Friday. Oct. I. 1976 


THE FLAT HAT 


Page 19 



Grateful Dead Return to Hall; Peopleâ€™s 
Band Plays to â€˜Dead Headâ€™ Crowd 


by Jonas H. Bernstein 
Special to the FLAT HAT 
The Grateful Dead were given 
an enthusiastic welcome by the 
near-capacity crowd at William 
and Mary Hall last Friday night. 
The audience, mostly â€˜Dead 
Heads,â€ were unquestioning in 
their devotion. True to form, the 
Dead played a tight three hour 
set â€” a long performance for a 
group of super-star status 
To do a fair review of the 
group is a difficult task. For 
instance, I was .told by a 
Greatefhl Dead enthusiast that 
the ideal review of one of their 
concerts should be written by a 


dedicated fan. Perhaps this is 
true in a sense. An integral part 
of a Dead concert is the 
â€œunconcert-likeâ€ atmosphere. 

A Dead concert can be viewed 
as a â€œgathering of the tribesâ€ 
where people of similar 
lifestyles and psycho-chemical 
states get together to have a 
good time. In this respect, the 
music is merely a means to an 
end, and 1 believe the music was 
secondary to many in the crowd 
Friday night. I went to critically 
evaluate the live performance; I 
did not go as a fan of their music, 
nor did I go â€œblitzed,â€ so 
perhaps I missed the boat. 


The Dead were definitely into 
the role of â€œpeopleâ€™s handâ€ as 
opposed to â€œspace bandâ€ Friday 
night. This was reflected in their 
selection of many 1-4-5 rock and 
roll numbers from their 
repertoire, as opposed to such 
pieces as â€œDark Starâ€ or â€œSt. 
Stephenâ€ which are geared 
toward improvisation. Well, 
people donâ€™t trip as much these 
days anyway, and the audience 
was definitely of the â€œboogieingâ€ 
variety. 

The Dead began the first set 
with a rousing version of â€œThe 
Promised Landâ€ and then 
launched into another rocker, 
â€œDeal,â€ off Garciaâ€™s first solo 
album. Highlighting the rest of 
the first set were the old 
favorites â€œSugaree,â€ 
Tennessee Jed,â€ and â€œPlaying 
In The Bandâ€ which was more in 
the West Coast tradition of 
extended jamming than 
anything else played at the 
concert. A good phase-shifted 
guitar solo was included by 
Jerry Garcia, along with some 
interesting counter-point 


provided by Keith Godchaux on 
electric piano. The Dead have a 
knack for dynamics, which they 
exhibited in â€œPlaying In The 
Band.â€ This was the first 
challenging music of the 
evening 

The second set began to cook 
with an up-tempo version of 
â€œHelp On The Way,â€ the first 
song of a trilogy off Blues For 
Allah, which flowed into 
â€œSlipknot!â€ Both erf these pieces 
showed that the Dead are 
capable of diversity. 
â€œSlipknot!â€ incorporates 
diminished harmony and 
complex syncopation, with a 


resulting sound not unlike some 
European Jazz-rock groups. 

After Garcia's solo in the 
middle of the composition. Bill 
Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart 
did\a double drum solo (with a 
brief, disco take-off). This 
brought up the tempo 
considerably, and the band 
brought in the melodic theme at 
this speed quite impressively. 
They then slipped into 
â€œFranklinâ€™s Tower,â€ the third 
part of the trilogy. 

â€œThe Music Never Stoppedâ€ 
featured some solo singing by 
Donna Godchaux, who had spent 

SEE DEAD, poge 17 


J*rry Gordo, Domo Godchaux, and tha D*od unit* "fha Irlbaiâ€ lost Friday tn Wllttom ft Mary Had. pw* by fcifflwiit, m UBoir . 


DEAD, cent, from page *9 

moat of the evening contributing 
back-up vocals, The set finished 
with an old rocker, "Around and 
Around." The Dead returned to 
- the stage for an encore, pleasing 
the zealous crowd with a version 
of â€œU,S. Blues. ' 

There was one thing about the 
concert that was pusling: Dope 
and Tbe Grateful Dead have 
been closely related for over ten 
years. What troubled me was 
that many members of tbe 
audience seemed to be incapable 
of following the music because 
they were so inebriated, i sat 
next to two people who were 
comatose for most of the 
concert. They were in bad shape, 
and it was frightening that 
people merely passed by them, 
looked, laughed, and walked 
away. When it was established 
that they were alive and not in 
danger, it struck me bow 
difficult it must be to appreciate 
music in an incoiiscious state. 1 
realize that tins was probably an 
extreme case and that such 
things do not only occur at Dead 
concerts. But it did reinforce my 
view that a Dead concert is as 
much a sociological 
phenomenon as it is a musical 
one. 





