I just stumbled across this concert on the internet and as I type I am listening to it now for the first time since that night. It was one of the coolest Jerry-experiences I ever had and certainly the most intimate. The idea of me going at all started in my apartment in Minneapolis about a month or two earlier when I called the Grateful Dead hotline to see if there was any new information about the ’89 Spring Tour. The usual stuff was on there but then at the end there was a little blurb about Jerry and Bob appearing acoustic at an art gallery for a benefit show. What?! Did I hear that right? I listened again. That sounded awesome! I decided that if I could find reasonable airfare I had to fly out there for this one show because nobody was talking about it and it would certainly be different from the previous 31 Grateful Dead shows I had seen up to that point. I cleared it with my girlfriend Lona, cleared it with my parents who lived in the Bay Area at the time, found acceptable airfare, and concert tickets. I was in!
The only stipulation my mom
had put on me for coming out and staying with them was that I had to take my
two younger sisters to the concert.
“Why?!” I wondered and argued.
For some reason my mom was bound and determined that they go with me,
despite the fact that my sisters had zero
interest in the Grateful Dead. I think
she just wanted her kids to hang out together, so I agreed and my mom even paid
for the three tickets. It was kind of a
coincidence that my whole family was going to be in San Francisco at the same
time. My parents and little brother were
out there because my dad was on a sabbatical from GE with Stanford, my sisters
Jan and Cindy were there visiting for Spring break, and I was there for Jerry
Garcia (oh yes, and my family). Once I
was sold on the idea of going to the concert with my sisters I tried to sell them on the idea. I told them about the peace and the love and
the community and the joyful experience of being at a Dead show. They could care less, but gamely agreed to go
and make the best of it.
I did not remember exactly
what the event was for until just now while researching online. It was a poster artist
benefit…Stanley Mouse/Rick Griffin/Alton Kelley/Wes Wilson/Victor Moscoso…all
the heavyweights of the Bill Graham/Fillmore-era 60’s poster artists. Damn I wish I knew then what I know now about
these posters and their incredible ever-increasing value, not to mention their
beauty and historical significance. I am
sure they had old posters for sale there at a fraction of what I am paying now
but I did not buy anything. And…holy
crap…I just found online the actual poster that was made just for this
event…see the picture below. It is a
20”x26” limited edition of 350 posters signed by the five artists. They are now selling for $599.95 a poster…I
bet they were maybe $50 at most that
night. <sigh>
I remember it being in an art
gallery sort of a place, although I just googled the address and now it is a
jewelry store. It looked like an art gallery because there were framed posters all
over the walls. The first small stage
was just a foot off the ground in the right corner of the room closest to the
entrance and you could walk right up to it.
No security, just a couple hundred Deadheads milling around. Suddenly Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and John Kahn
walked up onto the little platform with acoustic guitars and played for 35
minutes. Jerry was just a couple of feet
from me! I was completely star-struck,
standing right in front of my hero. I had
seen them play in stadiums across the nation, and now I could reach out and touch Jerry if I wanted to. Their opening set was all too brief but
incredibly intimate and awesome. I had
never seen the Dead play a couple of those tunes, I had never seen them play
acoustic, and I had never been that close to them. I was just blown away and could not even begin to express to my sisters how
f*cking cool it was! Two weeks later on
4/9/89 I would see them again front row in Louisville (see my 6/28/13 blog post
entitled ‘1989 Grateful Dead Spring Tour’) but that was a large arena and could
not compare to this.
During the show we ran into
my buddy Tommy the Freak who was living in the Bay Area at the time after
traveling out there in his white station-wagon ambulance. Freak was living the trifecta…the Freaker’s
Musical Triangle that consisted of Minneapolis, San Francisco and New
Orleans. Back then he alternated living
in all three cities for a few years.
That night he had hitchhiked for some reason to the concert with his
girlfriend but she was not as overjoyed by the music and the dancing and the
hippies as Freak was. He was doing his
usual, wild, long-haired dance and she was getting pissed at him but that just
made him dance harder and crazier. God
bless the Freak. I also ran into another
friend that was living out there, but I will get into that later.
After Jerry and Bob left the
stage I was certain they would come back…whoever heard of Jerry Garcia opening a show? After a bit Country Joe McDonald came on the
stage for a cool set, and Jerry joined him for two songs: ‘Starship Ride’ and ‘Lady With The Lamp’. Yes!
Now bring back Jerry and Bob!
They just had to come
back. My sisters and I wandered around
looking at all the posters and exhibits and my sisters in their black garb were
not amused by the happy, brightly-colored hippie chicks dancing in their faces.
I could tell they wanted to leave but I
kept telling them that Jerry and Bob would be coming back, probably next, and
we had to stay. But they did not come back…if I remember
correctly Nick Gravenites came on next, and then on a slightly larger stage in the
back corner of the room the Bay Area supergroup the Dinosaurs came on for an
amazing set that seemed to go on for hours.
It was the only time I ever got to see legendary guitarist John
Cipollina, who would die two months later on 5/29/89 from a rare genetic
disorder.
I still held out hope for
more Jerry but the show was obviously over after the Dinosaurs ended and
everybody started to file out. It was
very late. Bob and Jerry probably left hours
ago. My poor sisters were getting pretty
mad by then and just wanted to get the hell out of there, but I added a little
hiccup to the plan. To this day I cannot
remember who it was and neither could Freak when I asked him on the phone the
other day, but I had run into another friend at the concert and he asked if I
could give him and his girlfriend a ride home.
“No problem”, I told them. Jan
was really pissed now, but she had no
choice because I was driving. My friend
did not live anywhere near the Pavilion or my parent’s house in Menlo Park, so
my sisters were trapped in the car listening to the high girlfriend go on and
on for about 45 minutes about how Jerry was like her father and how much the
Grateful Dead meant to her. Hey…I
totally got it, Jerry was like a god, but my gothy sisters were just rolling
their eyes and probably wanted to strangle her.
We finally got to my friend’s
apartment and there was one more little surprise…he had to take a urine test in
the morning for his probation officer and he wondered if one of the three of us
could give him a clean urine-sample. I certainly couldn’t, so I asked my
sisters which one of them would want to do my friend a solid and go in his
apartment and pee in a cup. You should
have seen the look on Jan’s face. “No!”
she screamed. “No!! No!!
No!!” I could see she was tired
and not thinking rationally, so I apologized to my friend and told him we had
to get going. One last fun little tidbit
was in store for my sisters…shortly after we left my buddy’s apartment a carload
of guys pulled up alongside of us at a stoplight. They noticed my hot sisters in the car and
started hooting and hollering and gesturing for me to pull over. Hey…I totally got it, stupid guys like to
hoot at hot chicks, but my sisters were NOT flattered. Then it actually got a bit scary as they
followed us for like 10 minutes, pulling up next to us at each stoplight all
the while whistling and yelling at us at 1:00 am. We ignored them, so they eventually turned
off and we finally made it home.
Despite Jerry and Bob only
playing one short set, it was an incredible night of music and one of the best
twenty dollars I ever spent. As I said,
I am listening to it now and you can too by clicking on either one of the links
below. Crazy cool intimate acoustic
Jerry and Bob. My sisters do not remember
it as fondly as I do and to this day I am sorry they were subjected to a night
to my hippie ways, but I hope they had at least some fun. Love you! And to whoever I gave that ride to, if you
are reading this, I am sorry we could not make that pee sample happen for you
but I hope you got around the bastard somehow.
Deep Elem Blues, Wang Dang Doodle, Wind And Rain, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Bird Song, Easy To Slip
(Poster Artists Benefit: Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, and Bob Weir;
Country Joe McDonald, Dinosaurs, and Nick Gravenites and Animal Mind.)
