Tag Archives: Dead50

Weir and Mayer

In news that was refreshing to everyone, Bob Weir proved he left home with at least 2 pairs of pants when he took the stage at The Target Center in Minneapolis Saturday. Rumor has it, Buckwheat called and said, “Imma donna need ta git muh britches back!” Weir realizing it was the right thing to do returned the pants that he had been wearing since October 27th. Dead & Company’s wardrobe assistant on the tour, a mannequin that goes by the name of Saint Stiffen had no comment. Weir claimed to win the britches in an auction on Participation Row the last time Buckwheat Toured. He covered all bases by saying it may have just been a dream he had. None of my rumors are ever able to be confirmed so you’ll have to just take my word for it.

For those that are under the impression that I am in some way an insider now, I have to make it clear that I’m still as much of a Nobody as just about anybody. I may have become a higher level Nobody but I still haven’t elevated any higher than “Absolute Nobody” Status. As a matter of fact, after my review of this years “Night At The Movies” from Alpine ’89, my comments about Kreutzmann during Drums looking like an epileptic that discovered bread sticks at a salad bar got me blocked from posting any more of my material on his page. That’s OK, he’s still my third favorite drummer in Dead & Company, right behind Oteil. I wonder if people know when I’m kidding and when I’m not? Like right now for example…

As for Minnesota, The show was hot and the hippies were cold. The music was great at The Target Center except for Dear Prudence which I think sounds like a bad rendition played by some old dudes at a local Battle of the Bands competition. They would likely finish in 3rd place. Most of you get a real kick out of that tune so I probably should’ve kept that to myself. I know I’m probably supposed to love everything and think it all sounds great but to me Dear Prudence sounds like shit. I’m sure a lot of you disagree. I Love everybody either way! It was great to hear Cryptical but it was missing The Other One. Those 2 will get reunited soon and be much better than either of them alone. It was great to hear Mexicali but odd for it to stand by itself as well. Throw Mama Tried in front of that and we’re much better than before. I like the pic from Minnesota here because it shows a lot about what is going on at times. Weir is clearly saying, “Stop fuckin soloing and get back to the song!” John is most likely not listening at all because he’s lost in the moment. Perfect picture by whoever took it! Maybe Weir is really jamming along with him but has an expression that looks like he’s thinking, “Stop fuckin soloing and get back to the song!” I don’t know…

Dead & Company are a great a band but people that associate anybody as a “Spiritual Heir” to Garcia are more crazy than an Armpit Sandwich. I’m not sure why folks feel the need to compare anybody’s contributions to Garcia but it’s an unfair and irrelevant comparison. Nobody ever has or ever will come close to Garcia within this community. It’s an unrealistic expectation. If you haven’t heard it already, check out the interview Gary Lambert did with John Mayer. It’s a great interview and Gary is wonderful at saying the right things and asking the right questions without ever looking to be controversial. He’s much nicer than I am and is definitely better at handling the wing nuts that call into the show than David Gans. I like David because he’s got a really soft way of saying, “Lets hang up on this motherfucker!” without saying anything like that at all. Anyway, John made this interview incredibly easy on Gary because he began to answer questions that Gary never even asked. John had extremely interesting things to say and addressed all kinds of things that have been said about him. Check it out if you haven’t already by clicking this. Great job by Gary as always!

With the holidaze starting to take shape, I’ve put together a gift guide for the Deadheads in your life. It’s for those that will still have anything left to spend once they’re done seeing Dead & Company Shows. For most family and friends of those that have spent the year following our favorite musicians from Santa Clara to Chicago and now throughout the rest of the country, prepare to get a T Shirt they wore twice before wrapping. For anyone else, here are some great gift ideas for the overly obsessed people in your life.

My favorite book of the year comes from David Gans and Blair Jackson and is a great gift idea. You can have it signed by both of them and get it in time for the holidays if you stop dragging your feet and order this week. If you’re waiting to buy presents once you get back from Las Vegas, with all of your winnings, I hope your family appreciates the home made card. This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead is a wonderful read whether you have 5 minutes or an hour to spare. There’s enough substance in this book to keep you busy for over a year as a toilet reader (Results may vary based on your diet and the condition of your GI tract). Since you Love The Dead, You’ll Love The Book!

David Gans also has a new CD out and you can buy “It’s a Hand-Me-Down” right here. David’s take on some of our favorites is a pleasant change of pace for those of us that listen to Grateful Dead Music 24 hours a day. Whether fishing by a stream or having Love with your significant other, these versions are sure to bring a peaceful vibe to the experience. Great Job David!

For those willing to listen to something other than Grateful Dead Music, My bro, Brian Swislow has a great band together called Object Heavy. Brian has played with a bunch of dudes that toured with Zappa so it should be obvious that he’s a top shelf maker of music. Object Heavy is available for download or CD Purchase on Amazon, iTunes, and CD Baby. This CD is as funky as a pair of tour socks after 15 shows. I personally appreciate listening to something other than The Dead every now and then and this CD has found a spot in my regular rotation. Brian also makes some killer clothes and you can check them out at www.fatbol.com That brother is like the Daymond John of The Grateful Dead World. His shit is truly unique and is For US and By US! I have a few of his shirts and they’re high quality threads for sure!

For those that haven’t illegally downloaded the Fare Thee Well Product Line from Torrents and would prefer the entire package with all the accompanying and Official Swag, there’s the FARE THEE WELL COMPLETE BOX JULY 3, 4 & 5 2015 at the Official Site. That shit is gonna be on my list for sure! You can also grab the last night only if you don’t care about the best night which happened to be the first night. Look for the same box to be put out for Santa Clara before long because that shit is like money in the bank for our favorite enterprise and collector of all of our extra loot.

That’s it for today, catch y’all down the road…

Dead To The Core,

Dean Sottile (pronounced Total Nobody)
@gd50th on Twitter
The Official Home of Unofficial Grateful Dead News and Grateful Dean on Facebook

Omni2

Ahhhhh Yes, Georgia… A state known for dungaree overalls on grown ass men along with engineer hats and the mandatory handful of teeth missing. Lets not stereotype… Atlanta is a great city where I spent 9 years of my life and I Love it there! Go south of Macon and you’re guaranteed to meet some folks whose family trees have no damn branches though. A man will introduce you to his wife, sister and cousin and there’s only one woman standing there… The country’s largest predominantly caucasian dance party of the night took its awkward and mostly rhythmless moves south as Dead & Company got down in Dixie and held court at The Omni. I understand it’s called something else but I’ll always call it the Omni. When I think of Atlanta I always think of a few things. One is Gladys Night’s Chicken and Waffles! I hope some of y’all made it there before or after the show last night. Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for Blues and BBQ is another one of my favorite places down there. When it comes to The Dead in Atlanta, my memory instantly goes to April Fools Day in 1990. To me, first sets are more often than not just warm ups and a great bonus if something really special happens. Shows, from my perspective, were always measured by the quality of the second set. Then there’s those exceptions like the first set of 4/1/90. Garcia dropped all 3 of my first set favorites with Candyman, Althea and a stellar To Lay Me Down. Garcia would sing To Lay Me Down and it would cause this incredible love within US to be completely awoken and put on a pedestal directly in front of our vision. As he sang it the roots of passionate love and all its best attributes were woven deep into our hearts. It was a love much different than I would feel from any other male singer. It was a masculine love that was free of so many of the notions associated with a man singing a love song while other straight men are listening. It was a love you didn’t feel inhibited to experience fully… It was a love like this.
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Not really like this this…
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That entire April Fools show was just packed with every flavor of goodness known to US. Then there was the Death Don’t Have No Mercy on 4/2. It was a little shy of the hurricane that hit us in Hampton or the bust out at Shoreline but it was a great moment I’ll remember forever.

The first set this time around was pretty much same shit, different flies. Everything sounded good but nothing all that worthy of talking about at length. For those watching at home, streams on Periscope and Mixlr were as inconsistent as Kreutzmann’s urine streams. Erratic spurts with long pauses in between leaving both those on Couch Tour and Bill saying, “WHAT THE FUCK??” I’m sure those in attendance had an enhanced opinion on the festivities.

Any set that contains St Stephen is a great set! It became a great set early since they opened with it. Uncle J and Help-> Slip -> Frank cemented the great set tag before drums ever started. Weir can’t seem to get the first verse of Miracle out of his mouth. It’s probably because it’s so ill fitting a verse at this point in life. Since Barlow isn’t hanging around with him at the moment (Get Well in a hurry John) I’d like to help rewrite the song to make it more authentic and current. Here’s what I propose. The first verse will be changed to “I need a woman ’bout half my years, A lady with no liver spots or health related fears!” Then maybe since we’re not as thin as we used to be we can slightly augment that weight verse as well. Maybe change it to “I need a woman ’bout half my size, A Little one that’s twice the fun, no cataracts in her eyes!” I understand I’m no Barlow but that’s just my 2 cents…

The second Dew of the tour was delivered and I’m pretty certain of one thing, If I ever meet Weir, it’s a very safe bet that I won’t say, “Great to meet you Bob, you sounded outstanding singing The Dew the other night!” That’s all I’m gonna say about that… Sometimes I wonder if something as epic as The Dew would benefit from just being an instrumental now. Just put a blue spotlight where Garcia used to be and let it be the ultimate tribute. I’m just rambling I suppose… It seems like they over corrected for the problem they had with the first one. The Dew at MSG, John went bat shit, off the wall crazy on the first solo and the band just stopped jamming behind him after a while to return to the “Guess It Doesn’t Matter” part. By the time the second solo came around, the one he was really supposed to slay, he was too hesitant to do anything. This time around he moved a little too slow through the first solo realizing there was a second opportunity. He seemed a little abbreviated through the crescendo even though he definitely can rage on that tune! Out of everybody that has played that jam, post Garcia, Mayer has definitely been my favorite. They will get that tune just right at some point on this tour and it will be a moment that will be remembered forever. One of Garcia’s last great moments on stage was in Atlanta, March of 95 for the Dew. The end of that Dew was on a whole different level. I was fortunate enough to be relatively close to him that night and it was my last great experience with Jerry on a stage. The last screams of “Guess It Doesn’t Matter”, he actually had stepped away from the mic and screamed towards it one extra time as he closed it. I’m forever grateful the mic picked it up as his voice was totally breaking as he let it out. It’s among my favorite moments captured and definitely my favorite moment of 95. 3/26/95, Check it out and you’ll hear what I mean!

I was completely impressed by US on the NFA Chant! It was strong, powerful and sustained! We should be commended for returning to our youthful state of chanting dominance!

While Georgia got the peaches, Nash Vegas got the cream! Everything had the little extra something that turns the experience up to 11. The streams were consistent and abundant while folks that were on the rail got into the act. I really appreciate those that have Periscoped this stuff for those of US at home. If I did a Periscope it would look like someone put a camera on a mechanical bull. I dance something fierce from beginning to end. Finally people that are shitty dancers have something else to do! Althea was ferocious and the jams went around the block more often than usual. West LA has finally kicked the dope habit and no longer has the pace of a song written in a retirement community somwhere in Florida. Tennessee obviously got their Jed and it was a special one for the host state!

The second set was full of memorable moments. Even though Playin is getting a little Played out, It still finds new ground each and every time and will develop the improvisational abilities of the group as a whole. We can all be grateful for that. The New Speedway is consistently great, Estimated never disappoints and “Not another Viola Lee Blues” said nobody ever! That tuned can turn a party into overdrive! Stella Blue is a Garcia song that Weir sings better than any, in my meaningless opinion, and coming out of Space was terrific. The coolest thing about Dead & Company is getting shit like China-> Rider to follow Stella and close the show. You want a joyous procession out of any venue, close the show with China-> Rider. I think the encore was perfectly suited for what has been experienced so far including last night. Johnny B Goode is just right because in our case, Johnny be real fuckin good! Mayer shows up to play every single night and gives 100% to the experience, Oteil and Jeff as well. That shit is contagious and causing everybody to show up with their very best stuff, every night. While John and Oteil are giving 100% to the experience, you can tell by watching that they’re getting 100% from the experience as well. The regularity of time spent with our favorite musicians as well as with US is obviously impacting them as much as they have been impacting US.

Time to drive past the big Arch y’all! St. Louis awaits! As we watch the band move west, we see that they seem to get younger and better every mile along the way. Maybe it’s true… 70 is the new 50! Unfortunately for those that stream at home, the time differences for east coasters is proving that for those of us with kids, 9:30 is the new midnight as well… See ya soon!

Dead To The Core,

Dean Sottile (pronounced So Tilly)
@gd50th on Twitter
The Official Home of Unofficial Grateful Dead New and Grateful Dead on Facebook