41 Years Ago Today: New Era Begins 8/4/79

Nice- thanks for that groovy snag. 

>>>Oakland Aud wiki page

From 1967 through 1989, the Grateful Dead, an American rock band, performed at the Convention Center 57 times. Their first 23 concerts at the Convention Center were billed at "Oakland Auditorium", and later, starting in 1985, the venue changed to "Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center". In the 80's the band started performing "runs" of shows over the course of three to seven days

On the evening of October 20, 1991 as the bands Anthrax, Public Enemy and Primus performed inside while across Lake Merritt the flames of the Oakland firestorm of 1991 were clearly visible from the hall's entrance as Bill Graham stood and greeted patrons at the top of the entry a mere five days before his untimely death.

I was at both of these shows, just a 19-year-old kid. It was a crazy couple of nights in the new/old dump, with a definite feeling that something new was starting, and boy, something new sure was starting. 

A friend took this shot the next night. Phil playing Big Brown!

I wasn't particularly crazy about the Oakland Aud/Kaiser as a venue, but it grew on me over the years. Despite it's flaws I had tons of fun and lots of memorable experiences in the place overall and I missed it for sure when the band had to move permanently to the huge, generic venues.

It was a really interesting building, and in later years I got to really see the entire place. Beyond the main auditorium & general public spaces there was a beautiful theater, a ballroom, various meeting & personal rooms, all connected by a labyrinth of stairs & hallways. You could roam around that building for hours. With all the nooks and crannies to spread out & trip around in it's easy to see why the GD loved it as a home base.

I'm glad the building still stands, I look over at it every time I drive past.

The good ol' Oakland Aud.

^ Great stuff there, Lance.

The ol' picture worth 1,000 words in action.

ditto: I look over at it every time I drive past.

  Loved that dump  perhaps most notably, the sweating walls....

Nice photos of the Kaiser, Lance.  The theater and ballroom are cool.  Never realized those were part of the building.

Of course, the new era really began a few months earlier with Brent's first show, on April 22, 1979 at Spartan Stadium in San Jose:

https://archive.org/details/gd79-04-22.sbd.bennett.12001.sbeok.shnf/gd79...

The new era I was talking about was the start of the Oakland Auditorium as the regular "home" Bay area venue for the band after Winterland shut down.

With the larger capacity and the little park in front and more room in general around the venue allowing for people to hang out, for most of ten years it really did become that.

And that's an interesting shot from Spartan. If I didn't know better I'd say that was my photo. That person must have been standing directly in front of me...

Good stuff in here, thanks for sharing these

Nice tribute, Lance.

My first west coast shows were the September 1985 run at the Kaiser; that was the only time I saw the GD on my birthday too. After only seeing shows in east coast arenas mostly, I loved getting lost in the hallways, staircases, and nooks and crannies of the HJK.

The only time I ever smoked DMT and thus the only time I ever encountered the little green men was in those hallways. 
 

I wish I'd gotten to see a show with Phil and Jerry center stage and Bobby pushed over to the side.

I found these pics of this show on Reddit today:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gratefuldead/comments/i4h9hc/photo_of_the_day_8...

This was just a two-night run, and I thought at the time and still do that the second show on 8/5 was the better of the two...

https://archive.org/details/gd1979-08-05.mtx.menke.motb-0100.98717.flac24

I haven't listened to these shows in a long time. I do love that era's gentle, flowing approach.

THIS is the era of Brent Mydland playing that I love.