Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To
I’ve never seen more of Precarious Lee’s handiwork in one place. This stage setup (from the Dead’s first Giants Stadium show on 9/2/78) goes beyond a lack of interest in the visual aesthetic. This was a deliberate decision.
“How raggedy-assed can it possibly look?” the Dead said.
And the Greatest Roadie of All Time, Precarious Lee, answered, “Gimme an hour.”
If you don’t go listen to 1/22/78 from Oregon right now, then we can’t be friends anymore. I know you’ve heard it before; go listen again. Let your children fend for themselves, or lock them outdoors: listen to this now.
And for those of you who don’t care much for the current state of affairs, there’s always 1/11/78 from the Shrine in Los Angeles. This show has been recommended by Mr. Completely and described as “very 1978,” so take that as a caveat or entreaty.
Garcia’s just over the laryngitis that turned the previous few shows into Bobby-and-Donna fests and he’s scratchy but killing it on the guitar. Worth a spin.
Okay, new contest: “Just how many Stealies did those mutants plaster on that poor piano?”
Look: everyone’s ignoring Mrs. Donna Jean.
A shot from the Gizah Sound and Light Theatre, where we find Phil rocking out like no one’s watching.
For a week’s worth of shows in April ’78, Keith deflated his piano. Then, someone told him that wasn’t even a thing.
Hey, Ramrod: who’s the new guy in charge of stacking things on top of one another?
“Oh, that’s Precarious Lee. Great fellow. Not super-awesome with engineering principles or even basic spatial relationships. Also, he smells like a slaughterhouse’s asshole. But an optimist, and well-read.”
Well, can’t we give him another job, man? He’s gonna kill somebody.
“Oh, people have already died: you were in the bathroom.”
And we have no way of setting these monitors other than strapping their naked, unpainted husks to random road cases in the most unaesthetic fashion possible?
“Oh, there’s am almost infinite variety of ways, but every one of them would take more time and energy. We chose to do the bare minimum and had to be physically threatened and bribed with cocaine to do even that, if I’m honest.”
And Keith’s piano has a heat shield on it because…?
“Are you aware of what re-entry temperatures are?”
We’re done here.
When they got bored and loopy on cognac and Twinkies, the road crew would play Jenga with the equipment.
“That guy right there, he looks sick, it could be Ebola, let’s not take any chances. Parish, bring me the flamethrower: I’ll burn everyone in this building to death if that’s what it takes to save them from Ebola!”
…
“Parish, do we even have a flamethrower?”
“Garcia, for purposes of plausible deniability, I did not hear you ask me that question.”
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