and I got it! I got it all! All the emotions and more. I could feel the music and see the band and hear the sounds that speak to me so well...and taste the sweat on my lips from dancing in that sweat pit! It was all very cleansing on every level.
The banners hanging in back of the band were beautiful and subtle. Clouds which took on different moods depending on the lighting. The lighting was phenomenal. Just excellent. I wish I could remember today some of the combinations and which songs they went with. Early on they were using pink and yellow and it gave this very surreal effect to me of being in a comic book! The sound was excellent from where I was sitting...crisp, clear, sometimes I would just face the speakers to let the sound enter my body more fully...
The last thing I said before leaving for Boston was "Let the Good Times ROLL!!!!"...I told the folks around me that I felt that would open the show. A cosmic beginning! "...if it takes all night long"
With "Feels Like a Stranger", I too felt that it was about being back in Boston...it seemed like another welcoming song to me for the evening ahead..."long, long, crazy, crazy night"
"Althea" was the first of Jerry's VERY soulful renditions of the evening...the mood put me in mind of Brent, not the words so much but the mood...my own little personal mourning you see...
I got my Bobby fix from "All Over Now". Bruce was just banging away on this one.
THEN, it started sooooo sloowwwly...what are they playing? "You told me goodbye..." "High Time"! Phew. That tugged a few of my heartstrings...no that's not accurate...it was a religious experience!
Then, BOOM, RIGHT into "Beat it on Down the Line"...no introductory beats, just RIGHT into it. Talk about jostling you out of a mood! They just carried me right along with them...from slow down introspective to rock out shake your bones...this place I was in last night was indeed my happy home...
"Big Railroad Blues" was FUN!
"..the circus is in town..." "Desolation Row" is such a great song with so much imagery...I love it. Last night I was more caught up in the sound than the words. I had trouble focussing on the words...it seemed to me that Bobby's voice was all distorted (was it just me ;-} )...it was very spacy...Bruce brought out his accordian here and it just swirled and lifted me...Vince was also playing swirls on the organ, kindof carnival-like.
"New Speedway Boogie"! Fun! Great! Dance and sing!
"Chinacat Sunflower -> I Know You Rider" set my expectations up high for another intense set. Ever since Europe '72, this has been one of my favorite combos. From space subtlely switching to what? rock? gospel?!? ;-)
Then for that "southern hemisphere" beat we were treated to "Woman are Smarter"...that's right...sometimes it would seem to me like the chairs would disappear and the floor would turn into one huge dance floor...this was one of those times...
"Ship Of Fools" really answered my "What the f*ck are we doing, People of the World" questions...it just all made perfect sense to me right then...let's stop fighting, let's stop polluting, let's start loving one another...yep, it all made perfect sense to me... I felt it...I felt that everyone around me felt it...I felt the whole Garden felt it...I felt all of Boston felt it...!
"Dark Star"...this is my aaahhhhhhh I've been feeling ever since. I actually thought that there would be no way to put into words what happened last night...but here I am doing it. This felt very very good inside...
Drums was funny, yes, funny! Mickey was dancing to Bill's frenzied beats and then they started banging away on their hanging set. At one point, Mickey turned to the crowd with his "banger" raised in the air with a look on his face of "okay, I'm waiting for you out there to let me know when to hit the drum" and we sent the message to him and he smiled, turned around, BAANNNG, and we were making the music too! I thought he threw the stick up in the air at the end and then danced off the stage...
Space was truly intense and wonderful for me. Most folks on the floor sat at this point. I couldn't. I was, through some force, MADE to keep standing. This was great. I was so close to the stage and this was the only point where there was no one standing between me and the band. The feeling I had as I took a quick look around was...remember in "Close Encounters" where a select few people are DRAWN to the site?...I felt like one of the select few being DRAWN in...could they see me? I don't know. I felt like we were looking into eachother...
"Foolish Heart" brought me back to earth with some good ol' Grateful Dead music...dance, dance, dance....release that energy... again.
"I Need a Miracle" was GREAT...usually it's not a song I'm especially fond of, but last night, well, the energy was intense. I think they stopped singing in the choruses to let the crowd sing instead. And WE DID!
Oh, "Standing on the Moon" was soooooooooooo beautiful. We hugged and swayed and kissed and cried...
"Round and Round" ended the set with some good rock'n'roll. We had a good view of Bruce...I think this is really his element... But the whole band was all smiles on this one...they left the stage kind of reluctantly it looked like to me ("should we stay or should we go!"), smiling and bopping as they went...
waiting for the encore, I couldn't imagine what way they would end that beautiful intense evening. "The Weight"...perfect. The crowd sang the chorus in parts and I think they could hear that. They stood there and sang their hearts out to us. It felt so good.
I couldn't sit down on the subway back and I couldn't stop smiling for hours!
Debess
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