Show!!!

I went to the Dead show last weekend at the Fabulous Forum. This is basically the Grateful Dead now that Jerry Garcia is not around anymore, and I was really excited to go. For one reason, the original surviving members haven’t toured together in four years, and the last time I saw them, they had Joan Osbourne (“What if God Were One of Us?”) singing, and it was a little weird. Another thing about the last time was that they had a guitar player named Jimmy Herring (I hope his friends call him “Red”), and he just didn’t do it for me. He’s way too “Wheedly Wheedly”. Some would say the Jerry was pretty “Wheedly Wheedly” too, but he wasn’t. Or maybe he was in a good way. Anyway, I wasn’t into Herring.
For this tour, there was no Joan Osbourne, and they have a guitar player named Warren Haynes, who has a band called Government Mule, and has played with Phil Lesh before in some good shows. Haynes also plays in the current Allman Bros. band, so the best possibility was that it would have good aspects of both bands – maybe the Dead with a little more Southern flavor – Allman Dead. Of course it wouldn’t be like the Jerry days, but it seemed like it could be pretty good in a different way. At least the songs would be good.
Dan and I met Doug and Joel in the parking lot, and we got there really early to enjoy the scene and maybe to play a little bit (a little shameless Morning Glory promotion never hurt). The parking lot scene was really happening and we had so much fun!!! After checking out the traditional “Shakedown Street” vendor area, we set up away from the main drag and started playing. We had a horrible sound system – no P.A. and Doug and I playing out of the same battery powered amp, but for some reason, it was really good!!! We were so happy to be there, it was a beautiful afternoon, and we were all going to see the Dead, and it all was just a blast! (Still waiting for pictures from Joel).
By the end of our “gig” we had a big crowd of people dancing, and we got a lot of great compliments – and hopefully some good gigs from it. I loved playing there for all those people who really knew the music and appreciated our 70’s era vibe. When we were playing "Eyes of the World" everyone was singing and dancing, and having a great time; I wanted to be out there in the crowd dancing too! I think I need a cordless guitar.
Anyway, we wrapped it up, talked to a lot of great people, and then headed for the show.
I really wish that I could say that the day ended up perfect with a great show, but no such luck.
From the first moments, the show was a little weird. Everyone knows that the Dead like to jam (basically to play solos around the songs), but typically, they would start out playing tighter shorter songs to get warmed up, and get the crowd happy before heading out into space. These guys just started at warp 3, and didn’t even get to the first song ("Viola Lee Blues") for about 10 minutes. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing (for a Dead fan) – they used to do this pretty regularly back in the 60’s. In fact this was a lot like a 60’s show (they also played Caution, Cosmic Charlie, and Dark Star!), which is cool, but….
It just wasn’t happening. There were some good things at times (a pretty Black Peter), and the band was definitely being adventurous, but it just wasn’t…The Grateful Dead. Of course it wouldn’t and couldn’t be, but it wasn’t even CLOSE. Maybe it was just a bad show (people said they liked the previous ones), but Haynes didn’t sound that great, it was really loud and kind of obnoxious, but most of all, it was really dark!
Whatever people feel about Jerry’s playing, most agree that it was a pretty happy vibe. Not everyone likes this, and some feel that he could go on for a bit long (ridiculous), but it’s still pretty easy to hear the joy and lightness in his guitar - like a bird soaring around and just enjoying its wings. Warren Haynes just didn’t have it. His playing was very bluesy, but in a dark way that didn’t really serve the music. And the band seemed OK with this, creating a basically dark bluesy vibe, which was allright for a bit, but just became very heavy. Not what I was hoping for : (
Anyway, Dan and Doug left during the first set (their state of mind left them a little more sensitive to the dark vibes). Joel and I waited until the second set in hopes that they would pull it out. It started out promising, with a pretty groovy Shakedown Street, which has never been my favorite song, but is at least pretty upbeat. But then, New Speedway Boogie, which was the Dead’s song about Altamont – not happy. Then, they started into Scarlet Begonias, which is one of their all-time upbeat hippie songs, and everyone went crazy – it seemed good, but…they just couldn’t do it! Haynes tried – you could hear him trying, even getting the Jerry “Wah” tone, but they just don’t seem to be in that space, and by the time the song "Fire on the Mountain" was appended as usual, it was time to go.
We found Dan and Doug playing for some ticketless heads in the parking lot, and since Joel was pretty wiped out, he and Doug left, and Dan and I jammed like we normally do for our crowd of two or three. We played Eyes again and a nice “He’s Gone”. This girl named Sunshine really seemed to like it and gave us some chicken. It was a good end for a mixed day.