilar and I started chanting this while dancing to this song and WHOA..... oh, life, oh mandala ever spinning, oh DSO giving us all the chance to do it right this time.  good stuff.  this is why I am here. so, once we all made it across the river of the dance floor, I think we were all ready for what was to come.  I say that, but how could we be ready? this show is too good for preparation to be of benefit!

flawless uncle and the row jimmy kept the river/rain/flood metaphors rolling though us all.  we were gonna make it!

good golly.  the dark star was out of this world and as they flowed into el paso i thought to myself "I LOVE SECOND SET EL PASO, especially out of dark star!" wait... no... I said that out loud to whoever had crowed in around us at that point. couldn't keep it in lol.

straight into EYES and OMG EYES!!!!! I thought of chuck and mango pretty intensely, I thought about all the family dancing in the back, I thought about all the eyes I had ever seen and at some point when they sang "visit your country and live in your home" I rememered that this is the ultimate bodhisattva song and I almost burst into tears, though held it in at the last moment cause it just wasn't quite yet time for the internal waterworks.... that would come.  brilliantly played, this is when I noticed the inside of my unicorn hat was staying dry - all that warmth from my head grooving to the music.

into DEW!?!?! so glad I didn't peep the setlist.  this just floored me, except I didn't actually fall, as that would have been very very messy.  when he sang about a baby crying this morning, I just lost it.  I started sobbing uncontrollably and couldn't keep dancing.  i fell back into Aric, who held me from behind, and I just stood there sobbing as the most beautiful dew unfolded before us all.  but when he sang "guess it doesn't matter, anyway" I turned the tears into laughter and was able to dance the rest of the song.  it really doesn't matter, ya'll.

sugar mags, my white Dakini song.  ever present, always blooming.  ahhhh.  they closed out the set with roaring glee and though we were all feelign a little bad in the rain, we still had one more saturday night to look forward too!

golden road was the perfect filler closer, as i had just introduced Aric to the song a few days before. always a carrying on! that's me!

love you guys sooooo much! for an announced show, it doesn't get much better! (but you coulda just said it would be special, and we all still woulda showed up in the rain!)

[Rude]

The guy next to me didn't know it was the 8-1-73 show and after I let him know that they announced it, he couldn't resist looking up the setlist. I'm like dude don't you want to be surprised and try to figure out the songs by the first few notes? He proceeded to try to tell me what was upcoming and I stopped him. I knew there was a dark star and a Dew but that was it. It's weird that I have zero patience in real life but listening to Dead, a 20 minute jam is rarely long enough.

[Supplicated Velvet Thunder]

oh YEAH, and I was physically grabbed in an overtly sexual manner by a stranger for the FIRST TIME ever at a show during DARK STAR of all songs, lmao! the second time he grabbed me (very young VERY drunk) I tapped his chest with my two fingers and he fell back as if I shoved him.... right into Aric who had just showed back up from the bathroom to catch him and "remove" him from the space..... he lingered for a bit, with that scary devilish enerygy, then he evaporated into thin air.  weird moment. amazing what can happen when we don't get all tripped out over people around us and just let it flow and let it go.