Greetings everyone. I assume you are counting down the days
like myself until Spring arrives. But today I'm gonna discuss a
spring many moons ago, way back in 1995. My matriculation from Penn
State was only a few months away, as was my days in seeing the
Grateful Dead. Although I had no idea about the latter. But it was
all fun and the adventure that the road held for us as I roll out
another installment of It Was 20 Years Ago Today: Grateful Dead, Live
at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA, March 17
th and 18
th.
As I wrote about last week, a last minute announcement by
Blues Traveler
You can read about it here
lead me to being in Philadelphia. And where did we stay while in
Philly? In a campground in Southern New Jersey. I don't remember who
found this place, but it is still the craziest little campground I
have ever been to. They weren't open but I guess enough Heads had
called them that they let us camp there that weekend. Remember, this
is March in the Mid Atlantic. We rolled in and all these animals were
running free and greeted us. They had chickens, unidentified
pheasants, dogs, and cats. Their office was their living room. But
they were super friendly and treated us with respect if not a little
bemusement.
So we get to the show to allow plenty of time to hang in the
incredible spectacle of humanity that was a Grateful Dead parking lot
scene. We ended up getting some balloons and I had a crazy incident
happen. While enjoying the NO2, my friend was talking about how his
girlfriend's family give each other presents for Easter. As crazy as
this sounds, I had a trip the year before at RFK where this exact
same thing came up. Not sure if it was ESP or what, but I doubt it;
otherwise I'd be a much better poker player.
03-17-95 The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pa. (Fri)
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1: H. C. Sunshine, Wang Dang Doodle, Peggy-O, Queen
Jane, Lazy River Road, Eternity, Loose Lucy
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2: China Cat> I Know You Rider, Samba, Truckin>
New Speedway> Drumz> Watchtower> SOTM> Sugar Magnolia
E: Lucy In The Sky
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You can stream it here
Somewhat of a low energy first
set considering how pumped I was for this show in light of my 1993 St
Patty's Day show. Vince definitely helped immensely of the harmonies
for the recently broken out Here Comes Sunshine. But Peggy-O through
Eternity just put me to sleep while Loose Lucy did wake myself and
the crowd right up.
Second set was a whole 'nother
animal. The China Cat>Rider was all high energy. Samba I can take
or leave it (I'll leave it). Truckin'> New Speedway is right out
of a 1970 show, and you all know how much I love 1970 shows. There is
more than a tease of The Other One at the end of New Speedway but
alas we would not be getting that tonight.
Rest of the set is typical for
the era. The only low light was the encore. The band plays through
the first verse but Jerry doesn't sing the lyrics. At the time I
didn't know what to make of it, but I'm guessing he was so whacked
out on heroin he either nodded off or just didn't realize he was
supposed to sing. A rather weird ending to a really solid show.
We made it back to the
campground and proceed to crash. It was rather cold that whole
weekend. Low 30's and definitely the coldest weather I've ever camped
in. I can remember anytime I moved and cold air seeped into my
sleeping bag, it shocked my lungs. It was really brutal. There was a
Head wandering around the campground and asked if he could sleep
besides our fire. We let him and in our conversations he informed us
that New Orleans was the best city to sleep on the street.
The next day I needed to score a
ticket. I had one for the 19th but had an exam on Monday
the 20th so I had to go back to State College and skip
Sunday's show. Now if you are knowledgeable about the Dead, you know
that the 19th is the day of the all time bustout in GD
history, that being the debut performance of Phil's “Unbroken
Chain”. And while it did hurt to miss that historic event, the
first set was only 45 minutes long. It fit on one side of a tape. I
view it like they gave us this great moment but cut the set super
short. And in a humblebrag here is a small list of the GD bustouts I
have witnessed.
3/20/91 Might As Well, 216 shows
3/21/91 first Stir It Up Jam
3/9/92 Satisfaction, 406 shows, first
time Dark Star and Morning Dew appeared in same set since October 18,
1974
6/20/92 Casey Jones, 549 shows
3/17/93 first Lucy in the Sky with
Diamonds
6/30/95 Gloria, 149 shows
I could include Phish but I
don't want to make my readers too jealous.
I hit the Lot early and worked
my as off in search of a trade. I finally found someone and I think I
had to kick in a little bit of cash as the Saturday show was a Rex
Foundation benefit. ( The Rex Foundation was the Dead's charitable
arm named after their roadie and later Rex Jackson who died in 1976)
03-18-95 The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pa. (Sat)
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1: Bucket, West L. A., El Paso@, Ramble On, Tom Thumb
Blues, Jack A Roe, Promised
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2: All Too Much> Iko Iko, Playin> Uncle John>
Drumz> Jam> Last Time> Visions Of Johanna> Saturday
Night E: Rain
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first "All Too Much"
You can stream
it here
First set is typical, as in
too short. This became more and more the norm after 1993. So if you
ever complain about Phish not jamming the hell out of some first set
tunes, be thankful they go out and play for at least an hour. Second
set was much better. The debut of All Too Much, a rather obscure
Beatles tune, was really cool. Vince did love his Beatles tunes. Iko
was high energy and Jerry sounds great. The Jam out of Drumz was
also very interesting. Jerry nails the only version of Visions I got
to view thanks to the teleprompters they were using at the time. And
Rain was icing on the cake.
I made it back to State College in
one piece and then had to digest the Unbroken Chain news. And how did
I do on the test? That is one that has slipped my mind.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
