Ive seen Grateful Dead one time, back in 1988, I wasnt a big fan I went out of curiosity more than anything else. I knew all the radio singles etc but not a person deep into it at all.
Then I went to Bonnaroo last year, Phil Lesh and Friends closed the festival, I went in with absolutely no expectations. It was beautiful. Month later I caught Bob Weir and Ratdog at Radio City. It hooked me it was beatiful powerful show, the songs speak for themselves. By now the music and the scene, it really captured my imagination- the people in the scene are the nicest people you will ever meet, period.
Last month I went the American Beauty Project, i wrote this at the time:
in case you werent aware this past weekend we had a really great event in NYC- back to back nights tribute to Grateful Dead, on saturday we got the complete "Workingmans Dead" album, followed by "American Beauty" on sunday,
Both albums were covered in entirety, as well as assorted instrumental jams in between some songs, each song got an intro and a short interview with the artist by the host John Schaefer whos a local dj here.
Saturday was absolutely packed, there were over 2000 people inside, if you know the wintergarden the steps were full and people lined the mezzanine upstairs, they actually had to post security at the doors who would not allow any more people in after a certain point, too bad for the late comers (someone said of 10 years that free events were held there, this was the largest crowd ever.) You know the album- its a classic kicking off with one of my personal favorites "Uncle John's Band". This was not a typical Dead show in that for the most part people sat and listened(thanks to security guards who made sure isles were clear), but by the last song "Casey Jones" everyone was up and dancing. The encore was "Knockin on Heavens Door" the Dylan tune with all musicians on stage.
Sunday the crowd was slightly smaller I think, perhaps due to the football playoffs.
Still, the steps and floor was packed, though mezzanine was clear. Once again I got some of my all time favorites "Friend of a Devil" "Truckin"- done by Jen Chapin. The musical highlights though was "Till the Morning Comes" by Espers, that is one band worth checking out. Also one of the great between song jams has to be mentioned- Sex Mob, a jazz trio, drums and 2 trumpets, it was just awesome. The whole thing closed out with another encore of a song I did not recognize, however I recorded a bit of it might post later.
both nights the shows were around 2 hours 30 minutes long, the crowd was great as usual, there is really no better people you will ever meet than those who go see the Dead, it just made everyone realize how much we miss Jerry and the rest of the band. The show was being recorded by at least 4 cameramen, stationary as well as people on stage, so lets hope this will show up on video or tv, it had that PBS feel to it...
anyway, thats it, if you dont know the Dead go buy these two albums, and go see Bob Weir and Rat Dog, they are on tour this spring.
forgot the links:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...ID=113 806099
espers, : psych folk? best band on 2 nights imo:
http://www.myspace.com/espers
sex mob- great jazz stuff:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...did=944 05388