From: bs810@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (D. Eric Nay)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Re: Favorite venues/memories
Date: 2 Oct 1992 01:54:14 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


Ahh, venues indeed, thanx for all the wonderful stories people have told, its
a great joy hearing them and getting images of shows past.  For me, bein' an
East Coaster who only caught on to the Dead about 83-84, all those lovely 
West Coast venues are just that, images, photos, stories and tapes, only one
i've had the pleasure of seein' shows at is the good ol' Oakland Coliseum for
a New Year's run, believe it was 88->89.  Quite a fantastic time, but not like
doin' the Greek im sure...

	Anyway, for outdoor venues, I'd have to say Merriwether Post takes the
cake for the limited number of outdoor venues i've seen the boys at, some fun
shows there, slip-slidin' away in the mud to the tune of "why dont we do it in
the road" and many others. That was really my first venue for seein' the boyz,
though i did catch the CapCtr '80(TAPE GROVEL :), but at the time I barely 
knew what anything
was about, about 14yrs old and a Doors/Led Zep fan at the time...seem to recall
an Alabama Getaway and UJB but not much more, though i liked alot of the music 
and have distinct memories of women dancing with long flowing scarves at 
virtually every portal...definitely left an impression but i had gone to the 
show hoping to hear that *one* song, ehhh...Casey Jones I believe it was, 
needless to say I didnt get it, and manys the laugh i've gotten over the years 
thinkin' back to how foolish i was going to a Dead show hoping to hear a 
particular song...:) (and Casey Jones ta boot! *finally* got that treat, heh)
Anyway, it sure would be a nice surprise to see the band come back to Merri-
wether, the last show there was in '85 during the 20yrs so far tour, and I
recall Jerry or someone coming on-stage before one show began and saying some-
thin' to the effect of "It's our 20th year anniversary, tonight *everyone* gets
in", then we heard a roar from the back of the crowd and lo and behold, there
were security dudes selling tickets through the fences and heads cascading 
across them, it got pretty packed and probably doomed the return of the band,
but it seemed harmless at the time and hey, the *band* said it was ok...yeah,
Merriwether, hmmm, Dupree's, C.C Rider, Keep on Growin', funny how covers stick
in your mind sometimes, though Duprees sure isnt, think we got one of those in
Roanoke too, im gettin' there..:) For What It's Worth, Star Lake Amphitheatre
is a close runner up for the outdoors, barring the traffic jams and current
Deadhead behavioral problems, left a great initial impression on me.

	As for indoor places, the spaceship definitely takes the cake in my
book, good ol' Hampton Coliseum.  I won't recount the numerous killer shows
there and the many greetings and kindness which the city of Hampton rained upon
us, but there's definitely been some special moments, 'member when they broke 
out Box of Rain, or Death Don't Have No, AWBYGN, then Dark Star, always GA, 
guaranteed to rain at least one night of the stop to clean the unwashed :), 
and the whole atmosphere inside and out brings back exquisite feelings of joy. 
I remember one night after a show, at the Daze Inn (or was that the Courtyard?
..) some head was walkin' back from his car as i was coming in, and he had 
this let-down look on his face.  I proceeded to strike up a convo, and it 
seemed the source of his depression was the simplest of things, couldn't find 
his *papers*. Not only was I capable of solving that problem in a heartbeat, 
the guy was so bummed looking about it that we offered him the use of our tube.
Turned out he was right across the hall from us, and though he was pleased to 
accept my assistance, he insisted that i come to his room to use it, and *just*
me, noone else.  I was kinda feelin' suspicious and wondering, but he was w/o
question a hip cat so i took him up on it, and upon entry to his room i was 
greeted with a hotel room that looked like it'd been turned into a studio. There
were wires crisscrossing the floor, bed and tables in every direction, and what
looked to be about 5 tape decks, 4-5 vcrs, two tvs, equalizers, speakers, a
kaleidescope of electronic gadgetry all wired together, and sure enough, there
on the screens were the gentleman of the hour, the good ol' Grateful Dead, 
sounding *very* familiar.  Turned out of course, it was video from that nights
show, and he was dubbing it for his buddies, along with a couple analog copies
to boot! Rough life, but somebody had to do it.  Though I never really directly
asked that i remember, he must've insisted about 15 times that night that "*I*
didn't record it, some guy just lent me the tape" and similar thoughts, as if
with all this gadgetry in the room i was to believe that there was another guy
somewhere who just happened to bring a video cam in, and he just happened to 
have 5vcrs and enough patchcord to dub tapes from here to the Holiday Inn 
along for the ride...:)  Of course i assured him that i would never 
suspect that *he* would be so low as to do such a thing, that seemed to be his
main concern for the hour or so we sat in there and watched the evenings show
again, convincing me that *he* would never do such a thing, it just so happened
that a friend of a friend had a video cam, etc. Anyway, stranger things have
happened, but not a bad return for shakin' a guys hand and sayin' hi.  Never
did recall his name or really hook up with him for copies of the video, but it
was a nice treat to hear/see it within hours of leavin' the show...

	Now, where was i? Oh, fav venues, sorry to bore ya with that story, but
if you're still with me i have a couple other comments...:) Roanoke i have fond
memories of, quite small as i recall, probably the smallest place i've ever seen
the band, dont remember a whole lot about the scene though, like even where i
stayed though it seems like it was some fancy out-of-context place, but i do
recall that those were great shows, Never Trust a Woman, Gimme Some Lovin', 
a Duprees, a Crazy Fingers and a kind Comes A Time spring to mind, though for 
me any Comes A Time would be a kind one...:) Hard to classify this place as 
my fav venue though, having only gotten the pleasure of seein' two shows and a
Tech/UVA b-ball game there...:)  Least the speeding ticket came after the b-ball
game...

Richmond '85 was schweet, but thats another story.  My final venue story relates
to the Spectrum in Philly.  When I first read the question that got this going,
and started reading some of the stories I thought of the Spectrum, but then I
wondered why since it didn't occur to me that any of the shows contained any
spectacularly significant moments that I could recall offhand, and it occured to
me that it's the parking lot scene there that i remember most fondly, a vast
expanse of happy happy people, probably the largest parking lot scene i'd ever
noticed at that point, combining JFK, the Spectrum, and what else, Veterans?
Anyway, a vast expanse of concrete filled with heads, etc., a virtual city 
within a city, 'cept this city didn't have any cops anywhere to be seen.  Lots
of people doin' whatever turned them on, with no abandon, you've all seen it
but for some reason the scene at the Spectrum was amazing to me, perhaps the
thought of all this friendliness in the midst of a city, i dont know. Not like
I'd never been to RFK. But my story relates to a particular night, which I'm
completely clueless on the date of, but I know some soul out there might 
'member it 'cuz it was a date of somewhat historical significance.  I really 
got to thinkin' about this when i read the story about the show on the night 
Sadat was killed.  While I have no real recollection of the show or the songs
played, at least offhand, I do know it was the Spectrum and I was on Ecstasy,
which means it was a *great* show, like they could've played Day Job 25 times
in a row and it would've been a great show, 'cuz at the time i was in that mind-
less state of bliss X has been known to produce.  Me and a roomie from college
were up in Philly and I'd been gettin' the killer X from labs unknown, and we
decided, hey, what the hell, lets X for the Dead show.(disclaimer: I dont rec-
commend the stuff, but at the time it seemed pretty harmless.) Anyway, i'm sure
i danced my ass off that night, and love was in the air, and we were feelin'
mighty nice, quite a pleasant experience it was, after somehow finding our way
back to South Philly to our hosts pad, we entered to find him tripping hard and
in a bad way, staring in disbelief at a TV. "We're going to war man, we're 
fucking going to war" he kept saying.  Turned out we had just bombed the
Colonel over in Tripoli, Libya. (I would spell his name, but i dont think *any*
one has ever agreed on that one.) Well, as ya might imagine that was a bit of
a shocker coming out of one of the most peaceful and joy-filled places on the
planet, on Ecstasy to boot, and finding out our country might be going to war
and that we had most definitely engaged in hostile activities.  Now bein' kinda
young at the time, and with just the three of us, we didn't really have much of
a clue what it all meant, and even though we pretty much believed the propoganda
of the time about what an evil wicked man he was, the first thought was *not*
"cool, maybe they killed the weasel."  None of us had ever encountered this type
of news, and we began to wonder if we'd be drafted and sent off to war in the 
desert.  But first things first, we knew we had to calm our host down, who was
after all on the contemplation drug, not the love drug...After finally 
convincing him that it was *OK* to turn the TV off, we sat around and talked
about what we'd do if they wanted to draft us, a thought none of us relished, 
and we convinced him (all the while not really *knowing* ourselves what could 
happen) that the draft was unlikely, and besides, we're in college...:), and
we could always go underground, or protest, and look at the good side, maybe
they will try to go to war and we could radicalize the population against it,
and somehow we leapt from that to talks of other protests, and managed to 
stray far enough from the subject that he forgot about it and we popped in a 
tape or two or three, it was a very long night...but we made it through.  Any-
way, another strange story, no dramatic climax or humorous ending, but if any
one out there has a clue what night this was, i believe it was spring of '87,
but maybe the fall, I'd appreciate a note.  That's about all for now, sorry so
long-winded, but i am me...peace, cya
eric

-- 
It left a smoking crater of my mind I'd like to blown away