06-29-2015, 06:07 PM
Getting in was a trick. 80,000 deadheads in a poorly orchestrated traffic snarl makes for dead-lock. We took the VTA in from Fair Oaks, a few miles away. We got there early enough and I was running into old friends left and right, many who I haven't seen in over a decade. We had seats to Phil side, first tier, which turned out to be the best in the house.
Shakedown St. formed in the driving range of the neighboring golf course, which was perfect. There were cops on patrol, a lot of cops, but they weren't obnoxious. It was nice but given how huge the surrounding area was, many deadheads weren't able to find Shakedown. A sky-writer kept trying to make a peace sign and a lightning bolt but he missed several times and the wind blew it away.
The stage and sound was massive. To see that once more, to experience it again, my heart was grateful.
Levi's is a bloated monstrosity of a venue, but the free wifi works astonishingly well. I'm eager to work it for Taylor Swift.
I started taking songlist notes, an old deadhead habit, but then realized it would be more fun to just instagram vids. The songlists are available online nowadays anyway. They opened with a nice Truckin and UJB, then dug into some vintage stuff. At the end of 2nd set, a double rainbow appeared in perfect timing with the climax of the last song, Viola Lee Blues. Stacy saw it forming and pointed it out saying 'what is that?' When it fully formed - WOW - 80,000 minds blown. Never mind any freakin facebook rainbow colorizing for marriage equality. The Dead summoned a double rainbow. There are rumors flying all over the web today, some from some respectable sources even, about how the Dead faked that rainbow. Faked a rainbow. WTH?
The break was rather long, over an hour (but time gets kind of weird at Dead shows so maybe it wasn't that long).
Second set was crazy trippy, that deep jazzy jammy space that only the Dead can bring. Opening with Cryptical Envelopment and diving straight into Dark Star was a bold move, but how do you follow up a double rainbow? Well, fireworks help, from Great America, right in Dark Star. This is why our seat were the best. Those people that got those $19 limited view seats totally missed the rainbows. Those on Jerry side (now Bruce side) missed the fireworks. The rest of the set was very spacey, with an extended Drumz and Mickey going overboard on the Beam.
We got out around midnight and the lines for the VTA were ridiculous. Plus I blew it by not getting a day pass and losing one of them. So we walked back to the car with a gaggle of other deadheads. Only three VTAs passed and guessing by the line we avoided, we probably got out faster walking those few miles than if we had waited.
Shakedown St. formed in the driving range of the neighboring golf course, which was perfect. There were cops on patrol, a lot of cops, but they weren't obnoxious. It was nice but given how huge the surrounding area was, many deadheads weren't able to find Shakedown. A sky-writer kept trying to make a peace sign and a lightning bolt but he missed several times and the wind blew it away.
The stage and sound was massive. To see that once more, to experience it again, my heart was grateful.
Levi's is a bloated monstrosity of a venue, but the free wifi works astonishingly well. I'm eager to work it for Taylor Swift.
I started taking songlist notes, an old deadhead habit, but then realized it would be more fun to just instagram vids. The songlists are available online nowadays anyway. They opened with a nice Truckin and UJB, then dug into some vintage stuff. At the end of 2nd set, a double rainbow appeared in perfect timing with the climax of the last song, Viola Lee Blues. Stacy saw it forming and pointed it out saying 'what is that?' When it fully formed - WOW - 80,000 minds blown. Never mind any freakin facebook rainbow colorizing for marriage equality. The Dead summoned a double rainbow. There are rumors flying all over the web today, some from some respectable sources even, about how the Dead faked that rainbow. Faked a rainbow. WTH?
The break was rather long, over an hour (but time gets kind of weird at Dead shows so maybe it wasn't that long).
Second set was crazy trippy, that deep jazzy jammy space that only the Dead can bring. Opening with Cryptical Envelopment and diving straight into Dark Star was a bold move, but how do you follow up a double rainbow? Well, fireworks help, from Great America, right in Dark Star. This is why our seat were the best. Those people that got those $19 limited view seats totally missed the rainbows. Those on Jerry side (now Bruce side) missed the fireworks. The rest of the set was very spacey, with an extended Drumz and Mickey going overboard on the Beam.
We got out around midnight and the lines for the VTA were ridiculous. Plus I blew it by not getting a day pass and losing one of them. So we walked back to the car with a gaggle of other deadheads. Only three VTAs passed and guessing by the line we avoided, we probably got out faster walking those few miles than if we had waited.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse