30 Years Ago Today: Brent's Final Show 7/23/90

The World Music Theatre was literally a dump (it was built on a landfill site), but this was a pretty hot show as I recall. Hearing about Brent's passing a few days later shocked me a lot more than JG's did five years later.

Thanks for the good times, Brent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFFbkbF0R3c

I went up to mount desert island after Buffalo, heard about Brent's death during a radio broadcast. 

9.29.89... I really enjoyed that run at shoreline, there was a kid in the lot on the night of 10.1, he was yelling,  "Grateful Dead Hampton Virginia next weekend, believe it!"

I didn't believe it. Got back to the east coast in time for night two in philly. 

How many Grateful Dead concert venues were built on actual landfills?

anyone?

Ski boyne in Michigan was a dump. It still is, actually.

that death don't was killer.

glad i traveled for shows as a teen.

all these recent brent 90 vids have made me really nostalgic.

can't believe some people didn't like him. i don't get it. so much electric playing and the vocal blend....losing him was like removing oregano from pasta sauce...

I thought it was over when Brent died. Could not believe they went on with the east coast and Euro tour.

Too bad Merl didn't take the offer.

Brent's passing was devastating just 3 days later.

The Good Times he sang at his final show was alarmingly  vicious.

So glad we attended 8 shows this tour including Brent's final 6.

The Saturday night show was overwhelmingly crowded due to gate crashers.

We saw people climbing fences and dropping into the venue commando style. WTF!

It foreshadowed what became of the scene over the following 5 years. : (

I can't believe so many couldn't see & hear his spiraling desperation, especially at the end.

He was a brilliant player and I loved his role his first five or six years, and I cried when I heard the news, but I wasn't surprised at all.

His issues were far deeper than drug addiction, and when a person's overall life is totally spiraling as out of control as Brent's obviously was that will absolutely bleed into every aspect of their life, especially if you live your life on stages in front of thousands, and to me his out of control desperation had been obvious both physically and musically for quite a while.

It's such a sad story, and I've always wondered if his issues were exacerbated by being in the Grateful Dead or if he would have unraveled whether he had hooked up with the GD or not.

I guess it doesn't really matter, and he definitely had many great years with the band and absolutely contributed to the greatness of the greatest band that ever played.

Whatever our varying opinions may be...

Brent Mydland was and is forever one of the Grateful Dead.

That's a fact.

>>>I can't believe so many couldn't see & hear his spiraling desperation, especially at the end.

I think it was happening long before the end. One of the all time great melt downs, and that is saying a lot for this band. 

Maybe You Know. 4/21/86

https://archive.org/details/gd86-04-21.sbd.jeffm.1857.sbeok.shnf/gd86-04...

After Jerry, my favorite member. Hands down. By far.

I sang I Will Take You Home to our son when he was in the NICU Oakland Kaiser.

Slacker, did the nurses run to the beer stand?

J/K Slacker, I'm sure it was a nice moment for you and your family.

Brent had the opening song slot for the second set at my first show in Syracuse in '82.

How many more times did that happen at all the shows I saw till '90?

Zero point Zero.

I thought Brent did a great job with what he was hired to do with the band. I enjoyed his contributions to

his bandmates' songs and most of the covers he sang, but his screeds about women and relationships in his songs

didn't do a lot for me, but to each their own, right?

We saw an excellent Easy To Love You at Deer Creek before Chicago (didn't go to Chicago, went to Buffalo and Deer Creek).

I think the consensus was that the Deer Creek shows were the best of the tour, they were on fire. 
 

I also was totally shocked that they went back out so soon after his death. That was a mistake, but I guess the pressure and money 

of the Fall Tour and then the Europe Tour made people make bad decisions.

In the end, I loved all the shows I saw with Brent.

HEY POCKY WAY!!!!!!!  (Cap Centre 9-12-87) 

I cancelled most team sports from my life instead of canceling Brent. My wife prefers listening to him over Krukow. 

"His issues were far deeper than drug addiction"

 Lance, I don't mean to be obtuse, but can you expand a bit on this, based on the conventional wisdom? What exactly would be deeper than drug addiction?

He was drinking heavily, was depressed and his marriage was about over. He was facing jail time over some DUI charges too. 

It's a shame he never felt like he "fit in" or whatever. Billy and Bobby have said on multiple occasions 89-90 were their best touring years. And it was because of Brent.

Where does the time go. My first Brent show was his 5th one with the GD-- Lafayette College in Easton, PA and I was struck right from the first note. First, he moved (Keith, bless his heart was stoic) and his voice the B3 sustain blew us away.  His electronic piano sound was a bit thin in the beginning but he dialed that in and he really made the band more dynamic--pre internet when we found Keith & Donna were out, I was bummed--I really liked Keith's piano sound but Brent was a breath of fresh air and got better as time went on.  Excellent singer--the best in the band.  Nice guy--had a beer with him during his Kokomo years when he and Billy played some club I can't remember in Center City in 86 while Jerry was nursing his health.  My last was Buffalo not long before he died and that was, for those years, a pretty decent show.  Next time I get over to the East Bay, he is buried in Lafayette and I will take a visit to say thanks.  

there hasn't been a proper fotd piano solo since...

My first show was Spring '82 and the older heads used to call me a Brent Baby.  Guess that cemented our musical relationship.

I was truly heartbroken when I heard of his passing.  I was new to California working in a flower shop, so I took a dozen yellow roses to the Dead office with a sympathy card signed by "Dedicated Philly Deadheads".

>>>losing him was like removing oregano from pasta sauce... Ha! I used to call him the glue that blended the band together, but this so much better T.

Krab

Bingo.  The Kokomo show was at the Chestnut Cabaret in August of 85 at that is where we had the brewski with Brent--GoAhead was at the Troc (right down from where I worked at 19th and Arch) and was there to.  I liked the Kokomo show better--loser but there were got rock n roll bands.  I am sure the Trocadero is long gone by now.  I saw Jorma do a solo show there maybe also 86.  I grew up near philly and it used to have some of the best place--Main Point, Second Fret, Grendel's Lair, Bijou Cafe (my favorite), Stars, Chestnut Cabaret an Ripley Music Hall.  Great place to frow up with Jersey clubs and NYC clubs all so close

I was there...front row. The Saturday show had one of the most colossal traffic jams ever. People were parking on I 80 and walking in from a few miles out. A horrible venue ...My interest level was not the same after Brent although I did keep going to shows.

I still miss him. Greg and I were falling in love around the time Brent died and after that I had no reason to leave home to travel (Vince and Bruce just didn't do it for me).

Scott Guberman posted the following:

"I never saw Brent as “real” dead but what do I know?
Last month, on the final episode of “Your Questions Answered with Scott Guberman”, I talked about how at times during the 2020 pandemic I’ve felt as though I was the only one who knew a catastrophe would be unfolding while people are arguing over whether to wear a mask while they get their hair and nails done and return to their jobs in corporate America.  It’s not real, it’s just a feeling.  Plenty of people saw it coming, but obviously not enough.  Besides, I’m never one to tell people what to do.
30 years ago today, I had a similar feeling when Brent Mydland died.  Everyone I knew was so relieved that the Grateful Dead would carry on with a new keyboardist.  Even better for some, they would add  Bruce Hornsby to the lineup to temporarily help the band through this quick change.  When the Grateful Dead returned that September, people were seemingly dying to hear how excited I would be, as a keyboardist, to have heard Bruce Hornsby, who I’ve always felt to be an excellent piano player, play with the GD.  They presumed if that wasn’t enough for me, I must be in heaven hearing the GD play with two keyboardists.   Vince Welnick was a good keyboardist.  As for me, however, I saw and told of the end of the best of the GD.  Why should I have been excited?  I wondered why the whole world could not see that replacing Brent Mydland with a popular music piano player and a punk rock keyboardist, neither of which had any professional background as a Hammond B3 player would be a terrible idea. It was bad enough we lost an amazing songwriter at his prime that provided contrast to the repertoire in an important way.  I didn’t give a shit about people seeing Jerry “pushed” by Hornsby to explore different directions.  I knew we’d be missing out.  I wanted them to take time to find someone who got it.  Someone to pick up where Brent had left off.  Someone who spent years listening to Mydland and understood how amazing he made the GD up until that point.  In my mind, that person might exist, and haste will make waste.  I wasn’t the only one, I’m pretty sure, but that familiar feeling of not being heard until it was too late while watching “the world crumble around you” was there to stay for quite a while.  Even years later, when it was obvious that the performances were declining, people still did not understand how much it had to do with Brent’s passing.  To them it was “just keyboards”.  What was seemingly more important to everyone was going on tour again ASAP so that they could have their fun.  On the GD end, everything was more important.  They had employees who needed to get back to work and probably a ton of interest from the industry to resume ASAP.  I truly believe, although one can never know for sure, that Jerry’s drug use returned and his health declined due not only to Brent’s passing, but also to a dissatisfaction with the music they were making.  In a few years he went from weaving perfected psychedelic guitar lines between keyboard lines that followed his every emotion, to taking the keyboards out of his monitor mix, meaning he did not listen to Vince while he was playing.  30 years ago today, I felt alone and devastated, but I would be rewarded for my pain and suffering.  Today, history tells the story of how important Brent Mydland’s contribution to the Grateful Dead was.  I feel honored to have played some small part in bringing Brent’s talents to light by keeping his songs alive and by doing my best to play in the style that he established as Grateful Dead keyboards for what I and a lot of people believe, including members of the GD, to be the best years for the band.  Brent’s praises are now written everywhere.  When pictures of band members were being shown at the end of the Fare Thee Well shows, Brent’s got a huge, if not the biggest applause.  After my first show playing with Communion, Phil put his hand on my shoulder and told me he loved Brent and missed him.  30 years ago today was the beginning of the end, but I sure do feel grateful for being a part of what is left!  I never met Brent Mydland, but I saw into his soul.  You are missed...by all, Brent!"