ZONE OUT with the ROLLING RIDER
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6/26/04 - The Dead at Shoreline, CA ...
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Set One: 'We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.' -Anton Chekov, 1897

In the friendly confines of Bill Graham's Shoreline Amphitheatre, the boys couldn't help but tug on Superman's cape right from the starting gates. Out of the opening JAM, the boys took an ambitious swipe at HERE COMES SUNSHINE which never truly coalesced. However, this creative tension was something Jerry felt made music work, saying, 'I think the audience enjoys it more when it's a little more of a struggle'. The pairing of JACK STRAW with DARK STAR was certainly a nod to the 8/16/91 Shoreline show, in which they opened with Jack and pulled the only first set Dark since 1971. Phil steered the Vista Cruiser through the nebula and docked her gingerly in MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON, where dancing kings and wives were assembled on the grassy hill. Warren summoned Brent with an immaculate JUST A LITTLE LIGHT, and there was a tingling recognition that Grateful Dead 101 was fully in session. Bobby opted for MINGLEWOOD BLUES, est.1966, and after already going through the transitive nightfall, the opening bars of DUPREE'S felt like pure drops of Diamond rain. Surprising everyone including a few of the band members, Warren's version of U2's ONE rang true, as so often we, as sisters and brothers, must carry each other. IT'S ALL OVER NOW BABY BLUE initially had my heart feeling heavy as a bucket of wet sand, but ultimately it was cathartic, time to strike another match and go start anew. The Diamond-themed first set was crowned with a mellifluous LUCY IN THE SKY, reminding me at once of the old school poem: 'Tonight we danced to the Grateful Dead/In a ballroom hung with gold/And while we hung our acid heads/They made their dream unfold'.

Set Two: 'The little 'Ripple in still water' part is a haiku, 17 syllables. There's a lot of those kinds of things in our music that most people never get.' - J. Garcia

Set Two began with a pair of acoustic rarities, KC MOAN followed by the Hunter composition A LITTLE PIECE FOR YOU, Phil crooning: 'Come what may, today is only borrowed, it may not be returned from whence it came' A sanguine FRIEND OF THE DEVIL inspired the crowd, and you felt the denizens of Northern California urging on their hometown band. MR CHARLIE may have provided the pinnacle of the evening, with many an impossible psychedelic jig danced in the aisles. The lesson of LAST TIME is always heeded, while even though the boys are stronger than ever, we relish each show, each song, and each segue like it is the last layer of sunset melting into the horizon. Mickey grabbed the reins for FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN, rapping about our band as a Dragon with Matches, or Hunter's lyrical sparks, which create a flame that will leave more than just ashen memories, but a fire we carry into our own lives and dreams. Billy and Mickey brought out the Rolling Thunder, and I couldn't help but have that feeling that DRUMS and SPACE is the apogee, or highest point of any show. Through all the broken dreams, we were cradled by a beautiful STELLA BLUE, a song which Hunter described as 'What could be more Jerry than that?' The road weary crowd seemed to unanimously relate to the blue-light cheap hotel. After a blue star, we were cupped in the second verse of the DARK by a glass hand dissolving to ice petal flowers. The most obvious always being the least obvious, we floated buoyantly upon a spirited and resounding ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT. I feel compelled to mention once again the story recounted by McNally of the tiff over the song: '?having gotten Hunter's lyrics, Weir rewrote them--badly in Hunter's opinion--and then asked to call the resulting song 'U.S.Blues', which Hunter refused to permit.' This of course, adds a new dimension to the lyric, 'you can call This Song, the United States Blues'. Phil's heartfelt DONOR RAP coupled with Mickey and Bobby's urge to VOTE had the crowd at hushed attention, and we were left with RIPPLE. It conjured up thoughts of that old first electric Ripple in seventeen years, which was broken out for a young terminally-ill Deadhead via the Make-a-Wish Foundation, a 'must-listen-to' from 9/3/88. It's a hand me down. It's a fountain that's not made by the hands of men. It's our community, where we take all this energy and do something good with it.

Salutations til' Sacramento, Rolling Rider

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6.24.04 - The Dead at Irvine, CA

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