100 Concerts / Concert #18

Headline Act: The Grateful Dead

Touring Album: In The Dark

Opening Act: none

Date: October 14, 1988

Venue: Miami Arena, Miami, FL
Ticket price: $18.50

 

 

"Blues For Allah"

When I was a kid, my first impression of The Grateful Dead was a "Blues For Allah" sticker on a guitar case. Based on their name and the creepy image of a skeleton playing a violin (while wearing sunglasses and a robe),  I figured the Dead were a Satan-worshipping heavy metal band. I later learned that Jerry and company were friends of the Devil, with a mellow vibe.

The late '80s was a weird era for the Dead. Twenty years removed from Haight-Ashbury and the hippie culture they helped foster, The Dead were now part nostalgia act, part radio hit-makers. Their original hippie-youth fan base had mutated into a carnival of bikers, aging hippies, wealthy yuppies, college kids, and (sadly) teenage runaways.

In 1988, my friend Paul and I fit into the "college kids" category. We went down the road feeling happy, (from Gainesville to Miami) and arrived just in time for the show. We had a few minutes to check out the scene in the parking lot.

 

Deadheads in the '70s. Smell at your own risk.

The true Deadheads, those who followed the band from show to show were a vital part of the fabric and mythology of the band. Some paid for their next concert ticket or next tank of gas by selling grilled cheese sandwiches, vegan burritos, pipes, bongs, and various drugs. Many Deadheads appeared to be days removed from a shower.  The women wore long tie-dyed skirts and were often barefoot. Inside the venue, some Deadheads neglected their seats for the arena halls where they could twirl and groove maniacally to the music. They were a colorful, smelly collective.

In an era when multi-platinum albums made artists popular and wealthy, The Dead earned their keep and built their fanbase as a workingman's (Dead) touring band.

I'm Uncle Sam, that's who I am.

Over the years, they played approximately 2,350 shows. If you estimate 2.5 hours per show, that equates to around 245 straight days of playing concerts, 24/7. What a long, strange trip, indeed!

In 1988, Jerry Garcia was just 46 years old but his grandfatherly Santa look made him appear much older. The Dead's appropriately titled hit single, "Touch Of Grey", peaked at #9 on the charts. It also introduced them to a new MTV and radio audience and provided an unprecedented level of commercial success thanks to "In The Dark", their first new album in six years.

I won't compare the '88 Dead to the '68 or '73 versions, but for weathered, middle-aged musicians they were holding up well. Not bad, considering more than 20 years on the road, thousands of miles, and lots of drugs.

Taken in the '90s, RIP Jerry.

It's worth noting that most of my setlists on this blog have been unofficial, best-guess estimates based on available info found online.  However, the setlist below is OFFICIAL, for which the devoted Deadheads are responsible. The mystery and magnitude of the setlists became part of the shared experience and debates among Deadheads. Which version of "Ripple" was the best one? Why did they open a show with "New Minglewood Blues" for the first time ever? Why did they wait four years to play "Box Of Rain"? What will they open with tomorrow night? Which Dylan song was that? During which song were you tripping the hardest?

Bootlegging Dead shows wasn't just condoned, it was encouraged, with a special tapers section located near the soundboard.   According to Wikipedia,  "Of the approximately 2,350 shows the Grateful Dead played, almost 2,200 were taped, and most of these are available online."

In a pre-MTV, pre-Internet era, tapes provided word-of-mouth advertising for a band not looking to crank out radio hits. The tapes (and later CD's) were traded among fans for the fun of sharing the music, though I imagine tapes were even traded for sex and drugs once or twice. Well, definitely for the drugs.

Paul and I enjoyed the show, the first of several concerts we've seen together. It was the first of my three Dead shows and it was also the first of my many concert experiences at the newly built Miami Arena.  Constructed in 1988 for the Miami Heat (and later home to the Florida Panthers), it was demolished after just 20 years. Not many rock bands outlast the lifespan of a building, but the Dead were no ordinary band.  The late rock promoter Bill Graham once described the Dead, "They're not the best at what they do, they're the only ones that do what they do".  Amen, Bill. 

Miami Arena, 1988-2008

Official setlist: Touch of Grey, New Minglewood Blues, Row Jimmy, It's All Over Now, Brown Eyed Women, Masterpiece, Bird Song, Promised Land, China Cat Sunflower, I Know You, Rider, Saint of Circumstance, He's Gone, drums, Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad, I Need a Miracle, Dear Mr. Fantasy,Hey Jude Reprise, Black Muddy River