It’s been a long time since i’ve seen any live music, and i miss it all the time. i don’t miss the big arena rock madison square garden phish shows, though. i miss being in a shitty bar and hearing some band play grateful dead songs for me to dance and twirl around. they don’t even have to play them well, just play them.
when i lived around asbury park, NJ i would see some group of dudes play grateful dead songs at least once a week, and all my friends would go to some bar and dance with me, that’s what i miss. I was sober, and the fact that i was at a bar didn’t phase me, i was so focused on my twirling.
dancing is a spiritual thing, it lets things out. i fancy myself a good dancer, and other people have agreed.
maybe that’s what i need: to dance.
for many years i had this thing i’d do all the time on any given day. go to the store and get a 12 pack, bring it home and park myself in front of a computer. I’d go to archive.org and drown my sorrows in naragansett ale and grateful dead shows. i’d bob my head, smile at some points and have a good cry over a “stella blue” or “China doll”
this is why i can reccomend so many tapes, because i’ve spent hundreds of hours running through the archive.
the band still has surprises for me and i’ve been digging around the tapes since i was 14.
i don’t drink, but i still climb around in the thousands of tapes in the archive and my freinds still get texts all the time of random shows i find. i don’t know if they actually listen to them, but i still send them.
i want to link one tape. if you have the patience to give this version of dark star 30 minutes you’ll hear some of the best, most joyous music i’ve ever heard in my life. its transcendent musical meditation, and it’s fucking gorgeous. ill admit there’s a little noisy space before the juju, but it all adds up to something magical. it’s so good i can hardly beleive it happened.
https://archive.org/details/gd1969-11-02.sbd.miller.32350.sbeok.flac16
