Intermission has been awesome. I don’t know if it’s all the ecstasy but I never saw so many beautiful people in my life. It’s like a damn hippie beauty pageant in this place tonight.  Everywhere I went I saw exactly who I was hoping to see moments before I ever saw them. The mood in this place is so electric, no drama, nobody freaking out. Everybody in this place seems just right. I’m not sure my chemistry has ever been so ideal in all of my life; I feel like an absolute ray of light.

I’ve helped three people get out of the problems in their own head just by smiling at them.  There’s some magic all over this place. I missed the guys climbing up the ladders. I hate when that happens. There’s a patchwork of smiles, beachballs bouncing around leaving crazy trails. I don’t know who that dude we’ve been selling buds to is, but he’s definitely well connected. We haven’t been further back than 10th row the whole tour. The anticipation in this building could be weighed with a scale. Air has a very definite heaviness in this place right now. Your mind screams, “TURN THE LIGHTS OUT!” It’s as if Candace hears you scream in your mind. The lights go out as the instant roar of the crowd is immediately followed by the sight of flashlights leading the band to the stage.

They emerge from behind their stacks of sound equipment laughing as if there’s a joke between them. The energy shared in this place is all over them as well. It’s clearly not just me. When the noodling and tuning starts it becomes immediately clear . . . it’s gonna be Scarlet->Fire! This takes the intensity to an entirely different level of high!

Every member smiling. Bill and Mickey warming their chops on the hi-hats. When the affirmative notes of Scarlet Begonias are struck by Garcia, he smiles down the line of people in the front row causing every person within his vision and even those beyond it to believe they just had an intimate soul experience with him. As the riffs roll out and the rest of the band gets behind the movement Garcia seems to be caught up in the vibe and seems a little slow getting to the mic. I think to myself “he’s definitely missing the cue.” Somehow, in perfect Garcia time, he gets there some way and the raging party officially takes flight as Jerry’s eyebrows, slightly elevated, rejoices with his voice through half of a smile, “As I was walkin’ ’round Grosvenor Square.” Holy Shit this is tight!

The band sounds like a well oiled machine as every component falls into it’s perfect and proper place. The notes that come off of Garcia’s and Weir’s guitars spin my my mind. Any wayward thoughts fly away. All negativity is sent packing. I found such a funky dancing groove in the pocket that I feel like the 7th member of the band. I’m like a human metronome and I swear the band is actually using ME to keep time. I couldn’t stop smiling if I tried . . .

There’s something so cyclical about Scarlet. I feel like we’re all on this psychedelic merry-go-round. It’s Impossible for anybody to sit still at this point. Every verse speaks deeply into the experience. The band hits their marks in perfect unison. They absolutely drive the whirling dervish of tie dyed sweat that most of us are quickly turning into. My body is seemingly taken over by the absolute clarity and volume of the massive trampoline of sound that’s springing all of us higher and higher. I catch the eyes of everyone around me, we’re all being blown away by what’s taking place. As the merry-go-round spins, Garcia fires off notes that feel like ornate sparks being thrown from his strings to elaborately decorate and detail this creation. As we approach the final verse Bill and Phil hold down the foundation of the groove while Mickey climbs the percussive ladder of life running his sticks up every tom tom he’s got. You know that sound!

Garcia’s licks seem to intentionally linger behind just enough for him to accelerate as quickly as possible as he begins to make his final move; It’s as though he’s gotta catch up to the proceedings at hand without leaving any note out from the run as he makes the musical sprint to the finish line. Scales being peeled off rapidly, his face assumes the determined and intense look illustrating the effort that goes into this stretch to the finish line crossing it with the rest of the band, as well as all of us, as we collectively declare, “THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS PLAYING TEA FOR TWO! THE SKY WAS YELLOW AND THE SUN WAS BLUE!”

Every cell in my body climaxes with the moment as I’m fully awakened to the realization that EVERYBODY truly and completely is playin’ in the Heart of Gold band. It’s all of us, everybody, like ’em or not. Every one of us is a necessary and required ingredient to all of this wild shit that’s happening. In my current state of mind I think I’ve discovered something that’s just as new as when I discovered it during this same tune just last week. The jam heads for exploratory ground, noises from instruments that aren’t even present can be heard in the thick layers of sound that are coming at us from the band like lava flows from a volcano. It’s no coincidence that particular vision emerges in my thoughts and overtakes my senses. And just as lava flows from its source, surely there’s some Fire coming our way . . .