Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To

Tag: 1977 (Page 9 of 11)

Vast Wasted Land

My television broke a few months ago. I had already cancelled my cable service after realizing some harsh truths. First: Comcast is evil. Not in a hyperbolic internet kind of way, but actually evil: if you close your eyes and say “Comcast” into a mirror three times, a Satanic service technician will appear behind you. Of course, he won’t appear behind you until the Monday after next sometime between noon and seven, but still: evil.

Second, the ratio of worthwhile programming to soul-deadening offal is worse than the ratio of good to bad Vince shows. The supply of creativity has remained fairly constant over the years: there’s the same amount of entertaining fare now as when your channel changer stopped at 13 and everyone had a secret way of insuring good reception, from extra-large rabbit ears to tin foil to inserting the antennae up the rectum of your friend with all the piercings.

90% of every medium is shit, but TV seems to have taken that as a dare, filing the airwaves with racist buttermongers, blotchy-skinned fat people running pawn shops, and Anthony Bourdain smoking at you while sneeringly wearing a Dead Boys t-shirt despite being 50 years old and telling you how much better food is when prepared in a country where no one has ever washed their hands.

So when the TV gave up the ghost (which reminds me: Nostradamus made a prediction about an empire falling when a critical mass was achieved of shows about liars and idiots hunting spirits, chasing ‘squatch, and talking to the departed in a grating Long Island accent) I did the righteous thing and called a local charity to come pick it up. I might have neglected to mention that it didn’t work any longer and I was using their free donation service as a garbage pick-up, but in my defense, they didn’t ask. Plus. the place is entirely staffed my recovering junkies and alcoholics; exercise is good for them.

Nice rationalization.

I’m human: it’s kind of our prime directive.

It’s just me and the computer now. Got the Netflix and the Youtube and someone (not me, your honor) keeps sneaking into my house to torrent Archer and Hannibal and Top Gear seconds after they air.

Last night, though, I checked out the newest offering from Charlie Miller’s visual counterpart, Voodoonola, whom I can only assume is from Michigan. April 27th at the Capital Theater in beautiful, downtown Passaic, NJ, from the fabled Spring ’77 tour.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Ft4O-qlSk&w=420&h=315]

It’s a multi-camera shoot and there’s just tons of nifty shit in here. Some highlights:

  • Garcia is fantastically entertaining. His eyebrows are more expressive than Rowan Atkinson’s rubbery mug and he’s having a great time. He’s trim and bopping around the stage, making eye contact with everyone and just generally looking like he wants to be there.
  • Billy is a revelation, slamming into his kit and loosing more beats than humanly possible. Check him out on Mississippi Half-Step, but be prepared to massage your aching face after the smile fades away hours later.
  • Mrs. Donna Jean’s hair is positively Rapunzel-esque. Keith would have climbed up it later that night had he not been completely immobile, wearing a ludicrous scarf, and sporting my Great-Aunt Helen’s sunglasses.
  • And for all my fellow Enthusiasts raised thinking paradise could only be illuminated by the dashboard light, the set break feature the legendary and much-missed dulcet tones of Scott Muni.

So watch it. Or turn on your TV and check out the latest wacky misunderstanding on Two Broke Girls. (That was a bad example: that show has two undeniable reasons to tune in.)

Just say it.

KAT DENNINGS’ GIANT BOOBIES!

There ya go, slugger.

Rising First And Shining Best

How bad can a day turn out when you wake up with Terrapin Station bouncing around your skull? Here’s a stellar version of Garcia and Hunter’s prayer to the Morning Star from the Winterland ’77 box set to start your Spring off right:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYNeNuZRfuY&w=420&h=315]

Kick today’s ass like it owed you money and cat-called your mom, fellow Enthusiasts.

 

G’Day To You, Old Southern Skies

The Dead never went to Australia. There were many reasons: the 85-hour plane flight, the visa requirements (Billy had bitten the last three doctors who tried to give him a booster shot, so Rakow had had to forge the paperwork for the insurance company and immigration tends to look at things more closely,) and the fact that Bobby was convinced he was “gonna fall off, man. Opposite Day’s one thing, but Upside-down Day? Not on my watch.”

The Dead down under? Silliness.

But it happened.

Once again, David Lemeuixxx (DL’s alter-ego who runs a Dead-themed webcam show in which he talks about the upcoming releases while removing up to three layers of fleece and/or goretex) has roused a TUMESCENT TERROR from the nether reaches where lies spawn and honor receives a bad haircut. A DEMON OF LIES, is he, out to ROGER US PROPERLY with his FIB-BONER!

I can’t even look at you right now.

The Dead did indeed visit Australia, and New Zealand too, in the Summer of ’77. Mickey’s car crash was a ruse, a shuck, a jive: twaddle, I calls it! Think about it: Mickey getting fucked up and doing something stupid that cost the organization a small fortune? Does that sound like Mickey?

The plane ride went poorly. Everything got covered in acid and then there was turbulence so everything got covered in vomit and there were still, like, 32 hours to go.

Their arrival went poorly, too. In Australia, they’re fond of a certain word, starts with a “C,” they use it constantly about everyone and everything. We don’t. So, when the custom official, in what he thought was friendly banter, called Betty Cantor that, she hauled off and socked the dumb cunt.

Nicely done. Subtle.

Luckily, the entire country–including everyone in authority–is made up of sunstroked lunatics of criminal stock, so they respect a good border-guard whalloping. They think it’s a way of asserting your home countries’ pride. Australians are like Klingons in flip-flops.

The shows went poorly, as could be guessed: there were too many distractions. Jon McIntire got eaten by a kangaroo, then fired by Billy for it. Keith, having accidentally taken too may uppers instead of his usual barbiturates, declared himself Cockodile Dundee and wandered around Perth stark naked and demanding strangers look at his Uluru. It was nice of him to use the traditional name for it, but still.

The disasters continued: Garcia was mistaken for a koala and forced to pose with tourists in a nature preserve: he didn’t much mind because they kept him tranquilized and he copped a lot of feels when good-looking ladies took a picture.

The last dates were in New Zealand, so the boys rented a boat to make the hop, except it’s about 900 miles between Australia and NZ, so they nearly died 9 or 10 times and when they got there, everyone realized that it was just hobbits and sheep and cliffs–New Zealand is basically warm Iceland–so they went home and when they rehired Jon McIntire, who had been brought back to life via Time Sheath technology, his first task was to hunt down all the tapes of the shows and destroy them. When he had burned the last tape, Billy fired him again for no discernible reason.

Fall In Your Direction

Here’s a spectacular spectacle and bodacious creation from that magical year of 1977: 10/30 in Nap City. Overshadowed by the night before’s manic roar and stomp, as well as the first week of November’s streak of genius, this one deserves a listen.

Second set’s the juicy goodness here: Vice-Admiral of the Northern Fleet Mr. Completely pimps the weirdly placed Peggy-O for enbronzifcation, and he might be right: Check out Keith on the clavichord and LEAVE IT ON for the rest, a big Playing sandwich with a HoF Wharf Rat that threatens to tear the roof off the dump; then the downshift in the Reprise fading away to barely articulated string scrapings from Garcia until it wells up in no time at all and you remember just why they had two drummers, especially this year.

And then it’s Chuck Berry time: you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.

What Does The Fox Say?*

Continuing in the vein of yesterday’s admittedly over-enthused and amply-worded jeremiad (would a jeremiad about the Dead be a Jerrymiad?) about an overlooked gem, TotD returns to plains well-plowed: May ’77, specifically 5/18/77 from the Fox Theater in Atlanta, which–going strictly by the historical record–was one of the Dead’s power places that Phil was always ranting about before demanding you come dowsing with him again.

fox theater

Opened two months after the Depression hit and facing bankruptcy two years later that, the Fabulous Fox was always a mess, but she was too beautiful to let die.

Fox Theatre Atlanta Georgia USA

Represented by a pick from both Dick and Dave (the only venue with that achievement to its name), the Fox played host to almost a dozen great Dead shows. The 18th is one of them: check out the sinuous Jack-A-Roe and feel free to shake your booty. Shake anything you want: you’re God’s perfect little angel and your money’s no good here, you know that, Uncle Ashtabula.

Time for bed?

Yes.

*I couldn’t help myself.

The Magnificent Seven #2

deadbandbobbywhitepants

BOBBY, GUARD YOUR DICK! BILLY IS STARING AT IT WITH BLOODHUNGER!

Why would you leave yourself open like that…and his other hand’s full. He’s just waiting there like the Benelux nations in 1940. Pacifism is only a viable creed if the guy standing next to you isn’t Billy.

And Mrs. Donna Jean is simply adorbs and we are going to talk about what the hell the deal is with her and Keith soon, because this photo espacially illustrates a, shall we say, discrepancy.

 

 

Portlandia

The first day of October, in that champion year of 1977.  Portland, Oregon, which is tied with Portland, Maine, and That Town That Smells Like A Clown’s Asshole, Iowa, for the title of America’s least creative town names.

The next night, and its Casey Jones opener that bursts with an almost-fascistic energy (the song COMMANDS that you boogie and it has also fused government and industry into one monolithic entity fronted by a cult of personality), is better known, but the night before is spectacular.

The setlist is remarkably ’77. It’s as ’77 as you can get without folding the year into a Riemann Manifold and turning the Universe into a small kitten or an enormous kitten or any sort of kitten.

This show is in the details. Check out the Eyes>Dancin transition as Mickey defines “most cowbell.”

Got A Tip

10/12/77 from Manor Downs  (whatever that means) in Texas, which is a state that enjoys the fuck out of itself, tell you what.

We’ve got a rare ’77 He’s Gone. There might be a reason for its scarcity this year; there’s a definite Rashomon thing going on: everyone’s got their own version of the song and they’re sticking with it. Also, their facial expressions are very stylized.

And listen to Garcia play real quiet-like on Black Peter. Real quiet-like Garcia? That’s some good Garcia.

PLUS the only 1977 Nobody’s Fault (marred slightly by an AUD patch up front), and it’s a unique one: Billy and Mickey are playing some mutant version of the Purdy shuffle, Keith thinks they’re doing Not Fade Away, and no one can remember the second verse, so they say ‘fuck it’ and play Iko Iko too slowly.

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