woods@sri-unix (09/02/82)
I am posting this to net.music as well since I am not sure if net.gdead is a real group or not. I took a trip with some hard-core Dead Heads I just met out to Oregon and Washington this past weekend, and caught the Dead for 2 shows at Veneta, Ore. (about 15 miles outside of Eugene) and in Seattle, and they great as usual. There were lots and lots of T-shirts from the Eugene show at the Seattle show, so many people made the same trip we did. The people I was with had a friend come all the way from Georgia! We converted the 3 Seattle natives we were with at that show into Dead Heads! They played "Weather Report Suite" in Seattle, so that is apparently going to be one of their regular tunes. Also, there were 2 new tunes, which were played both days. Rumor has it there will be a new studio album out soon. The Eugene show was produced by a dairy company (Springfield Creamery) that is owned by Ken Kesey, and many of the old "Trips Festival" crew were there, includng Mountain Girl and Wavy Gravy. The show was really well set up, with homemade food sold for really cheap prices, 3 other bands, and various performers between bands (jugglers etc.), and a SURPRISE appearance by Peter Rowan (of "Old and in the Way" fame), and he was really really hot. All in all it was a HELL of a party! (Field Trip and Grateful Picnic, as it was nicknamed) After the show, ths makeshift bluegrass band came out and played until after dark! The environment in Seattle was totally different, being in an indoor coliseum in the middle of a big city instead of in a large field out in the sticks as it was in Veneta, and included such things as cops taking beers away from people on line, and security pigs roaming the crowd taking away recording equipment (we saved one bootlegger by deliberately getting in the way of the security guy chasing him). In spite of that the show was great, and when we came outside afterwords, the Space Needle was all lit up with rainbow colors and everything, it was really neat. The Seattle natives we were with said that they only turn on the rainbow for special occasions! GREG (ucbvax!menlo70!hao!woods)