Hell In A Bucket

I got woken around 5 a.m. PDT by a text from one of my brothers with this link:

 https://liveforlivemusic.com/features/opinion-quarantine-drums-space/

It's an interesting concept discussing varying perceptions of the Drums>Space portion of shows and comparing it to our current experience in the COVID-19 era.  It got me wondering a bit about transcendence and transformation.  I was usually really into the Drums segment.  A good opportunity to take a seat,  burn one down, and see where the band would come out on the other side.  
 

The shutdown and it's effect on my regular life has been weighing heavily on me as I'm sure it has most, if not all of us.   Last night I felt I'd turned the corner, as I realized this is the time to adapt to what's happening, find a new approach, surrender my fear, and blaze a new path forward.  I fell asleep with a positive mindset for the first time in weeks.

After my brother's message woke me, I couldn't get back to sleep for a bit.  It made me think first of Hell In A Bucket, that we're all getting challenged now, but our perspective affects how we deal with it.  Then I flashed on the line "this space is getting hot" from Althea, a tune that I always have associated with transformation and that image of the Phoenix rising from the ashes from the artwork of the Go To Heaven album it appeared on.  
 

I wondered if they had ever done any Hell In A Bucket /Althea combos, and found a couple of good ones, 12-30-86 at the Kaiser in Oakland and 3-20-92 at Copps Coliseum in Toronto.  The first with Brent, the second with the dual keyboards of Bruce and Vince.  I was going to post those, but then I found the Alpine link from '89.  They didn't go right into Althea that night, but played it later in the set.  
 

Then I fell back into a deep dream state and slept for three more fitful hours, waking up to some bright sunshine and the promise of the new day.

Hope you all have a great Sunday and keep moving towards the light at the other side.  

I'd forgotten how hot that Bucket was at SPAC in '85.  A rare late 1st set version sandwiched between High Time and Don't Ease.  One of the greatest first sets I ever saw.  High on Gooney Birds on the rail in the balcony right above Jerry after the jailbreak from the lawn.  I can still see the "oh what the fuck" look on the usher/security kid at the portal into the pavilion when he realized he had a mob of several hundred of us storming up the runway towards him.  What a great day to be 20!

06/27/85
Saratoga Performing Arts Center - Saratoga Springs, NY

Set 1:

In The Midnight Hour
Bertha
Little Red Rooster
Stagger Lee
El Paso
Crazy Fingers
Supplication
High Time
Hell In A Bucket
Don't Ease Me In

Set 2:
Feel Like A Stranger
Eyes Of The World
Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad
Man Smart-Woman Smarter
Drums
Truckin'
Spoonful
Black Peter
Turn On Your Love Light

Encore:
Johnny B. Goode
Baby Blue

The Hell In A Bucket:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YC7QiVqh8o4

Here's a review from Andrew Carter:

>>>>
 

The Grateful Dead’s 20th-anniversary tour in June and July of 1985 started and finished in California and contained the by-then traditional run of Midwest and Northeast venues in between. It turned out to be the strongest start-to-finish tour of the dirty eighties, and the SPAC show on June 27th, 1985 was one of the tour’s best.

When you add up the music, the crowd, and the overall vibe, this was one of the wildest Grateful Dead shows of the decade. The venue reached and surpassed critical mass with a listed attendance of 40,231, which was (and always will be) the venue record at SPAC: After this show, the venue’s management implemented a strict capacity limit of 25,103 that remains in place to this day. Not bad for a Thursday night.

The band served early notice that good things were coming by opening with a relative rarity, “Midnight Hour”, before upping the energy with “Bertha”. After “Little Red Rooster”, the band had to stop the show after watching a fan hang off the balcony in the pavilion. After Bob’s pleas failed to work, Lesh laid down the law before the pair broke the tension with one of their old, bad jokes. It then became an excellent first set that contained newly-revived and/or rare songs: “Stagger Lee”, “Crazy Fingers”, “Supplication Jam” and “High Time”. As the crowd tried to take all this in, the band leveled the place with “Hell in a Bucket”. Author Howard Weinerspecifically mentions this version in his thoughtful and entertaining book, Deadology, noting that enthusiasts of the song “may not find a better ‘Bucket’ anywhere.”

The second set contained even more surprises. After kicking off the set with “Feel Like A Stranger”, the band opted to bypass its traditional staccato ending, with Garcia instead steering the ship through an unprecedented transition into “Eyes of the World”. It happened so quickly and easily that the crowd was caught by surprise, and after a fast 9 minutes of “Eyes”, Garcia and Mydland led another on-the-fly transition into “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad”, which had undergone a recent revitalization after its move to the pre-drums portion of the second set earlier in the year. The rest of the set progressed quickly and powerfully (but was far from rushed) and the two-song encore was capped off with a standout version of “Baby Blue”.

Those who were there (and can actually remember it) are likely to back on this one very fondly. It was a peak evening for 80s Deadheads, and not too shabby of a night for a band that was still two years away from scoring its first Top 10 single. There was, however, a price to pay afterwards: Due to a myriad of safety issues (including thousands of fans on the lawn successfully storming the pavilion and its balcony), the Grateful Dead would not be booked to play the venue again for three more years. The band and fans were finally granted another chance in 1988. Sadly, that would turn out to be the last chance at SPAC.

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Lots of wild stories from this show.  The Feel Like A Stranger rates pretty high on many folks best of lists too.   After the Stranger>Eyes>GDTRFB we were past the peak, but overall, a great show from a great Summer tour, one deserving of Dave's Picks consideration.  It was the start of my first 5 show run, with Hershey Park, two Merriweather Post Pavilion and Pittsburgh Civic Center to follow.

Here's some drone footage of SPAC:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ixYTVNfbXos&list=PLcCNt6enIc8LLfIVyxR1-oXO...

The first shot is a total flashback to storming the pavilion.  What a cool place.   Can't believe I've never made it back.

Never said it was the best show of the 80's, just one of the best 1st sets.   That tour had a lot of high water marks.

Between the venue, record crowd, the wide distribution of quality lsd, the legendary marshmallow war, the streaker, the storming of the balcony, the band having to pause to admonish someone to stop hanging off the balcony with corny jokes and memorable banter, and mostly, the band firing on all cylinders and making some interesting song choices and placements, this show had a lot going on.  
 

I don't feel superior to anyone else for being there, just glad to have experienced it and have the memories.