The next day the sun was shining and I got up, put my shoes on, grabbed my
camera and headed down to the river bank... and I got some great shots of the
river... just video of the water rushing by over the rocks with the breeze
just perfect... the sky was broken here and there with clouds but it looked
great... and Lisa sat for a couple of questions about the tour for the
video... a perfect afternoon.
You see this coming, don't you?
Within an hour of my "Deep Thoughts Video Shoot", it was back to pissing down
with rain.
What's to do but play cards? We'd seen this rain thing before, no biggie.
Just wait for it to stop...
Which it didn't.
When we got back to the venue we were also treated to the news that the phone
lines were out... scratch that 'Sending the Road Rash' idea... guess it'll
have to wait until Vail...
Yeah yeah... I know... "But you didn't send it from there, either... what the
F*CK?" you ask...
Hey, just calm down... that story in it's time, OK?
And don't use that language... you know my mom reads this.
So we had a replay of the first night essentially, the difference being the
band checking with "Half Step" and the PA being clean of any buzzing... the
rain was a bit more aggressive the second day and refused to totally
relinquish the evening to free pursuit of musical adventure but hey... I
danced my way through many rainy shows... what harm could the rain do?
OK... aside from the mudslides and phone lines being down and making
electrocution a distinct possibility...
Lordy.
But even though the weather was more tenuous the second show was better
attended than the first night, and the Saturday crowd was in the mood to
party.
Some just a bit too much.
I'll explain...
Scott being the tricky guy he is, the second night at Mishawaka was the
second night at Red Rocks, 7/8/78... and it's a rockin' set list.
"Bertha>Good Lovin" is a great way to get the blood flowing in cold
extremities, and after a few songs the crowd got a bit more brave and began
moving up closer to the stage for dance space, most of these people being
girls which is fine... but where there are young pretty girls the boozed up
guys tend to show up too, eventually... and one guy in particular managed to
alienate just about the entire front line of the crowd with his drunken
dancing before taking a header into the power coupling for the main sound
system during "Ramble On Rose"...
I had been watching this guy when he disappeared and suddenly all the pretty
lights of my console went out.
Pop.
The crowd registered the PA loss, and realizing it might take a second or two
for us to get our little problems solved, picked up singing for the band...
it's this sort of "we understand... how can we help?" attitude that sets fans
of the Grateful Dead apart from all others and why I feel so much
satisfaction when I've done my job right... Scott the system tech came
through again repairing the break, and the PA lept back to life...
After a slammin' "Promised Land" I'm sure most folks expected the break but
"Deal" would finish it off perfectly...
The second set highlights for me were really the "Other One>Eyes>Drumz", a
particularly jarring "Wharf Rat", and a seemingly out-of-place "Franklin's
Tower"... but the songs I wanted to hear were the "Terrapin>Saturday Night"
and the "Werewolves of London"... I braved the weather and got these last
three on video and I'm glad I did... right after they finished "Werewolves"
the rain decided it had been more than sporting and proceeded to shut us down
sans elective... but in my humble opinion there was no way to put a better
cap on it than "Werewolves"...
We packed up as fast as was humanly possible and coasted up the canyon to our
fishing cabins for a very brief night's rest before heading out to Vail for
Jerry's birthday show at the Ford Ampitheater...
The next day (this is Sunday I'm talking about here) we woke up to gorgeous
skies and perfect conditions... again... and I wondered aloud whether it
would cloud up in the afternoo-
"Shut up with that shit." Scott admonished me.
Sometimes he's got such a way with words, y'know?
It was a day for reflection... or is 'flashing back' a more appropriate
description? As the day went on I had many flashbacks, all of them good...