From: russellg@tramp.Colorado.EDU (Glenn Russell)
Subject: Re: It was 12 years ago today........
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 21:23:21 GMT

> Jay Kingwrites:
>
>Today we celebrate a show of most historical significance!!!
>9/2/80 - Rochester War Memorial, Rochester NY
>
>1: Minglewood Blues, Sugaree> El Paso, Friend of the Devil, All Over Now,
>   China Cat Sunflower> I Know You Rider> Lost Sailor> Saint of Circumstance>
>   Don't Ease Me In
>2: Althea, C.C. Rider, Ship Of Fools, Estimated Prophet> Terrapin Station>
>   Playing in the Band> Drumz> Space> Iko Iko> Morning Dew> Sugar Magnolia
>E: Alabama Getaway
>
>...has it really been 12 years?????  My stub is in the tape case and shows
>a $8.50 price.  Who on the net was at this show and let's share some 
>remembrances.....what a fuckin great night!!!!!!

Well you asked for it!  :-)


Three days before the show I was in Calgary, Alberta slumming at 
the Bonehead's after spending a great summer in Banff National Park.
The Bone wanted me to stay the winter and pursue a career with him working in
the local dog food factory in Cal-town.  As great as an offer as it was,
I knew there was a whole world out there beyond the fast track at Red Top Pet 
Food, so I bucked surefire cannery success and set my sights on the 
journey back east.

Noel and I had limited funds and the clock was ticking; we had to get back to 
Toronto for school - FAST.  Noel always lands on his feet.  He somehow found 
an ad in the Herald where a car owner needed someone to drive their 
Mustang back East for them.  They'd pay all gas as well as a modest drop 
off fee.   Hot Diggity!

A yellow mustang with sunroof and the absolute top of the line Realistic
8-track car stereo.  Hubba, Hubba.  We were rolling seven's now.
We were somewhat financially embarrassed, so a frugal trip budget was 
essential.  Nothing but the staples for life on the road - gasoline, 
caffeine, PBJ's, Molson Ex.  Plan your drive - Drive your plan. 

We hugged the wheel for 39 straight hours, surfing the Saskatchewan wheat 
fields right on into the heart of the Canadian shield.  Dean Moriarity 
wannabe's from the land of hockey pucks.  In Manitoba we abandoned our
budget at a truckstop and splurged for "Guitar Boogie", an 
8-track tape of the Yardbirds featuring Beck, Clapton, and Page. We left it 
in the deck for what must have been 15 hours straight 
perfecting our Keith Relf imitations into the wee hours of the Ontario
night.  "I got a Masarati GT (doot doot),  With a snakeskin 
upholstery (doot doot)..."

Ran out of gas in the middle of the night between WaWa and Sault Ste. 
Marie. - a desolate stretch of the TransCanada highway in Northern
Ontario where gas stations appear only every hundred miles or so.  
EVERYONE who has driven across Canada has a bizarre story about breaking 
down, running out of gas, or being captured by aliens between WaWa 
and the Soo.  Our experience was enhanced when we were forced to our knees 
at gunpoint in the middle of nowhere by an angry gas station owner who 
thought we were gonna rob his closed station.  Great fun.

We arrived home the Sunday afternoon of Labour day weekend and got together 
with friends who alerted us to the Dead show the next night down 
in Rochester.  Hey, we can return that car a couple of days late right?
The Mustang has an appointment in Rochester!   :-)   

We arrived mid-day in that cosmopolitan upstate New York metropolis 
where we all purchased tickets at the box office before heading to the local 
watering hole.  I bought some 15th anniversary tour souvies and was so 
flying high on life that I just had to get my face painted day-glo for 
the show!  I don't remember much else pre-show except smashing through the 
windowpane and landing in the eye of the worlds greatest Sugaree.  

I recently ran into CH who was at this show with me.  

"Remember that show we went to in Rochester in '80?".  

He smiled back, "Sugaree".

He's still recovering.  For about a month after the show, we spent 95% of our
waking hours jamming endless versions of Sugaree on guitar in the garage.

The War Memorial is probably the cream of the upstate NY ice-arena/bomb 
shelters.  That's not much of an endorsement, though.  But do the math: 
GA + 0 chairs on the floor =  Dance, Dance, Dance.  From the
opening stomp of Minglewood to the swing-your-partner of Sugar Mags,
this show was one big psych-O-delic hoedown.  WoW!

After the show everyone staggered about not wanting to go anywhere; wanting  
to keep soaking in it.  Not vending, not partying, not really doing
anything, but knowing that leaving meant going somewhere vastly more 
ordinary than where we had just been.   Eventually we lifted anchor 
and arrived back home in Burlington at about 4:30 a.m. - just in time for 
the first day of classes the next morning!  

9/2/80 turned a lot of people I know onto the Dead for the first time.
Three or four friends I was with including my sister were attending their 
first show.  And it was the first time I fully absorbed the full GD
atmosphere before, during, and after the show.  In the process I met 
my first tourheads and learned that the GD experience is available just about 
as many days a year as you want it to be.  Something I would soon experience 
firsthand.

** FLASH TO THE PRESENT **

This show definitely passes the test of time.  When I listen to it 
on tape, it has a different feel to it than any other.  A lazy, powerful 
intensity.  At times it's s-o-o-o laid back, (it was once described to 
me as "the quaalude show") but then slowly someone turns up the heat and 
the band arrives at a flurry of energy.  The show has such a wonderful pace - 
"all the time in the world for me and my girl".  Many of the songs have 
an almost hypnotic, tribal feel.  Even the "ordinary" songs seem to be 
infected with pent-up musical aggression.

The second set opens with 3 pretty mellow tunes - Althea, CC Rider, Ship of
Fools.  You can't get any more low key.  Estimated is slow and
heavy - they are in the midst of spacey quaalude funk but you just
know they're about to explode. The calm before the storm. 
You know it's coming...your waiting...somethings gotta happen...
its starting to rumble...the California jam!!!!  Estimated->
Terrapin-> Playin'->D/S-> Aiko->Dew->Sugar Mag.  
What's amazing is that each successive song hits a higher level. A mesmerizing 
exhibition of tempo and dynamics.  The Terrapin is enormous, Playin' is
as bouncy and springy as you've ever heard before it veers back into 
spacey lude-land.  Aiko out of Drumz is almost trancelike as they go back to 
the hypnotic funk again.  The Dew is an all-timer, second only to 5/8/77.  
And Sugar Magnolia!  Don't all the best shows close with a seemingly 
endless Sugar Mags?  

Yep, this show was a monster from start to finish.  Check out Jeff 
Silberman's comments in Deadbase for more unbiased, objective comments!
;-) It's a tough call, but I'd say he rates the show positively too!  :-)

Thanks for remembering the anniversary, Jay!
-- 
+-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
|  Glenn Russell                   "Some rise, some fall, some climb...     |
|  russellg@tramp.colorado.edu      To get to Weekapaug!"  :-)  :-)  :-)    | 
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