If a concertgoer is hurt, bummed out on drugs or otherwise discombobulated, someone is there to make it better, free of charge, thanks to Graham and RockMed. Student and I are trolling for casualties of the good time being had by all. But at comparatively sedate Dead shows, the biggest problems are overdoses from psychedelics. So far, however, we have come across only people with minor injuries from dancing - sprains, blisters and an occasional dislocated toe. About 25 people will require treatment in an audience of 10,000.
Student is really a sort of avuncular scout, one of several on the concert floor.
Student and others in RockMed once were into the music and, in many cases, the head food, too. I don't drink and howl at the moon as much as I used to. Music is part of it, but at any given show 50 percent of the volunteers couldn't say who's playing. RockMed people have published articles in professional journals on the treatment of overdoses. I also think of Erik H. Erikson, the late, great Marin County psychoanalyst whose principal contribution to psychology was the elucidation of the characteristics, requirements and pitfalls of each of the stages of human mental development, from cradle to grave.