6:10am on super tuesday, and to paraphrase Bob Weir's message from last night at 9:30pm, "get your ass out and vote, it could be the last chance in your lifetime to bring about fundamental change" is it that dire? i don't know, but lots of heavy shit is going on, and there is nothing like having a tiny little voice in it. if you need to register to vote, go here http://www.headcount.org/
but screw big time, massive money spending blotto politics, let's talk about music and community. you see i called every connected friend, label buddy, shyster promoter and music industry honcho i knew for the hastily arranged, what's left of the good, old Grateful Dead, Obama for change show..........and at 6:30pm last night, I WAS SHUT OUT. Who came through? you guys, the MOG community, and god bless you. it came in the form of my rock star compadre Wanbli(http://mog.com/Wanbli). the man went out of his way to find me a ticket for the first sighting of Bob Weir and Phil Lesh on stage together in years( mickey too but no billy). ain't no way i was going to miss it. tickets were being scalped for big dollars, and what did Wanbli charge me? ZIP! he even brought me up in the better sounding balcony of the warfield on seedy market street for the meat of the 3rd set.
so after a little Barack speech on a movie screen( where he mimbled something about change), the boys came out with the current line up of Phil's band and broke into the 37 year old, "playing in the band" and away we went. it sounded pretty good i have to say, and incredibly, it was almost 9 years since i had seen any dead family music in that venue. those were the landmark april 99' phil, molo, kimock, page and trey shows( some of the best dead music i ever witnessed). yes time had flown. anyway, Phil was booming, Bobby was singing and Playin develped nicely with a decent transition into "brown eyed women". bobby and phil didn't interact much given their chilly recent history, but they clearly were both glad to be playing together. the rest of the short first set included a poorly Phil sung "1/2 step" and the topical Beatles cover, "come together"
after a short break i saw the only acoustic almost Dead music i have ever seen, with Phil on a big stand up bass, they did "deep elem", "FOTD", a sweet Jackie Green sung "Deal" and the glorious taoist ode Garcia/Hunter composition, "ripple". inpast years i would have scoffed a bit at bobby trying to sing this jerry song, but at this point the man has earned his right to sing it and he did it justice as well
after another break they opened with "china cat" that had an odd, disjointed transition into "the wheel". this led into a superb, old school throwdown "other one". after a lovely Jackie sung( the kid is great) "sugaree" they went into "eyes of the world" and my swollen knee said it's time to go.
i wandered out to the hallway and saw a group of friends. we caught up, asked about wives, dogs and kids, and it hit me that i was part of a wonderful community. it stretched from Kerouac to Neil Cassidy to Ginsburg to Kesey to Garcia and the extended Dead family right into the on hiatus String Cheese Incident family to current keepers of the flame like Hot buttered Rum. It felt good. you know the Dead were never political at all. but they were about choice, freedom, respect, healthy skepticism..........the good shit. i said my good nights to my group, including JPB, the author of the words that Weir was belting out now: " so the kids they dance, they shake their bones, and the politicians throwing stones, yes it's all to clear were on our own, singing ashes ashes all fall down, ashes ashes all fall down." Indeed!
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Show to be rebroadcast at 2;30 and 7:30 PST, I fell asleep when I couldn't get it, must have been overloaded for awhile.
No voting here in R.I. til next month.
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hey bruce my friend! check out the other one, close your eyes, it could have been from 69'
wanted to upload the song but i must have old version of mog here......
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Will do Steve, some good pics of last night here - http://www.ratdog.org/photos/2008-02-04s
Is it up on archives?
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Woot for Obama!
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not sure bruce
right o jameson
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I checked, not yet...btw you plaxo?
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Kansas is having its first caucus in many many years... in as long as I've been voting. Too bad it's Saturday, after everything will have most likely been decided. Oh well, I'll still try and make it out!
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no plaxo bruce.
steve o you must and will go do it anyway
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wish i could of been there for the music..... i'm already in favor of the message thanks for the recap
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i am glad iwent for sure, could be the last time those 2 play, who knows
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ooooh yeah that was fun last night my ol' bones are tired today.
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shit, we could have had a mog meeting there kb
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i texted david to see if he was there. next time, simon. i'll be at port obrien, rogue wave, mmj radio city, not sure what else...
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deal
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Great write-up and good to hang with you a bit Steve
Hope the knee isn't too sore today.
Highlight of the show for me was the Other One and Sugaree
I really enjoy Jackie Greene's influction of youthful energy. Jackie Greene = J.G. :)
FYI - The Video Broadcast of the show is playing twice today on www.iclips.net
2:30 pm PST 7:30 pm PST
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Great post Steve. I'm voting as soon as I get off work today. My wife and I are split and it's creating good tension but we gotta vote for who we believe in. Just heard about the Dead endorsement today. I'm hoping that might sway her given her strong love of the Dead. To each their own. Vote people!
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peter, the knee is sore but worth it, the other one was crushing, though phil didn't open it with his normal bombs.
all right fistula! me and my old lady are always have good tension about the politicos though her small govt rants are sinking in with me now
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yes peter? what is that strange x by your icon?
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odd - I see the linked image on my side better report this bug to the powers that be
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if you go to the MOG HQ and pull the curtain back, you will find a purple spraypainted hamster running around a rusty wheel...........
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lol!
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it is true sturgell, hyman has an iron fist
ah peter, i see it now, nice. shit i left my poster at venue too
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mine is in my window
GO O in 08!
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i had a ticket. should have been there. : (
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Brown eyed women and red grenadine, the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean...
WOW, it's been a long time old friend... at least I hope I can still call you that:) As I read about that second set that started acoustic.... wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world... if the thunder don't get ya then the lightning will... and thats just a part of it. It gave me chills dude. Seems like one of those shows that will just get better with time. Wish I had been there with you.....
I am not ashamed to say that for the first time since 76, my support is going democratic. These are crucial and formative years that will have more future on the human race than any other time in recorded history IMO.....
Anyways, saw this and had to pass along a smile and say I hope you were able to smile yourself to sleep after that show:) Keep the faith! And think some good thoughts for us here on the left side of the country.... last night was freakish and I can't imagine stories of death and chaos are NOT going to rule the daze to come.
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hyman, let me repeat, it was the dead, not radiohead...................ahahahahahahahahaa
yo harry, democratic for u?? just when i am going libertarian
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As far as I know, it's the best choice available at this point in time... A time in which making no choice is no longer an option for me. I would love to learn of more choices I am not yet aware of... Hell, I would love to be the choice as far as that goes, and THAT says TONS about what choices we DON"T have. Paradox rules, and individual liberties are the key to social liberty! Libertarian sounds like a pretty good place to be today...
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right, if we want to turn our brains into macaroni, more power to us
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I admire (and envy) those of you who recall and describe the set so well, very nice. Thanks for sharing your good time!
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yup SD, me too. back in the day i would be at a show grooving( and out there) and there would be a guy to my left scribbling on a ticket stub as the set list was played out.....that was pre internet. actually the dead used to have a hotline that would play a recorded voice with the setlist too. now all of us brain faded folks can go on line hours later and get a memory jog
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Admiration just flew out the window...cheater...haha!
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hey, i am a newlywed, i am learning how to be completely honest..........
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I'm going to stay out of the political discussion - but want to echo your eloquent comments about the Dead community - even though I wasn't at the Deadheads for Obama there in person, I was in spirit.
To quote you "i was part of a wonderful community. it stretched from Kerouac to Neil Cassidy to Ginsburg to Kesey to Garcia and the extended Dead family right into the on hiatus String Cheese Incident family to current keepers of the flame like Hot buttered Rum."
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wow thanks debi! i like that, "i was there in spirit" indeed you were!
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"Kerouac to Neil Cassidy to Ginsburg to Kesey to Garcia"
In fact none of those people were there, and I'm not sure how you get to assume who they would support. Many of us thought Jerry was spinning in his grave to see the band used like this. What is interesting is the number of people - long time types like Wavy Gravy who were NOT there, for just that reason.
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that wasn't a reference to politics, just the creative community and how they are all linked, both through ideology and friendship and artistic expression. when garcia was alive they fawned over vermont sen. Patrick leahy, and if you were there, you would have got that this was about exercising your right to vote and participate in the process.....not for obama. thanks for the lively discussion though, i love it
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I have had an internal discussion going on since the interesting backlash amongst the Dead Community over the Dead being "used"
I decided to get as much information as I could and then use this to understand and respect their decision.
A true Head would look at things like this that brought together Bobby and Phil again, these 2 have had major dislike for a long time where the fight over money has left friendships in the wake.
There is something bigger then money that they believe in and can put differences aside. Isn't that a positive thing?
Although the Dead never used their "power" to get behind a candidate in their 40 years until know, does anyone really know why, besides some of the public stuff Jerry said(being against or for war is war, etc) - why the other members never did this?
Phil has said that Obama is the first candidate since JFK- pre-Dead, that has inspired the band to do this. There is also the fact that so many of the band supported and were crushed whren JFK was killed, that they feared this happening again.
Next the fact that as Mickey said...these are desperate times and we are a desperate people has some deep resonance.
The Dead got behind environmental issues and used their power to persuade and inspire folks back in late 80's and early 90's. And it was something positive.
For me, the support for Obama and using their voices is a very positive thing that should reinforce and reinvigorate the Dead community.
It hasn't been "about the music" for the remaining members of band for a long time now...and it was nice to get a little of that magic again.
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well said my friend. no deadhead who went to the show was up in arms, only the ones who couldn't go..........
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Ian Stone's recording of the gig is on archive.org.
http://www.archive.org/details/dfo2008-02-04.dfo2008-02-04.mk41.flac16
I tried to watch the show on iClips, but the sound was terribly jumpy. Several glitches per minute. I ended up getting a 3-day free trial of Sirius radio, and listening to that while watching the iGlitch feed with no sound. The sync was way off but at least Sirius delivered the audio with a lot less skipping. Far from perfect, but worth tuning in, if you're hard up to see those guys play.