Dead & Co. Summer Tour 2017

[Brian NJ]

Never saw them but from what I heard, the music played by them is not worth $40. I tend to chase music not scenes...

[jj3down]

2 minutes ago, cnjBrian said:

Anybody have a miracle for Camden? I refuse to pay $82 +fees for d&c

That is absurd.  Blossom lawn tickets are $40 + fees.  And the lawn at Blossom sounds a lot better than most amphitheaters I been to due to the design of the stage canopy.

[Brian NJ]

I'm not opinionated. Just speaking the truth😑

[Brian NJ]

Live nation $82 without fees for a shithole venue...

 

[jj3down]

5 minutes ago, cnjBrian said:

Live nation $82 without fees for a shithole venue...

 

 

 Price gouging.  TicketMaster and Live Nation are as bad as the mafia.

[DesertDead]

2 hours ago, Tea for Texas said:

Yours might be tight too weren't it for it containing a Notre Dame symbol and that filthy little leprechaun.  Other than that you got a sweet handle!

Maybe I should change mine to this:

 

 

Don't worry - at least it isn't a Buckeye.  

Yes Teacher Matt - I know - Ann Arbor is a whore.  Blah, blah, blah, blah.....

 

Hahaha!  No way!  I suppose this sort of thing was inevitable since I put my colors out there, but somehow I never expected such a visual affront in return!   

 

And I'm less than thrilled that it comes from you, T4T.  I really like(d?) you, bro.  And now this betrayal of emotions comes to light.  I'm cruising through this lovely, albeit toasty, Friday and BAM!  Right in the retinas we have these colors polluting the board.    

 

Welp, I guess at the very least now I know who to watch out for on the Sports Board in another 70 days or so, and then again for next year's opener.  And by opener I don't mean Shakedown Street.

[Vic81]

I don't even wanna say what I paid for my ticket tomorow. 

We are sooooo very spoiled by DSO with the ticket prices and mostly with the quality of music. Many thanks guys and girl!!!

[Rude]

Start at 14:30 when they start to transition from their way too slow shakedown into UJB and watch them not be able to figure out the song even after they transition. Too much of everything is just enough for this to sound right.  Musically this is on a tier below most dead tributes I've seen. Mayers noodling is uninspired. Think these guys are ready to be off the road. Long tour. 

 

 

 

[Rude]

It's worth $40 Brian if u are in a spot with great sound. I'd pay 40 just to listen to a dead show played on their stadium PA. It's not quite as nice as the Mayer Audio setup at dead50 but not too far removed. I couldn't tell but the speaker array I believe is the same Mayer one that is used at Jubilee but with 7 of those arrays plus 2-30 foot bass stacks.  Dead 50 had 4 midfield arrays compared to 3 in Boulder. The sound is outstanding--at stadiums. Indoors I saw them and the sound was horrible. Worst sound I've heard and my seats were at the SBD. 

[DesertDead]

24 minutes ago, rudedogggg said:

Start at 14:30 when they start to transition from their way too slow shakedown into UJB and watch them not be able to figure out the song even after they transition. Too much of everything is just enough for this to sound right.  Musically this is on a tier below most dead tributes I've seen. Mayers noodling is uninspired. Think these guys are ready to be off the road. Long tour. 

 

 

 

 

Heck, they had a problem with Shakedown in Hollywood, and that was the third show into this tour.  

 

 

If I may, allow me to bottom line this:  if there were a contest, all comers would lose to DSO on all fronts.  Heck, even some Grateful Dead shows WITH the Fatman would lose to DSO.  May sound like blasphemy, but it's true.  

[Weather Command]

mango, great words my friend....The GD were the shit....everyone else does their best, dso happens to do it the best....i have changed my tune and am with my girl and we love it together...i listen for the mistakes and they are rare....i am surprised....btw to brian and mango, tix will be in the 30.00 range.....hold out with finger in the sky and BAM!!! theyre not 82.00 good

[Weather Command]

....another thing I should add.........I am sure UNJB was beaten to death in VA> Having said that, Mayer is just learning and pretty fucking good for JUST learning......but, remember this...he is playing next to Bob Weir, the same Bob Weir that chose to NOT tell anyone on stage his intentions when he joined DSO for the second set at The Fillmore in 2005....He played slowly, out of tune and insisted singing some of the Jerry tunes....Cannot be easy to guess and follow along with Mr. Weir....Having said that, its a challenge and I am certain JM is up for it  BTW, I am NOT a guitar player but would imagine this isn't easy! 

[Weather Command]

btw, DSO adapted to Weir and they killed it!

[GoingBackTo Where....]

myI realize my words are blunt with out tact. it's they way I see the world. little sweet lies are still lies.

 

the music at jiffy lube was not impressive.  the set list was odd, and Bobby sounded like he had a cold.   

 

I was warned not to look at Mayers faces.   that stement made me look, and I now know why I was told not to look.  felt like gamorah, as I turned to salt.

 

Mickey sounds great, oteil sounded good.

 

they played throwing stones, and I made up my own line loudly.......y'all elected Trump now your going to have to pay the price....the price was bad music.  

 

us blues kicked ass!!   Althea was a good nugget.  got miecled 4 tixs to Camden shows, gave two away to becca Adams, and another two to tour heads.   

 

the campground scene was kick ass.  that reminded me of the days!  

 

saw a lot of breast pop out!! no complaints there.  had two cops escort me to where I was dancing.  they recognized me and saw I was lost.  what nice men.

 

I complain. about the music, as I should.   I love the music, but I love apples too, just not old rotten ones.

 

DSO is for sure my Greatful Dead. I saw Jerry plenty of times.   I know the music quality on how my body moves, I struggled to move like I do with DSO, but I moved enough, some guy made a point as he was leaving to stop me dancing, shake.my hand, and tell me that "I was magical"!!!  I can only summize that he saw GD, and I reminded him of what dancing to it looks like.   because we all know it's the music that is majic, not me.  sucks to hear that I was majical and the music was not.

 

over all, I loved it.  I really loved the crowd.  all those people gathering for something I love dearly.  glad I went, and. happy that I got to see this side show.  it makes me that much more happy when I see dso this August.

 

ultimately, I have such reverance for the music that I apologize for my harsh critique.   I have a lot of thanks for the forefathers, and should offer less harsh words....but I. spoiled with DSO, and I do preffer our boys and Lisa to anything else out there that calls themselves a band.

 

i sold many people on to DSO, as I hope one day I can see dso get the venues and the scene back to where the Dead took it decades ago.  

 

I would tour of I could make a living off of it....... 

 

lastly, yes I dance big.  I go through the crowds, I try and spin on a dime.  I hate it that I was not typical.  I used to.be typical, at this show again I was a island of dance energy.  miss dancing with you all, y'all are what should be, and what used to be typical.  

 

can't wait to shake my bones with you all at BMnt!!  

 

Miss you good and kind people.   miss the talks at jubilee.  loved hearing Rob's story about getting into DSO, Brian's story about the girl hairy hippy who saved her beer, but lost her patch.  Rudes stupid story, that made me laugh the first time, but had me crying when it renamed and relabled a dso member to Doctor keys!!  

 

I miss y'all, as y'all mean Church!!  

 

thank you DSO community for creating a place many of us remember, and a place for many of us to realize the power of this music played with life changing intensity!!!

 

love y'all with out the post show after glow!!!

 

[Weather Command]

its not for everyone...honestly, when JK left dso I couldnt go see furthur, I was so pissed...I got over it, realized these old guys are not here for long......Don't go if it makes you that annoyed...life is short my brotha

[GoingBackTo Where....]

On 6/23/2017 at 10:21 AM, Mango said:

 

someone close shed some light on how some of my words may be interpreted by others.  I took that advice, and will slow my generation of thought provoking words that to me, might seem academic, while others view as crude and not tasteful.  my apologies, again----to you fine people.  I might be a bit over the top, but not to a point that I want to offend others here, or to isolate myself.   I do get lost in my universe, though I try to explore others.  I rather have others around to explore than get lost in my own.  a personal struggle....and one I have not hidden, but I still am thankful for friends who don't mind telling me to cool it!!  

 

out of my whole ride with many of you through this trip, it is my hope that I am not only always approachable, and open to critique, but that I am worth sharing the critique with!

 

never to old to learn from others:)!!

 

have fun tonight Camden!!

[Rude]

Any time u can dance with 20k deadheads its special. This is a purely LIVE project. Anyone who decides this is their home listening after the tour is done, must not know there are thousands of epic dead shows for free. I have to wonder who would pay 500.00 for the whole tour on CD. Shakedown has seemed to be the exact same one I've seen 3x on streams this summer tour. All slow shakedowns. This is a band struggling just to keep it together as they need practice. If you go on the whole tour and every shakedown is a snails pace with the same structure besides slightly different noodling, id be upset. Even in 95 with a very sick Jerry, tempos and structures varied night to night. It's sad to listen to Jerry's playing at the end. Such an amazing musician who was so weak from disease that he was a shell of himself. But... they still changed it all up. This band does some different things than the dead did and I like a few. But if they want a top tier product, they need to rent a house in Europe for 4 weeks and connect with each other. The connection is what's lacking. Bobby making gestures that Mayer doesn't what they mean. Watch the video starting at the time noted. They don't know what bobby wants. That's happened at several. Watching DSO, they play so much together that eaton moves his head an inch to the left and everyone knows the transition is coming.

 

Deadco needs practice but communing with 50k of my tribe is worth the price of admission if it's a close show. DSO is my band. We all here know musically, they are in another league than deadco musically.  I saw DSO once total in 100+ flub an intro to a song. The band stopped, Eaton laughed and said let's try that one again. I've never seen a crash and burn transition and I've seen 4-5 in 3 total shows. I'll prob hop on deadco summer tour next year when it doesn't conflict with dark star or at football stadiums though. Seeing 50k people dancing is a sight similar to a beautiful mountain view. It just fills your soul up. It's hard to leave something like that and say u had a bad time. If you left Boulder deadco and said that was not fun, id have to question your mental health. U can say it wasn't where u wanted it to be musically but if you said I had a bad time, you should likely see a doctor. 

[Rude]

I have to say yes Oteill was tripping. I think it seems obvious with all the wow's he's mouthing and the massively huge grins. There was also an article earlier where the author mentioned the same. 

 

 

[DesertDead]

33 minutes ago, rudedogggg said:

I have to say yes Oteill was tripping. I think it seems obvious with all the wow's he's mouthing and the massively huge grins. There was also an article earlier where the author mentioned the same. 

 

 

 

If by tripping we are asking if he was on LSD or shrooms during any of those clips, ima say absolutely not.

 

Maybe a bit high on buds and a good cup of coffee, but I doubt even that.

 

I would chalk this whole vibe of his up to being very happy and sincerely into his craft.

 

I'll add that I don't think any of the band members are partying all that much before the shows.  Bobby certainly isn't buzzed one iota.

 

But clearly YMMV.

[Island Bro]

In This interview with Oteil from

last year, he talks about dosing at the Gorge show in WA state. It's the only show I've seen of D and C and I thoroughly enjoyed it...perhaps his cosmic journey helped the music--he certainly eludes to that in this interview. So I don't know about the video posted or if he's continued with any on stage tripping this year, but it's clearly something he has in his experience,,,

 

https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/article/What_Its_Like_Playing_With_Dead_and_Company_by_alanpaul?utm_source=fbcampaign&utm_campaign=deadandcompany2&invitedBy=paulreedsmith

 

 

[GoingBackTo Where....]

I love the Gorge....what a fun venue with a excellent view!!!

 

[jj3down]

On 6/24/2017 at 6:53 PM, rudedogggg said:

Even in 95 with a very sick Jerry, tempos and structures varied night to night. It's sad to listen to Jerry's playing at the end. Such an amazing musician who was so weak from disease that he was a shell of himself.

 

Before the days of having access to every recording at my fingertips, I thought Jerry's dis-ease reaaly kicked into overdrive when Bruce left and the reality of Brent being gone and Vince being there set in.  However, 92, and 93, although not great years by Dead standards, had some highlights and still saw some great music being created.  The downhill trajectory Jerry took through '94 was extreme, culminating in the awful, basically intolerable version of him in '95.  I always figured the coma was Jerry's rock-bottom time.  The '95 spring & summer tours more likely would get that recognition.

[Mojo Hand]

On ‎6‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 5:56 PM, rudedogggg said:

Wait.  Did you said the Dead is ALL about Ace?  Phil and Jerry were much more of an influence on the music we listen to than Bobby.  He changed the role of rhythm guitarist and it was brilliant, but Jerry and Phil did most of the composing. 

Just catching up on this thread.  Some interesting stuff here. 

 

Sorry Rude.  I have to jump in on this one.  I think your comment above is off-base.  As far as influence on our music, if you feel that Phil and Jerry outweigh Bobby's (or the drummers) input....then your opinion is valid.  However, in terms of your comment regarding Jerry and Phil doing "most of the composing",  there were generally two songwriters in the band.  Bobby and Jerry.  To minimalize Bobby's songwriting is to discount some of the greatest music that has ever been written (IMHO).  Music Never Stopped, Sugar Mags, Cassidy, Lost Sailer, Saint of Circumstance, etc.  I always felt that Jerry and Bobby's songwriting differences provided a nice ying/yang feel to the experience.  Bobby's complex chord structures (ex. Looks Like Rain), as opposed to some of Jerry's more simple and melodic stylings (ex. Row Jimmy), are part of what make the Dead so unique.

 

That being said......I am a songwriter and would love to know more about how the music was composed.  I have not seen too  much written, and definitely no video, regarding how their songs evolved from the original song structures presented by Weir and Garcia, to the final product we saw on stage.  I agree with you Rude. Phil had a tremendous influence on our music. While he had minimal songwriting credits, his bass style is another MAJOR aspect of what made the Dead unique.  I would love the opportunity to go back in time and be a fly on the wall at one of their rehearsals and bear witness, as the band members write their individual parts to the song skeletons that Weir/Garcia threw on the table.  Another great aspect of the Dead is that they had no anointed leader.  Each band member was able to put their own unique stamp on the music.....and therefore, I view them all as composers.

 

In full disclosure, I am one of those Bobby freaks who would LOVE that shirt that was previously posted on this very same thread.

 

As far as Dead and Company.......I am in the corner of those who feel this music is not up to snuff.  I have seen all of the re-incarnations of the band (the other ones, Ratdog, Dead with Susan Tedeschi and/or Joan Osborne, Further, Phil and Friends, etc) and feel that they have played some GREAT music at times during their post-Jerry era. However, the last 5-7 years have been rough.  The last few Further tours I saw were not stellar and they kept going for awhile after that.  The Dead with Trey and/or John Mayer is also off the mark. I don't feel it has anything to do with Trey or John Mayer.  They are both fabulous guitarists.

 

I feel that the they have lost their way for a few reasons and it centers around the core.  Bobby is trying to mess with the pace of the music in a negative way.  I suppose he is trying to achieve a more mellow and jazzy feel by slowing these songs down.  For me, me it does not work.

 

More importantly, they have paid no attention to the idea that the quality in how Jerry lyrics are delivered affect the music.  Weir, Phil, Mayer, etc.......cannot sing Jerry songs.  In the past, I have seen it done well with the band by Osborne, Tedeschi, and JK.  However, it has always surprised me that these guys, who have given us the greatest music experience ever, have ignored such a basic thing.  Not sure why. 

 

Lastly, their insistence on playing everything in the catalog, instead of just focusing on what they do well, also hampers the experience.  This was especially true with the more recent Further tours.  It seems like they are just pinking the through the catalog and making sure that everything is played at regular intervals, as opposed to crafting a setlist of songs that they are comfortable with and fit well together.  In the end, I believe the poor song selection and lack of a true Jerry vocalist, makes Dead and Company simply a cover band.

 

The irony of that statement is that DSO is nothing even close to a cover band.  They choose their name aptly.  As an Orchestra that performs Beethoven is not considered a cover band.......neither is DSO.  The original composers are no longer with us as a unit to perform these pieces, but DSO is and they are doing it wonderfully.   I make that statement with one caveat......when they perform as an Orchestra and perform an original piece constructed by the Grateful Dead, they are as transcendental as the Dead were.....to me.  It's all about the music.  However, I consider the "piece" to be the entire concert.  I have seen my first two DSO original setlists in recent times, and for me there was something missing.  But that discussion may be for another day.....

 

[jj3down]

31 minutes ago, Mojo Hand said:

Just catching up on this thread.  Some interesting stuff here....

 

 

Super well said.  100% agree.

 

I heard from in interview with Jerry discussing how different Bobby and his approach to writing and rehearsing were.  When Jerry came to rehearsal with a brand new song, it's structure and his playing of it were very tight.  Rarely did he come with a new song that wasn't completely written and he knew exactly what he wanted.  Little, if any improvisation.  Jerry was very adamant that they guys played the parts correctly, consistently, and perfectly.  I guess Jerry was pretty anal about this.  But Bobby and supposedly Mickey were very hard to keep on script.  They would drift off into improvisation and Jerry would get pissed.

 

Alternately, Bobby would usually arrive with songs very loosely written and the band had to work out the details a bit more in the rehearsal room.  

[Mojo Hand]

14 minutes ago, jj3down said:

 

Super well said.  100% agree.

 

I heard from in interview with Jerry discussing how different Bobby and his approach to writing and rehearsing were.  When Jerry came to rehearsal with a brand new song, it's structure and his playing of it were very tight.  Rarely did he come with a new song that wasn't completely written and he knew exactly what he wanted.  Little, if any improvisation.  Jerry was very adamant that they guys played the parts correctly, consistently, and perfectly.  I guess Jerry was pretty anal about this.  But Bobby and supposedly Mickey were very hard to keep on script.  They would drift off into improvisation and Jerry would get pissed.

 

Alternately, Bobby would usually arrive with songs very loosely written and the band had to work out the details a bit more in the rehearsal room.  

That's interesting JJ3.  I never knew that Jerry was so adamant that the guys play their parts specifically as he wanted. 

 

Funny thing is.....if I had to guess, I would have said Jerry was likely to be more collaborative and engage everyone to write their own part, and Bobby be more anal and ask the guys to play specific parts.