Hello everyone. I
hope you are enjoying this one last blast of Indian Summer, although I think
temps in the upper 80’s in October is a little ridiculous. But I’m not here to
brag about still having my AC units in, I’m here to talk about the other big
Halloween show I attended (the first being Phish Halloween 1994). This time we
enter the Way Back Machine and set the controls for 1993 in the swamps of
northern New Jersey as I recount the Jerry Garcia Band at the Brendan Byrne
Arena on October 31, 1993.
I was attending
Penn State at the time and the arena was less than a 4 hour drive from State
College. Myself, Nad, Nats, and EM headed out to the show. At the time, Nad was
on an Elvis kick. This photo is from the bathroom at my world famous apartment
in State College. 808 W. College Ave, ground floor.
Note: Nad put this in his Christmas card one year
We drove to the
show and hit an INSANE amount of traffic on the way to the show. The arena was
located right next to the Meadowlands Stadium. And on that day, the Giants were
playing the Jets so every Jersey meathead was in attendance. So as we tried to
get into the parking lot, everyone else was getting out. Nad decided to get changed
into his costume while we were sitting in traffic. So as he is getting into his
Elvis outfit, people are blowing their horns and catcalling.
I can’t remember what I went as but Nats went
as a longshoreman. I also remember Nats burning his nose with the lighter. Someone
at a party at Penn State thought he was going as an Amish man because he had a
beard with no mustache.
Note: This is not Nats
Jerry Garcia Band, 10/31/93 Brendan Byrne Arena, East
Rutherford, NJ
Set 1
How Sweet It is, He Ain’t Give You None, Forever Young, Run
for the Roses, Money Honey, Lay Down Sally, My Brothers and My Sisters, Deal
Set 2
Shining Star, The Maker, Tore Up, It’s A Wonderful World,
Ain’t No Bread in the Breadbox, That Lucky Old Sun, Midnight Moonlight
Encore: Werewolves of London
I can’t find a recording to stream online but here is the
JGB from Jerry Day that I attended back in August when I was crushing Phish
West Coast Tour.
The show was OK.
I’m not the biggest fan on 90’s Jerry Band because it just didn’t have that
much energy. The set lists did not vary at all. On that fall tour, he only did
one encore and that was for the Halloween show. But I still very blessed to
have seen this performance. There was a spider suspended over the stage and
someone was really bouncing it up and down during Werewolves.
The drive home
was even longer. It rained down a mixture of sleet and snow. And we had a
tractor trailer get all up on our asses. It was actually rather scary,
especially since I was driving my friend’s car. But we made it back to PSU in
one piece but I’m gonna hope I skipped a few classes the next day
So enjoy Fall as
Phish’s first fall tour in 3 years is almost upon us. I know this guy can’t
wait
My outfit for Phish Halloween 1994
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
