Dead Heads come together

2002-08-05 10:40

Bernie Woodall

Wisconsin - Two days after what would have been Jerry Garcia's 60th birthday, about 35 000 Dead Heads converged on Saturday for the first major concert by the remaining members of the Grateful Dead since their legendary leader's death seven years ago.

Playing as The Other Ones, four members of the band that became an icon of 1960s California kicked off their set with He's Gone - acknowledging the gap left by Garcia, who died of a heart attack in 1995.

"Everybody on that stage, and two-thirds of the audience will be thinking of Jerry," Dennis McNally, Grateful Dead biographer and publicist for Grateful Dead Productions, said before the show began.

Many of the fans at the two-day concert were not born when the Grateful Dead started playing in 1965 at LSD parties known as Acid Tests hosted by Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Long-time Grateful Dead follower Brady Robba (47) of Boulder, Colorado, said the ties between the musicians and their audience - known as "Dead Heads" - were as tight now as they were in the halcyon days of the 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco and through the subsequent decades on the road.

Robba said he had been to "dozens" of Grateful Dead shows until the band stopped touring on the death of Garcia, its major inspiration and lead guitarist.

Garcia died in a drug rehabilitation clinic, causing a nationwide outpouring of grief. Bob Dylan said in a tribute at the time: "There's no way to measure his greatness or magnitude as a person or as a player. He had no equal."

Jeb Puryear of Donna the Buffalo, one of the six other groups playing on Saturday, said the empathy between audience and musicians was palpable.

"The Grateful Dead knew the power of the music," Puryear said. "They put the music's power in front of themselves."

McNally said The Other Ones still felt the almost mystical connection with their fans that has made Dead Heads some of the most dedicated camp followers in rock history.

Book debut

McNally's book, an authorised biography of the Grateful Dead titled A Long Strange Trip, debuts on Tuesday. The title is taken from the lyrics of one of the Grateful Dead's best-known songs, Truckin'.

The Other Ones feature former Dead bandmates Phil Lesh on bass, Bob Weir on guitar and Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart on drums. They are joined by Rob Barraco, Jeff Chimenti and Jimmy Herring.

The four former Dead players now have their own bands, all of which played on Saturday: Phil Lesh and Friends, Bob Weir and RatDog, Bill Kreutzmann and TriChromes, and Mickey Hart and Bebe Orisha.

Local authorities, fearing 200 000 Dead Heads would show up and overwhelm the communities at the concert site, at first barred the band from appearing.

Walworth County gave permission only after the promoter, Clear Channel Entertainment, along with Grateful Dead Productions, issued warnings that anyone showing up without a ticket could be arrested.

By Saturday evening, there were only a handful or arrests, said Walworth County Sheriff David A. Graves.

The Other Ones will begin a 15-show tour in November, also promoted by Clear Channel.

- Reuters