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NukeLDO

NukeLDO

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The Grateful Dead weren't everyone's cup of tea, but their music and all the subsequent iterations of the band and it's offshoots have been the soundtrack of my life since the bus first came by and I got on in 1983. Bobby's playing and voice, particularly in the past 20 years, only got better with time. RIP Bobby.

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I got on the bus late, but as soon as I could. 12/11/94 and 6/3/95. But I saw D&C at Shoreline in 2017 and stood within 30' of where I was on 6/3/95, made it to the Bob + Wolf Bros. show at the Paramount in Seattle 10/23/22, and then two Sphere shows in July 2024. Jerry died pretty quickly after I had discovered the Dead, but Bob's been there throughout my whole life's journey. This one's way harder.

This Sweetwater shirt is one of my two favorites for playing gigs.

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This must be close to where he is now.
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Pretty sure I was at the same show on 6/3/95. I was just at of college and living at my Mom's house. I slightly knew one of Phil Lesh's nieces. She was going to get us back stage to meet the Dead. But we never found her at the concert, and I didn't have a cell phone or pager or anything. When I got home at like 2 in the morning, there was a message on the answering machine left at like 11 that night - "We're having Chinese with the Dead at some restaurant. Come meet us!" Jerry passed a few months later and I had missed my chance to meet the Dead.

My wife and I went out to see a local band do a Bob Weir tribute last night. Both very sad and moving. The music was as unique and special as it ever has been.
 
Saw the Dead play many times, free concerts in Golden Gate park, shows at the Avalon Ballroom.
Fave, however, was when the Dead jammed at the Family Dog, a small music theater at the north end of the SF beach Playland arcade, that's the top of the Dog to the left in the background.
On warm summer afternoons the Dead would have all the exterior doors opened up to let in the ocean air and then jam for hours while we surfed right across the road, hooting to hot riffs between riding waves.
Words don't adequately express just how magic the SF music scene was during the 60's, and city surfers were smack dab in the middle of it, the sounds propelling us along like we had rockets tied to our ass..



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I was just a casual fan through the 60s and 70s. But then while working in North SF Bay a buddy (Deadhead) had scored tickets for all 3 or 4 nights of their last appearance at Winterland. I was invited one night, and I’ll never forget it. Among probably the most dedicated of the dedicated, I was transformed. It was very homey and crazy at the same time. Best concert ever for me.
 
dbaken said:
Pretty sure I was at the same show on 6/3/95. I was just at of college and living at my Mom's house. I slightly knew one of Phil Lesh's nieces. She was going to get us back stage to meet the Dead. But we never found her at the concert, and I didn't have a cell phone or pager or anything. When I got home at like 2 in the morning, there was a message on the answering machine left at like 11 that night - "We're having Chinese with the Dead at some restaurant. Come meet us!" Jerry passed a few months later and I had missed my chance to meet the Dead.

My wife and I went out to see a local band do a Bob Weir tribute last night. Both very sad and moving. The music was as unique and special as it ever has been.
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Some restaurant has excellent Chinese!!! You missed out! ;)

I was hoping to go to the Friday or Sunday show since Saturday had sold out long ago. On Thursday I went to the Ticketmaster at the local Wherehouse (!) and asked for two Friday tickets. Received two tickets, walked out the door, went back to my buddy's place. We looked at the tickets and quintuple-checked the date: sure enough, they were for sold-out Saturday 6/3. Ok! Change of plans.

I was also super sick and was dosed up on every OTC cold/cough medicine I could get my teenage hands on.

Mid-second set I remember having to piss so bad that I was contemplating going for it right there on the lawn, but figured that was probably gauche so I was determined to make it to drums/space. The band was going deep in "Playing" and I figured it'd be safe to make a break for it... as soon as I'd committed I heard the first notes of "UJB" and I knew I had blown it. Made it to the trough and back just in time for them to go into Drums. Argh!

The next week back at school my buddies and I were exchanging stories. One of the friends had mentioned he had run into some guy who looked a lot like Phil at the local Nordstrom's. He said to this Phil-esque guy "I think I saw you last weekend..." to which Phil responded "oh yeah? Where'd you sit?"
 
Phil K said:
OK, what's going on here? 'First time I saw them was RFK '73 with the Wall Of Sound, and I don't think I've ever been quite the same since.
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Dead and Company Sphere show in Vegas, July 2024. While other shows have been more memorable for other reasons, Sphere has the best A/V concert experience that I've ever experienced. You're pretty much immersed in the experience as it orbits all around you. Even the seats have haptics.

The visuals spanned the full history of the Dead. It was super cool for a Dead nerd like myself who hadn't been alive or old enough to experience most of the Dead's run to get some visuals to go along with the auditory history that I know so well.
 
Bob would approve...
"Last May, Kittle, Juszczyk and teammates Christian McCaffrey, Jake Tonges and Nick Bosa had attended a Dead & Company concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas, becoming friendly with vocalist and guitarist Bob Weir in the process.
Weir, a hardcore Niners fan and founding member of the Grateful Dead, died Saturday at 78.
The words on Kittle’s cleats: “FOR BOB” and “DEAD FOREVER.”

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Roger

@sir_roger1
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SurfnFish said:
Saw the Dead play many times, free concerts in Golden Gate park, shows at the Avalon Ballroom.
Fave, however, was when the Dead jammed at the Family Dog, a small music theater at the north end of the SF beach Playland arcade, that's the top of the Dog to the left in the background.
On warm summer afternoons the Dead would have all the exterior doors opened up to let in the ocean air and then jam for hours while we surfed right across the road, hooting to hot riffs between riding waves.
Words don't adequately express just how magic the SF music scene was during the 60's, and city surfers were smack dab in the middle of it, the sounds propelling us along like we had rockets tied to our ass..



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Country Joe was always a fun band. During their afternoon/early evening jam sessions at the Dog, the Dead would jam with musicians from other bands, never knew who would show up.

So a story of brilliance gone wrong:

A young surfer neighbor down the street, Kevin Saltenrich, son of the conductor of the SF symphony during the 60's, was a brilliant Hammond D3 player who used to occasionally jam with the Dead, introduced to them by his sister Bambi, a legendary band groupie who was on the cover of the very first Rolling Stone magazine.
Too young to drive at 15, when it worked out I'd drive him to the Dog which was 15 mins from our hood, which would get me inside to listen to the jams. The Dead liked his playing so much they promised him guest gigs with the band once he reached 18.
Sadly Kevin became the poster child for 60's drug excess, becoming a heroin addict who by 19 was in a penal institution for having been caught robbing banks to feed his habit, and as a habitual offender would spend most of his life locked up, currently in prison where he will end his life.

Those 60's rockets strapped to our asses didn't always point to the horizon, for far too many they ended up pointing at a brick wall.
 
_WW_ said:
I don't think I ever got to see Albert Collins.
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I did several times, very good. I believe once with BB King and another with Big Mama Thornton, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and others. I may have been in an altered state, so details are fuzzy.
A couple friends lived with Ken Kesey at his commune and participated in some Merry Prankster escapades where they met many of the Dead.
 
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