Grateful Dead - Santa Clara

[Drunk Monk]

My evil twin says she has a ticket and a hotel room floor for me to crash on in Chi-town.

I have a buddy who has his VW van revved up and ready to go with three empty seats.

Mrs. Dm says I should go...

[Drunk Monk]

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.

[Drunk Monk]

My poor pom is in a cone of shame. He picked up a foxtail in his rear paw last week, so we dropped him off at my mom's so she could give him a little TLC while we ran off to be deadheads. When we got back to the bungalow around 2AM, as soon as we walked in, Stacy thought she smelled a skunk. Well, it wasn't a skunk. It was a raccoon. It came in through the cat door and went for the dog food and cat food, accidentally trapping itself by closing the kitchen door. I guess the pom serves as a decent guard pom after all. The cat don't care. Just as well because our tamed feral cat would be no match for a raccoon. So I grabbed my pillow bokken and chased it around the bungalow. It kept missing the doors. It tried for the kitchen nook window, where our Mac is. I had retrieved a fav tie-die from my mom's house when we dropped off the pom and threw it at the raccoon to knock it off the Mac table before it knocked off our Mac. It was a much longer heated chase than I would have liked, going through almost every room in our bungalow save one (well, there's only six rooms). Finally it found the open front door and escaped, after trashing our bungalow. Damn raccoon.

[Drunk Monk]

Stacy had an emergency client on Sunday morn - a prenatal that tried to hire her for weekly sessions but it was too hard to swing. She was desperate and offered Stacy twice her normal fee, so she took the job. It was in San Jose, so she dropped me off at the VTA light rail early in the morn. I should note that last night was the first time I've ever ridden the lite rail. I ran into a deadhead at the Campbell station and gave him the ringdown on taking the VTA to and from Levis, as I was now an expert. The ride in didn't get interesting until downtown San Jose where the tyedye emerged.

I got there way too early. Nothing was happening. Shakedown wasn't even open. So I listened to the soundcheck with a few other early deadheads - Brown Eyed Women, Miracle, and drumz (might just have been a sound guy and not the Rhythm Devils). Then I hoofed it over to the hotel for a bloody mary. I returned to the golf course and snagged the last Anchor at the clubhouse. Anchor was doing a special promo there with limited edition posters, but sold out of beer on the first night. The tender said it was 100 cases gone. Shakedown started to percolate so I checked that out. Ran into some very old deadhead friends, people I had long forgotten until they reminded me who they were. Then I ran into Kris from Rm, an ol pardner-in-crime, who was there by herself looking for a onesie for her granddaughter (who has already been to Coachella twice!) We grabbed brunch at the clubhouse, fries, calamari, a margarita for her and a guinness for me. Now three drinks deep, I was ready. I hung out with some old friends on shakedown for a while and relished the scene.

Stacy arrived just before the show and we went straight in. We had more central seats, but our neighbors were clowns. The frat boy next to me must have been like 2 when Jerry died. He chain-smoked, lit one for every song, took two puffs and then just waved it around as he messed with his phone. He kept spitting too so his little area had a sticky puddle of spittle. He did know all of the song lyrics though.

First set was tepid. Trey and Bruce were way too loud in the mix and somewhat bleating. The songlist felt a little phoned in. The last song of set one rocked - Hell in a Bucket - but the rest of the set was rather lackluster. We tried to move but it was so damn packed there was no better place to move to. So we went back. But the mix was better for 2nd set and for a long time, Stacy had an empty seat next to her so more room to dance. Sikiru joined the Rhythm Devils on talking drum for drumz, which was good but short and space was really short, almost negligible. So different from Saturday which was super psychedelic. An early 2nd set Wharf Rat was okay. Stacy called Eyes early, but they bungled it. He's Gone was good for the 'steal your face' line. SugMag to close, which was peppy but not stellar. I called Brokedown for the encore but that was totally predictable, given that the tour was titled Fare Thee Well. Still, it got me all misty-eyed thinking this would be the last time.

I was really hoping for a Standing on the Moon (our wedding song) or a last Estimated in CA, but no. For Stacy, it was a good closure show as it reminded her of how annoying the dead scene can be when they don't summon that magic. For me, it left me very unsatisfied. We dashed out of there and caught the first lite rail back to our car and were home by midnight. No raccoons.

Rock Med had over 500 calls just at the Dead. The boyz still gotz it.

Monday morning while surfing facebook, my evil twin made me an offer I just couldn't refuse. A miracle ticket for Sunday, a face value for Friday, and a place to crash. Next stop, Chicago.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Good luck?!?!

[Drunk Monk]

Ain't no luck, I learned to duck.

[Drunk Monk]

The Grateful Dead Core Four Reunite In Santa Clara With Anastasio, Hornsby, & Chimenti, 6 Years Ago Today
Dave Melamed | Sunday, June 27th, 2021
Photo: Andrew Goodwin

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Two-thousand fifteen was a true celebration of all things [b]Grateful Dead[/b], as the storied jam band celebrated their 50th anniversary with a series of reunion shows over the summer. The shows were the last true reunions of the Core Four—the four surviving core members of the Dead: [b]Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, [/b]and [b]Bill Kreutzmann[/b]. The quartet was joined by part-time member [b]Bruce Hornsby[/b] on piano, longtime [b]Furthur[/b] collaborator [b]Jeff Chimenti [/b]on keys, and [b]Phish[/b] guitarist [b]Trey Anastasio [/b]on lead guitar.

The band had initially announced a series of three shows to be held at Chicago’s [b]Soldier Field [/b]over July 4th weekend. While the central location was chosen to accommodate fans nationwide, the band thought twice about their Bay Area heritage and soon added two more shows in Santa Clara, CA, scheduled for June 27th and 28th, 2015. Six years later, the five shows stand out as something of a Grateful Dead revival, which has led to the new [b]Dead & Company [/b]band taking charge musically.

The first show itself saw the band returning to form, bringing out a number of classic tunes including the opener, “Truckin'”. The first set featured a number of early songs from the Dead’s career as well, including “Uncle John’s Band”, “Alligator”, “Cumberland Blues”, “Born Cross-Eyed”, “Cream Puff War”, and “Viola Lee Blues”. Not a single song was written past 1970 at the show, with “Cream Puff War” and the second set’s “What’s Become Of The Baby” emerging as the biggest surprises.

The second set also featured a “The Other One” suite sandwich, opening with “Cryptical Envelopment” and ending with “The Other One” into “Morning Dew”. That jam session featured “Dark Star”, “St. Stephen”, “The Eleven”, “Turn On Your Love Light”, and a psychedelic “Drums/Space”. The show ended with “Casey Jones” bringing it home in fine fashion.

Music aside, one of the more memorable moments from the first show was its rainbow. While the rainbow occurred naturally, as most rainbows do, an article in [i]Billboard [/i]suggested that promoter [b]Peter Shapiro [/b]spent $50,000 for a rainbow machine to create the effect. [b]Jerry Garcia [/b]must have smiled down on the shows after all…

Check out select videos, full audio and video, and a setlist below.

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[b]Setlist: Grateful Dead “Fare Thee Well” | Levi’s Stadium | Santa Clara, CA | 6/27/15[/b]

Set I: Jam -> Truckin’, Uncle John’s Band, Alligator -> Cumberland Blues, Born Cross-Eyed > Cream Puff War, Viola Lee Blues

Set II: Cryptical Envelopment -> Dark Star -> St. Stephen -> The Eleven -> Turn On Your Love Light -> Drums/Space -> What’s Become Of The Baby -> The Other One – > Morning Dew

Encore: Casey Jones

I remember feeling something at these shows that I had not felt in 20 years. 

And I haven't felt it since... 

http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...p?tid=3350

[Greg]

Better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all.

Shut up, Tommy Lee Jones.

[Drunk Monk]

I just reread the Fare The Well threads. Brought back a lot of memories. I wish I had the forum back when Jerry was alive. I did write reports for the tours I did professionally (that was part of my job). I should revisit those too. 

A long strange trip...

[Drunk Monk]

This period between Aug 1 - 9 is known as the Days Between for deadheads. Jerry was born on the 1st and died on the 9th. Days Between was one of Jerry’s final power ballads. It’s one that we didn’t get to hear him play nearly enough. 

There are observances all over - music gatherings - I was invited to one at the Hog Farm starting tomorrow but I don’t have the bandwidth. That was so tempting however. 

I usually don’t engage it too much because I’m occupied with Reggae on the River. I didn’t think about it last year with the pandemic et.al. But this week has been a long strange trip and now I’m thinking I must touch base, even after that Bobby Weir show. Deadhead life is weird, but when the going gets weird...