Tennessee Jedi wrote:ebick wrote: I saw them once in Texas and it was quite an experience, though they played a great show (7/31/82).
My fav show
The 2nd set is sick and oozes Grateful Dead-ness
Now that have just a minute.....I'll tell ya my tale.
I had caught the Red Rocks shows a few nights before with some friends. That show, as I mentioned, was 7/31/82. For anyone who doesn't catch the significance, the next day, Jer would turn 40. The night of 8/1 they were to play at some zoo in Oklahoma. I had heard many heads at RR saying they were going to skip Texas because of how far it was and go to the 8/1 show because that was "going to be the really hot one". That logic defies everything that an experienced dead head should know about their concerts.
My father lived in Houston at the time. I was going to stay with him for a bit after the RR shows, so I swooped in and caught that one on my way while my friends headed home. What an experience. There was this long dirt road heading into the downs and all these Texans lined it with their cars, consuming mass quantities of beer. "Damn, boy", they would say to me with my backpack. "Where you come from?" "Connecticut", I responded. "DAMN! you came all the way here from Connecticut just for this here show?!?!?" Like I said...not many folks who toured could be found.
The whole back of the downs was lined with the white carnival trailers selling cans of beer by the case. These cowboys was getting completely liquored up. It was a real people watching fest. At one point during estimated->eyes, I heard a young man comment to his lady, "you realize we been walkin' along for fifteen minutes now and they been playin' the same damn thing?".
I had told this story to someone who said that on a tape he had you could hear during space someone shout "play a song!". I have no trouble believing that.
Well, as Tennessee said, in spite of this atmosphere, they were smokin' that night. And they did fireworks during the intermission and again during drums for Jerry's birthday. And oh, by the way, I heard the Oklahoma show was a dud.
