jon@boulder.UUCP (Jonathan Corbet) (06/18/85)
[Twenty years so far]
I have just returned from Berkeley, and I would like to pass on a few
comments. Playlists have already been posted, so I won't bother with that.
First, I beg to differ with Dick Dunn's assessment of the overall
quality of the shows. Everybody I talked to thought that while the first two
shows were extremely good (especially Friday), Sunday's show was by far the
best. It was a raging rock and roll show. "Walking Blues" had the audience
jumping, and the "Scarlet Fire," "The Other One," and "Wharf Rat" from the
second set were all just incredible. I really wish they had come out for
one last encore, but I guess the band just wasn't into it.
One nasty surprise was the fact that they stopped allowing tape decks
in after so many, so a lot of tapers got shut out. Let that be a warning to
the tapers out there: get in line early.
Security was indeed a problem, with numerous drug busts taking place
before the shows. I saw one guy get caught with a backpack full of little
baggies...stupid... Despite this, the atmosphere as a whole was quite
relaxed; there were none of the trained gorillas that you see at Feyline
shows.
A lot of people apparently had trouble with credit card tickets. It
seems that if you didn't arrive early enough, they found something else to do
with your tickets. I had no trouble with mine, however. There were seemingly
thousands of people there without tickets; it was difficult to walk more than
about 50 feet without somebody coming up and trying to buy a ticket. I guess
the old question of "spare change?" has become "got any extra tickets?".
Overall, I was truly impressed. This is the first time I have
travelled to see the Dead, and I think it was worth it. There was a T shirt
I saw, that expresses my sentiments; it said "TWENTY MORE YEARS!"
jon
--
Jonathan Corbet
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Field Observing Facility
{seismo|hplabs}!hao!boulder!jon (Thanks to CU CS department)