Forum Subject #2

We are looking for stories of synchronicity. What is the most outrageous coincidence that has happened to you at a Dead show? This is an opportunity to show off your writing skills, combining a vivid set-up with a punch-line only the Dead could deliver. (Posted 4/21/96)

If you would like to contribute your own essay, click here.

7/8-9/95 Soldier Field - Eric Fuller (ickyfoot@hotmail.com) - Wednesday June 20, 19101 @ 10:49:04

7/8-9/95 Soldier Field

OK, so it’s 1995. I had only been seeing the Dead since ’93 (and I’m lucky, too, as I was only 15 when I started). Well, anyway, it’s the summer of ’95, and, since I didn’t know how this particular summer would end up :-( I was on top of the world. I was 18, and I had just graduated from high school and I had tix to RFK…Well, after ’93 the Dead didn’t play any shows at the Cap Centre for their spring tours (the site and season of my first show) so I didn’t get to see them from 10/94 until 6/95…Anyway, I was young, but the boys had placed some very colorful and intriguing stars over my eyes and I was completely hooked. I was dating a girl at the time who had skipped out of high school the fall before to jump on tour. Well, it turns out that she had similar plans for the summer and she mail ordered and received 2 tickets for every show from RFK on (about half the tour). She had no car, and I did (an old, tangerine orange, ’72 beetle…a car fit for the gods! We called it Gypsani.) and she said that she would pay for gas, food, and give me a free ticket to every show if I would cast aside the wishes of my parents and just go…Well, maybe I’m just the biggest moron in the world, or maybe I just loved my folks a whole lot more than I admitted then, or maybe I was somehow aware of the unfortunate disasters that riddled just about every show from RFK on (starting with the lightening strikes/deaths at the RFK shows)…At any rate, I listened to my parents which to this day I’m upset about…But I also didn’t give up asking. Probably daily (though perhaps hourly) I would badger them, yell at them, cry to them, anything to try and convince them to let me go and that I would not get mutilated at the lot scene of a Dead show (can you imagine?). Finally, FINALLY, after 2 weeks or so of aggravation and constant fighting, they caved on the last two shows of the tour, Chicago. I was unbelievably excited...I mean I really couldn’t believe how excited I was…From that point on, seeing a show away from home is just such a powerful experience for me. It really turns the family into Family and the scene into Home… So anyway, we were on our way…I should mention here that my girlfriend had been offered a ride at RFK for the rest of tour that she had declined for various reasons. So yeah, we hit the road, probably on the 7th since we were driving from MD and anticipated problems with camping nearby, etc. Well, we get there finally and we get a decent campsite a couple hours north of Soldier Field, and we camp…pretty quiet that night before the show. The next day we drive down to the stadium and as we walk in, the first thing that we see is two cops running off the stadium grounds with a nitrous tank on a dolly that they proceed to throw in Lake Michigan! Well, many many heads rallied, both to scold the cops (who were very pleased with themselves) and to test their diving skills… Kind of irrelevant… So the first night we somehow were fortunate enough to get floor seats, and we meet this really nice couple on the floor…We’d chat from time to time about the songs or shows we’d seen (this was my 8th, and it was July 8th, which was kind of exciting for me)…Anyway, we loved the show and when it was over we drove the two hours back up to our camp site and met some fine fine people up there this time. Day 2

We drive back down to the stadium again, and this time have no problems with renegade cops toting nitrous tanks into lakes, and I have a dose that was apparently from Dead family, called Grateful Dead…I don’t know the true origin, but it most certainly worked well (I have since had much to compare it to). This was my first time tripping at a Dead show, as well as my 3rd time ever…Well it was pretty spectacular, and since it turned out to be the last show ever, it was a good show to do this at for the first time. So I’m wandering around the lot, and I’m wearing these patchwork pants that I had bought all the back in Bethany Beach, DE. I walk up to this van, and there’s this guy, accent betraying his Midwestern upbringing/residence, and he’s got on the same exact pants…Well, I didn’t know that patchwork was a replicable thing, but there they were…We were both pretty shocked, especially since we’d bought them 800 miles apart. Well anyway, the cracks in the ground are swarming all over one another and I keep bringing all these really ordinary rocks back to my girlfriend, completely bedazzled, and eventually we make our way back into the venue. We get to our seats, and we’re a little early, so we’re just hanging out. I look up over my shoulder, and who do I see? The same people we had sat next to the night before! Well, I just thought it was wonderful that we were in the same section as them…pretty cool! Well, they kept walking towards us and I was thinking they must be in one of the few rows below us…I said hi as they got close and they looked at their tickets and they looked at our row and seat numbers and their jaws just dropped…Out of the tens of thousands of seats and thousands of people who mail ordered, we somehow managed to get seats next to the same people two nights in a row! Now, I only made it to 9 Dead shows (the 9th being July 9th, and their last), and although I’ve seen a lot of related things since, I’ve only had mail order tickets a few times, so maybe this is a common occurance, but I was blown away! So yeah, we had a great show that night…for those of you who remember, Jerry’s performance of So Many Roads was heartwrenching…it really sounded like he was crying, certain of the fate of this show, as he went on his little, short, poignant lyrical tangent. And then, after the Black Muddy River encore (a fitting last song for Jer to sing), my girlfriend made me wait for the lights…and low and behold, she was right…there was Box of Rain written for Phil’s dying father, bidding a conscious farewell (in my opinion) to a truly guiding spirit…like a father can be. But the coincidences are not quite through… After the show as we were heading outside we ran into the fellow who had offered my girlfriend a ride. It turns out that his bus had run into various problems, causing them to miss 4 or 5 or 6 shows. One problem being that the brakes went out on a steep downhill grade on a highway through the Appalacians…we were glad he was still alive, but also that my girlfriend had made the choice she had! Well, a month to the day later (did you notice that) Jerry died…I was in Tower Records with my mom looking for some good non-Dead material…This guy at the counter saw me and made some comment… “Hey, man…Jerry Garcia just died…” “Yeah, OK, thanks man” People had said similar things to me before in high school… Well, I was looking near the Dead section and this couple has like 10 Dead CD’s in their hand… “Wow, I see you really love them too!” "Well, yeah, but Jerry just died, and we had to do something about it…to feel better, ya know? :-(" I was floored…I couldn’t believe it. I bought a few Dead/Jerry CD’s (I can’t remember which ones)…My mom and I returned to the car and Ripple was on the local radio station…Well, I kind of lost it, and after seeing that my mom is eternally Grateful for allowing me at least that one last concession before I was off to college, out of her control!

Oh, and one more thing…I think it’s appropriate that their last show was at a field for Soldiers!

06-25-88 Buckeye Lake Music Center, Hebron, OH - David Green (greendad@aol.com) - Monday April 16, 19101 @ 20:43:50

This is just one of many events, during my short 10 years of following the band, that contained that little bit of magic, the x-factor, which made every Grateful Dead concert something special and unique. My good friend, and Grateful Dead compadre were doing the whole summer 1988 summer tour, (it was a great run!). We arrived at Buckeye Lake excited about a new venue for the Dead to play in. The venue itself wasn't spectacular, but the vibe was good. Even the heat couldn't hamper the mood that day. Since we just had finished a scorching Alpine run (literally and figuratively), I felt it necessary to abstain from the "Gooney Bird" tabs that we had left over from Alpine. I was going the "natural" route of the magic mushroom. Bruce Hornsby opened up for the Dead that day. My friend and I sat stage left, in the patch of pine trees, smoked a little herb, and listened to the cool sounds of Bruce and his grand piano.

We could sense that Bruce was nearing the end of his set, so the time came for each of us to ingest the "trip de Jour". His being the "Gooney Bird" tab, and mine the shrooms. My friend reached into his pocket, checked his wallet, he looked everywhere, NO DOSE!! He was so bummed. I tried to console him, but he really didn't handle it too well. He had his heart, (and his mind) set on this 'trip'. I told him we could split the shrooms I brought in, (I only brought enough for the show, and left the rest back at the car), but he really wanted the tab. We both sighed, and sat back down to enjoy the rest of Bruce.

Bruce started kicking it down a bit, the crowd responded, and so did we. We got up and started shaking our booties. My buddy got into the groove, but I could tell the fact that he lost his dose was hampering his ability to let loose. The anticipation of the Dead's set was mounting, and Bruce was doing a great job of getting our juices flowing. As we were dancing, this one Dead Head, as if out of nowhere came twirling by, and I mean literaly twirling. He stopped right in front of me, with his back turned to me, turned around, and held out his hand. My natural reaction, of course, was to hold out my hand and accept whatever it was that he was giving me. He placed something in my hand, closed my hand, and immediatley twirled off into the crowd, without saying a word. I looked down into my hand....One miraculous hit of LSD. I couldn't believe it!! I turned to my buddy and said "Your not going to believe this...." He said "What?" , and I opened my hand and gave him the dose. He was dumbfounded. He popped it right down, I ate my stash....and we had a wonderful night with the Dead and family in Ohio.

sometime Pokhara, Nepal - Orko (arkadyuti.basu@jwt.com) - Thursday March 1, 19101 @ 05:38:05

This didn't happen at a Dead show so I don't know if it qualifies... but whatever. My girlfriend, Tanya, and me were hanging out in Pokhara, Nepal some years ago with another friend of mine, Souvik, who happened to have a few hits of LSD on him. Neither Tanya nor I had ever had acid before but we wanted to. So sometime in the late afternoon, the three of us dropped it.

We were staying at this hotel and as soon as we were all high, we decided we needed some music. But we didn't have any so after asking the hotel guys, we got hold of a small CD-player and one CD that they happened to have. It was a compilation of Motown hits by women singers. Ah well, something is better than nothing and all that, so we all started grooving to that. Of course, we wanted the Dead so BAD. But it couldn't be helped.

But what do you know? After a while, we heard some very familiar notes and then the Martha and the Vandellas version of 'Dancin in the Street' came wafting through the speakers! WOW! We were up and dancing before you could say 'wish upon a star'!!! It seemed that the spirit of the good ol' Grateful Dead were right there with us, so what if it was only through somebody else's music!

And when the lines, 'Doesn't matter what you wear, just as long as you are there' came on, we all looked at each other with HUGE grins on our faces and nodded. Damn right.

I still remember that first trip so fondly and everytime now that I hear 'Dancin' I am reminded of that wonderful magical moment in Pokhara. 'Everywhere around the world, we're dancin"

9/11/87 Cap Ctr. Landover - Rob (llrain82@aol.com) - Thursday February 15, 19101 @ 16:12:17

Flew in for a 3 night stand the day of the first show. Met my brother who befriended a backstage pass checker. Hours before the show we overdid it on booze and "other stuff". We show up at the back door and get inside. The place is empty. Dan H is doing some type of sound check that sounds like an airplane landing inside the arena. My brother and I are the only other people inside and we get cocky and get up on stage and stand up to the mics. This of course got us immediatly kicked out of the building. So off we go to more partying in the lot. Show time comes and we are to wasted and wild to even try the backstage door so in we go with our tickets.

The lights go down. I leave my brother to rush to the front row. I get there 3 times and get removed 3 times by the ushers. The fourth time the ushers have had enough of me and remove me from the show. Haul me out back stage, take my picture, open the back door and drop me in the parking lot. Now I'm bummed out. I'm missing the show and I have to wait for my brother in the lot until it's over. I walk to the car and no sooner do I get to it and here comes my brother looking as dejected as I was. He also got booted for trying to get to the floor.

So off we went into the DC night only to return the next 2 days to find a good seat and STAY IN IT.

08/23/87 Mountain Aire II 87' - Calaveras County Fairgrounds - Angels Camp, CA - debbie (blackcatmoe@yahoo.com) - Friday January 5, 19101 @ 23:16:59

I am not sure this qualifies as a "coincidence" but I know for fact that this could of only happen at a Dead Show! A bunch of us drove down from Oregon - invading the small town of Angels Camp - joining the other heads who also arrived early - 5000 strong - the day before the two day show was to start. We camped outside of the town in "Big Valley" country, knowing that soon the Barkleys were going to ride over the hill - Heath,Nick,Jarod! - With Barbara Stanwick riding heard on us all!

These shows were at the fairgrounds, home of the Calaveras County Frog Jumping Contests - I don't think the local folks knew what they were opening up their fairgrounds for - a line of vw buses and tye died heads waiting patiently in line - eager to begin their trips .... of all kinds.

We waited in line - we were vendors - selling coffee and tea - the only java vendors that DID NOT use styrafom cups I might add - and took our place among the others - setting up a tented area that allowed all to come on in and enjoy each other as well as our coffee and tea! Yes, we had a vw bus named Ripple with license plates that said"Hey Now" - it was so cool - we had come home to our family!

And so the story goes - I was the only one who decided to remain "under control" and not sample the various goodies that were being offered. This was NOT true of a friend of mine.... after Santana got thru playing we were all in a magical frame of mind - my friend had taken some LSD - and he was glowing more than usual - then the Dead came out and I watched as he twirled off into the crowd - a smile as big as the cheshire cat on his face. All of us danced and sang along with the "boys" - laughing and enjoying our show - then - out from the crowd came a member of the "White Bird" medical staff - hand in hand with my friend - who was bare beem and buck naked - asking if any of us knew him - being the only sane one of our bunch my first reaction was to ask "depends on what he did!" But I knew from the look on her face and the "what the hell is happening" look in my friends eyes this was no joke - so I said "yes - he is my friend - what's going on?" And she said....

Your friend stripped naked and some how got backstage and started following Bill Graham around - at first it was funny but he was too high - we need someone to comeback with me and get him dressed and take responsibility for him.... that's when I knew it was up to me to.... whatever - so I took his hand and back to the White Bird tent we went.

When we got inside the medical area they gave him a pair of paper shorts to cover his nakedness - he put them on and pulled them up to his arm pits - blowing out the crotch and letting his "freak flag fly"! No way would they allow him out of the area unless he covered himself so I grabbed a towl and away we went.

He was a little less high and wanted to try and find his clothes! No Way! But into the crowd we went - asking anyone and everyone "do you remember this guy?" People laughed and shook their heads until.... we came across this HUGE security guard - he laughed and said - yeah I remember him - slipped out of my hands before I could catch him getting backstage - and his clothes are right THERE - pointing to a small pile of belongings. SCORE! His clothing was untouched - and this pile of stuff not only had his shirt and shorts but also his wallet with 500 dollars in it, his bag of really good smoke, his only pair of car keys and his varnet sunglasses - the heap of clothes was as he laid it when he took it off - the heads around him knowing that this guy might be high but he will be back and we will guard his stuff.

ONLY at a dead show would this kind of karma happen. I truely believe that deadheads live by the code "you don't lie, cheat or steal" - what comes around goes around - and when at a show we are all family - no questions asked.

It was a cosmic experience - thanks for letting me share. PEACE

03-17-91 Capital Center, Landover, MD - Ed Leiken (ed@estimated.com) - Monday January 1, 19101 @ 01:32:29

I still get a chill go up my spine every time I think about this one...

It was my last year of medical school and I had been looking foreword to this run of shows in Landover for a LONG time. It happened to fall on my birthday and I had vacation for the week. I was PSYCHED! A few months earlier I had gotten two ferrets and named them Rubin and Cherise. I had also had a new girlfriend named Debbie. Not a Deadhead, but I was working on it; she had potential. I'd played her alot of my tapes and she liked them, but what she REALLY liked were my Jerry shows. She was nuts about both my ferrets as well as the song Rubin and Cherise.

I mail-ordered for tickets on the first day and told GDTS that it was my birthday (even sent a copy of my drivers license to prove it) hoping they would send me something better than my usual nosebleed seats. It worked and for all 4 nights I had floor seats. The *worst* were 20th row center!! My best friend and I were SO psyched!! Debbie had said that she would go to one show with me (not being a head she didn't see the point in doing all four) and chose the 17th.

Dave and I were SO excited that day! Though we had each seen more that 60 shows, neither of us had ever had seats so good. On the drive there we talked about what we hoped they would play, and Debbie, knowing nothing, said, "I hope they play Rubin and Cherise!". Dave and I laughed at her, explaining that it's not a Dead song, it's a *Jerry* song and the Dead don't do it! She said, "Well, maybe they will tonight since you got your little fuzzy guys not long ago." We laughed at her and told her that, although the karma is there, under NO circumstances would they EVER EVER EVER play Rubin and Cherise. It's just not an option at all. She just crossed her arms and looked pouty and said, "Well, *I* think they are going to play it tonight for *ME*, " and didn't say another word for the rest of the ride. We teased her for a while and then a really good help->slipknot->franklins from a Buffalo show back in '77 came on, and the conversation stopped.

We forgot all about it when we got in to the Cap Center and got to our seats. We were so close we could see that Bob's amp really DID go up to 11! The show started with a nice strong Hell in a Bucket-> Sugaree and then a great Walking Blues, Peggy-O, and Queen Jane. Then there was about a minute pause and the crowd began to chant "We want Phil". That died out after about 15 seconds and there was quiet again. Out of the quiet came three very distinct notes. The Capital Center fell silent. Chills went up all three of our spines (as they are doing as I type this). I think we were the only three people who knew what they were starting to play. Could it be?!?! Oh SHIT!!! Dave and I went NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jerry went... "Cherise was brushing her long hair gently down...." and the rest of the crowd joined us! It was one of the most exciting and memorable experiences in my life. Debbie turned to me with her arms crossed and said quietly, "See?"

04-01-88? Omni-Atlanta, Ga - WOOD DOG (woody.kearce@turner.com) - Tuesday December 26, 19100 @ 13:22:50

Hey Now! So, it was Chad and Jim's first show and by gosh, they were goin to have the trip of a lifetime. We meet up at some friends house for pre show partying. We only knew a few people there and ended up on our way to the show without any doses for them. I know, sacrelig! We were on the train and I turned to one of the guys that was at the house earlier and said,"Dude, those guys arent wiggin'." he pulls out 2 cubes and I guarrantee that they were blistered in 5 minutes. There must have been 5 or 6 hits on those doses. We get to the front of the Omni and a dude is jugglin' fire and shit. It was amazing seein all of this while your that high, so we made a break for the door. Just as I walked in the door, splat, some dude had jumped off of the stairs right in front of me and landed on his face! Before I could react, there were about 10 cops converging on me and this crazy scene! Ill tell ya, I must have looked like Bill Murray in Caddyshack after he blew up the golfcourse.i.e.I BOLTED! I caught up with Jim and Chad to go to our seats, which were right behind the taping section. The lights were already down and having never sat behind the tapers, we had no clue what was in front of us. We thought it was some kind of Trapeze net hangin in front of us, only to find out at the set break that there was no net, only mic stands. We were so high that we held hands to the bathroom. Go figure. LSD sure is weird! P.S. We had a great time listening to the band that would become a huge part of our lives, FOREVER!

i don't know pyramid lake - steve (lilsteviec@hotmail.com) - Wednesday December 20, 19100 @ 01:50:00

ok, this is a weird one, so, follow me on this...it was summer of '86, jerry was sick, and not much was going on. we had heard that there was going to be a benefit show at this place called pyramid lake, nv, wherever that was. some friends and i were living on a mountain top in northern california called mt. shasta. lovely place, i can assure you. we somehow found a way to get to the show, which was pretty far away, as we had no cars, so all was fine. we were in the middle of the desert, around this funky little lake that the los angeles area was trying to drain so they could have more water in their desert homes. well, anyway, there was some weird fish, an african lungfish, that was native to the area, and only to places in africa, another weirdness, but we were jonesing for some music, jerry being sick and all. we get there, my friend scarfs a back stage pass, and we pass it around. finally, it gets to be my turn to go backstage, and one of my friends asks me if they can make some sort of an anouncement that our friend john ***** was sick, please come to the rock med tent, etc. so, i am back stage, bobby comes out of his trailer with a sling on his arm, looking ill, goes back inside, no go at the announcement with him. then, there, in all his glory, is wavy gravy. i say, "excuse me, mr. wavy gravy, sir, our friend is ill, blah blah blah, can you make an announcement to meet us at the rock med tent?" he looked at me square in the face and said, "what, do you think this is woodstock?" ha ha ha, but he actually made the announcement over the pa, john came to rock med all was well. now, a couple of years later, we were at a days inn in hampton, va, just waking up, showering, etc, and hungry. always hungry after a show. we go down to the restaurant, its packed, but, being the fun loving, hippy types we were, we saw a single person in a booth, asked if we could join him, and he agreed. as per normal dead head conversation, we start talking about shows we went to. i told him about pyramid lake, the whole story. he looked at me kinda funny, and said, "my name is john ***** too, and i went to the rock med tent to see my friends, but they weren't there!" wow...wow...hehehehehehehehehehehehe

11/1/91 Madison Square Garden (NYC) - EJ Spoleti (tcsboy@aol.com) - Monday November 20, 19100 @ 13:56:25

Note: This pertains to a Jerry Garcia Show in 11/91...I do not recall the specific date.

After countless hours of listening and several Dead and Garcia Band shows it so happens that at the last show I saw before I was married (a month later) Jerry decides to play "What a Wonderful Life" by Louis Armstrong as the encore. The irony - I had already chosen this song to be my wedding song. What a trip.

10-27-00, Fri gathering - Jennifer Hacker (youguysuck@hotmail.com) - Thursday October 26, 19100 @ 18:59:36

Hello,

We would like to invite you to speak at the SAVE THE DRUM CIRCLE meeting. If you didn't know that it was under attack please join us to discuss the attacks of noise pollution.

Ctober 27th, Fri, at 6:30pm at The Electric Lodge 1416 Electric Ave, Venice.

Please call Jennifer for directions on Fri. @310_842-4012/

07-01-79 Seattle Center Closieum - Dan McDonald (dmcdonald@lyle.wednet.edu) - Friday September 22, 19100 @ 20:12:01

Synchronicity: Grateful Dead, Seattle 7-1-79

Well, this story starts in college. Those really were the days. My roommate and I were walking into class as the previous class was exiting. At precisely the same moment we both saw the Greek Fisherman's hat on the floor. Without knocking anyone over, I beat him to it by a hair. Now don't ask why it never occurred to either of us to find the owner, it just didn't. So I had the hat and it was now a part of me. I wore it to our first show at San Jose, which was also, Brent's first show. Now flash forward to our second show. It's Seattle Washington, our hometown. I show up around 10:00 PM, night before the show. I'm coming over on the ferry and it's a typical Seattle July night, in other words it's raining. I have on my hat and a good coat because it's cold. I get to the center and walk up to the coliseum and I see my buddy's right there in front of the doors. We're hanging out under the roof by the entrance to the coliseum to get out of the rain. We're hanging with a few Dead Heads doing some partying', and everything's cool. It seems we're pretty much the only people in line when we notice movement inside the darkened coliseum. As we look closer, we begin to see there's people all over the place in there. Twirlers, tons of twirlers, or Pranksters as we used to call them. One of these pranksters comes up and quietly opens the door and we pile in. Now this is cool. The inside has some lights but the rest of the coliseum is dark. We're running all over the place in there and there's deadheads floating all over. It's unreal. There are less than a hundred people in this 13,000-seat arena. There's people throwing Frisbees, playing music, partying, dancing, hiding under the stage, you name it. It's like the whole line scene moved inside. Now, the coliseum has this fourway cat walk right under the ceiling, which is hundreds of feet above the floor. It goes out and up from the light balconies, which just happened to be unlocked. Of course, we find this and we walk out on the catwalk. This is high! We are way up there now, high above the floor and the entire partying going on. No one else is around. I look over at my friend, who's your basic biker kinda guy. He's got the leather, long hair, leather cowboy hat and all. He's just standing there, not a care in the world, looking out at those 13,000 empty seats. What else am I supposed to do? I grab that cowboy hat and let her rip! Like a Frisbee, it twirls out into the abyss, reaches apogee, and slowly begins it's spiraling descent to earth. My buddy is both mortified and mesmerized by this brutal and savage attack on his bikerhood. He's frozen, like a deer in a truck's headlights. He's basicly speechless as he watches his hat disappear below into one of the many empty seats. I know he's not going to stand there impotently for long. So before he can retaliate I grab my hat. It was gone. I never found out what happened to it. It was gone and nothing was gonna bring it back.

5/23/92 Shoreline - judd (scottj@ripco.com) - Friday July 7, 19100 @ 19:18:44

I lived up in Eugene, OR at the time, had a new job where I was the new darling of a little non-profit, a fresh face with some energy and more than a few ideas about what could change around there, and my first big move was to easily convince them to pay for me to drive down to L.A. to attend a big publishing trade show where I could meet some old contacts and try to sell off some of the very dusty crates of books from their warehouse they'd just given me charge of (knowing full well that Shoreline was about halfway to L.A. from Eugene, and the Dead were playing there on my 25th birthday!). SO, they buy into the whole scenario hook-line/sinker, and off I go, alone in my car with a tent, a cooler, my guitar and enough tapes to get me there and back. I get into my birthday show right on time (first night in a run of three), have a great old time romping on the lawn by myself, digging my first west coast Dead show (I had recently transplanted from CT and was a LONG way from home). The show was good, nothing earth-shattering as I recall, but a great vibe all around on the hill, and a sweet Stella Blue late in the second set. Anyway, this is all pre-cursor to the grand synchronizer moment! I head out of the show to the lot, get a beer, walk around feeling sure I'll make friends or something, really wasn't sure what I'd do, but I had a ticket for the next night too and was determined to make a nice night of it and see the next show before heading down to L.A. Well, bottom line, I didn't really hook up with anybody, found those west-coasters real nice and mellow, but also a little less likely to look a solo guy in the eye and say hello, etc..., and there was a wicked nitrous scene pouring out of some van that was getting me down as well (scourge, imho), so I just kind of trudged around for an hour or so before pretty much giving up (cops on horses starting to clear the lot put me over the edge), and figuring I'd just have to hit the road and drive an hour or so till I found a place to camp for the night before coming back for the next show tomorrow. Then, literally SECONDS after my mind turned the corner and instructed me to leave for the night, I hear a familiar voice from behind me yell "JUDD!!" HOLY SHIT. I recognized Murph's voice right away, turned around, and sure enough it's this guy I lived with in college for a couple years, and hadn't really seen since (about 4 years), and he just happend to be catching these shows and the one's in Vegas a few days later - he lived in Denver at the time and was also pretty far from home to count on seeing too many familiar faces. YES! And to top it off he's with a new pal, who has a girlfriend who is OUT OF TOWN, but lives AROUND THE CORNER from the amphitheater, and they're staying there in the empty but nice house, and surer than shit I'm welcome to join them for the weekend, which I did in a heartbeat. We went home and partied all night and got a good sleep before doing it all again together at the show the next night, which I found much more entertaining than my actual birthday show (caught my first SAME THING, my first SO MANY ROADS, and a killer DEW to close the set), and got in another good night of partying back at the nearby pad afterwards. It was incredibly hard to bag that third show and go to L.A. the next morning for my little trade show as planned, but it all worked out so well in the end that I had to do it, and definitely knew I'd had as good a pair of birthday shows as a guy could have when traveling alone in a state where he had no known acquaintances, much less any actual friends, to count on for a safe place to crash and a good time between shows. I had many great Dead show synchron's in my life (most involving just finding the car and my traveling companions where I least expected them after the shows), but this one went above and beyond, and is a highlight to this day.

?/?/1989 Cal Expo - Stella Blue (ButterflySky@altavista.com) - Friday January 14, 19100 @ 08:24:52

Whenever the subject of Deadhead synchronicity comes up I remember being at Cal Expo in '89. I had been on the road all that summer:the Rainbow Gathering in Nevada,the Oregon country faire,camping on Mt.Shasta-all over. I was suppose to meet up with my friend Ann Marie from Brooklyn at Expo but she wasn't at the Red Lion and couldn't find her at the shows. I spent a lot of time looking,which was my biggest mistake.Finally I decided to give up looking for Ann Marie,so I went to that beer garden area to and sat on a bench next to a bunch of packs and clothes. In no time at all Ann Marie had found ME. We talked for a long time and when I asked her if she had a smoke she reached OVER me to the backpack I was sitting next too.ONce I had surrendered my search I had sat down next to her stuff. It confirms one of the great truths Dead tour taught us-When you stop trying so hard everything will come to you. PS Ann Marie Russo if you see this drop me an E-mail. Peace and Love to all!

12-12-78 msg - cherry ice (ci@beaver.com) - Wednesday January 5, 19100 @ 22:38:10

one time in band camp I was playing this hot eyes and then I got a hair in my eye.....scary.

Spring 1982 on the road again... - CCP (ccp@okstate.edu) - Tuesday December 28, 1999 @ 17:36:35

My college jazz band had a weird Spring Break gig at our conguero's father's place in Tampa, plus an Appearance at Disney World. I had an all-white 1974 VW bus with no heat (the Rolling Refrigerator) and a bad starter, and it was my job (as always) to load up with the equipment and drive down from Michigan. Someplace just north of Indianapolis I picked up a hitchhiker who turned out to be a very cool guy and fellow 'head (remember me Eddie?) on his way to Baton Rouge. We had a great time bullshitting and listening to Dead tapes and we spent the night at my parents' place (they lived in Birmingham at the time). So the next morning we get up, get the bus rolling downhill, kick it into gear, and hit the road again, anticipating another long road day...one of us breaks out a tab to split and we're rolling very merrily along, Dead on the cassette player, when suddenly...FLAT TIRE! A major drag, because I knew the spare was flat too. So we take the side door off the bus (it had long since quit sliding), unloaded the godawful heavy Fender Rhodes, piano amp, bass amp, guitar amp, bass drum etc. onto the Interstate shoulder so I could jack it up, take off the flat tire, load everything back in again and lock the replaced door...now what? Somebody had to stay with the equipment (none of it mine), so I left Eddie with the bus, took my tire and stuck my thumb out (this is Nowheresville, Alabama somewhere north of Montgomery and I look a lot like a 1981 Deadhead and tripping to boot)... Sparing you-all the details of my Weird Experience Under the Influence with various rides and redneck junkyard owners...some hours later I get back to the site with a very used tire...and where the hell is Eddie? Oh well, nothing seems to be missing, and as I start in unloading all the band equipment again, here he comes out of the woods where he had apparently been hiding in an acid paranoid scenario. OK. We're on flat ground, no way to get the RR rolling, and it hadn't started with the key for months but what choice did I have but to try it: IT STARTS!!! We light up a J to celebrate, pop in the tape... And the first words out of Jerry's mouth? "Wheel's broke down..."

Well, it seemed very meaningful at the time. And it was the beginning of a Strange Trip indeed; five minutes after dropping Eddie off I pulled over for another hitcher, and it was my good friend and fellow trumpet player Miles, who had decided to hitch down...we all did giant doses at Disney World, which i don't necessarily recommend...ah, yout' I must have had some weird synchronicitous experiences at shows too, like the time I bumped into my highschool buddy Hans at a Chicago Rosemount show six years and a thousand miles from our high school...we've all called some tunes...but my favorite story is the time we were staggering out of some midwetern venue and Bob sez "great show, but didn't you think it was weird that Jerry wore that space helmet the whole second set?"

whenever nassau - keith eilertsen (keiler7465@aol.com) - Sunday November 7, 1999 @ 01:32:34

Sorry guys last one!I remember one time at nassau their was this girl i really liked.I mean i was hot for her.Well during intermission I saw her and she was with her man,and I passed right by her ,but didnt say anything because i was too shy and she told her friends she didnt see me,but i walked right by her so who knows.Anyway I remember thinking to jerry how i felt about her,and wishing they would play not fade away.Well sure enough they did and blew me away.I got me a violin i beg you call the tune anybody choice I CAN hear your voice.Too weird!!!!!:-)

all all - keith eilertsen (keiler7465@aol.com) - Sunday November 7, 1999 @ 00:12:33

Sorry one more thing.Just put in a tape ,and if i told you about ALL that went down it would burn off both your ears!!!!!!!RIP jerry

whenever allways - keith eilertsen (keiler7465@aol.com) - Saturday November 6, 1999 @ 23:51:54

Last one guys I promise!Help i kant speel!After reading all the stories about synchronicicity I dont really have one time or event.When ever i went to a show things allways happened.I mean i allways found my self around people i knew,or free stuff or getting back stage with out even trying.Just weird stuff.All I know is its real.I can give you examples like to this day whenever i listen to a tape i feel like the dead is really there.I know it sounds weird but it seems like i dont know you do something stupid while listening to a tape and you hear laughter in jerrys or bobbys voice.Then you hear the same tape same song and no laughter.Like i said i kant speel!I know it sounds weird and mabey i need help,but it whats i felt.Let me just start by saying i was raised a christian.My first show it rained and rained and rained.That night i got home and found out 2 tornados hit my area.God was telling me to stay away,and every time they played bertha i felt like it was directed at me.Dont come around here anymore.I mean i went to shows feeling like they were pissed at ME!I know i know i need help.lol,but i got over that.I helped about 6 kids from minnesota at the msg shows.They got beat for a hotel room so i put them up,and bought one kid a tik for a show.That night we were inside and i had a cd and was listening to dead set fire on the mountain and said to one of the kids that their gonna play this tonight.Well of course they did and blew my mind.He said he would pay me back,but i knew better,and didnt care.Just glad to help out.Being at shows with no chance of getting in and going to will call and getting the last tik in.Stuff like that!Its real I know.Going to show and playing with the light man in my head.Saying jerrys the wizzard bobbys the demon and having the light man change on cue.I mean change on cue.If i waited to say it in my head the light didnt change,when i said it the light would change.For those of you who have never seen a show both guys had spot lights on them.Bobs was purple and jerrys was white.I know I know i need help,but I swear it happened!!gdtrfb!!Damn i got to get to a bobby show or something!Sorry thats whats playing now.Back to the subject.Just strange stuff all the time.I know this sound weird but i swear it happened just like that!I remember still feeling guity for making it rain and telling jerry that i was dying for a drink and having a girl comming up to me with some water!No kidding!I know no one will belive me but i dont care!I know it happened!To weird!!I can go on forever.Stuff like that.One last one.When i was on probation I remember going to a show tripping my balls off and having to go to see my p.o one day still tripping.I went in and talked my way through it and got in my car,put a tape in and hearing trucking and hearing what a long strange trip its been thinking wow how true i went in and saw my p.o tripping and got over too weird.Stuff like that ALL the time.Time and time again!Oh well its all over now!!

A Long Strang Further Fest At Giant Stadium....... - Dave (ikoikodd@aol.com) - Friday October 29, 1999 @ 11:42:53

It started in the adventurous parking lot before the show,Jerry had recently passed away, it brought back sad and happy times all over again. We were sitting in the back of the van listening to one of Jerry's acoustic bootlegg's venturing a few trips, when a fellow head came by and heard the tunes, asked if i wanted a rock to trade with him the bootlegg. I figured sure, why not. So the sailor man went to his station and came back with a crystal of the clearest color and handed it to me. I went into the van took out the tape and gave it to him. The sailor then said to me, "This crystal comes from a wealthy merchant and it will bring you forever lasting long luck." Up until this day I live in search of this man because his crystal brought me luck that is unexplainable. Today I carry this crystal around,and it is amazing the things that happen. If you can hear me sailor, thank you and I hope the bootlegg brought you many good times as did your crystal.

iko iko

063095 three rivers - Peter Kane (pckane@hotmail.com) - Monday October 18, 1999 @ 12:47:07

So here's me, a good midwestern kid who's always gone to good midwestern shows, some outdoor, some indoor, but always lacking the temerity to cross that eastern border of Ohio (here lie dragons & stadium shows). But some friends convinced me that the break betwen auburn and pittsburgh would be the perfect opportunity to stretch our boundaries and see the world. Easy enough. Pittsburgh is a tangle town and I wrote the town planner to tell him so (Mr. Escher if you are out there I am still waiting for a response), but all is well that ends well and we really did not have to park too far away and were there early enough to enjoy some of the lot. Very weird day, weather wise, as I recall. Hazy and warm and gray, gray like the concrete evrywhere. First set was a real push/pull between bobby and jerry, bobby wanting to go fast, hard, and loose and jerry just wanting to hang out and think about things (candyman, bird, west la). Interesting and fun, especially with the crowd pleasing take me to the river. Setbreak was loooong, well to me it was long. And all of a sudden it looked like were in a domed stadium, with a (what else) gray roof. Except this roof was charged with electricity and was getting thicker and thicker. Where the hell are the boys? I wondered aloud. I mean I was missing them terribly. Finally they come out. But that's all they did. Milling around the stage, tuning and tweaking and talking. But the air is geeting charged, I mean it feels weird, like not normal, and the hairs are standing up and the skins tingling and the sky is creeping. Then the first chord to rain vibrates the whole structure and the sky opens up ( I mean opens up) AT THAT VERY MOMENT. No way, and then the "rain suite" follows. Wash me in the water, indeed, I don't mind.

08-16-18-99 Shorline Ampetheater - John Gillidette (jgillidette@csi-corp.com) - Wednesday October 13, 1999 @ 17:40:16

It was my first trip to Shoreline, maybee 20 shows under my belt,mostly trips alone. My friend who turned me on to the Dead moved to Humboldt the same year. Miss you Terri! I would bring friends to all the shows ,but I had more fun walking in alone and letting fate lead me through the night. Friday night was no exception. The music started. I was already trippin, (sorta goes with the lifestyle) for days on days, groovin to the top of the lawn section I danced, and twirled, then Darkstar started, still a newbie I didn't catch on till some one told me what was playing of course I was stoked. Not having alot of experience, most everynight I would here something for the first time. Darkstar melted into another song and the night continued on. The fractal screens were blowing my mind, the show ended. I found my friends, partied then headed back to our motel. We only had tickets to the first show but I knew this weekend would smoke so I told my friends I would stay till Sunday whether they were or not.I convinced them to stay for Saturday Night, another mind blower, I was really feeling family if you know what I mean. Love was pouring in with the music. I dont think Darkstar ended Saturday, they faded in and out into another song. I was on top of the world, convinced my new lot in life was being formed. I was looking for a bus to get on :). Sunday was pretty hairy. My mind already blown I hung out in the lot dozing most of the day. My friends packed up about noon. They were headed to the hotel, then back to L.A. I did not have a ride but it mattered not, I was ready to quit my job and tour, I geared up for the show, sat along the road waiting for an extra. A jeep drove by, asked if I needed a ticket. Smiled as they handed it to me, no charge (my first miracle) I knew I made the right decision to stay. The show was great, again don't remember now or then what all the songs were, didn't matter. The show ended, I headed back to the Lot with the rest of the crowd, Nitrous was all around, I got my balloon and started wandering, making friends etc. The lot started clearing out, I got one last balloon and started looking for a ride, actually more thinking of looking for a ride then actually doing it. I remember this vividly, don't know how or why. I took in some nitrous, whoosh. into inner space. I didn't move I didn't breath. I was in La La land and loving it. I wished I had a ride and was convinced that if I held my breath long enough it would come to me. A minute, two, three (or maybe ten seconds later) I came back to Earth, focused in on someone walking out of the dust. It was my friend who said he was heading back TO L.A. He decided to chill and wait for me. What great friends. He said he started looking for me about 5 minutes earlier and just ran into me, a little synchronicity. Made me wonder

Love them shows...Bye Jerry

03-30-94 The Omni, Atalnta GA. - Melissa Wiening (mwiening@manta.library.ColoState.EDU) - Tuesday September 28, 1999 @ 12:23:43

Actually, it all started a few weeks before these shows. Tiffany, my girl, and myself were doing most of the tour. She hadn't planned on going to Atlanta, but couldn't resist. Unfortunately, she had no tickets yet, but that never stopped us before! So we hop on the Internet go try and find some tickets for her. Our friend Aric was also helping us out. He found a guy from Terra Haute Indiana who had an extra for each night in exchange for a ride. We were heading down for Chicago so it was perfect!!! So we arrange to pick this guy up a rest area outside of Indianapolis. Here we are 3am, we scoop him up and off we go.

Now, I took one look at this guy and was completely mesmerized. He had the most powerful eyes and an aura about him that was just screaming my name. We were inseparable. We were just talking and sharing, and having the most amazing time. I knew this was it. I knew this was the person who could see right through me, feed right off of me and share everything with me. We were soul mates. For the moment we saw one another we knew that there would become a friendship to last a lifetime. It was a perfectly pure raw passion that burned right through us. We had three GREAT shows together and then we parted. I dropped him at the train station and felt a part of me break as he walked away.

2 days later I am home and he is calling me from Grand Central Station in New York City. Were making plans for our next visit. We talking about what a wonderful time we had together. How we both felt so right together. The honesty, the intrigue, the passion, the powerfulness of fate. Now here we are, living together in Colorado planning our wedding. We will be married May 13th, 2000.

From a rest area somewhere in Indiana to a home and a family and a lifetime of kind words, trust, love, encouragement, passion, and memories of what brought us together.

Thank you, everyone who had anything to do with the creation of the band, including the members, who helped mold me into the peaceful loving person that I have become. And for helping he find the person who I have to share myself with.

I love you Doan.

4/9/83 Hampton Coll.,Hampton,VA - Kirk (CAPTIAN40@aol.com) - Monday September 20, 1999 @ 20:03:19

Well it starts as I'm trying to find a ride to spring tours opening show. I had been striking out with almost everyone I knew. Then the night before the show a friend calls to tell me that if I want a group of his friends that I didn't know could pick me up. I was pumped as i rushed around packing the airbrushed shirts I was going to sell( for 10 bucks no less hard to believe isn't it?). Sothe next morning a van pulls up, a brown van with ship of fools written in brown shoe polish hardly noticable unless you were looking. As I climb in to ride shotgun the driver introduces him self as MR.OZ. Later I was to find out his last name was Mroz. And tells me how happy he is to have another guy riding along with him and not just four girls. Now I'm in heaven a ride and female companionship all rolled into one. So sitting sideways in the seat I spent most of the trip talking to the girl sitting behind the driver. She was from a neighboring town wher I knew a few people but seemed we had no mutual friends, still as the conversation went on we were getting along great. OF course the wheels were spinning in my mind how nice it would be to not sleep alone. When in the course of talking she mentions someones nickname and I stop her and ask her if she means so and so using his real name. As shes answering she looks directly in my eyes and goes oh my god your Kirk. Well come to find out she already knew a bunch about me and , lucky for me , liked what she had heard. From then on I think we Ignored everyone else in the van. the attraction I felt was mutual. Then as we got there I said I gonna walk around sell some shirts and get doses she reaches in her pocket and and hands me ten hits grinning and says now you dont have to walk around so I just sat at the back of the van, low and behold don't I sell all my shirts in about an hour.we go into the show going our seperate ways. What a show. an unreal smokin bertha to open,jerry in rare form, then if that wasn't enough they close the first set with lloks like rain->china cat sunflower->I know you rider, the place was going nuts just fuckin unbelievable.catching my breath just in time for second set opening help on the way->slip knot->franklins tower( I thought it couldn't get any betterbut they slipfrom help on the way into a smokstack lightning instrumental->spoonfull instrumental. By now you couldn't make me stop smiling as runrun into Kelly the girl I had been talking to. after the show we're outside, and little did I know she had the same plans for me as I had for her,not sleeping alone. When don't you know one of her friends is missing having a bad trip. So as she goes to rescue her friend my plans for the evening together slip away. Well little did we realize how strongly attracted to each other we were untill on June 20 1987 we were married, and out of the other five people who were in the van to this day I am still in touch with four of them.And it all happened courtisy of the Grateful Dead, if it wasn;t for them they would have never picked me up, and because of them almost every one of my close friends are deadheads too I owe them a great big thanks. we've been maried 13 yrs. and our three kids were raised in that Dead influence life. On a sadder note all three kids cried when jerry died even though the youngest was 5 and the oldest 11

8/22/99 greek theater...berkeley - buzz (greyster@sonic.net) - Sunday September 12, 1999 @ 08:20:41

the remainder of the set list Crazy Fingers a steve kimock tune the wheel terrapin station lady with a fan Box of Rain

enjoy bro&sisters!

8/21/99 greek theater...berkeley - buzz (greystster@sonic.net) - Sunday September 12, 1999 @ 08:01:01

they phil and friends (extraordinare) opened up with "Dancin in the Street" cool rendition, lasted the opening phil ordinate of 30 to 45 minutes...jamming of course...into "cosmic Charley" another long jammin fun tune...so what next I looked at my brother...said call it.... "bird Song"....why ? dcb he said.............why? I was memorizing the set list as d...dancing c....cosmic b... bird song what else he said....I was practicing that too flash we were practicing the same memory technique...hahahaha....then they started playing..you guest it..."bird Song"....hehehe with along intro of course couldn't you hear it?...i beg you not...folks around shared hugs...you guys are talking too much or i'm too stoned it was crazy remember...d..c...b..flash of lightn'n


4-24-88 IRVING MEADOWS - HBP (BGOOCH9012@AOL.COM)

I SAW GOD!!


04-13-93 First Show Spring 93' brendan Byrne Arena - Kringle (Dame4492@mars.rowan.edu)

I was sitting in the stadium, watching the Dead play and tripping on some wild hits of acid. It was the best trip I ever had. all of the sudden the whole stadium emptied out and the Grateful Dead continued playing just for me. I was fully content and was having the time of my life. Write me with your best trips. PEACE FELLOW DEADHEAD


7-7-84 Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI - Fritz Eifrig (fbe000@dns.colum.edu)

I'm sure this is slightly off topic, but it's always summed up what I fell in love with about the Grateful Dead experience and what was seriously lacking in many of the last few tours.

It was after the show. My small group and I had just seen our first show and the effects of REALLY strong acid. It had been an extremely full day of experiences to say the least. After some disjointed arguing we decided to forgo attempting the three hour drive home down unfamiliar, unlit back county roads and attempt to get a little sleep in the car. At least until everything stopped glowing and pulsing.

So the four of us attempted to get prone in the Chevy Chevette and began to drift and dream a bit. I began to feel as if I were moving slightly and then I was sure of it. I sat straight up a realized to my horror that the car was indeed rolling down the slight incline of this part of the lot striaght for the car in front of us. As I was the only one who seemed aware of this and I was in the back seat I did the only logical thing and yelled "AAAAGH!!"

A split second later our front bumper came in contact with our neighbor's rear end with a resounding crunch, amplified and echoing through my still pulsing brain. My companions were now also babbling and struggling towards form of conciousness and from the other side of the other car came the query: "What the fuck, man?"

To our horror we saw the owner heading toward us, looking truly enormous and just like all the guys who enjoyed fucking with scrawny "new wave" kids like us (we were short hairs back then). My friend Kent in the front seat rolls down the window and asks "How bad is it?"

"Well, it's '78 Ford, so basically it's a piece of shit."

"No, no. How bad is the damage?"

"The damage? Fuck it. Any of you guys want a Ry-Krisp?"

Now, in reality, we had rolled about six inches, maybe less, because someone in the front seat had hit the parking brake when they turned over, but we didn't know that then.

From that second I was hooked.


06-23-90 Autzen Stadium, Eugene OR - Jason Stambaugh (stambauj@elwha.evergreen.edu)

So many shows, so many experiences! I was out of work and broke, living in Seattle. I actually was looking for a job, when a friend called me and said his girlfriend wanted to see the Dead, and they had never been before, so would I go with them. He would drive, feed me, and buy my ticket! Yea! When we got to the Parking lot, I ran into an old friend who had traded a Coleman stove he found in a dumpster for doses. Perfect! Then he said he had loaned a flashlight to the Balloon guys in front of us, and all that I wanted was free (even though I am not a big balloonatic, it was a nice deal). The show was great, we had the forethought to bring the cooler, with yummies and some wine to sip and celebrate the Break. I was having a fine time! Everything I needed kept appearing in my hands, like water, suntan lotion, and other stuff. After the show, I was hungry. I walked outside and ten bucks blew up against me. Standing up; a vender! I shared with a stranger and her and I have run into each other @ shows ever since


7/84 red rocks - tiajuana mcgranger (ms300590@cats.ohiou.edu/)

hiking alone in lost creek wilderness area, trying to mend a broken heart. camped at the apex of three canyons with a flask of wild turkey and tamales. healing takes forever,but wilderness helps ease the pain. after two days, hiked out and drove behind pike's peak to the show...4 hours early since i didn't have a ticket thought i should check out the parking lot...oh goofed up here, new to computerland...really missing deadlinks. parking lot guy couldn't believe i was meeting friends inside....i wasn't but he was cool...hung out, looking for a ticket, but not communicating like the dingalings nowadays looking for miracles...just drank a beer. met the guy who writes mci commercials, flew in from ny for the show. submereged behind a rock, stood up and saw girlfriend from Ohio.We hugged and laughed, and she said, guess who is in the trunk? her brother and my heart-breaker..(i knew they wer were coming this way)...so we partied, he gave me his ticket, i got on the front row, we drove back toohio, cause he didnt have a ride...my heart still ached, but we got to talk a few more days. if i hadn't been there he would have missed getting home in time to see his father who was dying of cancer and no one knew.


3-31-94 The Omni, Atlanta, Ga - brian hough (swankey@univscvm.csd.scarolina.edu)

walking through the cnn center (totally jammed) we run across the 3 people we were supposed to hook up with. Amidst thousands of people milling around, we find them as we're all standing in line for the bathroom! Later on, we get split up again on the way into the show. The first set comes and goes with no sign of our pals, but during intermission we happen to pass by in the hallway! I just thought it was pretyy amazing. All that plus they did Saint which we'd been hoping for all week. :)


03-24-86 Spectrum: Philadelphia, PA - Gary Dobson (dobsong@voicenet.com)

Way back when a friend offered to take me to my first Dead show. It was the Spectrum 1986. I had heard a few albums. I say to Jake they will play my favorite Dead song for this show...(Box of Rain). Jake says "no way, they don't play that anymore. Well as we all now know they had broken out Box of Rain in Hampton...and as the first set comes to a close Phil steps up and the Spectrum goes crazy.... Jake looks at me and goes "wow man you are a Dead Head" Best compliment I ever received.....

Gary Dobson


spring 92 copps coliseum and the palace of auburn hills - jamie johansen (joha0023@gold.tc.umn.edu.)

Went to the shows across the border with my wife to be and our band of merry pranksters. As usaul we hooked up with people in the parking lot before the show and never had such a good time! My girlfreind had been keeping our mini tour tickets in a woven pouch for safe keeping. Needless to say that the woven bag was missing as were most of the tickets for the Detroit shows. We travelled back to Detroit dejected by our losing the tickets and wondering what we would do for the show. As we wandered around the parking lot, who do we find but our Canadian parking lot buddies with our bag and tickets! ONLY at a Dead show does this kind of stuff happen. Luckily we had an extra miracle ticket for our faithful friends, and we even hooked up with them three years later in the lot at Vegas!!


10-14-94 madison square garden, new york ny - jon leinheardt (leshismore@msn.com)

what i believe to be the best (if not the longest) scarlet> fire ever just happened to be on my 28th birthday at the best venue in the world!!


10-16-89 Brendan Byrne Arena - Mark Miller (miller@webspan.net)

After experiencing one of the most mind blowing shows ever on this night.(those that were there, know what I'm talking about!)Waking up for work the next day wasn't easy, but I had a HUGE smile on my face. On the way in, in the elevator of my company I noticed a cute female that had a Jerry pin on her jacket. I looked at her and asked "Did you go last night?" She just looked at me and smiled right back. Five years to the day after that, on 10-17-94, in between sets at Madison Square Garden, as the band began Eyes of the World, I proposed marriage to that very same cute female. Next month, we celebrate our first wedding anniversary! I guess, "once in a while, you get shown the light..."


9-12-87 Capital Centre - David Dillon (ddillon123@aol.com)

After enduring the first set of this show from high in the 200 section, "above the treeline" sound-wise, my friend and I decided to split up for the second set and meet up after the show. I went to the lower level to look for a seat straight back from the stage, perfect for the sound. I found an empty seat on the end of a row and asked the Head sitting next to it "Do you know whose seat this is?" to which he responded, "Yeah, it's yours, man." As soon as I sat down, the lights went down and the second set began. I have to add that I was really "there" on this particular night. At some point during space, that little voice in my head said "so you found your seat OK". At this point I looked down and noticed that the end seat I was dancing near was number 36--this was my 36th show, and that the row number was DD--my initials. I thought back to the little voice "Yeah, I found it, thanks. Cool." The voice came back "Yeah, cool." Really.


4/27/91 sam boyd silver bowl, las veags, nv - joe troxel (jtroxel@mcdata.com)

a week or two before we left for vegas, i was in touch with a friend in the bay area who we hadn't seen for about 4 or 5 years. he was a taper, and so we made arrangements to hook up before the show or during set break in the tapers section. hey, no problem, this will be cool we thought. we got to the silver bowl not too long before the gates opened and went to stand in line with the masses. as we're standing in line, my wife looks at me and points to the person beside us. "listen joe, that sounds like steve." sure enough, standing right beside us in the line was our friend steve.


03-29-95 The Omni, Atlanta, GA - David Clark (dac4261@tntech.edu)

Ok, my friend Steve & I were in the parking lot, just goofing off I was blowing harp & he was singin'. We were both in a great mood beacause we had front row seats Jerry-side. We were only doin' Walkin' Blues, & having fun. One of Steve's friends was unable to go, & was telling us earlier about his first show, & that the encore was US BLues. I was wearing a PEso around my neck that I picked up in Meico the year before. Well, we were psyched & the first set the Boyz provided us with a wonderful Walkin' Blues, ot which we removed our shoes, & mimicked walking them with our hands. What happens soon after? Mexicali! (Not part of the coincidence, but Unbroken Chain also this night) Then as an encore - US Blues. Wonderful eperiences _ thanks Guys!


03-29-95 The Omni, Atlanta, GA - David Clark (dac4261@tntech.edu)

Ok, my friend Steve & I were in the parking lot, just goofing off I was blowing harp & he was singin'. We were both in a great mood beacause we had front row seats Jerry-side. We were only doin' Walkin' Blues, & having fun. One of Steve's friends was unable to go, & was telling us earlier about his first show, & that the encore was US BLues. I was wearing a PEso around my neck that I picked up in Meico the year before. Well, we were psyched & the first set the Boyz provided us with a wonderful Walkin' Blues, ot which we removed our shoes, & mimicked walking them with our hands. What happens soon after? Mexicali! (Not part of the coincidence, but Unbroken Chain also this night) Then as an encore - US Blues. Wonderful eperiences _ thanks Guys!


09-01-79 Holleder Memorial Stadium - VALERIE (Valerie_ROS@wow.com)

I had hitchhicked from New York City to Rochester for the show and was a little dissapointed with the performance, especially when people began throwing things at the stage. The next show was Augusta, Maine and I wanted to go. There was no way I was going to hitchhike to Maine. There were three gentlemen who had just arrived at the show. They drove from New York City and they thought the show was in the evening. Much to their surprise the show was almost over. To say that they were dissapointed would be an understatement. They started talking about driving to Maine, but knew they couldn't do it. I turned around and said "I'll drive to Maine." "What." They exclaimed. We did/I did, I saw the band rise off of the stage in Augusta, we explored some of the most beautiful beaches in the world on the coast of Maine and a friendship lasting many years began.

Many years have gone by and I haven't seen them, but we are all connected in our souls.

Lots of love,

VAL


09-30-95 Morris Airport, Illinois - J.S. CLARK (tombanjo@aol.com)

A month after JER died I took my kids to an airshow. The end of the show was the missing man formation. As Taps was being played a dead ringer for jerry walked in front of me in tie dye! I looked at the planes then looked back for the guy and he was gone. Now I hear that Vinnie has a band called The Missing Man Formation. WHOA!


06-07-91 Deer Creek Amphitheater, Noblesville, IN - jason (jason@mars.dtinet.or.jp)

A friend and I had just finished our first year of college and decided that we would "do" the summer tour that year. At the April shows in Las Vegas we had found an excellent sheet of acid called "Unbroken Chain" which I'll never forget. Anyway, we each ate a few tabs from the sheet well before this show started and were wandering around the lot marvelling at various oddities such as a GIGANTIC man selling apples, a VERY young boy selling stickers, and that weird turbin-clad guy from Venice Beach w/the rollerblades and guitar. After arriving at a hypnotically good drum circle near the front gate/shakedown area we decided to lie next to the pond and rest until the gates opened. As I lay there tripping madly I saw the most incredible thing - every cloud in the sky became a fractal-like image of Jerry's face. This wasn't my imagination! It was one of those acid things where it's REALLY there. I was awed. I told my friend "I can't believe what I'm seeing!" (without saying what it was), and he replied "I know! Now I understand why Jerry grows his hair that way." What? My friend was seeing THE SAME THING!!! It was one of those moments when I knew I had found something special, something respectable, something IMPORTANT in the Grateful Dead that outsiders and critics are completely unconcious of - that brief connection to another universe which allows communication with an alien intelligence. Long live...it!


08-25-93 Shoreline Amphitheatre - Kelly McIver (KMciver81@aol.com)

Obviously, in the serendipitous world of the Dead there are plenty of coincidences more cosmic than mine, but I'll share anyway.

A lazy, late-summer day spent lounging around a house near Santa Cruz, just waiting for that evening's show after driving down from my home in Eugene, where the band had just pulled off a marvelous return to Autzen Stadium. The sun was out, the ocean breeze was sweetly blowing and I decided that the perfect musical accompaniment would be the tried but oh-so-true Scarlet>Fire from 5-8-77. Nearly went into a trance listening to the bouncy ooze of Phil's bass during Scarlet, and Fire just got me that much more excited about the show to come.

After the gang piled into the minivan and hit the highway, we passed a colorful, bright red sign for a nursery named "Begonia Gardens." I knew things were right. Sure enough, late into that evening's break, I left my still-chatting friends for my seat, saying "gotta go, I don't want to miss the start of Scarlet." And of course, a few minuntes after sitting down, that's exactly what they played. A very nice pairing, too... right around 25 minutes with some great spaces. Goes to show, that sometimes you know....


10-19-76 Oakland Coliseum - David Dodd (ddodd@mail.uccs.edu)

This was my first concert: The Who/Dead double bill. It was a Day on the Green outdoor Bill Graham concert, and at the start of "St. Stephen," the sun blinked on and off very briefly.

I placed an ad in my college paper when I got back and asked for those who witnessed this phenomenon to call me: "All who saw sun blink at Saturday Who/Dead please call..." and I did get several calls from others who also noticed the sun blinking.

Believe it or not!


3-12-91 Nassau Coliseum - Mike Rosenblum (mrosenblum@mail.als.edu)

I brought my friend Carol to see this show, her first Dead show. She and I had bonded at the time because we both had been through bad breakups in our respective relationships. At the show, I immediately bumped into my ex-girlfriend, who was just about the last person I wanted and expected to see there (she was not into the Dead at all). Then, as Carol and I were walking to our seats, she bumped into her ex-boyfriend. Finally, we get to our seats, both a little frazzled from the turn of events.

The show started. I was enjoying it greatly, and was happy to be introducing Carol to the music. Then, it was Bobby's turn, and what does he whip out??? Yep, All Over Now -- it was quite timely and I turned to Carol and started laughing.

"I used to love her, but it's all over now" -- it was the truth.


10/16/89 Meadowlands Arena, NJ - John Potenza (potenza@garden.net)

An amusing tale of syncronicity for your amusement:

It was October 1989. After hearing of the returns of Dark Star and Help on the Way, our hopes were high for the Meadowlands Fall run. After a couple of great nights it came to be 10/16, a syncronistic date in Grateful Dead Land, take 10/16/74, or 10/16/77, or 10/16/81, Bob Weirs birthday usually means something good. We were desperate as it was the last night of the run and though we'd heard some amazing Brent material and a Help/Slip/Franklins, the obvious was ignored. On the way to the show with a bunch of friends i remarked how happy I would be if they played the new album, Built to Last for the 1st set and Dark Star for the 2nd set. At work that day, out of desparation I had made multiple xeroxes of the 1st page of the sheet music of Dark Star and I brought them to the show. I had the intention of making paper planes and flying them at the stage during the break or whenever I had the chance, Hey you never know what gives these guys ideas. Set 1 was pretty hot, with a couple from the new album. Our seats were too far from the stage though to get any planes off in that direction. But they were high enough to get some good lift over the floor. Between sets I made up a bunch of planes. I flew a couple off with out much impact, they just kind of dissapeared. Then justbefore the lights went down for set 2 from the upper level I launched a carefully constructed plane. It caught an updraft of hot air and smoke from the floor and sailed clear across the arena. I followed it with my binoculars and I saw the plane gently bump into a guys chest in the lower lewvel on the other side of the aren a.He caught it in both hands and looked at it. He slowly opened it up and he and his girlfriend looked at it closely. A minute later the band opened the set with Dark Star. I saw these two folks jumping up and down very enthusiastically. I'd have loved to have heard their side of this story.


09-23-75 Eleven-Bar Blues For Stephen - Stephen (daedalus87@aol.com)

As a Stephen, I've always had a connection with the Dead song which shared my namesake, especially the early versions in which "St. Stephen" was usually coupled with "The Eleven." I'd already had a notion of the number 11 as symbolically representing some kind of unity, with two equal figures standing side by side in harmony.

The synch came the day I was looking through DeadBase and realized that "Blues For Allah," the Dead's 11th commercial release (counting greatest hits), had 11 tracks listed and had been released 11 days after my 11th birthday. Hmmm...

Fare you well,

Stephen


3/23/75 Kezar - michael johann (mhjohann@ix.netcom.com)

Synchronicity abounds within the Deadhead community. It always seems a little too often to be mere chance which provided that touch of magic. One of my favorites occured on the way to a show. We were driving up from Southern California for the SNACK benefit at Kezar in 75. It was the day before the concert and it had been raining the whole way and the forecast for the outdoor show did not look promising. When we finally hit San Francisco we took a wrong freeway and had to get off into the depths of downtown in order to get going in the right direction. I as navigator popped out the map and with my head buried I started calling out directions. According to the map we were almost back to our freeway onramp when we stopped at a light. The driver nudged me out of my map reading and pointed out my window. Voila, we had stopped smack dab in front of the Mars Hotel. We all giggled wildly, then proceeded to the onramp supremely confident that the rains would stop. We had our sign. And of course they did.


8-95 Las Vegas - Sarah Watson (swatson1@ucla.edu)

Jerry was dead. I slowly walked down the Las Vegas strip with my head hung low and a sad song in my mind. I looked up and the etherial lights of Las Vegas shown brilliantly. This was the closest a non-tripper would come to acid so I should have been amazed. But Jerry was dead. It had been almost a week. I cruised into some little back ally casino planning to throw a quarter or two into the slots. But then I saw him. A man dressed in tye dye throwing dice at the craps table. It was a sign. As I neared I could read the words written on his tye-dye: "Gone but not forgotten." This was my night. I walked away from the table an hour later and 80 dollars richer (alot of money for a starving college student.) I went back home just high on the good vibes the man had sent. The muse struck so I wrote this tribute to Jerry. Hope you like it.

Tye-dyed candle flickers, the oracle of your death. The flame cries out that you are gone and there is heroine on your breath. The multitudes they gathered, to honour their fallen god. We danced a dark death dance and layed rings or rosies round the sod. But the wine tasted bitter, and the climate chilled our bones. The roses turned to black and the begonias turned to stone. They closed the coffin, shut the lid, sealed the tomb up tight. I just knelt and sadly knew there would be no dancing tonight. I bid farewell and sad good-bye to that slow and languid tune. My thoughts turned dark, and so did the sun as it became eclipsed by the moon. But I uncoded the cryptical message, and the words of his gravestone read. "I will rise. I will rise. Music is never dead." And they layed him to rest in the pine wood box But though his bones be trapped his soul still rocks!


3-29-95 The Omni--Atlanta - Jimmy Wise (tripping-bear@worldnet.att.net)

Well...i had been trying to get tickets frantically for about a month before the show, but i wasnt having much luck.......then one day i was at the mall and i saw this guy named Steve that i had met at a Page and Plant concert, and lo and behold... he had four extra tickets...on him!! The show was great....we ran in to Steve at the show, then we ran into steve a year later at a music festival.....that was totally awesome


7-8-95 Soldiers Field - Josh Downey (jdowney@du.edu)

A buddy and i wanted to see the dead in chicago fo our first time. I was born in chicago but raised in colorado my whole life. I thought that it would be speacial to see the Dead in the town i was born. I had this force driving me to go. My friend and i were both working at the time so it was best for us to fly out. So the day before the shows started we bumbed around Chicago.We went to the meusium of science an industry(awesome) and they had a mining ewxibit. Cumberland blues. We then were on the Eltrain because we were trying to connect with some sisters who drove in from colorado. On the El train we passed cumberland stop. By this time tere deffinatly playin cumberland blues. So we go to the shows and sure enough cumberland.

On the way out of the show we went back to the car. right above us and the car it was raining but it was not raining anywere else. At the time i didnt realize it but sure enough the next night they closed with Box of rain for the second encour. it was really exciting. Not to take up to much room but i wonder if any of you have heard the 7-9-95. im sure you have well anyway have you ever noticed the incredible shakedown street? Well when we were driving in chicago. The girl driving was panbicking(way too much traffic) saying how this town sucks(remember were from colorado were not used to huge cities) anyway she said this town sucks and I looked at her and said "Dont tell me this town aint got no heart".

its so amazing how the dead has these coincidences that really arent coincidenses. It happens because you get enough people together who know, who listen to the wind and when you do this you realize how powerful our minds are.You understand life better you dont get hung up on these "human world" issues such as OJ, my fax machine and cappachino. Live life, Use the Force, Enjoy the Dead (Gratefully Dead) Joshua

Love


june 91 soldier field, chicago ill - jas (luethjej@blue-ridge.navy.mil)

As anyone who has ever been to Soldier Field knows, its big, mean and ugly, and with those thoughts in mind my three tour buds and I went into the show as early as possible to avoid the crowds rushing in towards showtime. Well no sooner do we find our seats and get comfortable does my friend look up in horror and cries out "I have lost my pouch!!!" Well in that little pouch of his was all his tickets for the rest of the summer tour. Panic set in on my friend so I tried to calm him down, I told him to retrace his steps all the way to the entrance of the stadium and maybe he would find his tickets. He agreed, and with words on encouragement from everyone sitting around us he set out on his journey. I really did not think he would find those tickets but about ten minutes later he comes back with a broad smile on his face and he holds his pouch up high in the air, suddenly everyone within five rows of us let out a bid YEAH and expresses their relief that he found his tickets. Turns out that he found his tickets just sitting up against the wall by the entrance of the stadium, he said hundreds of people were just walking right by it when someone picked it up and was asking everyone who passed by if it was theirs, my friend claimed it, hugged the person who found it and that was that. Many friends were made that night in Chicago, friends that will last forever.


06-25-82 Garcia & Kahn: Palladium, New York City - John M.Henry (jhenry@aimsgroup.com)

This is actually an occurrence the morning following the above mentioned show. Jerry & John had appeared at this benefit show which began at 11:59 p.m. following a performance by the Marshall Tucker Band earlier in the evening. My friend and I attended the MTB show, left and came back in for the benefit show. We sat through the opening acts (Robert Gordon, the Ronnie Spector) anticipating the appearance of J & J. It had already been a long evening and I had to be at the LaGuardia airport the next morning at 9:00 a.m. for a trip to Boston I was taking with my father. Never the less, I was ready to wait out the early acts. Finally, around 2:00 a.m. J & J hit the stage and proceed to perform a nice tight 45 minute acoustic set complete with a Ripple ending. At that point, the rumor running around the arena was that Jerry was going to come back out later with the electric band. Somewhere along the way I proceeded to fall asleep in my seat only to be awakened by my friend at 7:15 a.m. telling me that it doesn't look like Jerry's coming back on and that maybe I should go home and get ready for the flight to Boston. Luckily, I live right down the street from the theater and was able to sprint home, shower and leave. We arrive at the Eastern airline shuttle and proceed to the flight gate. At that point I notice a side door opening. Two men and an airline employee step out of the doorway and what do you know, It's Jerry and John! "Jerry!", "Jerry!" I shout to no avail. He is ignoring me. My father in the meantime want to know what the hell is going on. "Dad, that's Jerry Garcia". "Who?" came my father's reply. "Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead!" I respond. "Does he hang out with that Mickey Jagger?" asks dad....Meanwhile Jerry is still ignoring me. Finally, my father screams "HEY GARCIA! MY SON"S TRYING TO TALK TO YOU!" At this point, I start to look for the nearest rock to crawl under but to my surprise Jerry turns around and acknowldeges me amd even shakes my hand. "Nice set last night" I offer humbly. "Thanks, man. See ya on down the road", He replies. We head our separate ways. I explain to my father again who Jerry is to which he replies, "Well, if you ask me, he looks like a bum!" ......ah, the generation gap......


7/12/90 R.F.K. - Washington D.C. - Brian Thomas (zombywoofr@aol.com)

It had been a long, hot, sunny day so we went in to see the opening band(Edie Brockel) and relax in the shade. Right after she left the stage, dark clouds started rolling in over the stadium. As we worked our way down to the field it just kept getting darker and darker. We finally found a nice space right in front of the sound board and got busy waiting for the boys to take the stage. Well this night they seemed to be taking extra long to take the stage and the skies just kept getting more and more threatening. We were begining to wonder if something might be wrong. When all at once, centered behind the stage, a huge Lightning bolt crashed to the ground, the skies burst open, and almost as if on cue, out stepped the boys.


may 91 Las Vegas ???las Vegas - Glenn and Dave (senz1@webtv.net)

Looks like rain > Here comes sunshine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thunder and lightening ,couple of drops of rain and then came sunshine !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing but magic!!! JERRY JERRY JERRY (THREE SHOWS FOR A TOTAL $5)

WHAT IS GOD??????????????? DOES HE HAVE A SILVER BEARD


8-21-93 / 4-1-95 Euege. OR - Memphis, TV - Bob Hamrick (Bob_Hamrick@shscom.com)

Bill Graham once said we're all cousins. He said while you may not want to claim every Deadhead as your brother or sister, we're all one huge family with relatives linking us to all parts of the universe. Autzen Stadium '93, I found myself separated from my Kansas traveling companions and surrounded by 80,000+ cousins. Sitting and sunning on the top row of the stadium, I turned to the guy sitting next to me and realized it was the same person I'd randomly ended up next to on the final leg of the plane trip into Portland. The cousin on the other side was a stranger - one of those great ageless, timeless hippies with Santa Claus white hair and flowing beard.

Fast forward to Memphis, April Fools. Again, I've ditched my known associates and am flowing in the company of cousins. I end up in the back of the Pyramid, watching the lights fill the top of the cone and losing myself in the music and dance. Space comes, and I look around to regain my bearings, and realize I'm standing next to the Santa Claus hippie in the white beard again. We nod, smile, and say nothing. Just one of those dead things, cousin.

For me, this bus trip was and is about the magic that comes from the juxaposition of chance and tradition, and about the joy in realizing how delightfully interchangeable they all are. It's familiarity that's always new and fascinating. It's family.


8/95 Red Rocks Ampitheatre, Colo. & 6/97 downtown Denver - John Sisneros (jtsisneros@aol.com)

It was the show that started with the Star Spangled Banner (on kazoo). One of our party had eaten a dose too many & spent most of the show wanting to get onstage to meld with Jerry. I knew from personal experience what he was feeling & that to act on it would be a bad idea. During Dear Mr. Fantasy the band broke out into the Chorus from Hey Jude. At that instant a guy inb a tie-dyed superhero suit leaped out onto a rock & started dancing like crazy. Security had been keeping the rock clear, but the guard didn't see the dancer for several minutes. When he did, he rushed at him. The dancer ducked & the guard was going to fly way off the rock. The dancer grabbed the guard's leg & they rolled off the rock & into the audience. My friend & I seemed to be the only ones in the audience to see this little drama. 2 years later I was in line to buy tickets, playing Risk with the deadheads next to me in line. One of them described the whole scenario above. He was the psychedelic superhero! (The Anticlone). Later that summer I ran into my friend, who said that watching the whole dancer/guard thing was when he realized that he had returned to reality, but he wasn't sure if the incident had really happened. I assured him it had.--By the way, at the ticketmaster outlet in '97, the machine broke down as tickets went on sale. The people running it assured everyone in line that a batch of tickets would be printed at the main Ticketmaster office & delivered later on. They started to make a list, but stopped at 19 people. The Anticlone & I were #20 & 21 in line & we were bummed. But we stuck around with a few dozen other people. The rest of the 200+ people in line left. At 2pm the Tickemaster people showed up with a boxful of tickets! Everybody who waited got tickets & so did a few people who happened to be wandering by. That was the last set of shows the Dead played at Red Rocks.


?/90 DEER CREEK AMPHITHEATER, NOBLESVILLE, INDIANA - MICHELE (KATTERINE@AOL.COM)

It was my first dead show. My brother coerced me into going with him. I had little idea what to expect but my brother had explained "miracle" to me. My career afforded me the opportunity to bring a miracle ticket to this show and I always liked to be able to help others, so why not? Bill, Noah and I headed to the show. They were tripping, I was high! Shakedown was really mellow and you could hear the chanting, "Roses, carnations, shrooms, carnations, roses, crystal opium." I was in a state of euphoria. The energy of the crowd was enticing. I was looking for just the right person to miracle. I began to feel that my choice was a monumental decision. Then, as I walked next to a brother he said, "I know my ticket is walking by. I'm right here waiting for it." I handed him that ticket and said "Have a good show!" He grabbed me into a bear hug and said, "Love is real, not fade away." I didn't know what that meant but I remembered it. Later, during the second set the band played into Not Fade Away (I think it was Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad into Not Fade Away). The audience really got into Not Fade Away. Realizing that this was my miracle song, so did I. When the show was over I was ready to quit my job, sell my car and go to the London show on my birthday. I ended up waiting until 1995 to quit my job and follow the Dead, but I was at the last show in Chicago on July 9, 1995. The synchronicity of that first miracle made a big impression on me and brought many miracles to my life. Peace and Love! Michele Zierdt




4-4-88 Hartford Civic Center - Jim (jimc@kurzweil.com)

Just one story of many. Barely could navigate myself into the arena this night. It was a "can't believe I ate the whole thing" kind of show....to say the least ! Anyway, I managed to get myself into the Civic Center and find a seat. A good set I began with a rockin' Alabama> Johnny B. Goode. By the time we got to Queen Jane, I had reached the state where the music you are hearing doesn't quite match-up with the actual movements of who is playing. In this case, it was with Bobby. The opening of QJ was just totally detatched from his delivery of said music ;-). I knew I may have overdidit a bit...but BIG FUN anyway. At this point, I needed to wander a little...feeling a bit confined. After quite an eventful walk around the arena, I walked back in toward the arena under a large balcony overhang enterance. There I happily found a small group of people who somehow seemed to be in the same relative state of mind at that time. They were really jammin under that overhang, and the acoustics had "colored" the sound in a really funky way. Anyway...this was "the spot" I needed to be...I started groovin with these kind folks and the funky sound. What seemed like an hour had passed, but really it was just one tune (see set list). The last chorus of WPCTS ended and everybody in this little tribe let out a few yells and big smiles. This is when IT happened. Right after Push ended everybody there sort of "said hello", without actually talking of course. Then, some wild group decision materialized out of thin air, and we all mutterd "Cassidy" at the same time.....5 or 6 people. A looong break between songs ensued...then bam...Cassidy floats from the stage up under the balcony to the stunned faces of our little tribe. I will never forget it. I experienced this several times later at other shows, but the first time seems the most magical. Anticipating song rotations...maybe....picking Jerry/Bob rotations....maybe, but nobody there even mentioned any of that...it just happened. Love it !!





4/4/88 Civic Center, Hartford CT

Alabama Getaway Johnny B. Goode Good Time Blues They Love Each Other Queen Jane Approximately When Push Comes to Shove Cassidy Don't Ease Me In


12/10/89 Great Western Forum - Rowdy Barton (Rbarton142@aol.com)

My friend Taylor and I took advantage of a deal American Express had which entitled round trip ticket for $99. We went to L.A. to see three shows at the Forum. Taylor was from Norfolk and I was from Montgomery. During the flight, we discussed basketball and the greats of the sport. Of course Bill Walton's name came up and we talked about seeing him at the forum.

The third night we were mingling through the usual crowd with a lackadaisical but focused attitude. While standing by the VP entrance, I saw people pointing at us. WE "turned around to see" and bumped into a chest. I am 6'2" and I saw chest. Looking up delivered a large red head which exemplified what one would call a silly smile. All we said was the expected "How's it goin?" and walked. No pictures, autographs or lengthy discussion about the dead.

Afterwards, we discussed what we should have said or done but the show belittled the whole situation. The tape is well worth the effort of finding.

Rowdy Barton


8-18-87 Compton Terrace, Chandler, Arizona - Tom Green (photog03@sprynet.com)

It was ther first Dead concert for my friend Clayton and me. We were on route down the freeway from Phoenix to Compton Terrace and were really fired up about attending. Up ahead, in an adjacent lane, we spy a large, stainless steel tanker truck. As we pull along side, we read the sign declaring the contents the truck was hauling. It was full of NITROUS OXIDE! We burst out laughing, joking to ourselves that he definitely was headed to the concert. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE THE PARTY WAS! Before the concert, I was indifferent towards the Dead, although I liked American Beauty a lot. I was instantly hooked! A Deadhead for life! During the break between sets. A blonde, attractive woman who had apparently imbibed too much and somehow lost all of her clothing fell on top of me! Thusly I named the tape of the concert that I made that day, "Naked Ladies at my Feet!"


04-01-91 Greensboro, NC - Scott Robbins (srobbins@usit.net)

Many months before this show was even announced, one of my best friends, Hal Taylor and his bride picked this as their wedding date. Hal lives in Virginia (then and now) about two hours' drive north of Greensboro, and when we all found out that the Dead were going to be in Greensboro the same night we mailordered tickets for the bride and groom, wedding party, and many assorted guests. Right away, we started calling the whole event "Cassidy's wedding with a Dark Star honeymoon" (Cassidy being Hal's new wife) - we all got very baked right before the ceremony, had the wedding, drank far too much beer, and drove to Greensboro in several cars where the bride and groom hung out in the parking lot in their handmade wedding robes. During the set break we all agreed that it was a "must have" for the Dead to play Dark Star to finish off this wonderful day...and indeed they did to open the second set. Very sublime. Thanks Jerry and gang for providing the soundtrack for mine and many others' lives.


03/-/91 Nassau Coliseum, 2nd night - John J. (el-jay@mail2.theonramp.net)

A tale born of the Dead....

The hotel that first night was far too much fun. Waiters on rollerskates taking your order in the lobby of a class hotel, like some modern carhop ( pipe or paper, sir? ) lends itself to a bit of surrealism I suppose. This is also the night that I was thrown out of the ceiling of the venue by the last notes of Terrapin only to run into myself again at the hotel. But that is another tale. Anyhow, my dog was running around the hotel that night and would return to me periodically with a new string of Mardi-gras beads on her neck to let me know that she was shuttling between myself and a new found friend(s?). Who was it? The next day I found out. As my dog , Sheila, was taking me on a walk around the lot 2 folks stopped me to put beads on my dog. I had found them! As we spoke the topic came up of how I felt Sheila might need a better home. I was looking at some time in the county lock-up and I was unsure how to deal with Sheila. They intoduced themselves as Lisa and David from New Orleans. They told me of how they had fallen in love with Sheila already and of the space and the home they could give Sheila. It was eventyally agreed that they could take Sheila home with them that night. Sheila promptly got lost. She could not be found. I did not go in that night as I had to find her. She had adopted me and I was about to say good-bye. Post-show I could not find Lisa or Dave either. Gone. I could only hope Sheila was OK and I had not yet gotten an address for Lisa or Dave in New Orleans.So asking them if they had her was impossible. The topic of this is supposed to be synchronicity so here goes. Fast forward 2 years. We have decided to go to Mardi-Gras in New Orleans. So we pack up and go. From Oakland to Louisiana without a net. First day in Orleans I met a guy selling tie-dye tapestries on Bourbon street. He offered myself and my 2 friends use of his apt. until Fat Tuesday which was 8-9 days away. Wow! Already we were hooked. How could things get better? As the day wore on John ( that was , or shall I say is, his name ) and I spoke of local music. He mentioned the Radiators and asked if I liked them. I told him, " Yeah. What I've heard. I like to see bands live though before I make real decisions. You know, I gave my Dog to some people from down here a few years back..." I told him the story I told you. When the story got to how her name was Lisa and she had a Rads sticker on her bus John looked at me and said " Black dog, chow type tail?" " YES!" , I replied. Lets just say that later that day Sheila took me for a walk.


SS_SS_SS AFS DOES NOT SUPPORT ANTI-SMOKERS!!!! - AFS RING LEADER (blow@me.com)

Americans For Smoking Despite my own personal desire to quit smoking I am very disturbed by the current trend of enforcing smoking restrictions in the USA. I recently came across the Americans For Smoking (AFS) group. If you are an active anti-smoker (or an ex smoker - they tend to be the worst) who is pro-actively seeking to restrict an individual's right to free choice then you may find their site interesting. The site itself promotes activity which, although I do not agree with it, is reflective of a frustrated populous. There is anger there and that anger seems justified by the continued attempts by the American government to restrict a basic right to choose.

I find it remarkable that a country which is so vocal about the merits of its constitution and in particular freedom of speech should be so facist when legislating for issues which are so blatantly an infringement of freedom. But as I have always maintained the American constitution upholds a freedom to speak, not a freedom to act. There is such a fundamental difference.

As somebody who is in the process of quiting smoking I know that some of my associates in the quiting circle will frown upon my views on this. AFS are championing a basic right to choice. Their methods may not be to my liking but their cause is admirable. They are standing firm against a wave of public opinion to defend their right to choose. That is more than their Senate and all of their politicians are doing. These are the same politicians who have ignored the issue for a century.


03-31-86 Providence Civic Center - Andrew Wiklund (awiklund@fcptech.com)

I'm from the Boston area, and didn't have friends going down for these shows in Providence, didn't have tickets, the shows were during the school week, but I couldn't miss the Dead when they were so close, no matter what! My mother who I was still living with at this time did not approve of me missing classes to go down to Providence by myself with no ticket, and no where to stay, but when did such things ever keep you from getting to a show?

I hopped a bus down to providence with just enough money to try to find a miracle ticket for each of the shows. Not smart, but the scene always provided, and I expected to find friends at the shows. You'll notice I'm not saying I wasn't saving enough to get a bus home either. Well first came the miracle dose, then the miracle tickets!! I found tickets for both nights at once from a friend I only ever saw at the shows! After that I don't think I ever saw him again? Guy, I've really owed you a favor for a while, interest is compounding! I was new in college at the time, and shortly before the show I ran into a familiar hippie face from my school. We hung out for a while before the show, I don't think he got in. He was really there to peddle his good, he's a glass blower and was selling nice glass flower shaped pipes! We ended up being the best of friends for a long time, only recently have we lost touch. If any one knows a Jason Grodsky, and know where he's at E-mail me. He's very crunchy, and cool!! We hung out until I went into the show, alone again.

Once inside I started to get comfortable and ran into a long time friend from my home town who was there just for the night, he said he'd give me a ride home that night, but I already had a ticket for the second night!! There was no way I was headed home. I was there for the duration. So things were going pretty well, I'd been finding friends, Had tickets, dosed, and I was in from the rain. Did I forget to say that, it was raining and cold. (that's probably why I was able to get the tickets so easily) So I took off some of my wet things, coat, boots, shirt etc. I was hangin' loose!

When the lights went down I grabbed my things, and rushed into the arena and quickly found a great seat next to nice people. They had no problem with me occupying the seat, it was a single seat right on the isle, the kind of seat nobody would be coming for, and plenty of dancing room. The band came out, and the crowd went wild, as usual. First song, Mississippi Half Step, cool, definitely a favorite. Then it came, "lost my boots in transit...", I looked down and low and behold I'd lost my boots in transit!!! I freaked to say the least, I scrambled around the seats, they were no where to be found. So I grabbed my things and proceeded to trace my steps. To make a long story a little shorter I found my friend Jason after circling the inside circle one and a half times, and told him my story. (he had traded a pipe for a ticket at the last minute and got in) As I stood there talking to him my eyes focused on a pile of cloths along the side of the hallway, could it be, YES,YES MY BOOTS!!! I really couldn't believe it. They were just finishing Roadrunner when I found them. Weird huh? I had vision of walking home from Providence bare foot going through my head.

The next day went pretty well, I spent the night in the swanky Biltmore, having been invited up to a party. It turned out at least a few of the band members were in the next room over, and knew the dude that was throwing the party. I found this out at something like 2:00am when all of a sudden Bobby came into the room, and started talking to the guy who's room it was. I just sat back and stayed quiet, I was trashed anyways! After Bobby left I stood up and asked the guy, "was that...", the answer was yes, just don't bother him, he's in the next room! Well the devil made me do it. I waited a few minutes, glugged some SoCo, and left the room. When I knocked on the door guess who answered it? Right Bobby!! I had not prepared a speech, and was quite trashed, he just said "YES? what can I do for you?" I really was speechless, I just said it was a real honor, and he reached out his hand and shook mine. He said sorry I'm too busy for this right now, and closed the door. When I went back to the party, it was obvious what I had done, probably from the look stuck on my face. I was promptly asked to leave the party, and not come back. I was sorry, but but but I couldn't help myself. I had the opportunity though to say anything to him I wanted, and my punishment was that I merely made a fool of myself, but what a way to go!? Those two days continued to be an interesting set of circumstances, but your probably already saying ,"yeh right" It all happened, it was one of the coolest couple of days I've experienced, with lots of synchronisity. I ended up hitching ride home, with no problem after the second show.


'88 Worcester Mass - Jim Boden (jboden@eandi.org)

I can't remember the exact date if the show, but I know it Worcester Mass. I was hangin' out with friends doing the typical pre-show activities. I went to go to my car to change into some shorts. I turned around a corner of a building when I accidently crashed into someone who fell on the ground. I offered assistance to him and when he turned to me I discovered that it was a close friend of mine from when we were kids!!!! we hadnt seen each other in over ten years! Needless to say it made our day and we spent the shows together. Also ththat night, the Good 'Ol Boys played my first Morning Dew. I'll never forget that day in Worcester Mass!!


4/19/82 Baltimore Civic Center - Garrie Losee (loseeg@pcia.com)

We were standing on the floor, near the stage during the blisteringly weird RAVEN space... Tad, Rick, and I decided to climb up to the highest seat in the place. Fresh air...altitude...We must ASCEND!!! To the back, up the ramps, up to the second tier of seats, we found that there was a ledge about 3 feet above the back of the last chair. (Row ZZ Top?) So, of course, we climbed up, kicked our legs over, and found ourselves standing on a barren storage ledge that went all the way around the entire arena....about 25-50 ft wide, with a three foot little wall at the edge. We danced and skipped like let-loose dervishes from one side of the arena to other while the throbbing good vibes of the show blossomed out beneath us. All of a sudden the music stopped, and we realized the set was over. We walked over to the ledge, sat down, dangling our six legs over the ledge....and waited for the encore. The place we were sitting had about a 30 foot drop under us here, and I felt just a little bit nervous. The band started playing "Brokedown," and during the song I (saw/imagined?) Bob Weir point at us from the stage and tell us to "be careful up there" in a conversational voice. I remember figuring, "yeah...good idea," looked, and made sure we were OK. In the excitement of getting out of the show, the parking lot, yadeeyadeeyadee...I forgot completely about Bob's warning. It wasn't until several weeks later, when I got a tape of the show, that I realized it really had happened...it was there on the tape! Thanks, Bob, for subliminally watching out for us!


??-??-?? Loews Theater in Worcester, MA - Jack Rodeawald (Jrodeawald@mcgettigan.com)

Sorry, but I'm a bit foggy on the exact dates of the shows involved. Both were the Jerry Garcia Band circa 1982. Loews Theater in Worcester,MA. There were two shows that evening. I had two tickets for the early show, but, not one for the second. None to be had on the street either.

I was pretty much broke an empty handed (no trades of any sort possible). Anyway, I gave up trying to sell my extra early show tix and went on in. I wasn't crazy about my seating and decided to move. I found a beautiful spot on a second level balcony just overlooking the stage. I happened to sit next to a kind fellow who had a few party favors of his own. He was alone and was more than happy to share stories, thoughts and his favors. He was not attempting the late show because he had to work an evening shift. After the show I'm back on the street with my now useless extra early show tix and no late show tix. My friends of course all had theirs. Well as it closer to showtime I did something I hadn't done before. I went up to the usher and presented my early show tix. He looked at me, smiled, tore it in half an allowed me to pass. I ended up in the fourth row hearing my first The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - Beautiful evening.

A week or so later I was in Hartford, CT for a Garcia Band show at a place I think was called Bushnell or Bucknell Theater. This time one show only. I had a great floor seat tix in hand. When I got to my seat who do I find sitting in exactly my seat but the dude who supplied me with company and favors in Worcester. I'm not even sure he remembered me, but, I let him keep the great floor seat and moved back a bit smiling the whole night.


07/08/90 Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, PA - Steve Devereaux (sdeverea@yasudaamerica.com)

I was going to school at Univ. of Pittsburgh, but living at home in central PA during the summer. I had gotten a job that summer, and met a girl, a fellow head, and we started to hang out. It turns out that she lived about an hour away from my house, and also went to a school about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. We had made plans to meet up after the show at a pre-determined location, but knowing the altered state of mind I was in as I prepared to enter, I knew that might be a problem. So I go on into the show, and I am standing there talking to some other friends when, out of 65,00+ heads, who accidentally bumps into me? You guessed it. She and I spent the day dancing in the beautiful sunshine, enjoying a great second set(Samson> Eyes>Estimated>Terrapin). Unfortunately, after the show she couldn't find her friends to get her ride home ( I was heartbroken, really), so she stayed with me and my friends at Pitt, and I gave her a ride home the next day. We hit a couple of more shows that summer, stayed in touch during school, one thing led to another and we got married in May, 1995. In another bit of coincidence, our Grateful Dead experience ended June 30, 1995--at Three Rivers Stadium. Synchronicity? You know it. As they say, "The wheel is turnin and you can't slow down, you can't let go and you can't hold on...." We certainly held on, came round full circle, and have been enjoying the ride ever since......Peace


09-24-91 Boston Garden - Kath (kathr@nh.ultranet.com)

Ok - another "calling the songs" story.....

It was my first show, and also the day before my birthday! And thanks to live tapes I was already a deadhead. I knew what I liked, but didn't know what they had been playing in concert that tour, so I really didn't know what to expect.

Before the show, the guy I went with asked me what I really wanted to hear the band play that night. I said that I would absolutely LOVE to hear "Dark Star", but didn't have my hopes up for it, and that I also wanted to hear "New Speedway Boogie" (my favorite at that time), "Althea", "China-Rider" "The Other One", and wanted to sing along to "I Need a Miracle". But I admitted that I'd be happy with whatever they played, as long as they played it well.

As we settled into the show...about three songs in, they played "Althea". I was happy. Imagine my excitement when at the end of the first set, just as they seemed to want to leave the stage, Jerry starts "New Speedway"! Totally unexpected - and I was grinnin' from ear to ear! --- Then they start the 2nd set with "China-Rider"! (ok, so thats fairly common...it was still exciting for me!)

As if I wasn't already in heaven at that point, midway through the 2nd set...no, it can't be...yes, maybe? YES!!! We were treated to a wonderful 1st verse and jam of "Dark Star"!!!! - this sent me off into a wonderful hallucination that was completely intertwined with the music (I still swear Jerry and Phil created a thunderstorm in the Garden, and I saw lightning coming from Mickey's sticks during drums, and then it rained flowers during "Space"..Ahh..) And to top it off, Bob then ran us through a merry sing-a-long of "Miracle"!

I couldn't believe it!!! (4 out of 5 -- I still can't believe it!) I've tried calling the songs again, but have never had the same results. (Although a couple years later before the 2nd set at Madison Square Garden I was raving to someone about a great "Shakedown Street" they'd played in Boston the week before -- and was plesantly surprised when they opened the 2nd set with it!)

One last little syncronicity -- My last show was that show at MSG in '94 -- I had taken a friend - it was her first show. She wasn't a deadhead, but was a MAJOR Beatles fan. I told her that the Dead did a few Beatles covers, and hoped that they would play one for her. The very last song they played that night was "I Want To Tell You" - a Beatles song.


7/7/86 RFK Stadium, Washington DC - Iver McLeod (ijmcleod@hotmail.com)

A couple weeks before this show my buddy and I went to see a NY Mets game at Shea Stadium in New York. We got out of the car in this parking lot under some highway and were approached by a very nice Hare Krishna woman who was selling I forget what. So fast forward to 7/7/86. This same buddy and I drive about 8 hours down to DC, pull into an inviting lot, get out of the car - and there she is right next to our car! The same Hare Krishna woman! Too weird...


06/27/95 palace of auburn hills - matt blain (raggs2@hotmail.com)

So here we go.... load the van in windsor ontario with drums ready to go .cross the boarder and off to the show, only five hours early. partied are asses off in the parking lot. what a trip,people dancing and drumming everywhere.so as the beer was almost gone and the sun surly roasted us allday we were ready for the show. walk in the doors and what a trip, a girl on the floor and she's starting to trip, these ones are dancing those ones are drunk, we counting the people who would all go kerplunk!. so we findly make it up to are seat,and the dead were a playing, ahhh what a treat!!!


06/27/95 palace of auburn hills - matt blain (raggs2@hotmail.com)

So here we go.... load the van in windsor ontario with drums ready to go .cross the boarder and off to the show, only five hours early. partied are asses off in the parking lot. what a trip,people dancing and drumming everywhere.so as the beer was almost gone and the sun surly roasted us allday we were ready for the show. walk in the doors and what a trip, a girl on the floor and she's starting to trip, these ones are dancing those ones are drunk, we counting the people who would all go kerplunk!. so we findly make it up to are seat,and the dead were a playing, ahhh what a treat!!!


06-14-87 Ventura County Fairgrounds - greg (ventura87@aol.com)

On that day Just as Bobby finished his unsettling Hell In A Bucket,Jerry came in with the notes of a angel playing that all to familiar riff to Sugaree.At that moment a woman began dancing in front of me,Whom I've been trying to find ever since.I could write a beautiful story tellilng this tale but I don't want to.But I do want help from anybody who could possibly put me in touch with her.

I am offering a $5,000.00 dollar reward for anybody who puts me in touch with her.

I don't know her name all I can do is try to describe her.She is tall and very beautiful with long red hair.She has a grace about her that stands out even in the multitude of beautiful souls at a show.She danced very uniquely almost like a trained ballerina using her hands in a most graceful way.I am almost certain she was also at the Tempe,AZ> shows Dec.5&6 1992.IF you think you know this woman and can help me find her please contact me at my E-Mail adress Ventura87@aol.com Thanks,


7-29-94 Buckeye Lake - Laurie (Malmute@aol.com)

We met at Nassau Coliseum in the Spring of '93, and in the Fall of '94 we were moving in together to the house we had just bought. The first thing we wanted to do when we moved in was to get a dog - neither of us had been able to have one where we lived previously. We talked for weeks about what kind of dog to get, and what to name it. We agreed on Quinn for a name if it was male, after 'The Mighty Quinn' - one of my favorite Dylan covers by the Dead. About a week before we moved, a friend told us about a litter of free puppies - 12 in all, a mix of Husky/Malamute/Wolf/Chow- How's that breed of mutt for an Eskimo puppy?? We went to see the litter, picked out the cutest little guy who ran right to us when we called 'Quinn", and brought him home that day (Good thing he was a he, or I wouldn't be telling this story - he'd be Bertha!) As we were leaving his home, we asked when he was born, so we would know when his birthday was - the owner wasn't sure of the date but knew it was "9 weeks ago Friday" or something to that effect. It wasn't till late that day that we sat down with a calendar and figured out it was July 29. We knew the date sounded familiar ( and it's 2 days before my b-day which is the day before Jerry's) and figured out that we had been seeing Jerry and the Boys in Ohio at Buckeye that day!! Well, wouldn't you know, one of the highlights of that show for me had been the Mighty Quinn that they played for the first time in 2 years(151 shows, to be exact)!!!!!!!!!!! If that wasn't a bit of Karma to let us know we had picked the right puppy, I don't know what is!!! Sadly, the last song one of us ever heard Jerry sing was also "Quinn" at Deer Creek '95. WHEN QUINN THE ESKIMO GETS HERE, EVERYBODY'S GONNA WANNA DO..


04271998 dreaming reality verified at Princeton University - delaurence (delaurence@reporters.net)

For the letter see: http://www.webspawner.com/users/SYNCHRONICITY/


07-27-95 Riverport Amphitheatre, St. Louis, MO - Jeer (jeeryi@wgi.com)

My first show. Sitting on the lawn before the show started. Tripping. It started to rain so there wasnt much to do but hide under a wet blanket. Finally the rain stops and not one but two awesome rainbows appear in the sky. One in back of us and the other one ending right behind the stage. As soon as the rainbows appeared people began screaming with excitement. Two minutes later the boys took the stage opening with "Here Comes Sunshine". Truely magical!


06-15-93 On the road to Louisville - Steve Frame (sframe@ucla.edu)

The previous evening, June 13, 1993, John Davis and I left San Diego for our first tour east of the Mississippi. We drove the whole night through and we exhausted by the next morning. We crashed at an New Mexico rest area the next morning for some much needed sleep. At that point, we considered why we had waited so long to leave. We had about 24 hours to reach Louisville, still over a 1000 miles away, in time for the 6-15 show. We were already physically exhausted. Despite our fears we fired up the van and took off.

Later that morning we were rolling through New Mexico and searching for some inspiration. We popped in a crisp soundboard of 10-20-74, set 2, to pass the time. Before we even realized it, one of the strangest coincidences ever rocked the van. Just before Albuquerque we crossed a bridge into town. At the very instant we passed over the river, Jerry started singing the "Accross the Rio Grandio" part of Half-Step, the encore to 10-20-74. It took a second for John and I to realize what had just happened. WE HAD JUST PASSED OVER THE RIO GRANDE RIVER! Previous to that moment, neither of use even knew the Rio Grande ran through New Mexico. At that moment we both realized we were going to make it to Louisville. We agreed such impossible moments of synchronicity had to be more than coincidence.

Needless to say, we were both energized after that event. We made it to Louisville an hour before showtime and, as an added bonus, only paid $2.00 for parking. Quite a rush!

Steve Frame


july 84 greeks - David Reynolds (lareyn @efn.org)

We made the long drive down from Oregon in my dad's 78 Honda, which developed a strange problem, our top speed became 45 mph. The excruciating frustration was emlematic for the trip. We showed up at the greeks sans boletos, and wandered up behind the theater to sit on the hill, along with maybe twenty like minded souls. UC Berzerkly security people asked everyone to leave the area, an idea which was politely declined by all of us, though I decided to lay a little bit lower by moving up into the bushes just out of sight. All through the first set there were increasingly firm requests to vamoose, until one guard said, "Listen, you guys, the band knows you're up here and they're going to stop playing if you dont leave." (general laughter resulted) One dancer who was sort of the "front man" replied, "if the band knew we were up here, they would play Darkstar..." After exchanging civil consternations for awhile, everyone agreed to scram, except me. I was hidden in the bushes and by now the sun had set over the bay. After the second set, Bill Graham announced to the crowd something special was in the works but it would take a few minutes to get together. Outside the greeks, big speakers were set up to give the OUTSIDE CROWD a nice sound set up, and when preparations were complete, after a hiatus of something like six years, the strange chords of, you guessed it, darkstar, began to bounce around, reflected off mearby campus buildings and bent through the hills.


9/18/93 Madison Square Garden - Ryan Garrett Williams (RyanWillms@aol.com)

Pete Wyndorff and I were living up on 96th and Broadway, so when the Grateful Dead made their way to New York city for 5 nights so did most of our friends in the tri-state area. I was at school the entire day anxious and wired, and when I finally did arrive home so were the rest of my friends ready to ride the energy. There was one last toast, or two, to the adventure we were about to embark on and then we were off to experience the long strange trip only the Grateful Dead could supply. Hop on the subway, cruise down to the Garden and explore. It is always amazing to see the kaleidiscopic enviornment and culture that surrounds the Grateful Dead make its' way into the concrete jungle known as New York City. Here it was right in front of us, a vision in and of itself, I could see the headlines: Counterculture meets Suits, tremendous transformation in the making. I always had a good laugh and smile as the suit hurriedly made his way past the venue, oblivious to the beauty that surrounded, oblivious to the mind-altering, life changing experience that everyone who sees a Grateful Dead concert witnesses. Here we were with time to spare, Ryan Dexter one of Pete's friends is without ticket, so we all split up and go searching for the person to let him in to this party. Over a half hour passes and finally Ryan is blessed with his paper stub to paradise. It's almost about time to get this party going, here we are all packed together like cattle in the warm flourescent corridor, when the howling begins. One constant soulful howl for the suits working hard at home, which peaked my senses and caused my friends and I to burst out into intermingled laughter and howl. It ended only when the ushers began to do just that: usher. Pete and I were blessed with the opportunity to see the Grateful Dead via Sky Box, thanks to the connections of my dear father. So we all split up each to his own group by seating arrangement, picked a place to meet after the show, smiled and off we went to our worlds. Here we are, Pete and I, about 5 boxes from the stage looking down on the crowd, OUR crowd, who would sing and dance for our amusement as if we were Kings on high. The box was amazing, full bar, catered food display, 2 small refridgerators full to the brim with Heineken, it was indeed Paradisio. It was the first time I realized the capacity, and the energy of this gathering, it is one thing to experience the Grateful Dead from the floor, it is another thing to experience the Grateful Dead from the ceiling. It truly was indeed a party for 30,000 people...the lights dim, the cry of the crowd erupts and Pete and I sink back into our seats with eyes of wonder, smiles like no other has ever seen, and an electricity in the air. What can I say about the Grateful Dead at Madison Square Garden. It can't really be explained through word, the closest that I can come to any sort of description is that there is this universal bond between band and audience. A constant feeding off each other's energy, but even that doesn't come close to what one experiences in that venue. It is a combination of the surroundings, the sound system, the close-knit enviornment, and the moment itself that makes it so grand and dynamic. To put it simply they JAMMED, and they SANG, and we were HAPPY. All of a sudden it's intermission, and Pete and I go downstairs to check out the scene, and see if we can find anyone we arrived with. We walk into the tunnel that leads out into the auditorium and make our way past a few familiar unfamiliar faces, everyone connecting eyes saying in their minds, 'Don't I know you,' with a smile and then they're gone. Within a minute Pete and I come face to face with Ryan Dexter, and there is much rejoicing. He goes on to tell us this story:

The ticket he bought was fake and when offered to the usher they quickly dismissed him. With no ticket in hand, everyone with valid ticket already inside, the anxiety and the energy accumulating there is a mad dash of about 50 people past the ushers, security guards chasing and grabbing any one of the individuals they can get a hand on. Ryan escapes flying, pushing, weaving his way through the crowd and into the hub of motion towards seats. Any seat he could find he would take and when someone came, he would leave and find another. This continued throughout the entire first set, then he meets up with us. What are the chances, amidst 30,000 people to meet eye to eye with your friend, especially after an ordeal like the one experienced, along with the accompanied instinct to hide and blend in? 30,000 to 1, and we won.

So Pete and I come up with a plan to sneak him up to the Sky Box. We both make our way up to the box while Ryan waits inconspicuously around the lobby doors to take the escalator up to the Sky Box. When we arrive upstairs inside the box I give my ticket to Pete who goes back downstairs to retrieve Ryan. Within 10 minutes, just as the lights dim, Ryan and Pete arrive, and we all look at each other without saying a word, knowing exactly what each of the other person is thinking and laugh and laugh and laugh. Ryan takes one look at the stocked bar, the catered food display, opens the fridge full to the brim with Heineken, and breaks down into laughter. If you could have seen the look on his face, splendor, excitement, in one word GRATEFUL. I turn and say to him, "Ryan have anything you want. Tonight we are Kings." And with that the second set begins, and seems to never end the rest of the night...


02-25-95 Oakland Coliseum Arena-Mardi Gras - Mark Grissom (spinyn@aol.com)

At the last Mardi Gras show (which, for me, was always the most fun show of the year...didn't miss a one!), I was standing in line to get in. I turned to the hippie behind me, who was saying he was down from Oregon, and asked if he happened to know where I could purchase some mushrooms. He kindly replied than no, he didn't. About 10 minutes later, he taps me on my shoulder and pulls out a film cannister. He said, "I forgot all about this...but here!" and proceeded to dump a huge handful of them into my hand! Made for a very interesting evening...


06-??-87 Alpine Valley, East Troy WI - Wardo (Wardo10@home.com)

If you've ever had one of those days where strange coincidences just seem to occur in abnormally high incidence, you might be able to relate to this. I was at my third Dead Show, the first without a "baby-sitter" (my sister used to take me when I was 16 & 17 because I wondered what her fascination was with the Dead). I was sort of the guide for my friend’s first show and told them to expect nothing. We had some nice Indica and "Grenades" (Old Style bottles from the LaCrosse WI brewery -> an important fact not to be overlooked). I knew a back road into the Valley since I used to ski there, so as we bypassed all traffic and found parking, we were greeted by a Head sitting on a road barricade boldly stating "DOSES/TRIPS, DOSES/TRIPS" (in sync with the orange flashing light). My friends thinking they could offer this guy a clue, pointed out the local law enforcement officials and said that if nothing else, he might try being a little quieter. He wouldn’t have any of it as he informed them that "US Freaks stay on this side of the line (motioning to the Alpine Valley welcome gate), the COP freaks stay on that side of the line." My friends still weren’t comfy getting our hits from this guy so we moved on and settled in the East lot. My first order of business was to find some hits and T-shirts. My friends gave me their money and said I’d be lucky if I made it in to the show. I stepped out the van, took two steps and talked to the first brother I saw (actually remembered him from the year before). He had the sweetest dyes there, and as I went to pay him, he saw my Indica. He said that he hadn’t been getting good buds yet and was really jonesin’ so I traded him my share of the Indica for the shirts (‘bout .25 oz). He was so grateful, he threw in 20 hits of Snoopy Acid (the rumored Hog Farm icon at that show). I counted out what the Indica cost me and gave the rest of the money back to my friends and we headed for the main lot. As none of these guys had ever taken more than a quarter hit before, they started to get wide eyed on the way in, all the dyes, the drum circles, the vendors, it kind of overwhelmed them. One of the less faithful said he was feeling pretty zonked and wanted to head back and sit out the show. Knowing that this was not in his best interest, I blindly stated that I was in control and could prove it. I started detailing the next 5 minutes of some random guy’s life from out in the crowd. I was very specific, and I don’t know why I was telling my friend this, but the guy did everything I said. By now the tone was set and everyone was ready for the show. As we got into the show and found a spot to sit and dance, I was starting to feel restless. The band was doing a sound check and I wanted to smoke some bud, my friends all left theirs in the van for fear of getting checked on the way in. I checked with some Heads around me, but the resounding sentiment was "If you don’t have that taken care of by now, your not going to get it taken care of." I went back to my friends, told them the bad news, and said we should just enjoy our trip and not worry about it. Just then, three helicopters pulled out from behind the pavilion and drowned out the sound check (about the only thing I was focused on now). As the copters passed overhead, I felt something light hit my thighs, I looked down, and like manna from the heavens, or Jehovah’s own dandruff, saw four of the Phattest Spliffs you’ve ever seen. I looked around next to me, there were even more scattered around the ground, I gathered these up, and it was the tastiest bud I had smoked to that date. One of my friends, beside himself, started screaming that the helicopters were dropping joints, the next thing you saw was a mass of DeadHeads scouring the ground. Already having my joints, I was the only one standing in a twenty foot radius, in the center. A Head from the crowd not crawling on the ground asked me what was going on, I told him "I lost a contact" so he joined in the mayhem. He then came over just as the band was starting to play and said I shouldn’t have tricked him, I said he was right and passed him a spliff. We just started toking some of the ones I found and passed them back into the crowd, and for the rest of the show, they just kept flowing our way. It is still the best show I’ve been to, and if anyone has the tapes from it (it was the first show at the Valley in 87), I want to talk with you, email me.


??-??-87 Autzen Stadium, Eugene, Or. - Robert Bradshaw (bluriley@internetoutlet.net)

It was my second show as a clean and sober deadhead. A group of us had road-tripped from Boise. We brought two folks that were there for their first show. One of these, Jack, was obviously enjoying the music, but he just didn't hook into the magic. He could sense it around him, and it was starting to bug him. I could see his mind begin to focus on the irritation he was feeling, the sense of being left out of something special. Jerry was soloing, I don't recall what song. At just the rightr momnent a beautiful young woman came dancing through the gap between us. He scowled at being jostled. I drew his attention to a sticker stuck between her shoulder blades which read "We are Everywhere". Who can know exactly why that was the magic button? I watched his face transform, a big grin replacing the scowl, a complete change of aura, that commandeered his entire body language. He was on the bus.


12-31-86 Henry J. Kaiser - Greg Holtz (gholtz@microage.com)

We jetted off to California for the big pre-Christmas Jerry comeback shows at the Coliseum, and the New Years nights at the Kaiser. We had tickets to all of the comeback shows, but none for the New Years sets. Nights 1 and 2 of the New Years run were remarkably easy tickets for the 3 of us to score. My sister even got freebies for both of the first two nights. We had decided that if all of us did not get tickets, we would not go to the show, and with 2 down, we were batting a thousand. On 12/30, things got tighter. I scored a single ticket, and then another one. I looked in my wallett for the first one, and it was gone! I knew then that this night was going to be a wash. We found an eager brother willing to part with 4 pages of San Francisco's finest in trade for our one remaining seat, so we missed the show, but paid for the entire trip after we got home! On 12/31/86, we were back at the Kaiser with no tickets. I had been on the phone all day with Mouse's son, who my Mom hooked us up with, and tried to get on a comp list, but to no avail. So there we were at the venue. David Crosby had played a solo set, and the Neville Brothers had played as well. There were speakers set up in the park across the street, so we were groovin, but we were nervous. I was watching the folks go to the will call window. Security had the place roped off pretty tight, and you were not permitted very close to the building at all if you did not have a ticket. I met a sister who was making her way up to the will call window, so I joined her for the trip. She said that David Gans had put her on a list, and that she had 2 tickets coming, and that I could have 1 of them if she was successful. She went to the window, said her name, and the person behind the glass looked on a couple of lists, checked a pile of envelopes, and said, sorry, her name was not there. My new friend told the woman that David Gans was supposed to put her name on the list. The kind ticket lady then asked her how many tickets. She said two, and presto, two tickets appeared out of the glass window. The kind sister gave me one, I wished her a happy new year, and she went into the show, and I returned to my group 1 ticket closer. I explained the way the deal went down to my girlfriend, so she went up to the will call window with a mind to repeat the scenario as close as she could. She got up to the window, gave her name, and the ticket lady said sorry, not on the lists she had. My girlfriend said that David Gans was supposed to have put her on the list, so the lady asked my girlfriend how many tickets. SHe said 2 please! BING, 2 more tickets appeared. We whooped it up, and made it into the show about 10:00pm, and the Dead came on for set 1 about 10 min later. 3 free New Years Tix, for 3 kids from the Midwest. We came for seven shows, and paid for our trip by sacrificing one. Sure miss those days. Hey David, I have never had the opportunity to thank you for the opportunity to exploit your connection on this particular trip. Thanks, man.

Peace

Greg


6-6-93 Giants Stadium -- East Rutherford, NJ - J Luken (luken@alaska.net)

I didn't know it at the time but it would be my last show. It was cloudy and rainy all day. Still cloudy and drizzly during Sting's opening set (I seem to remember him playing "Synchronicity II"). The Dead came out and blew me away by opening with "Here Comes Sunshine" (I had not heard they were playing it again). Midway through the song, a small clearing in the clouds opened and sun filled the stadium. The rain held off for the rest of the show.


07-07-89 JFK stadium, Philidelphia - robert (rrivello@hotmail.com)

I had taken quite a large amount of psychedelics...and was enjoying myself. I was walking around the parking lot, it was the last "tent city" tour and they had such a feel of brotherhood. I started to have MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES of reading peoples minds, telepathy, full auric vision and out of body experiences. ...This was the first time I had experienced these things and also the first time with Hallucinogens and Live Grateful Dead...I thought everyone had these experiences on acid and was trying to share these moments with my friends but they didn't understand....I was walking and Saw the Light in peoples eyes and was just overtaken with gratitude towards humanity, I was in full appreciation of the people in the lot ..Out of the corner of my eye I saw the two most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life...they were walking hand in hand together and I saw Aura's for the first time and never as clear and distict ever again. They were Connected on many levels and there feilds were full of soft pastels and bright light, there goodness and kindness shown true. My vision was expanding to 10-15 ft around these two girls and I was in Awe, no other people looked like them, in the whole parking lot. I wanted to run up and tell them.....but I didn't. ....inside the show I was looking at another girl and I felt a connection, her energy was so intriguing to me. I was watching her from about 100 feet. I could NOT hear what she was talking about. I felt a huge surge of energy encompass us both in a coocoon...I began to experience full on telepathy with this girl....I could experience what exactly she was saying and thinking! She was looking right at me and knew what was going on...I guess she could experience as well...We just laughed, smiled and walked away.


1984-95 EARTH AND BEYOND - KIP (ROSSNKIP@BWAY.NET)

Easter sunday, north carolina: a double rainbow over the stadium

NC, outdoor show: finger lighting in time with the band stayed directly over the show for the entire second set.

Boston garden "90": over 300 cousins busted on the lot in three days(can we say operation "dead end"),100 kids let out the next day due to wire transfer of unknown origin, bail (everyone got out for $150.00 bucks no matter what ya went down with) everyone was amazed and went back to the show.

Oxford Plains, Maine: rainbow over show just before B. Graham opened the gates and let everyone in for free.

Ben & Jerrys, haight ashbury: J. Garcia gettind ice cream for a bday party.

Albany's troy-dennys, 3am: breakfast with Brent. I was so high and friends dared me to join him and some chick. I did.

1990 Canada: getting drunk in the hotel w/ Brent & Phil.

So many more, so little time to write them all.

Peace & love



1985ish Saratoga Springs - jdutton (jcswens@concentric.net)

The day Helicopter Girl turned into a cow. "We'll never get through," I say. Why make gates, man, why do it. I understand the line to get in man, but I just don't understand the line to get out. I could use some sleep. Karee my friend shrugs, her sore neck saying I'm tolerating you in a just barely kind of way, the mood swings, happy in cync now, gone later, just beat. The line stretches from inside, out along the lime deposits from the spring, over this big long bridge to the parkinglot. I didn't follow the troop that headed out over the golf course, climbing fences, eventually pulling one of them down. Later, I hear they had a hell of a time tripping through the moonlight, disappearing among the great big spruce. Our daddys or someone's daddys will come out the next day to play a couple of links and wonder how the heck everything got so messed up. Now I'm in line. I'll graduate from that same stage next spring. Jerry's stage, so this is my show, in my back yard, and I don't want some hitler authoritarian idea of orderly exits and entrances ruining it. I'm a selfish hippy, that's what I am, thinking about getting in front, leading instead of following the herd. "Moo," Karee says. "Clever," I say. We move about five more inches shoulder to shoulder with the rest crowd. They're mooing to, we're all mooing, tromping over a bridge with a load capacity of about fifty pounds less than we all weigh. But we don't die, man. One of Jerry's miracles. We live to talk about it later, just like I'm talking about it. Then helicopter girl (that's me) has the awesome idea of hopping over the bridge into the water below, but everyone nixes it and tells her she'll feel better later when she comes down a little more. I always get depressed when the show is over. Ten years--thinking about it, I'm depressed. It was a good show, really. It was a great show.


3/89 Greensboro, NC - Joe Felice (frelice@msn.com)

The Dead played two nights in Greensboro during the Spring of '89, and while the shows themselves were not especially remarkable, what happened to my group of friends & me while we were there was cumulatively synchronous.

We stayed at my friend John's cousin's fraternity house at UNC, a bizarre enough scene to begin with. The guys there all turned out to be pretty cool... in fact one guy, we discovered just a bit too late, was working at the same hotel where the Dead were staying. Anyway, staying with a house full of partiers ensured that we arrived at the Coliseum toasted extra crispy. We were all babbling on about the Atlanta shows: Jer was bopping all over the stage during Scarlet>Fire the first night and the 2nd night's first set included a Franklin's>Stranger instead of the other way around... it would be neat to have tapes of those shows. A friend named "Pinsky" claimed he knew "someone" who was "probably taping" these previous shows, and chances were "good" he would "show up". "Ha ha ha" we replied, but before we knew it Pinsky's taper buddy came strolling up out of nowhere. He spun us tapes in his trunk and we in turn gave him lavish praise for hooking us up.

Another friend, a raving Bob-head named Bill, claimed in three years of shows he had yet to see a Sugar Magnolia. He further claimed that he had been given the perfect "mojo" by his brother-in-law; a pair of red, white & blue boots that, legend has it, had walked across Yasgur's farm 20 years ago. They fit him perfectly and he claimed they would ensure he would see Sugar Mags that night. We playfully reminded him that the Dead were quite awful at Woodstock, and we told him that if they played an awful show that night, we would know who's ass to kick and which boots to use!! Of course, there were hardly any of what I would call "awful" shows between 88-92, and that night was no exception. Standard, but well-played, and we had general admission floor tickets (remember those?) so we were right in front. During the very delicate jam in Stella Blue, Bill & I could not contain ourselves... Jer hit a high note and we hooted loudly. It was loud enough to break Jerry's concentration for a second, and he shot Bill a dirty look. Bill started backing up into me, obviously frightened that Jerry was giving him the evil eye and all bets were off on the Sugar Mag. I whispered to him "man, he's pissed!! tell him we're sorry!" (I should note here that we were both dosed so this was actually quite a dire situation at the time.) I gently started pushing Bill toward the barrier in the front of the stage. I swear I remember that he was actually biting his fingernails while I pushed him toward Jerry. Bill was turning pale!! He feebly mouthed "I'm sorry" at Mr. Garcia right as the last notes of Stella Blue were rippling through the arena. Jerry looked at him and laughed, and then pointed the head of his guitar at us and signaled the end of the song with his usual up & down motion. Bill & I jumped like we had been struck by lightning (like I said, we were dosed). Then, of course, the first notes of Sugar Magnolia came across like a warm summer rain! Needless to say, we went beserk and thought out loud "It's gotta be the shoes!!"(ala the Michael Jordan/Spike Lee commercials that were quite popular around that time.)

There were a couple of other fun things that happend that night and the next... threatening to heave a huge bud at Brent so he would play Hey Pocky Way while Jerry was cracking up (check the set list to see what happened) and admiring Bobby's spit hanging off the mic during Good Lovin', then after the show finding that someone had slapped a "Bob Spit On Me" sticker on our car. Nothing was as good an example of synchronicity as the infamous "US Boots incident".


??/??/91 Deer Creek - DAN ISENSTEIN (danatipi@gte.net)

I went to this show 1 year after graduating college. Deer creek is a nice relatively small outdoor venue outside of india-noplace. The show was great, my inabilty to recall exact dates and too much of the set list attest to my being in a special place. I had travelled up from kentucky with a whole bunch of my homies. I had gone to college in yellow springs, ohio which not only is fairly close to deer creek, but also has a lot of dead heads. All during the show, wherever I was walking, (stumbling) around my homies and I would hear "dan i!! Dan i!!" And we would turn around and there would be a gaggle of college friends calling me over. Every trip to the overcrowded restrooms,to get beer, to wander like a lost soul I stumbled upon someone I knew. It was uncanny, and freaking my kentucky friends out. At the end of the show. As we picked our way through the last remnants of crowd. A few more "dan i" encounters and we finally make out to the lot. We are all still pretty discombobulated and giggling about the show. Out in the distance a lone hippie vendor is reciting a mantra of "peanutbutter-honey-an-banana sandwiches, peanutbutter-honey an banana sandwiches" his cadence is perfect, zoned into selling and making enough bread to shuffle onto the next show. Some of my homies point out the lone vendor with the honey banana sandwiches, just about the time he breaks his krishna like chant and exclaims "danny isenstein, brother!" This immediately sends the homies into throes of laughter a story they still remind me of some 7 years later. The punch line is that last may 1998, while in new york city, the big crapple, I was flipping thru the phone book. I was bored. But who do I find, but the peanutbutter honey and banana sandwich man himself, peter klarnet. Small world.


10/89 Brendon Bryne NY - Tom (Crakjunkie@aol.com)

Here's one for you. I was stuck in boarding school, locked away from shows- tour info- even a 'new tape' supply, during the infamous '89 fall tour. Me and my poor friend were not even aware that the band had announced that they would be playing 'surprise' shows at Hampton as the Warlocks. In fact, it was later deduced that as the Dead were warming up the opening strains of their first Help/Slip/Franklins since '84, Ted asked me if i thought they would play Help on Saturday since we had tickets to that show at Brendon Byrne. We both laughed because we both knew there was NO WAY the Dead would ever play that again. Meanwhile at Hampton the crowd is going crazy to "Paradice waits.." As strange as that is what happened next is much more entertaining IN RETROSPECT! We got in trouble at school and were banned from leaving campus and had to miss the show that Saturday. Still no idea about Hampton, no idea about all the breakouts. We had access to a pay phone, so I called my younger brother at home and had him call RUN-DEAD for Saturday's set list. Ted and I were hoping for a bad show to make us feel better. My brother, who had no interest in the band, ran through a mediocre first set list until, "Then they played Help is on the Way.." Not even fazed I say, "No. You mean Hell in a Bucket. They close the first set with that sometimes." My brother swears to me, but I'm not even worried because I know there is NO WAY the Dead play that anymore. So, after some arguing my brother conceedes and then I hear the other end of the phone say, "Well, Ok. Then they played Hell in Bucket in to Slip Knot and that went into Franklin's Tower."


10/89 Brendon Bryne NY - Tom (Crakjunkie@aol.com)

Here's one for you. I was stuck in boarding school, locked away from shows- tour info- even a 'new tape' supply, during the infamous '89 fall tour. Me and my poor friend were not even aware that the band had announced that they would be playing 'surprise' shows at Hampton as the Warlocks. In fact, it was later deduced that as the Dead were warming up the opening strains of their first Help/Slip/Franklins since '84, Ted asked me if i thought they would play Help on Saturday since we had tickets to that show at Brendon Byrne. We both laughed because we both knew there was NO WAY the Dead would ever play that again. Meanwhile at Hampton the crowd is going crazy to "Paradice waits.." As strange as that is what happened next is much more entertaining IN RETROSPECT! We got in trouble at school and were banned from leaving campus and had to miss the show that Saturday. Still no idea about Hampton, no idea about all the breakouts. We had access to a pay phone, so I called my younger brother at home and had him call RUN-DEAD for Saturday's set list. Ted and I were hoping for a bad show to make us feel better. My brother, who had no interest in the band, ran through a mediocre first set list until, "Then they played Help is on the Way.." Not even fazed I say, "No. You mean Hell in a Bucket. They close the first set with that sometimes." My brother swears to me, but I'm not even worried because I know there is NO WAY the Dead play that anymore. So, after some arguing my brother conceedes and then I hear the other end of the phone say, "Well, Ok. Then they played Hell in Bucket in to Slip Knot and that went into Franklin's Tower."


06-24-91 Sandstone Amphitheatre, Bonner Springs, Kansas - Jeff Meyer (dazebetween@angelfire.com)

Me and my friend Sean were heading to the first shows we had tickets too in Kansas. We were traveling from our home in Minnesota and went as far as mid-Missouri and got a cheap room for the night. The following morning was the date of the show and we were supposed to meet our friend Joe (Brother Bones) from New York at the show. We were not on the highway for even five minutes and we just decided to stop at a rest area full of VW's and heads to see what was up. While we were standing there looking at a map we hear "Minnesota's not on that map." and sure enough there's Joe. He was sleeping there that night and woke up and the first thing he saw was us. We had no reason to stop but were just kind of drawn there. 100 miles from where we were supposed to meet. To sum it up: What A Long Strange Trip Its Been. (or should I say its gonna be!)


various Hampton Coliseum / Wembley Arena/Sam Boyd Silver Bowl/Giants Stadium - Ed Brown (pigpen@mhv.net)

Well where do I begin? I guess I can also throw in my firs show too, at the Rochester War Memorial 1982 (i'm a newbie.) At the time I was heavilly into The Who because of all the blues tunes they did.(Tommy and Quadrophenia not withstanding) And low and behold a friend of mine took me to see the boys in Rock*chester and I was instantly transformed. Let me explain, I knew who the dead were, and even liked fire/shakedown from the time it was released during the late 70's but I never got around to going to a show, I had an option to go to Englishtown and even a Radio City show, but I did not and so now I'm bumming.... Any way my musical up-bringing was based on american folk songs, so I already knew songs like CC Rider, I know You Rider, Samson & Delilah, Stagger Lee etc. but being a kid who wanted to hear different things than his parents I didn't get into the dead until later. anyway what hooked me that nite besides tripping very hard -thanks jeff- was the fact that I knew a few songs and I was impressed by the drummers. But it didn't kick in until the satisfaction that ended the show/ and specifically the line... "can't be a man 'cause he don't smoke the same ciggaretes as me" well i realised that yes i smoke different ciggaretes than the ordinary people and so does everyone else here and we like it... it changed my life forever Hampton, Va 11-01-85 this was a GLORIA nite...and a special one at that Bobby started rapping about his girl going off on the space shuttle or running for president....welllll just 2 or 3 weeks later the shuttle blew up...... Wembley, London-England what a fun time 1990- on vacation and on tour all at the same time was it me or why do i find it interesting that on the day I visited Grovoners Square - the boys play Scarlet and the next day I see the Tower Of London and hear All Along the Watchtower...... Sam Boyd Silver Bowl-Las Vegas Nevada 1992 My daghter Katie Mae's first show and as the music starts and she begins to smile and realise that this is the source of all the music in the house and the car (she was 8mos old) the boys play Half Step...she was in my proud arms and I did have a tear "on the day that I was born my daddy sat down and cried" in my eye that i knew she understood what was going on...also on a side note, very many nites when Katie was a little ancy, Jerry would play To Lay Me Down and mom and dad were set for the nite, as she would be fast asleep by the end of the song and not wake up until the encore. Giants Stadium 1995 - Fathers Day This was my 2nd Daughter Cassidy's 4th or 5th show (1yr) the 2nd set opener was china-rider and during the rider Cassidy wanted to be held so she could see the show and dance with me. little did we know that this was the last show my kids would see (my wife and i went to albany) and it is poignent that my memory of cassidy at a show is "gonna miss my baby from rolling in my arms"


07-14-90 Foxboro, MA - MG (m_giordano@hotmail.com)

Anyone at 7/14/99 Foxboro Massachusetts knows how incredible the energy was at this show. Out of 8 of my traveling companions only 2 of us did not have tix, myself included. My one buddy managed to get a true miracle ticket, being that there were none in site. As everyone made there way to the gates before showtime I said my goodbyes and I'll see you later somehow. I proceeded to follow the crowd to the gate hoping somebody would have an extra, it seems everybody else; had the same idea. Before long there was a huge surge and the crashing of the gates began. I am a mellow individual and do not condone this behavior at all, and the Mass State Troopers flailing their billy clubs at any hippy they saw kept me at bay. As I'm clinging on a fence holding on for my dear life, there are several deadicated individuals undoing the bottom of a chain link fence and slipping in through a bathroom door on the other side, "Your Next!" one of them said to me, and under I went just as Phil delivers the Shakedown bomb. Under the fence without hesitation and through the bathroom I run out into the show. Everyones in a complete frenzy as Shakedown rips. As I make my way through the crowd I frantically run smack into a friend of mine, not one of our original 8, but a buddy of mine from home. "What the Fuck are you doing?" we exchange and proceed to head down to the floor. As soon as we hit the floor, we lose eachother. After a ripping Shakedown and Walkin Blues I scan the stadium and marvel at the fact that I am IN! Scrolling through the crowd I notice a crew of heads goin nuts waving their hands and yelling. Having a good time, I'm thinking. "Holy Shit! its the crew I came with" We reunite and I'm still in awe of the whole Foxboro scene, Whata Show!


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