....as the arena reeked of herb beginning 5 hours earlier with the first song. I don't know if there was a playlist as after I while I honestly couldn't tell one song from the next
Two things Steve:
1) Of course the arena smelled of herb. What you couldn't smell was all the LSD and you can bet your bottom dollar there was plenty of it.
2) "I honestly couldn't tell one song from the next". This cracked me up. Steve, this certainly gives you away as a definite non-Deadhead!
IMHO, the Dead were at their best in the mid 70's. I'm proud to say I was an early DH. I attended many concerts from 1970-1994 and its fair to say they influenced me greatly. For many of my generation, it was a rite of passage experience. Fortunately, their vast concert repertoire was preserved well-enough (albeit of varying quality) so as to disprove the adage "you can't go back again". Oh, yes you can.
Some interesting historical tidbits. They appeared at my alma mater, the Univ of Rochester, in the spring of 1970. I was fortunate to get a job as a security guard for the concert at the Palestra and was assigned to guard the back door of the gym. Somebody knocked. I opened the door and told the person that entry was prohibited and they had to go around to the front entrance with tickets. Bob Weir looked right at me and in some disbelief said politely "Um, we're the band". How embarrassing is that? During the intermission, I had a long talk with Robert Hunter (one of their main lyricists- the other was Robert Barlow) and told him how impressed I was that his lyrics were almost direct metaphors taken from the poetry of William Blake. I'm pretty sure he was tripping, but he managed to look at me with a huge grin and said that almost nobody he meets recognized this and thanked me for my observations which he said were indeed true. I then went back to my post for the second set which was immediately in front of the stage. I was no more than 5 ft from Jerry, and recall it was then I first noticed the missing finger of his right hand. Fortunately, I didn't partake in the large jugs of OJ that circulated in the front rows. Suffice it to say, a lot of people wound up in the hospital ER that night, mostly to receive anti-anxiety meds while they were coming down from their trip. The band then invited me to join them backstage at their gig the following night in Syracuse (about an hour away), which i did with a few friends. From what I can remember (!), it was an amazing night. (Honestly, I'm not quite sure how I made it back to Rochester after the show). Oh, the exigencies and stupidity of youth!