GD 12-30-90 // Oaktown

...while, in the mean time, 12/30/89 completely revs up that run all the way into 1990! It seemed like they tweaked the sound and approach during the off night of the 29th and really went for it!

the '89 show was the shit.

the '90 nye run was fun, but i thought the Denver run a couple weeks earlier was head & shoulders above it.

Highlight of the '90 run was the Comes A Time on the 27th.  That was special.

Agree on the Comes A Time, that was killer, but the Eyes->Dark Star with Branford on NYE was pretty cool also.

(I believe this is the ONLY time they did Eyes-> Dark Star).

   The 12-30-86 show at the Kaiser was the best I saw on this date. The 30-beat Beat It On Down The Line ( for the 30th) was great, nice 

10 song first set, and very long, fun and well-played second set.

Sure wish it was 34 years ago today right now!!!

Happy New Year!!!!

Too much fun in the City of Oakland!!!

I had a lot of fun at those Oakland '90 shows.

The two shows I'd seen in NYC in September with Hornsby and then that NYE run were a bit of a re-birth as a fan for me.

I really liked what Hornsby brought to the band, and to my ear how he got Garcia on his toes again.

And as I'm sitting here thinking about those shows and writing this post, I suddenly recall that a friend of mine and a very good friend to many in the GD/BGP scene took his own life earlier that week, and I heard the news at the first show.

He was a very cool guy, and also very complicated, as I suppose we all are.

I haven't thought about that in a long time. 30 years now.

It's amazing how times goes by.

Let's all keep passing the open windows folks, if just to see what will happen next.

>>>> ... but the Eyes->Dark Star with Branford on NYE was pretty cool also.

regarding that nye show, the first night of the denver run i'd randomly ran into a friend from san diego that was on his way back there after spending time with his family in minnesota. i was also heading back there after spending the previous 5 months in pennsylvania and ended up hanging with him and his friends who he was traveling with to the west coast to attend the nye run. during the first night, when they went into into aiko, he turned to me and asked 'have you ever heard an aiko>dark star?'  well, that's what they played and about 5 minutes into the dark star he started getting a little fidgety (he'd had a couple past experiences with handling psychedelics poorly*) and let me know he thought it would be a good idea if he took a walk out in the hallways and indicated it would be good if i came with him. so that was kind of a bummer for me, but i was glad that i was there for him. he settled down during the terrapin and the evening turned out fine. he told me sometime over the next 2 days that he had an extra for the 31st, and i was thinking maybe he might recognize the situation and repay the favor by maybe giving me access to that ticket. instead, he gave it to one of his friends he'd been traveling with. i was a little disappointed, but i don't hold it against him.

*this might not be the coolest thing to do, but it's a pretty funny story, so: the first bad experience he had was the 1st night of the summer '89 shoreline run (w/the pay-per-view show). our 'crew', about 5 of us, had a rental car and he volunteered to hold on to the keys. about half way through the the first set he kind of disappeared and we figured he'd meet us at the car after the show. well, we waited and waited until maybe 5 cars were left & a tow truck started to cruise the lot. just as we were about to give up we saw him slowly walking towards us from the far end of the lot. we could tell he'd been through the ringer so we didn't say to much, just 'are you ok?' kinda of questions, nothing too specific. when we got back to the hotel he told us he'd walked out of the venue and across the street into what seemed like a construction area. we said something about it being like he was falling into a hole or something and that he came to laying on the ground with all the contents of his pockets scattered around him.money, wallet, weed, car keys. as he was telling us this he was peeling off his outer layers and i noticed his thermal shirt was inside out and was covered in dry grass. i asked 'you were naked weren't you?' and he just gave a sheepish grin and nodded his head. we didn't ask him too much more about it cause we could tell he was a little embarrassed.  the next night was an exceptionally played show, not a very remarkable setlist, but over all it was just impeccably performed. so he chose the right night to have a (mild) freakout.

my first (i think) double post