What to do when you're a Dead Head and all your friends have gone Phishin?

Since Phish has returned to touring, a lot of us Dead Heads are feeling left out when the popular jam band roles into town and we decide to skip the show, and even the scene for that matter,  in order to save up for that next big Dead act to come to town.  If you are like me, most of my friends of the jam band persuasion are as much Phans as they are Dead Heads, so when the band rolls into my area or throughout the Northeast for that matter they are often out on tour living the life on the scene that we all enjoy so much on Dead tour. But what is a Dead Head to do when all of his friends are all gone Phishin' for the weekend? Since there isn't any definitive answer, I have decided to propose a few different fun Grateful Dead filled activities that every Head can enjoy.

Find a local Dead cover band

Since the Grateful Dead had such a cult-following it is not hard to find a local Grateful Dead cover band in or around the area in which you live. Here in New York's Capital Region, where I reside, there are a number of Grateful Dead cover band's including The Deadbeats and High Peaks, not to mention a number of other band's who have been heavily influenced by the band's music. A fun night of drinks, dancing and Dead tunes with friends is always a recipe for fun!

Spend the night better acclimating yourself with the band's live music and history

While every Dead Head likes to believe he knows more than the next, the idea that most of us know all we think we know about The Dead is most-likely a farce. Unless you are a member of the band, it is likely you still have a lot to learn about the band's music and history. There are a number of great books out there on the history of the Grateful Dead including A Long Strange Trip, Searching for the Sound, The Official Book of the Dead Heads and The Grateful Dead Lyric book (I like to read this while listening to each song I am studying). It is also always fun to go back, dust off the old albums and take yourself on a wayward journey through the improvisational-psychedelic-folk styling's of the Grateful Dead. For people like me who have more than 100 Dead albums it is often easy to find one that you might not have listened to in a while - plus every live show, and song for that matter, is different than the last, so it can also be fun to listen to different renditions of songs.

If you have albums you have either purchased or received off a friend digitally now is a good time to transfer them to CD

Yeah this can be a tireless process especially for those of us who have more Dead albums than we know what to do with. But if you are like me, most of the music you own you might have received from friends across the world-wide web, which leaves you with no back-up to the music on your computer. What better time to waste backing-up all those albums up on CD, while your friends are away at Phish.

Listen to the Dead Channel on Sirius radio and make tapes, or CDs if that is your only option, of the shows played to give to friends

While the Dead taper movement continues on today, many of us don't not have the equipment or patience to perform such an action. While the taper movement itself is all but dead (no pun intended), Sirius radio's Grateful Dead channel has a lot of great Dead hours and even entire live shows they play. Aside from listening, another fun activity to take part in while grooving along to the tunes in your room, is make tapes or CDs of the shows and give them to your friends - maybe even those Phish fans in your life.

Have a get together with fellow Heads and watch one of the band's many epic live shows on DVD

Since movie night's and smoke sessions are enjoyed by many people, hippies included, why not combine the two activities into a fun night of entertainment, with not only your favorite band but your favorite friends. Hell, by the end of the night, depending on how fucked up you get, it might even feel like you were at a real Dead show.

Learn a new Dead song on your favorite instrument

If you are a musician you can never have to much material and if you're a Dead Head you can never run out of songs to learn. Take the night to learn that Dead song you always wanted to be able to play, but never had the time to learn.

Work on a scrapbook of all your Dead shows and festival experiences

Hey it's always something I have wanted to do and it's a great way to put all those tickets, pictures and pamphlets you have acquired from concerts and festivals over the years into one concise package, for not only yourself, but your friends to enjoy. Plus, there are plenty of great scrapbooking sites out there that can help make your goal a reality (www.scrapbook.com).

And if all else fails just visit YouTube and watch all those great videos that people have posted on The Dead over the years. Above, I have listed one of my favorite videos about the boys and the hippie movement, before the band had busted out of the San Francisco scene and into the mainstream.

Have Grateful Day!

Tear This Old Building Down: Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA, May 5, 2009 Part IV

Writer’s Note: It has been four long years since the remaining members of the Grateful Dead reunited to serve up their diverse, intricate style of improvisational music that fueled a culture and ideology of life during the 1960s. While the world has changed drastically since the cultural revolution of the 60s. The spirit of the scene driven by the music of the counter-cultural rock n roll band can still be seen living on in the hearts of Dead Heads everywhere. This could best be seen in April, when the band, now known as The Dead, reunited for the first time since 2004. I had the good fortune to catch  four shows during the band’s month-long reunion tour, and I hope that through my own experiences, people will be able to see why there is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert. 

Rosalie comes screeching into my driveway around 11 a.m. beeping and yelling for me to get in. She is close to an hour late picking me up, and we have less than eight hours until The Dead hit the stage at the Spectrum in Philadelphia with an ETA of five hours until our destination.

“Don’t forget the cooler,” Rosalie yells, as I stumble out of the

house.

I grab the cooler, where she intends to store 30 mushroom chocolates to deliver to our friends, Peter and Cassidy, who are already in Philadelphia.

We throw the chocolates in the cooler and jump in the car speeding off to pick up Lee, before we head to the city of brotherly love.

“By the way Rosalie, I know nothing about those,” I say in connection to the mushroom chocolates.

“I know you don’t. But you do know it says your last name on the cooler,” she responds with a chuckle.

The ride is as smooth as one could be, considering we are one mistake from being arrested on felony drug charges. We arrive in Philadelphia around 4 p.m. meeting Peter and Cassidy at the hotel room they have rented a few miles south of the Spectrum.

Before we know it, we are bouncing around Shakedown drinking beer, mingling with the weird, and unenthusiastically signaling for extra tickets amongst the hundreds of other Heads looking to score the same miracle. Peter and Cassidy run around with the mission of trying to sell enough of the chocolates to afford tickets into the show. Yes, spirits are high in the Dead community. Heads prepare to see the final show the band will ever perform at the arena that is scheduled to be torn down in the near future.

While we are getting our kicks along Shakedown, time is running out for us to find a ticket. I point this out to Rosalie and suggest we head to the front of the venue to give ourselves a better chance at catching some Head with extras walking in. We stand in front of the box office that reads, “sold-out,” having no luck finding tickets, except for a couple of vultures who mock us over our intent to get one at face value ($100). For the first time the notion that we might not find tickets becomes a reality

“Fuck that!” Rosalie says, “I ain’t buying a ticket off one of them mother fuckers. They aren’t family.

They’re just some fucks trying to make money!”

We eventually find our way into a parking lot, where it is hard to hear over the roar from fans at them Phillies game taking place at the stadium across the lot. Our arms start growing weary and our minds pessimistic over our mission to find three tickets as show time quickly approaches. We have all but given up at this point. Rosalie points out to me that if she does not spend the $100 she has on a ticket then it is going towards drugs, and I was going to have to do them whether I liked it or not.

We all but accept defeat and begin to make our way back over to Shakedown. Just then a man passes by signaling to us that he has tickets. We dash over to him finding he has two for sale. The only problem is another Head got to him first and has already taken one of the tickets. Rosalie informs me to take the ticket, which the man then sells to me for $50.

“Consider this your miracle,” he says with a smile.

While I can’t believe my eyes as I stare at the ticket sitting in my hand, another Head approaches us asking if we are in need of extras. Rosalie and Lee quickly jump at the offer and after a few moments of bold dickering, they are able to get both tickets for $180. We are in!

It is hard to contain our excitement over our luck. We rush back to the car to drop off a few things before we head in. On our way in we run into Peter and Cassidy, who are still looking for tickets. Even worse, the two are in a heated fight over something that Peter had done earlier that according to Cassidy could have lead to their arrest. I wasn’t really paying attention.

While Rosalie insists on making sure the two of them are ok before we go in, the band has already started their first set. I later find out they had kicked off the set by opening with, “One More Saturday Night” and following it with a, “Brown Eyed Women” and, “Good Morning Little School Girl”.

We arrive inside just as Warren sets off on a rendition of, “Althea”, which Rosalie’s ear keenly tunes in to. We grab a drink and quickly groove our way down to the floor in time to catch the final notes of the crowd favorite. After a few moments of trying to blend into the seats along the isle, a guy asks Rosalie if we would like to squeeze into two seats that no one was sitting in next to him. We dance furiously along to the remainder of the set that includes two of the band’s early classics, “Uncle John’s Band” and “Mason’s Children”.

During the second set the band pulls out all the stops as they open with, “Good Lovin” and eventually find their way into a. “Morning Dew”, “St. Stephen”, a cover of the Beatles, “Revolution”, and close with a classic Dead pairing of, “Help on the Way” into, "Slip Knot” into, “Franklin’s Tower”.

The energy in the building is so intense there are moments where it really does feel like the old building was going to fall down. Then the boys give the venue, where they played a record 48 shows throughout their career, an appropriate goodbye via an electric encore of, “Samson and Delilah”.

After the show we find ourselves back on Shakedown. Nitrous tanks hiss all around us. We decide to kill a few brain cells while we look for Peter and Cassidy. The energy that we all felt inside has now poured out into the parking lot, and the police who were passive toward the drug-fueled crowd earlier in the day are now starting to grow aggressive toward many of the vendors and Heads along Shakedown. One cop becomes so annoyed, he throws over one of the vendor tables, causing the mood in the lot to escalate into anger and fear between both forces. We eventually run into Peter and Cassidy, and they are furious over what has just happened. Supposedly the vendor who got violated by the police is a friend of theirs. On top of that, they are bummed over not getting into the show that was the last stop on their month-long tour. On the bright side, whatever it is they were fighting about before the show has passed.

The police, fed up with the scene in the lot, eventually start announcing over loud speakers that the lot is closed, and we are all to evacuate the premise. As we pull out of the venue, stoned and tired, it is sad to think this is the last show we will see on the tour and possibly the last time we would ever see the band perform as one again. While we all know this realization is a good possibility, it is nice to know that while the movement’s spiritual leader, Jerry Garcia, has been gone from this world for more than a decade, and the scene, like the times, may have changed, the music and spirit of the scene continues to live on with the help of both old and new generations of Heads like ourselves that refuse to let it die.

I Need A Miracle Everyday: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, April 25, 2009 Part III

Writer’s Note: It has been four long years since the remaining members of the Grateful Dead reunited to serve up their diverse, intricate style of improvisational music that fueled a culture and ideology of life during the 1960s. While the world has changed drastically since the cultural revolution of the 60s. The spirit of the scene driven by the music of the counter-cultural rock n roll band can still be seen living on in the hearts of Dead Heads everywhere. This could best be seen in April, when the band, now known as The Dead, reunited for the first time since 2004. I had the good fortune to catch  four shows during the band’s month-long reunion tour, and I hope that through my own experiences, people will be able to see why there is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert. 

It’s a 45-minute train ride into Manhattan the next day. Hawaii left for Ohio earlier that morning, and I was preparing to meet Rosalie and few other friends in the city before the boys took the stage at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. There would be no backstage pass tonight and possibly no ticket at all, if I am not able to scalp one to the sold out show.

I arrive around 4:30 p.m. quickly finding my way onto the bustling city streets. My phone dies on the train, so I have no way of contacting Rosalie to find out where she and the others are located. I walk around the front of the venue signaling for a ticket, which entails holding one finger up to let people with extras know that you are looking for a ticket, while I keep my eye out for Rosalie.

After one failed attempt at buying a ticket off some shady characters, I finally run into my friends, Trey and Lee. They inform me that Rosalie is somewhere looking for tickets, and soon she appears out of the crowd with a surprised look on her face to see that I had found them amidst the chaotic crowd.

I find that only Trey has managed to scrounge up an extra, leaving us less than three hours to find three tickets amongst thousands of others Heads, who are also on a mission to obtain the same right of entry. Yes, we were certainly going to need a miracle, if we were going to pull this one off. We walk the perimeter of the building, where hippies litter the Manhattan streets figuring our best chance to achieve our miracle is to catch someone walking in.

A stocky middle aged man with slick, greased back hair, pink pants, and a shiny shirt (I am thinking this was his first Dead show), asks Rosalie if she needs a ticket. She jumps at the offer, purchasing it off him at face value, $100. After, we don’t know whether to laugh at the guy or praise him. We hear his daughter ask him if he is actually wearing the outfit to the show. Either way, it is certainly a sign that Jerry is looking down on us tonight.

With two tickets down and two to go, we walk around the streets, eventually meeting up with some of our friends from back home who are also looking for tickets. I decide that if for some reason I am not able to get in, I could at least rest easy knowing that the experience I had the previous night topped any other experience I would ever have. Or at least that is the impression I am under.

After two hours of roaming around the streets outside MSG, we have failed to get any closer to our goal of finding the coveted tickets. The streets become more and more hectic, as Heads make their way out of the pubs and over to the arena. We decide to try our luck across the street, where the Heads are entering from hoping that one of them will hold our miracle. We cut down a busy side street, fingers waving high. A middle aged man yells out to me, “How much is a ticket worth to you?” I say, “$100.” He agrees to my offer, and just like that I am in!

While I now have my ticket grasped firmly in hand, Lee is still the only one without a ticket. Rosalie and I are getting antsy. Show time approaches, and the prospect that Lee isn’t going to find a ticket starts to become more of a reality.

Showtime is nearly 10 minutes away when we finally decide to head in after deliberate buying two tickets off some shady character and selling the other. Just as we step into the street to cross over to the arena, a man appears beside us asking Lee if he needs a ticket.

“How much,” Lee asks.

“$100,” the man answers.

“Sold!” he says.

And just like that we’re in!

Showtime is quickly approaching so we hustle over to the arena’s entrance, hitting a wall of Heads harder to penetrate than the Gates of Hell. We eventually make it through the crowd, flashing our tickets, dashing up the a few flights of stairs, grabbing fistfulls of beers, and making our way into the arena just before the band launches into its opener, “Cosmic Charlie”.

We find four seats tosgether, which lasts through the opener before their owners appear to claim them. Finding ourselves forced into the stairway, we head down to the rail along the isle where a row of other Heads have congregated. It is interesting to me, because I have always heard how strict MSG shows are, but there doesn’t seem to be any order on this night. The only event staff present are the ones serving beer.

We dance along the isle for the remainder of the first set. The band drives through such Garcia classics as, “China Cat Sunflower”, “Shakedown Street”, and “Ship of Fools” and, “He’s Gone” before capping-off the first set with, “Cassidy” and, “Sugaree.”

As the set comes to a close, we exit back into the arena’s winding corridor searching for our friends from home, who have congregated at the Wharf Rat (a group of Heads that travel to concerts and choose to live their life’s drug free) booth. We watch our friend, Sam, who is recovering from heroin addiction, take part in one of the group’s rituals that involves passing a yellow balloon around to each Head who then announces how many days they have been sober.

Sam announces his more than one year of sobriety to the crowd, and we start hooting and hollering in support of our clean friend. While the scene can more often than not be a beautiful, loving collection of souls, we often forget the repercussions that drugs and alcohol can have on some of our brothers and sisters. We, of course, are far from model citizens, as we stand there high as kites. But it is nice to know that for our friends who have not been so lucky to escape the prison of addiction have a place to turn for support.

Our group has now swelled to more than 10 people, so we decide to head up the mezzanine to see if we can all find seats together. We settle on a spot directly behind the stage. I am skeptical at first, even though I have read that over the years some Heads believe the best spot to hear the music is from behind the stage.

The set is a powerful collection of Dead classics that include, “The Other One”, “Born Cross-Eyed”, “St. Stephen” into, “The Eleven” and, “Uncle John’s Band”.

While the set list is everything we could asked for, what may have made the experience of seeing a Dead show at MSG even more exciting than just being there had to be the energy that coursed through the venue. Jerry always said there was no place like MSG in terms of energy, and boy is he proven right. The lights cascade over the crowd revealing a sea of bodies flailing below, as the band charges out of, “Unbroken Chain” and into the Rolling Stone classic, “Give me Shelter”.

The band closes the show with an electric, “One More Saturday Night” that almost brings the building down and encores with the beautiful, “Broken Down Palace”.

We exit our seats in sheer disbelief over the show.

“Man I wish it didn’t have to end!” Rosalie screeches in excitement.

Outside, the energy from the crowd spills over into the streets of New York. We mingle below the towering sky line above meeting with friends and rapping about the unforgettable show.

We spend sometime huffing nitrous balloons in a parking garage, before we are cut off by a security guard who kicks out the dealer, who had only paid him off until midnight. Back outside MSG, the police have had enough of the colorful crowd and begin to force us off the arena’s concourse. I say farewell to my friends and make my way into Penn Station to catch the train back to Long Island.

The day has worn me down. I fight to stay awake on the 45 minute train ride back to my friend’s house. Heads of all ages are strewn about the rickety cable car. Some are talking, some are sleeping, and some are just plain passed out. While those of us aboard the train patiently await the arrival back to our ordinary, everyday lives, all of us share one common bond that brought us together on this night, the music of the Grateful Dead.

Vibe tribe to call Seaside Park home for another year

After some questions as to whether or not The Gathering of the Vibes Music Festival would return to Bridgeport, Connecticut's Seaside Park in 2010, festival promoters have confirmed that they intend to celebrate the festival's 15th anniversary at its original site, July 29 - Aug. 1.

“Seaside Park really is home for us,” Vibes owner Ken Hays said in a press release. “The park is magnificent, and the city has always welcomed us here. And with the beachfront and plentiful camping areas – this is just a great place to hold a festival.”

For those of you not familiar with GOTV, it was founded in 1996 as a celebration of the life and music of Jerry Garcia, who died the previous summer. Over the years, the festival has hosted bands fronted by the remaining members of the Grateful Dead and other exciting artists who exemplify the improvisational spirit of Jerry Garcia including New Riders of the Purple Sage, Deep Banana Blackout and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Following last year's event, Hays revealed that he might not bring the festival back to the venue due to the high-cost of operating a festival in the city atmosphere. Controversy also surrounded the festival, after a 29-year-old Long Island man's body was discovered at a campsite near the park's baseball fields. The death, which was the first in the festival's 14 year history, was ruled to have occurred from natural causes with no foul-play suspected, although witnesses had testified the body had been dumped from a green Saturn with Pennsylvania plates. Many other festival-goers contested that the man had been murdered by a gang known as the "Nitrous Mafia," who sell and distribute the drug, nitrous oxide, at festivals and concerts.

A very limited number of Early-bird weekend passes are set for sale on “Tie-Dye Friday” (Black Friday) November 27 for $135. Tickets will be available at www.GoVibes.com or at 203.908.3030.

In the coming days, be sure to look for a festival review from years past to celebrate one of the jam band world's best festies.

See you at the Vibes!