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It still confuses people. Eight years after the death of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia - the essence of the original jam band - people wonder how four former members could still tour as The Dead. One thing’s sure after seeing these two shows: Neither the band nor its fans are what they used to be.
Bassist Phil Lesh’s voice is now raspy and sounds somewhat odd when singing the bridge on “St. Stephen” - a duty Garcia used to handle. Guitarist Bob Weir, once the “good-looking kid” in the band, now dons a weathered, gray-bearded face and gray hair. Weir can still sing with gusto though. He belted out “Sugar Magnolia” and “Samson and Delilah” with as much passion as I have ever heard on any of the original band’s bootlegs.
The Dead did try to add a little youth with the addition of Joan Osborne. Singing backup on “Eyes of the World,” she gave the song more body and more harmony. And her version of “Mr. Charlie” had attitude and almost made the song sexy, but not quite.
The crowd members clearly heralded the Dead concert as a way to relive a part of their youths. Fifty-year-old businessmen were lighting up joints all around. Aging hippies brought their children and let them run around the lawn, throwing glowsticks and dancing to foot-stomping songs like “One More Saturday Night.” And, just like at Dead shows of the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s, college kids were there, many of them heavily drugged and letting the music carry them around the venue’s lawn.
This is what I expected a Dead show to look like. Of course, the 50-year-old businessmen would have been 25 when the band was in its prime. Watching middle-age people sing along to “Me and My Uncle” through clouds of pot smoke, it occurred to me that these baby boomers forgot they were no longer 25. Or, maybe they just didn’t care.
-SAM SHAPIRO
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