SHARING THE SHOWS
So Saturday morning, I stepped down from Cloud Deadheadland to grade papers, blog, take a nap, and indulge in my cheat day by carbo-loading with some leftover spaghetti and sausage, accompanied by garlic bread.
The drive to the Mothership was way quicker than Friday night, but the line moved way more slowly. I attribute it to security asking every concertgoer if they were going to general admission and giving them wristbands. A sign directing folks to General Admission would have made way more sense. The folks at the Coliseum will hear about it, and maybe I’ll get free tickets? You never know. That being said, we got into the venue before the show started, which is more than I can say for our friend Mark and many others (if you were at the show and this was your situation, I encourage you to write to the venue; you might get free stuff. It has happened for me before). And we got to commiserate with our line compatriots. A travel theme opened the show (“Truckin’” and “Big Railroad Blues”). During the latter, the dude selling water bottles took a nasty spill, and the bottles went a-flyin’. Fortunately, he was able to retrieve them and move on. “He’s Gone” (Johnny Mac’s favorite) was next. “Tennessee Jed” and “Friend of the Devil” followed. “Bird Song” was the highlight of the set for me; while blogging for Friday’s show, I heard my favorite “Bird Song” ever, from 8/27/72, in Veneta, Oregon. During this, a dude in the row behind me read the back of my “Weather Report” T-shirt and said, “I think Scarlet Begonias should be on Sunday, instead of Sunshine Daydream.” Of course, I had to turn on my teacher hat, and ask, “Why Scarlet Begonias?” “It just goes with Sunshine Daydream.” Fair enough, I can see it organically fit. Sun, flowers. It’s all good. “One More Saturday Night” closed the set (I called that one). During setbreak, we ran into various friends from the scene. Ashley. Kevin. Mark. Ivan. We did small talk, took pictures, discussed the bait and switch the venue was pulling with respect to giving out free tickets to work security only for the recipient to find out they needed ticket-takers. Hmmmm. The second set opened with “Playing in the Band” and Maggie philosophized about what they’d play next. I said, “That’s the beauty. You never know. It’s an American Beauty.” Eh? I thought it was funny but refrained from laughing at my own joke. “Franklin’s Tower” was next, followed by the “Scarlet Begonias/Fire on the Mountain” combination. “Drums” and “Space” was next, and I tried my “This is what space smells like” yell. Maggie laughed. She’s such a little trooper. In the spirit of honesty, when I watched the video on that hyperlink, I laughed really loudly for about thirty seconds. The boys did give us some love on “Drums,” facing us folks who ended up behind the stage. “Uncle John’s Band” circled back to “Playing,” during which I went to the bathroom. I’ve felt like a part of history the five times I’ve been to the Mothership, but the one thing I don’t dig is the bathrooms are so small, and every time I’ve gone, there’s been a line going all the way to the other end of the room. Not this time, though. I was in and out in about three minutes. Towards the end of the show, nobody wants to miss the highlight. The crowd erupted during “Black Peter,” and the second set closed with “Sugar Magnolia” and “Sunshine Daydream.” “Ripple” encored (Maggie called that one). Side note: the first time I ever heard that song was in the last scene of Freaks and Geeks (Spoiler alert!), during which Lindsay abandons her plans to go to an academic summit in favor of following the Dead. I would’ve loved to have known how that turned out. As it was the end of the Fall Fun Run, the boys all took a bow to great applause. It was beautiful. Not so beautiful was the ride out of the venue, which took way longer than last night, thanks to a parked bus from James River Transportation that took up half the road. Couldn’t they have found a better place to park? When I got home, I had the munchies thanks to the herbal essence that pervaded the arena, so I gorged out on some leftover Pizza Hut Meat Lover’s Pizza (thanks, Planet Fitness, for that monthly free pizza night), followed by a bowl of chocolate ice cream adorned with Mint Crunch M&Ms. Never a good idea to do that late at night, but I figure once a year won’t hurt. Fortunately, today’s my fasting day. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Back to the real world tomorrow, but with a new perspective.
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April 2024
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