It was here, the day of the first show to kickoff Dead & Company’s final tour.
I awoke to the sound of wind whipping at my tent. One of the tent stakes did become uprooted during the night, but the tent held up.
I arose around 6 AM and began packing up my belongings for the 425 mile drive to LA. My path would take me through Las Vegas, but I had no intentions of stopping there. I’m not much of a gambler. It also doesn’t seem like the greatest idea to stop in a place known for it’s nightlife in the middle of the day.
I made it to Vegas around 9 AM and took a quick stop to refuel. Gas prices tend to be steep in the desert between Vegas and LA, or so I have been told.
I was making great time up until I got just past the Nevada and California border. I must have only been 5 miles into California when I hit bumper to bumper traffic. Well known are the horror stories of California’s traffic. I was however expecting to run into this type of traffic closer to LA and not on the border of Nevada.
The traffic started to clear after about 45 minutes of waiting at a standstill. There turned out to be a bad accident up ahead that caused the delay. It was smooth sailing after that all the way to LA.
I arrived in LA around 2 PM and grabbed lunch at a burger joint near the hotel. I rolled into the hotel at my 3 PM check in, but found out that my room was not ready. The wait in the lobby was about an hour and I got into my room at 4.
I became somewhat frustrated with the wait, but I didn’t have time to see the city anyways before the 7 PM start time. The best part of staying in hotels on the days of a show is the shower before hitting the concert. This is especially important when you have been camping in the desert for 2 days.
Parking sold out, so I took an Uber to the show. This also gave me opportunity to have a few drinks at the concert without having to worry about the drive home.
The Uber dropped me off at the Forum around 6:30 which gave me a half hour before the show’s noted start time. I was somewhat surprised that a single beer cost 20 bucks at the entrance stand and I chalked it up to LA prices being higher. I would later find out $20 a beer was the common amount at most shows on the tour.
The Forum felt like a time machine taking me back to the highlights of the finals between the Lakers and Celtics in the 1980s. I had a new appreciation for the level of detail in the HBO series Winning Time.
I found my seat to the left of the stage and realized I must be early as the place was still mostly empty. People slowly began to spill in from Shakedown Street and the lots with The Forum mostly full by 7.
You could feel the energy building as the venue filled with voices, laughter, and cheers from the crowd. The band took the stage at about 7:30 to raucous applause. They immediately went into the funky bassline of “Shakedown Street”. The music captivated the crowd. “Cold Rain and Snow” followed along with a soulful “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”.
The tour was getting off to a phenomenal start and the band seemed to be already firing on all cylinders. My only critique was the obnoxiously drunk women behind me that had spilled their beer and popcorn all over my leather jacket that I had draped on my seat. The most infuriating aspect was the waste of a perfectly good $20 beer.
Aside from the drunken fans, which I would soon find as commonplace, the first set was the best I had heard Dead & Company play Live. Things seemed to hit another gear at the end of the 1st set with a real rocking version of “Deal”.
Intermission hit and there was still no one sitting to the left or right of me. I took the good fortune to relax in my seat until the 2nd set.
The second set started with “Sugaree” followed by “New Speedway Boogie” and “Eyes of the World”. The crowd was still very high energy with singing and dancing to every song. “Estimated Prophet” then led to the psychedelic “Drums” and “Space”.
The bass in “Space” was so deep and low that you could feel it in your body. Mickey Hart really outdid himself on the sound production for the tour.
The “Drums” and “Space” at the two LA shows would go on to be my favorites of the tour. This was simply due to the light show. The light show was great throughout with patterns that synchronized with the jams and it really stood out during the more psychedelic portions. The Forum gigs were the only indoor shows on the tour. While the outdoor light shows were great, they did not hold a candle to the indoor light shows.
I ended up leaving once the band went onto “The Wheel” after “Space”. My goal was to beat the crowds and avoid the chaos of the Uber pick up spot. I was able to quickly procure an Uber, but soon discovered that staff were not letting Ubers into the pick up area. My only option was to walk out to the main street of Pincay Dr that connected to SOFI stadium. Uber still could not connect, so I ended up taking a cab back.
I vowed to stay until the end for the concert the next night. I didn’t seem to get any benefit from leaving early.
It was a successfully trip from Chicago to LA and I was riding on cloud nine with excitement for the remaining stops.
