summer95

     I remember the biggest fatty circle I have ever seen at a Grateful Dead concert during intermission at the last California show ever, it was right before the first California Unbroken Chain.  The last song  Jerry ever sang on a stage in California was Brokedown Palace.

Fare you well my honey
Fare you well my only true one
All the birds that were singing
Have flown except you alone
Goin to leave this Broke-down Palace On my hands and my knees I will roll roll roll Make myself a bed by the waterside In my time - in my time - I will roll roll roll
In a bed, in a bed by the waterside I will lay my head Listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul
River gonna take me Sing me sweet and sleepy Sing me sweet and sleepy all the way back back home It's a far gone lullaby sung many years ago Mama, Mama, many worlds I've come since I first left home
Goin home, goin home by the waterside I will rest my bones Listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul
Goin to plant a weeping willow On the banks green edge it will grow grow grow Sing a lullaby beside the water Lovers come and go - the river roll roll roll
Fare you well, fare you well I love you more than words can tell Listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul

     Grateful Dead

     Brokedown Palace 

     Shoreline Amphitheater    

     June 4th, 1995

     https://youtu.be/uoxXT75QTIw

    Unbroken Chain 

    https://youtu.be/wyi99sqCu5U

>>>>6-4-95

That was my last GD show.  The UBC was sort of a let down.   Jerry was zonked and non-present during the solo.   Rest of the show was pretty awesome being there, but listening back on tapes, the second set is real rough.    Heard a much better UBC during sound check up in Seattle the previous week and freeks were dancing in the street outside the venue. 

     It sounded pretty good on the Czechoslovakian

     "during sound check up in Seattle"

     Rumor had it they were sound checking "Do You Believe in Magic?" by the Lovin' Spoonful in Seattle and that was the song  Jerry was working on with the band before he passed away.

     https://youtu.be/oL7XdoS5Je4

     My girlfriend & I had taken the elevator to the top of the Space Needle, we were on the balcony looking out on the Puget Sound, the drum circle directly below us was fully audible, it's kind of like being in a hot air ballon, as far as there are absolutely no sound barriers...when all of a sudden the band started playing before anyone thought they would and we were listening to a beautiful Shakedown opener crystal clear from atop the Space Needle, one of my all-time favorite memories!  :)

     note:  hearing Jerry sing the lyrics "like tryin' to tell a stranger 'bout rock 'n roll" would be pretty sweet!

              Edit:  It must have been '94 

              https://youtu.be/xanMqoqvsXk

Saw a pretty cool band in the lot at Giants' Stadium.  Uncle Funkle ( mighta been "Unkle").  Flash keys player and a tight horn section.

GD were, I dunno, middling.

     Hofmann's Potion 
     https://youtu.be/OpSLjdPiSH8

Highgate,,, The Worst Ever

Started out great, got in early and patched in with some excellent tapers in an area with a tad bit of shade. But as soon as the music started someone opened the spigot to our right and about 5 - 10 thousand fence crashers all poured in. Took a few mins but the rush made its way to our taper section and it was like a fucking stampede. Hot as a fuck that day anyway but now all the dirt and dust these assholes kicked up devoured all the mics, all the rigs. There were some pissed off tapers that day.  But episodes like that were perfectly apropos tho to what the scene had become by 95 -- a whole lotta fucked shit.

It's no wonder Jerry decided to check out. He probably saw what the scene had turned into and died of shame.

Dead w/ Dylan opening a few days later at giants stadium was my last Jer

Dead End 

The Infamous Highgate Fence Crash Stampede Of 95  

Lets see now, who were these immoral jackals that totally polluted the scene

with their lack of common respect and proper concert social etiquette ?

Could they beeeeee,,,,,,  Phish heads ?   Yes 

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/lets-blow-up-this-black-music-the-ug...

Could they beeeeee,,,,,,  Phish heads ?   Yes

My guess is no, since Phish crowds werent nearly as large and as entitled as the one traveling with the dead. Additionally, your overall observation of fans that lack concert etiquette could easily apply to the Dead and the entire crowd that followed them. As we commemorate the anniversary of Woodstock, I'm reminded of the thousands of people that rushed the gates there, or the hippies demanding free music on the festival express tour. Unfounded entitlement seems to go hand in hand with the hippy experience. One just need go to the nearest show and experience the "scene."

>>>Could they beeeeee,,,,,,  Phish heads ? Yes<<<

You've got to be kidding. Gate crashing was a constant reality at dead concerts the last two or three years of the bands existence, especially at the sheds. At that time Phish was playing 900-2,500 seat venues to twenty-somethings who wouldn't go near a Grateful Dead concert.

In contrast, by '93 Shoreline for example had to start building large barricaded DMZ zones around not only the front & side gates but the outer perimeter as well. Packs of fleadirts would roam from gate to gate waiting for the slightest opening, or just have fifty jump the barricades and charge the gates, celebrating when a handful of the losers would make it in, often leaving injured staff & actual ticker holders in their wake.

It wasn't Phish heads doing that, and it wasn't real dead heads either (people who would actually buy a ticket, throw away their trash and go home after the show). It was the multitudes of parasitical losers who had enveloped the "scene" and turned into the shit show it became.

>>>>twenty-somethings who wouldn't go near a Grateful Dead concert.

Twenty-somethings?   I was 24 when I first saw Phish in 94 and felt like I was the oldest dude on the lot.  More like teenagers.

--30--

Vegas shows always had an opener and started at 2pm (I think?). Shows typically ended at dusk.