I was aware of the Grateful Dead when in high school in the mid-late 1970's. It wasn't really until the beginning of my freshman year of college in the fall of 1978 that I became enamored with this band's live-jam musical melodies that could put one into an almost hypnotic trance-like state filled with warmth, love, and kindness. And so began my fascination with this band that already had a huge cult following (and still does, despite Jerry Garcia having passed away over twenty years ago on August 9, 1995 - a dark day for many people, including myself). After seeing them perform live the first time at the Providence Civic Center in the dead (pun intended) of winter on January 20, 1979, I was hooked. Here was a band that could go from the beginnings of a seemingly simple song with 3-4 verses out into some cosmic ether of notes and sounds, blending mellifluously, where one wondered how they could ever find their way back to the original song. And sometimes, they didn't. Or not until later in the show. I would love it when they would launch from one song into another in a seamless transition where it was hard to say where the first song ended and the second song began. And then, if they brought it back to the first song sometime later in the set, that was truly magical. I'm not even sure what it means to be considered a dead-head, but that is the descriptive term used to describe fans who are obsessed with the band. Some, indeed, are... truly obsessed. I guess you could call me a dead-head, to some degree. I never really thought of myself as one - just another fan who really loved their music and would "take what it takes" to see the band play live when they were coming through town. I wasn't the kind of dead-head, though, who fanatically followed the band on tour from one city to the next, surviving as best as one can on the road. And, if those folks didn't have enough money to buy a ticket for one of the shows, they would wander around the parking lots with their index finger extended up in the air pleading, "I need a miracle" (one of the Dead's songs). So much has been written about the Dead over the years that I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with all of this. Since this web-site is a journal of sorts of my adventures in life, particularly with upcoming travels on the sea aboard the World Odyssey (hence, world sea traveler), I thought it also can be used to record different, fun, or unusual happenings with life. Life is, after all, a series of happenings strung together. And, just as I was writing this last sentence, sitting in my parents' house on Cape Cod, I looked down on the desk and there was a wooden coaster with the following inscription on it, "Success is to have lived well, laughed often, and loved much." What a great quote - and it makes me realize that it's great to have a way to record, through these postings, of when I have lived well, or laughed often, or loved much (or any combination of all the above together!). Thus it is, back to the Grateful Dead. They have truly inspired hundreds of thousands of people over the course of time. For me, too, probably every time I saw the band, I had a feeling of inspiration and I was living well and laughing often. Therefore, it is fully appropriate to write about them in one of these blogs. It's good for me to have some personal chronicle of the band. Considering the band continued in some form or fashion for over 50 years, there may not be too many more occasions to see them play live. That is why I continue to catch them whenever I can. Fare Thee Well was announced last year - the final tour to see the four remaining members of the Grateful Dead together once again (Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann). Three shows to be held in Chicago at Soldier's Field over the 4th of July weekend. Well, I just had to go. After all, I had other friends from the Bay Area planning to attend. So, I reached out to my house-mate from senior-year at college who lives in Chicago and asked if he wanted to go. Without a second of hesitation, Andy responded, "Count me in!" And now to get our tickets.... But, then, what's this? More shows are being added the weekend before at Levi's stadium in Santa Clara where the "Santa Clara", er, SF 49ers now play (Isn't this like the NY - or is it NJ? - Giants who play in New Jersey at the Meadowlands, right? At least the SF 49ers are still playing in the same state). Well, Santa Clara is downright close to home. Must go see a show there, too. Similar to a couple of the principles of Burning Man, the effort begins for "radical self reliance" (get tickets to be able to attend, and get ye to the show) and "radical inclusion" (invite friends to attend with you - other 'dead heads' or others who simply might appreciate the experience). My friend, Todd, was able to get tickets to the Chicago shows through mail-order, so he told me I was set for a ticket at least one night over the 4th of July weekend. But I still needed to secure a ticket for me and Andy one of the other nights. Thinking about the shows in Santa Clara, it dawned on me that my place of employment had a box at Levi's stadium and I doubted they had an interest in paying for it and using it either of the nights of the show (not the sort of event that's appropriate for entertaining your financial clients, probably). I contacted the CEO's assistant and asked her if she had heard anything yet about the event for box-owners. She had not, but a few weeks later she forwarded me an e-mail and told me the box was mine for the taking if I wanted to cough up 4 grand and invite along 19 friends to go with me. I think she thought I was nuts for doing so, but I made it a reunion of sorts with various friends from Semester at Sea. I had folks coming in from Walnut Creek (hey, that's a bit of a haul to Santa Clara), Southern California, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and even London, England. We had a blast and what a memorable evening. What has dawned on me as I write this is that I am utilizing the "days between" to do so (another title of a Dead song). Besides being one of the last songs that Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter collaborated on (the Annotated Dead lyrics web page has this to say about the song: "'Days Between' was the final battlefield where the Dead dared to face the elementary questions of existence, and refused to flinch. It has the same fated, tragic majesty that bears witness to the life force in all truly great art"), days between is also known as the time between the celebration of Jerry Garcia's life with his birthday on August 1st and the anniversary of the day of his death on August 9th. Yes. True. I've been only slowly adding comments to this post each day over the last nine days. I guess this is a harder one since the Dead have meant so much to me in so many different ways over the course of my life (or, at least, the last 37 years) and I'm not even sure of all of what to say. So let's conclude by returning to the photos at the beginning of this posting. They were taken at the two most recent shows of the band... the final two shows of the Dead & Company tour of 2016. Friday night, July 29th, Dead & Company played in Wheatland, California which is about 20 miles north of Sacramento, not far from Yuba City. Out in the middle of the Central Valley sits the Toyota Amphitheater. In the middle of this Godforsaken hell-hole (OK, that was the Hunter Thompson writer in me coming out) it was still 98 degrees at 6 pm. Todd and I discovered we were the only ones who didn't "get the message" that all men were required to wear shorts (yes, we actually wore long pants that night). Having heard tid-bits of shows from earlier in their tour, I knew we were in for a treat. I did not realize how special a treat it really would be. John Mayer played lead guitar for the band and he embraced the role in a fashion that almost seemed like he was channeling Jerry. He brought a certain sense of youthfulness and inspiration to the band. And this was just our warm-up show. How is that? Well, we already had tickets to the final show of the tour at Shoreline Amphitheater on Saturday, July 30th - 5th row, center section. It was on a whim, the week before, when I got an e-mail offering to buy tickets to Friday's show, that I decided to go ahead and do so. Before then, I had no clue Wheatland even existed (I still have to wonder why they decided to play in this place, other than to think it was for folks in Central California (Sacramento/Fresno), Northern California (Redding/Eureka), and Eastern California (Tahoe). Oh, and also for those of us who decided to come from the Bay Area to see an extra show. So, realizing it was only about 2 1/2 hours away, and I could get tickets in the second row of the middle 200's section for just $25 each, I thought, why not? Then on the final night of the tour, we had one of the special VIP packages (Golden Road), which included a VIP parking pass, admission to the Loose Lucy Lounge ahead of the concert, early admission to the event, a catered dinner, a number of memorabilia mementos, and, most importantly, great seating at the show. As I mentioned before, 5th row (Row CC) in the middle section (102), seats 1-4, right on the aisle (see us below enjoying a rocking version of Franklin's Tower to close the first set). These were the best seats I ever experienced to any of their shows... ever! What a treat. And Todd's bubbles floated up to the stage (until one of the roadies came out to tell him "no more bubbles").
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CONRAD B. HERRMANN
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