Music
Fifty years ago this week, the Dead took stage in Boston for what would go down as one the greatest shows in band history.
We’re in for a long strange summer, Boston.
Normally, dozens of Grateful Dead tribute bands in Massachusetts will play us “Cassidy” or “Sugar Magnolia” most any night of the week, from Brewster to Boston, Provincetown to Providence.
Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find other Grateful Dead-themed events around New England that fans won’t want to miss this summer.
Relive history
Fifty years ago this week, the Dead took stage in Boston for what would go down as one the greatest shows in band history.
A show at Boston Music Hall, recorded by Betty Cantor-Jackson on June 11, 1976, now has a legendary status.
It was “a tremendous show,” Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager Dave Lemieux said. “They had a lot of new material. They were reworking older material that you hear on this show. So it’s a new Grateful Dead, and it sounds phenomenal.”
On the 50th anniversary Thursday, fans can relive the night in the venue where it went down.
The former Boston Music Hall, now the Boch Center Wang Theatre, will host a night of music featuring New England Dead tribute band Playing Dead, with former members of Dark Star Orchestra, Slipknot!, and Uncle John’s Band. The show “includes a performance of the complete second set from the Dead’s Boston Music Hall concert,” per billing.
They’ll pour the Grateful Dead’s official brews, Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale and Grateful Dead Citrus Daydream Lager from Boston Beer Company’s Dogfish Head.
“New England Deadheads are a rabid bunch, in a good way,” Lemieux said. “I love talking Grateful Dead with New England Deadheads. They always have so much insight, and so many good memories.”
Lemieux called 6/11/76 “acoustic perfection.”
What made it so special? In part, the freshness. The Dead had, for the most part, stopped touring in the fall of 1974.
“In June of ’76 they hit the road for theater shows — no arenas, no stadiums, no Wall of Sound [their famously enormous sound system]. They had a lot of new material. They were reworking older material that you hear on this show. So it’s a new Grateful Dead, and it sounds phenomenal.”
Plus, Mickey Hart — former Celtic Bill Walton’s best pal — who left the band in ’71, was back, “which was cool because it meant they had to do new arrangements of certain songs,” Lemieux said. “What Mickey brought to the band was essential to the 1976 sound. It’s one of my favorite years of the Dead.”
Tickets $35; VIP $76. Doors 6:30 p.m., show 7:30 p.m. Details here.
‘Summer tour’
As a Deadhead who came to the party after Jerry died, just in time to cover the Dead & Co era in Boston through the end, this one hits close to home.
If you also ate “lot cheese” in the makeshift lot outside Fenway in ‘23, or wandered the Foxborough lot at Dead & Co shows hunting for “Celtics stealies,” the aroma of skunky pot wafting from every stickered up Subaru Outback, “Summer Tour” is for you.
Catch the buzzy documentary at the Nantucket Film Fest on June 20 at 2 p.m. Directed by Cape Cod’s own Mischa Richter and produced by Nantucket Film Fest award-winner/Deadhead Chloë Sevigny, the 82-minute doc will screen at Nantucket’s Dreamland, followed by a Q&A with Richter and Sevigny.
In the film, we follow a young couple, who are determined to follow Dead & Company on their ‘23 final tour, “immersing themselves in a pilgrimage through the fading embers of a movement,” per film synopsis. “While they experience the evolution of the songbook and communal catharsis, they realize they are not just witnessing the end of an era, but the passing of a torch.”
You can also catch it at the Provincetown Film Fest, June 12 at 4 p.m. at Town Hall, followed by a Q&A with Sevigny on the docket.
Nantucket info here and here. P-Town info here.
Jerry’s orchestra
Next up: Mark your calendar for the Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration with the Boston Pops at Tanglewood on June 30.
This annual favorite looks to be stellar. It features Dead bassist Phil Lesh’s son Grahame Lesh, B-3 legend/ Jerry Garcia right-hand-man Melvin Seals on organ, JRAD’s Tom Hamilton, and drummer John Morgan Kimock for what’s billed as an “orchestral adventure curated by the Garcia family.” The music will be played with the Boston Pops, conducted by Christopher Dragon.
Last year, Dead & Co bassist Oteil Burbridge played this celebration with the Pops. He told me about playing with Seals: Jerry Garcia Band legend and thousand-watt smiler.
“Melvin Seals is so great, man. God, you see why Jerry had him for 18 years. Last September… my mom was really sick…Being with Melvin — it was magic. He’s a magician. An actual magician. Anybody that can turn that kind of darkness around is doing magic, period. He’s Albus Dumbledore.”
7 p.m. Ticket prices vary. Info here.
‘Oteil from Egypt’
Speaking of Burbridge (and thousand-watt smiles)…
Dead & Co’s longtime bassist has a run of New England shows: Aug. 4 and 5 at Nantucket’s Muse, Aug. 6 at Tree House Brewing Company in South Deerfield, Aug. 7 at Nashua Center for the Arts in Nashua, N.H., and Aug. 8 at Jay Peak Resort in Vermont.
He’s “Oteil From Egypt” to fans (despite the fact he grew up in D.C.) and to watch him on stage is to zen out. He’s often barefoot, laughing or grinning, sometimes smiling with his eyes closed.
It was Phish’s Mike Gordon, of Sudbury, who recommended Burbidge first join Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann’s trio, BK3. The rest, the two-time Grammy winner told me previously, became a “fairy tale that seems like it can’t be true. It has all these magical people in it. And there’s a giant. Then you realize: It is true. It is magical. It is a fairy tale, and it is your real life.”
All ticket info here.
Phish at Fenway
Not every Deadhead is a Phan, but the Venn diagram overlap is there, so it’s worth a mention that Vermont’s cow-funk jammers Phish play two nights at Fenway Park July 31 and Aug. 1.
6:30 p.m, tickets from $71.35 with fees. Info here.
But wait, there’s more
From Leominster to Lowell, Salem to Wrentham, and with dozens in Boston alone, Massachusetts is home to bands who want to play you “Scarlet Begonias” and “Eyes of the World.”
In fact, there is almost no day this summer where you can’t hear a Dead show in Mass. A handy calendar here.
Hop on the bus, Boston. The music never stopped.
Lauren Daley is a freelance culture writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.boston.com ’
