Seeing the Dead Live. (Grateful Dead Show 28 June 1995.)

1995, 30 years of The Grateful Dead.

    First off, I am no "Dead Head" by any stretch of the imagination.  I have been to an entire one Grateful Dead show and wished I could have seen more.  I was about 30 years too late to the party.  I liked their music enough to "get into" them for a few years following in the years shortly after getting out of the Service.  

    I got the chance to see them live once.  Talk about an experience, I know it sounds cliche but even being sober for a couple years at the time a lot of the details about the show escape me. I was "all there" but it was a couple decades ago and it was one of those shows where the songs being played I was not familiar enough to recall.

    What I do recall was the vibe of the whole show, the journey there, and the way back.  It was something not to forgotten.  A time warp into left over 1960's Americana that had survived have way into the 1990's. I was never too thrilled with how the 1990's turned out to be, this is my personal opinion, I know a lot of people had a great time in the 90's.  I felt they were a let down after being a teen in the 1980's, I guess I felt they were dull and a let down.  So to have a band that had been fixture during the glory days of Haight-Ashbury in the legendary time of 1966 & 1967 still packing crowds into concert venues was something that I get into.  God knows I live in the past, wether it be my teen years of the 80's, a time in history that took place just before I was born or the time our parents went through during The War from 1939-1945.  

    So for a chance to live in the past for even just a few hours...I jumped on it!  I had a friend from work who was a couple years younger than me, but was interested enough to see what this band was all about.  A few months before we had checked out Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in Cleveland, Ohio.  So we both piled into my '67 Mustang to see what this band from San Fransisco was all about.  We would not be disappointed.  

    The drive through Detroit was...a drive through Detroit, stressful.  We finally got to the show and it started pouring, sort of like the Woodstock Festival 25 years before.  It seems that all the great rock festivals end of going through a downpour and they end up being a great time.  Anyway...it rained...a lot.

    The car park was basically a car show with nothing but VW Microbuses.  And there was my '67 Mustang....with a dead battery.  Somewhere along the way my voltage regulator gave up the ghost and overcharged the battery.  The battery cells were dry.  I ended up going from little group of Neo-hippies to Neo-hippies asking for water from coolers in an empty Coke can.  I ended up getting the battery filled back up.  I spent the entire show wondering if the Mustang would start.  

   Wandering around the car park before the show was half the fun.  I ended up buying a bootleg T-shirt.  

The whole experience of being in a group of people who wandered the country following the band was something not be missed.  It was a very interesting lot to say the least.  As for us, we were there for just one show.  Then it was back to real life and showers.  

     Inside the concert venue with soaked Vans (shoes) and the required tie-died t-shirt that was beginning to slowly dry out (thanking myself the foresight to have a clean dry sweatshirt cached away in the Mustang).  The band looked onstage what you'd expect the Grateful Dead would look like.  Jerry had his timeless black t-shirt...

    Yes, a large portion of the audience was smoking grass.  I had never really been around that stuff, but it did not bother me too much.  I had been sober for about a year and a half at that time and at no time did I feel pressured into drinking or smoking something.  That says something for the audience.  For a group of people who might look to Middle America like they needed to take a shower and get a haircut, they were actually a pretty friendly non-violent lot.  After the show quite a few of them actually clean up the car park.  Not a usually event at a lot of other shows I've been to.  Although some of the crowds I've been with at a lot of Alice Cooper Shows were in a similar vein...more on Alice Cooper later on Moon in the Sky.

    After the concert, my main concern was would my Mustang start?  Anyway...I wanted to wander the car park a bit more now that the sky had cleared up.  Never seen so many VW Buses in my life...and probably never will again.  A lot of those Buses would pack up and hit the next show, sell T-Shirts to buy a ticket to get into the show and fuel for the next show.  

    For me it was back to my Lime Gold '67 Mustang and back to working at a office supply store.  Turning the key of the Mustang fired the 200 cubic Inch straight-six engine to life at the first go.  We had to stop for fuel outside of Detroit (no way was I going to risk filling up in Detroit) and I fueled the Mustang without shutting down.  Doing a "hot-pump" sort of freaked my friend out, but I've down it so many times it was not a big deal to me.  I had him stay by the 'Stang while I used to loo and grabbed a Coke and I did the same.  

   I dropped my friend off at his place then I drove the next 20 minutes back to my house.  I parked my Mustang and finally shut it down.  Around 3AM found me in the shower, then a very late dinner.  When I tried to start my Mustang the next morning...it was quite clear I needed a new battery and voltage regulator.  Please read "Long Promised Road" on Moon in the Sky if you'd love to hear more about my '67 Mustang and voltage regulator & battery drama.

   A short time after I saw The Grateful Dead in June of 1995, the lead singer, Jerry Garcia passed away on 9 August 1995.