For my kindred spirits here, you will understand.

[LeftyFingerPop]

I saw my first Grateful Dead concert in Ithaca, NY 11 days after this show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIazEis6EWg

The video is old and raw, but the sound is great.

And something captured me at my first concert...the way this band could build this thing called "music" to an incredible climax...just like that thing we call "love". And the way they brought their music to a level that was so intense it was almost violent...yet sweet, undistorted, and clean...unlike any other group of musicians I've experienced. And the way they listened to each other...concentrated...because at their best, this music was not rehearsed.

This song was also played at my first concert...and this is the song that hooked me and made me go see them 70 more times over the next 17 years or so.

As I listen to this song, and notice how the hairs on my arms stand up in the final 2 minutes....it reminds me of something else that happened to me last night. :evilgrin:

[Redneck Socialist]

1. A little before my Dead days (daze?)...

Well ok a decade before my dead days, but those '77 Ithaca shows are classics. :hippie:

Thanks for the hit... :smoke:









of nostalgia, what did you think I was talking about? :D

[LeftyFingerPop]

3. you are welcome...

just found it today and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[darkstar]

2. Nice indeed...

Thanks. A bunch. Amigo. Very chilling stuff. Nothing else like them because they dared to suck. And I'm not being silly. You know what I mean right, and how that's a good thing?

:hug:

[LeftyFingerPop]

4. ahhh darkstar my friend...

isn't that a nice clip? Daring to suck indeed...means that you can occasionally find greatness. :hug:

[SPKrazy]

5. Geez I wonder what that would be...

:evilgrin:

70 times! I'm duly impressed :patriot:

I saw them only once and loved them. I danced and danced until I thought sure that my ass would fall off and then I danced some more.

:hi:

[LeftyFingerPop]

6. SPK...

then YOU are also my kindred spirit. How are you this evening?

[SPKrazy]

9. stressed, but not bad

lots a' shakin' in the house of SPK today...

it all works out how it works itself out.

:pals:

[darkstar]

7. Hey SPK....

When didja see them? Roughly. And what town? (I expect this to be a bit more precise; do what you can to indulge th old hippie....)

:hi:

[SPKrazy]

8. Roughly 1982 in Oklahoma City at the Zoo Amphitheater

great outdoor venue, hot as hell though. Didn't matter to me.

:hi:

[LeftyFingerPop]

10. 1982 had some gems...

Syracuse 82 was good. There is a common belief however that the odd years were the best for the band for some reason....1972 being a notable exception. Are you doing well? i was thinking of you today.

[LeftyFingerPop]

11. Wait sorry...just saw you were stressed...

hope things get better.

[SPKrazy]

16. bound to get better one way or another philboy!

how are you?

:shrug:

[darkstar]

13. Hey, I take it you've heard the 82 Raven Space?

http://www.archive.org/details/gd82-04-19.sbd.clugston.2316.sbeok.shnf

I just heard it for the first time in ages on the archives. Just in case you haven't--and to whet your appetite--Phil reads a bit of The Raven and there is a gaseous hissing on stage and--I'm thinking of you now; how's the tooth?--lots of talk about going to the dentist's....

Carry on.

[LeftyFingerPop]

14. Thanks man...I'm gonna listen to it...

I've heard it once...right around the time of the "earthquake space" show if I recall. Mr. Lesh was feeling unusually verbal during these days. By the way..."philboy" is my dog's name...and he is named after our favorite bassist .

[darkstar]

12. I figured as much...well not the date or the venue

but that it was a Midwest show. You live in Arkansas, right? I used to live in Springfield MO for a time. Was in college bands, etc. We'd play all over northern AR and eastern OK, i.e., Tulsa, Norman (ugh), Fayetteville, Little Rock, Conway etc. It was then that I didn't get to see the Dead much b/c I was always playing from about 80-86.

And I vaguely recall the OKC gig (I think) b/c we weren't all that far away, playing Miami, OK (I think).

I'm sure you find all of this fascinating..... :rofl:

Take care, :hi:

[SPKrazy]

15. Actually I Live In AR Now

but lived in north central Oklahoma (Stillwater) at that time

Interesting, what were the names of some of your bands?