Way back in the dark days before internet there was a funky way that you could order tickets over the phone for Grateful Dead concerts. This was by calling the Grateful Dead hotline; East Coast or West Coast! That is after you had sent them your 4” x 5” file card with your information on; so that you could become a bona fide registered Deadhead. But as crazy as the system seems by today’s methods, it actually worked (sort of). One year we had ordered two tickets to the New Year’s Eve show and two for the show the night before in San Francisco. Originally our plan was to take the train. (Drivin’ that train… and all that) But the tickets never showed up. What a bummer. (Yes, we used that word in those days) So instead my wife and I went on a nice ski trip between Christmas and New Year’s and just got home on the 30th.
Bruce is a really laid back guy; and I would never use the word ‘frantic’ here… but I got a… let’s say ‘urgent’ call from him…. The tickets had arrived for the New Year show. (And for some reason for the Thursday show which we hadn’t asked for and was now past) It was the classic good news, bad news situation. Good in that we had scored tickets; bad in that we had about 24 hours or less to get to San Fran. The train was now out of the question because of timing. Neither Bruce nor I had a car that was capable of making it all the way to Frisco, let alone making it back. And certainly nobody we knew was ever gonna lend us a vehicle for this purpose. There had to be a way, and Linda found it. She called Air Canada and purchased two one way tickets to San Francisco. You boys are on your own on the way back….
We had expected some sort of hassle at customs and immigration; two long haired freaks with one way tickets to San Francisco, going to a Dead show…. Yeah right… step into this room fella’s. But we breezed right on through. It was a short flight and soon we were walking out the doors of the terminal and into the California sunshine. Now we just had to figure out how to get from here to the Civic Auditorium. The very first person we saw outside the terminal approached us and said… “You guys have any spare tickets for tonight’s show?” Turns out this guy was a head, picking up a buddy who was flying in from Alaska on spec. We of course had no spares, but this guy gave us a ride in the back of his truck right to the venue, after we had picked up his friend. How cool is that?
We had a bunch of time to kill before the show, so we just sort of hung out diggin’ the scene. I think we hit up a couple of bars as well. Eventually though it’s show time. It was festival seating of course, but we weren’t concerned with getting in the line early. Talk about a cool place. And of course since it was New Year’s they were handing out party hats and noise makers. And what a great party it was. There was some opening act; then a volleyball match between the Dead’s road crew and the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic staff. Sorry, I can’t remember who won other than the crowd. Then the real opening act… The Band. What a great set they played. Things like: Shape I’m in, Milk Cow Boogie, Mystery Train, Chest Fever, and a bunch of others and then they finished off with a great Willie and the Hand Jive
Finally around 10:00 the Dead come on stage. This is just so cool. And they bust right into Jack Straw. With stuff like Minglewood, and Brother Esau, the place was rockin’, going around and around. Somewhere along the way the stoner that was sitting next to us had gone to one of the bars in this place and filched a bottle of brandy that we were passing back and forth. That first set finally exploded to an end with Hell in a Bucket/Don’t Ease Me In
It’s getting close to midnight when they come back and launch into the countdown to the New Year and to of course to Sugar Magnolia. Bill Graham is dressed as Father Time emerging from a globe that is mounted on a mobile cherry picker, and he is throwing roses into the crowd. Balloons’ fall from the ceiling with streamers and confetti…
For me the highlight of the second set was Drums… mind blowing to use another term from the day. That blended into Throwing Stones, and then into Not Fade Away
– and the kids they dance to shake their bones
This was so good. How fitting that they played Brokedown Palace as an encore. We were completely satisfied, and were getting ready to leave, when…
An announcement… They were going to take a break and come back for a third set! What a set it was… Big Boss Man into Iko Iko, Midnight Hour, and the only time they ever played Goodnight Irene. John Cipollina from Quicksilver Messenger Service joined in on Irene along with some of the Band. It was well into morning by the time the show was over. As we step outside, all of a sudden these cube vans came racing up the street and backed up in front of the venue. Whoa… what’s going on here? The rear doors slide up and they start handing out bags of breakfast for everyone. Juice, fruit, muffins etc.
We were in a bit of a daze, that’s for sure. You may recall that we got to SF via a one way air ticket, and that Linda said that we were on our own for getting home…
So that was now our predicament. How were we going to get home? We noticed some signs on cars offering shared rides north for gas money, but our adventurous spirits were maybe not that adventurous. The Greyhound station was our next stop, but for some reason was closed in the wee hours. So we walked the streets to keep warm, and generally just hung out until the station opened, it really wasn’t that long, considering how late the show went. It turned out that we had just enough money to buy a couple of tickets back to Vancouver, so we ended up on the first bus out of there.
– I been all night long comin’ home, don’t ease me in…
Great Site!
LOVE THIS DAD!