It Was 20 Years Ago Today: Grateful Dead, Live at RFK Satdium, Washington DC, June 25th, 1995

     Hello folks. Got a quick today. As you may have read last time, I had the unique opportunity to see Phish on a Sat and then the Dead the next day in another city. You can read about the Phish show here

http://kempepedia.blogspot.com/2015/06/it-was-20-years-ago-today-phish-live-at_12.html

but this entry is about the Dead at RFK stadium in Washington DC, the venue I saw them the most at. So without further ado, Kempepedia presents It Was 20 Years Ago Today: Grateful Dead, June 25^th, live at RFK Stadium in Washington DC.
      By the time the summer tour rolled around, the Dead touring scene was fucked up. During the first week of April, they were supposed to do a 2 night stand in Tampa FL. Due to an illness in a band members' family, one of those shows had to be canceled. People rioted and the police had to be called in to restore order.
       When the summer tour started, things were no better. The first show was in Highgate, VT. Too many people and too much traffic made that a clusterfuck, probably similar to Phish at Coventry. Tiny little Vermont just can't handle all those people. People got struck by lightning outside RFK one of the nights. When it rolled into St Louis, over 100 people were injured at a campground when a balcony collapsed. And then people gated crashed at Deer Creek and the next night at the venue was canceled. The band issued a statement stating that if people couldn't get their act together, the Dead were going to take a break from touring. Looking back, it is obvious that all this was leading up to something big, but nobody could guess what was gonna happen in August.
       So right before the worst of the worst hit the fan, we rolled out of Philly to make the drive down I-95 to Washington DC. There was a huge back up of traffic going north on 95. I know someone who did the opposite of what we did and he confirmed he was caught in that backup. So glad we did it the way we did it.

06/25/95 (Sun)  Robert F. Kennedy Stadium - Washington, DC

Set 1: Shakedown Street, Wang Dang Doodle, Jack A Roe, Mama Tried (1) > Mexicali Blues (1), Loose Lucy, Picasso Moon

Set 2: Box Of Rain, Rain, Samson & Delilah, Ship of Fools, Truckin' > Rollin' & Tumblin' > Samba In The Rain > Drums > Space > Wharf Rat > Not Fade Away, E: Brokedown Palace

Comment: (1) Weir on acoustic. Hornsby on piano for entire show

You can stream it here

http://www.jamstreams.net/gd/1995/1995-06-25

      The show gets off with a bang. The Shakedown is nice and long and definitely has some Dancin' in the Streets teases. Had they busted that out, the place would have exploded. The rest of the first set is typical with the added treat of Bruce on the piano rather than the accordion he would break out when joining the boys after he stopped touring with them full time.

      Garcia's playing was much better than I expected as I really don't listen to too much 90's Dead anymore. He just sounds really old and tired. I'm gonna guess it was raining based on the first 2 songs. Samson has a blazing solo. I didn't know Rollin' and Tumblin' but Jerry is wearing all of his 52 years in that song.

       And there you have it. Only one more show with Jerry G and the boys to write about, but next week Trey A and the boys are give me something to smile about 20 years after the last time I saw them.

Dave Kemp

BA American Studies

PhD Rock and Roll