I fortunately didn't miss any of the music, but yes, the lines were terribly slow at Shoreline this past weekend. Add to that the incredibly inadequate bicycle parking (I love to bike there, but the bike racks fit only about 20 bikes total, for 22,000 people), extremely limited access to parking, and that place is just a mess. And, some of the water fountains don't even work!!! Yet they can charge $19 for a beer - go figure.

I would only go back to Shoreline if there was someone I REALLY REALLY wanted to see badly, and I can count those artists on the fingers of one hand.

My condolences to those who waited so long to get in.

Similar problem though maybe to a lesser degree at the Friday night show. And you had to get there through gridlocked traffic first. I did notice that they were very short staffed at security, parking and concessions. People at security and ticket takers were clearly inexperienced and slow. Cashiers did not seem to know how to operate their machinery. Shoreline management needs to get their act together.

The Amphitheatre has had its day, only decent event all year is the 4th of July concert. Not a venue for 'A' list performers.

I used to love going to Shoreline to see the Grateful Dead, or Phish, or the Bridge School Benefit, to name a few. But as I get older, huge venues like this are just not any fun. And when you add in the complete incompetence of the management, long lines, super high prices, etc. it's just not worth the hassle. There are many other great places to hear music in the bay area, just not Shoreline anymore.

The Dead show crowd was far cry from those of yesteryear.

A number of overweight, aging guys (with thinning or no hair) sporting tie-dies.

The beautiful, young Deadhead gals have gone by the wayside too. A very yuppie-esque crowd. Then again, the original band was a favorite of Al & Tipper Gore's as well as Ann Coulter...talk about extremes.

Definitely not a show for the younger crowd unless they grew-up with the music playing in the background.

It was as if the circa 1980s 'noveau Dead' crowd made it to the show en masse.

Many of them didn't even have an idea who Pigpen was or a familiarity with the tapers & cassette tape trading pastime. More of a commercialized CD/MP3 mentality.

The traditional loose, free-form style of performing is somewhat lost as well...a very rehearsed presentation. Jerry would have been mystified.

Think I'll pass on future shows. The magic has gone by the wayside and Bob Weir is now a member of the Bohemian Club. Except for a few songs, it was always about Garcia and his ethereal musical gift.

Besides, the long wait in line was enough punishment for two shows that never really took-off like in the circa 1960s-70s era. And let's not even get started on the parking.

In retrospect...just a commercialized show of minimal 'retro' proportions.

BTW, anyone interested in an all original 'Jerrymeister T'?

I think I'm going to put it in storage.

I went there for a concert last summer. I was very disappointed at many of the supposed amenities.

For my party, our biggest problem is that since we had arrived by foot, we had to walk right past the entrance in the opposite direction to get to the end of the security lines. Not everyone arrives by car and then having to walk back across the parking lot to get to the end of the line is wrong planning.

They need to do a much better job to facilitate those who are not arriving by car.

1, ironically or to the point of several posters, tonite is Palo Alto Historical Association annual dinner and Bo Crane is giving a talk --and selling his pamphlet --about the history of rock in Palo Alto, including Jerry and Billy anecdotes.
2, I thought John Mayer did a great job playing the guitar leads; but frankly, and not to dis Bob, I'd rather see John Mayer and Friends Do the Hunter and Barlow Songbook than more Dead and Co.
3, I'm excited to see Joe Russo's Almost Dead at Frost.

We may be going to hell in a bucket, but at least we are enjoying our extra hour in line remembering the good old days.

(And for me: my wife is always running late, and we stopped at Pizza Chicago, so our wait was only 28 minutes and about a half-mile from the pat-down station -- we missed "Bertha" and "Good Loving" but could hear it, or at least identify it, from outside - -and kudos that they got the word to start late, unless, like my wife, that's how they roll).

Oh, and 4, my sister in law fell in the restroom during second set and we spent the encore in Rock Medicine, but the staff there was top notch and they let us fetch our car and go counter-flow to pick her up.

Speaking of the 'taper' culture...back in 1968 at the Fillmore West, Bob Weir once stopped a show when he discovered someone had lugged in an Ampex reel-to-reel tape deck & was recording the performance. Bill Graham then went into the audience & confiscated the tapes.

Bob Weir was always about money & his membership in the conservative Bohemian Club is not surprising. Jerry Garcia had no problem with folks taping the shows and was once quoted as saying something along the lines of, "Once the music has been played, it's gone. Who cares if someone is recording it?".

The collective remnants of the Grateful Dead is little more than a cash cow for older Deadheads and earlier soundboard recordings are now commercially available for sale.

Dead & Company is a sell-out but that's OK. Bobby is running the show(s) now & they are reflective of his commerce-oriented mentality.

The pervasive spirit of the 1960s died a long time ago...and in retrospect, were never destined to endure.

I stood in the line. If you went to the back you were at least half a mile from the gate. What Live Nation Staff were there were completely incompetent. There were no Live Nation staff in Shoreline Park. Besides missing half the show the situation was extremely dangerous with 1,000's of fans lined up the the road exiting the park. Cars leaving the sailing lake or golf course had to navigate through fans lined up on the street.

The story in the Palo Alto times does not come close at reflecting what really happened.

Why no Chinese or African-American Deadheads? Is the Grateful Dead strictly a white audience?

Come to think of it, I've never seen an African-American at a Lynyrd Skynyrd show either.

> Bob Weir is now a member of the Bohemian Club

Associate member, fwiw.

> at a Lynyrd Skynyrd show

The unveiling of a 40 foot confederate flag during Free Bird, is telling...

Why no Chinese at Grateful Dead Chinese New Year's shows either?

What is a China Cat Sunflower anyways?

I used to manage a band that did a mean version of Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy by Brian Eno.

Wu-Tang Clan?

Wait a minute: my wife is Pinay -- what's your point?

My earlier query was explained to me last evening by a musician. He said the reason there are no Chinese Deadheads is because the Dead play primarily in the pentatonic scale whereas the Chinese are accustomed to music played in either the Oriental and/or Chinese scale (two different music scales) where the note intervals are different.

This also explains why Grateful Dead music does not sound like Chinese party music...party music as in those propaganda anthems created during the Mao-ist 1960s that played homage to the Chinese Communist Party regime.

There were no hippies & tie-dyes in China during that time. Importing rock music LPs from America was illegal & could land one in a prison camp as a subversive.

I ran this question by an African-American college classmate decades ago.

His reply...the hippie movement & psychedelic music were for white middle-class kids rebelling against their white middle-class parents. It was just a superficial fashion statement.

Most black people did not want to live like hippies because they had been forced to exist in a similar manner (in presumed poverty) for centuries in America by none other than the 'The Man' (aka the wealthy white man).

The difference was that the white middl-class kids could always revert back to their former lifestyles and many t did when they became 1980s era yuppies.

As a result, there are very few black Deadheads & as a previous poster noted, the ones who still go to these shows are aging, sometimes overweight middle-class white folks now in their 60s & 70s.

The San Francisco Chinese Orchestra was often the opening act at Grateful Dead Chinese New Year's concerts. A dragon dance at those concerts began the second set of music.

> the hippie movement & psychedelic music were for white middle-class kids rebelling against their white middle-class parents. It was just a superficial fashion statement.

No kidding. The URL below is from 2017.

Believe it or not....Vogue Magazine fashion suggestions for attending the Dead shows!

Web Link

HOW PHONY & COMMERCIAL...just like the current Dead ensemble.

> Vogue Magazine fashion suggestions for attending the Dead shows!

Those are definitely fashion models. I used to catch the Dead shows regularly from the late 60s to about 1988 & many of the younger Deadhead gals actually looked like the ones depicted. Not any more.

For some reason, watching older women in their late 60s to early 70s wearing counterculture attire & 'kelp dancing' to the music lacks a certain something...just not as sensual (or as visually appealing) compared to 'back in the day'. Oh well.