Grateful Dead goodbye starts with parking lot busts, serious stage jams

Washington Post ^ | June 28 at 6:32 AM | Geoff Edgers

[a fool in paradise]

The undercover cops didn’t help the vibe, most of all for Moondog. They wore jeans and t-shirts and carried backpacks that made them look almost like everybody else, except not really. They wouldn’t talk to me as they scooped up the spoils of the copyright shakedown – pins and t-shirts – and Moondog, growing uglier by the second as he stood helplessly next to his camper, cursed out the Dead, mocked Bobby and Phil Lesh, then pledged to return next time with bags of heroin decorated with Jerry’s face. Ouch...

Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart won’t play together again, though three of them might head out with John Mayer, if the jamband rumor mill is right. For this, they’ve recruited Phish’s Trey Anastasio and pianist Bruce Hornsby and are a hotter ticket than Taylor Swift...

The parking lots open at 3, the set opens just after 7:15. They start with a building version of “Truckin’” and everybody in the crowd raises their arms at the famous line, “what a long, strange trip it’s been,” because everything somehow weighs more now when the end is near. As the first set wraps, a rainbow appears, stretching over the stage. It is majestic and glowing and not part of the light show. (Billboard reports otherwise, though that’s hard to believe.)

...Back in the press room, Joel Selvin, the legendary former San Francisco Chronicle writer, brought back for one night to cover the band he’s known for decades, admits the show is going better than he thought. (Earlier in the night, when the subject of Garcia came up, Joel told me: “It’s not a championship team. They lost their starting quarterback.”)

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

They suck live. I mean really, really, really suck

Well - they were very inconsistent, especially when they got older and Jerry was in poor health. Their regular fans didn't notice the difference - but I've seen some live performances where the vocals especially were cringe-worthy. I love the music, was never over fond of the vocals. Always wondered what they would have been like with a good vocalist.