Back in 1984 when Don Henley wrote a lyric of, "Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac," it was an ironic statement about the winds of change - a Cadillac being the ultimate symbol of mainstream capitalist American culture, whereas The Dead epitomized the counterculture. The lyric implies that maybe the counterculture was growing up and going mainstream, maybe selling out. Today that observation seems quaint. Deadheads are for sure grown up and mainstream. My Deadhead friends include lawyers, professors, and lobbyists. I don't know personally know a Deadhead with a Cadillac, but Mercedes, BMW, Lexus? Boats? Beach houses? For sure.
This evolution was certainly evident at a private party gig I played recently. It was a 50th birthday party for a guy who is a VP at Meta (Facebook's parent company), and who apparently previously had senior roles in the Obama, Kerry, and Gore campaigns. During our break various encomiums were delivered in his honor, all of which included political insider anecdotes - clearly this guy had been a heavy hitter in the Democratic party. Clearly this was not someone who sells weed out of his VW microbus to scrounge money to get to the next show.
Sheesh, what a complicated gig it was. We knew that our lead guitarist wasn't going to be available, and we had lined up a substitute, but two days before the gig our rhythm guitarist and lead singer came down with a major case of vertigo. The poor guy could barely walk to the bathroom, and certainly was in no condition to perform. Fortunately, the local community of Deadhead musicians is pretty inter-connected (and we all know the same songs!). We wound up cobbling together a group with the regular drummer, bass player, and me, augmented b the fill-in lead guitarist, and our friends Jamie and Amy filling in on vocals, and we pulled it off quite splendidly. We fessed up to the hosts what was going on but honestly, if we hadn't told them they probably never would have known. It was a little stressful.
The party was cool, though. They even hired a cheese steak food truck to come down from Philly - apparently the birthday boy loves cheese steaks.
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| Hippie party decor |
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| View from the stage |
Then a couple of weeks later Valerie and I went out to Las Vegas to see Dead and Company (the remnants of the Grateful Dead) at The Sphere, an immersive audio/video/haptic environment in Vegas. The Sphere's construction cost $2.3B; it's leading edge live entertainment. And again, it's a long way from hippies wallowing in the mud at Woodstock. The Sphere is clearly the glitzy Vegas version of a Dead show, and with $300 tickets, $50 t-shirts, and $20 beers, it was a better fit for the Cadillac Deadhead demographic than for the anti-capitalist, destitute hippies of old.
We had a great time. The band played well. The venue's technical capabilities are really impressive, and were used to good effect with lots of cool custom animations.
But perhaps the best part was outside the venue, at the "Shakedown". Let me explain: Dead shows always had a vendor area in the parking lot, where people sold everything from tie-dyes to Dead paraphernalia to bootleg recordings to cheap food (grilled cheese was a favorite) to, ahem, controlled substances. Some of the sellers were artisans, while others were just Deadheads looking to raise gas money to get to the next show. With the vendors and lots of people milling around and socializing, the parking lot marketplace always radiated the chaotic entrepreneurialism of a middle-eastern shouk. Back in the day we just called it "the lot", but some time in the late 80's - early 90's people calling it "Shakedown", a reference to the Grateful Dead song "Shakedown Street". The modern day Shakedown is a more formalized occurrence. I'm sure that every vendor had to apply for a slot (as opposed to just opening their trunks in the parking lot), and pretty much all were real artists/businesses as opposed to rando hippies. A list of sellers was available in advance, and heck, everyone took credit cards!
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| With friends outside The Sphere |
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| Inside The Sphere. How big is this? Look at the stage - that teeny tiny far away thing |
But still, a little bit of the old freewheeling spirit remains. Valerie makes beaded bracelets as a hobby and our friend Karen, with whom we were traveling, suggested that Valerie bring some along and try to trade. Well. Let me say that Valerie has no fear of approaching and talking to strangers (she relishes it!), and she sees friendly bargaining as a fun challenge, and so Shakedown became her hunting ground and a peak part of her Sphere experience. "Your earrings are beautiful! Would you consider trading a pair for a bracelet?" asked the kindly grey-haired lady in the "Mama Bear" t-shirt. And lots of people said yes! We visited Shakedown twice during our trip, and each time Valerie entered with a pocketful of her bracelets and left with a pile of traded items - earrings, necklaces, and on the second day, even a t-shirt! She bought some stuff too.
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Earrings for trade!
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In comparison, I bought a hat (to replace one I accidentally left somewhere along the way - my shiny head needs protection from the sun), a t-shirt (full price at the official concert merch store), a set of Grateful Dead-themed Tibetan prayer flags for my music practice room (again full price, from a vendor Valerie later successfully traded with), and a funky Nepalese hoodie (again, paid cash). Our suitcases were very full by the end of the trip.
I talked with the ball cap seller - his designs were a little different than the run-of-the-mill Grateful Dead logo items which were in abundant supply at the various booths. He said that he comes up with the artwork, but the actual embroidery design is done by a friend of his who is a commercial pilot, but also does embroidery design. Go figure.
While we were out in Vegas we took a day trip out to Red Rock Canyon, a place of immense scale and desert beauty. Alas, because we're old people we didn't do any hiking, but we stopped at most of the scenic overlook points on the 14 mile drive through the park, and hiked a good 100 ft. to a picnic table where we had lunch (food pocketed from our hotel's breakfast bar!) in a spectacular setting.
I should mention that the Las Vegas leg of our trip was preceded by a couple of days visiting Ted out in California, which was also a lot of fun (cooking! pickleball! Ramen Nagi! etc.). Overall, a very enjoyable trip.
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| Valerie climbing at the gym with Ted! |
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| The desert beauty of Red Rock Canyon |
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