Last night my cousin Henry and I piled into the truck and headed into New York City to see The Dead at the Roseland Ballroom. It was a free show that you had to enter an e-mail to get tickets. There were three intimate shows or “sets” last night including ours. The first set was at the Angel Orensanz Theatre with just Bobby, Phil and Warren doing and Acoustic set, the second show was at the Gramercy Theatre with the Full Electric Band and they ended at the Roseland Ballroom.

The show was supposed to start at 11pm and the doors opened at 8pm. We were in line and read for the doors to open. I have never been in the Roseland without over 500 people, but last night when we walked in at 8pm it was empty and was total great. We were the first to use the mens room which was empty as well which is nice not having to fight for the can. We found the Rose Bar in the back that we didn’t know existed. After exploring a little we made camp along the VIP stage wall and got comfortable. We just hung back and watched as the room filled and started hearing about the other two shows that The Dead just finished, and that they were great.

The show started promptly at 11:20pm. and ran to about 1:20pm.

Full Electric Band
Roseland Theatre

• Althea
• Cassady
• Uncle John’s Band>
• Eyes of the World>St Stephen>
  Dark Star>Sugar Magnolias
• E: Not Fade Away

The band was tight and in great form, Warren was still working off the lyric book but it was the first round of shows and the tour doesn’t offically start till April, 12 in North Carolina. Bob did mess up a few words in Cassidy but over all it was a good show.

As for the crowd it was great. It was true blue Deadheads with an age range that ranged from grade school kids to the over 70′s set, that were there to see the band. Before the show it was a whole bunch of catching up with old friends and making new ones with those around you, but once the band hit the stage it was all about the music for the crowd and catching the vibe and letting your self flow with it. On the VIP stage there was one woman who was dancing even to the band tuning up before the first song…she was floating on the vibes coming form the “music” and she didn’t stop dancing till the music stopped…she was in constant motion. There were a few to drunk and too baked people…I seem to always get one right in front of me, who thinks he can dance and then proceeds to bang into me and last night was no different. This guy at least apologized but also wanted to tell me his life story while the band was playing. Finally his buddy got him to move up front and that was the end of him. Other then him there was a good vibe throughout the ballroom.

Sure the show was short and the wait was long but the tickets were free and the band was in great form and the crowd over all was the perfect crowd to see the show with. These three shows were put together for the fans to experience The Dead in and intimate atmosphere and that’s what was achieved. I love seeing bands in venues like the Roseland Ballroom, Irving Plaza or The TLA in Philly. So if you can get tickets for any of the shows on this tour I would recommend getting them and going and enjoy the music and vibe, of course it won’t be as intimate as these shows, but they will be worth going to. I am now off to figure out how to get at least two or three tickets for the two shows at the Spectrum in Philly.

So in closing as I have said in the past “The Grateful Dead might not be the best at what they do, but they are the only ones that do what they do.”

Here are the Set Lists for the other two “sets”

Bob, Phil & Warren Acoustic
Angel Orensanz Theatre

• Dire Wolf
• Bird Song
• Cumberland Blues
• Pride of Cucamonga
• Lazy River Rd
• KC Jones
• E: Ripple

Full Electric Band
Gramercy Theatre

• Jam>Playin’ in the Band>Good Lovin’>
• The Wheel>Franklin’s Tower
• E: Touch of Grey

So on Saturday night I finally took notice of an e-mail in my In-box from Dead.net, the Grateful Dead’s website. It was a notice that The Dead were going to do 3 shows in NYC today starting at 5pm, 8pm and 11pm and that they were free shows. The only way to get the tickets was to enter the drawing for tickets. So of course I had missed the dead line to get my name in the running I was way bummed, because right now I don’t have the money to see the shows in Philly. Right about that time the following e-mail came in from GDTS TOO the Dead’s mail order ticket company.

There are a small amount of free tickets available from our GDTS TOO allotment for one of The Dead’s performances at The Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts, Gramercy Theatre and Roseland Ballroom on Monday, March 30, 2009. The intention of these small venue shows is to provide an opportunity for fans to see The Dead in an intimate setting for free.

So as fast as my fingers could type I got my name and my cousins Henry’s name in an e-mail and sent it in. So last night at around 8:30pm I got the word….we are seeing The Dead at the Roseland Ball Room in NYC at 11pm tonight.

It’s going to be a long day but I can’t wait to see the band. It’s been to long since I have seen a concert and over 6 years since I have seen The Dead. So Henry and I will be driving into the city around 6pm to get there by 8pm when the doors open, get our tickets and then hang out at the ballroom and wait till 11pm for the show. The one bummer about the Roseland is that it’s a standing only venue, but hey it’s a free show and should be a blast and it will be fun to hopefully meet up with some old friends and deadheads.

So check back in a few days for a review and set-list.

I have an acquaintance, Jesse that I have met once in person and spent a few days hanging out with, but who I have worked with for over 2 years on the LOPSA education committee virtualy. I call him an acquaintance because I haven’t really hung out with him…but i guess if you drink with a guy for 4 hours that makes you friends…. He is a good guy and a damn fine sysadmin and friendly and a coffee fiend like no one else I know. Since I have known him he and his wife Heather Lee have bought a fabulous looking farm called Bullfinch Farm in Dane County Wisconsin . The day they singed the papers they went back to the farm to celebrate and walked into the house to be hit in the face by the smell of the world largest litter box. They still don’t know how they missed this smell in the final walk through as well as all the times they came to look at the farm. They had to remove all the floors and most of the walls and replace them. There was more to do but it’s not my story to tell. Jesse has also moved to a new job and is now working for a company in New York State.

After reading the info about Bullfinch Farm and what they are trying to do I realized that they remind me of certain people in my family. First of Fran and Angelica, by the way Jessy and Heather Lee dream of giving something back to the earth and to make a place for artists and thinkers and just regular people to have a peaceful place to come and work and relax and create. The list of “critters” as Jesse calls them reminds me of my aunt with all her chickens. I am sure that they will love the Southern Tier of New York and Pennsylvania. Welcome Jesse and Heather Lee to the Southern Tier.

A few weeks ago a real great friend from my past e-mailed me. She said she saw her roommate looking at a web site and did a double take at the picture at the top of the page and realized it was me. She said she immediately jumped online and e-mailed me. When I get e-mails from old friends it makes me feel good to know that people actually do remember me.

This friend though was what I considered my best friend at the time and I use to wonder what happened to her when I would go home to see my folks and wondered what she was doing these days. She worked for a competing radio station when I worked for KZ106 and WCLI but when we weren’t working we were inseparable around Corning and Elmira. She and I talked music, about life and just hung out and had fun as platonic friends do. When I changed stations and shifts and then eventually moved out of the Bath/Corning area we had drifted apart and I never got to say goodbye…and I always felt bad about that and it was good to hear from her and know that she is doing well.

This is also the time of year I always get into a retrospective mood and always think about the past and all the people I never see anymore…all my friends from Fallsington that I heard from once or twice right after I was banished to Bath, Rick and Kathleen Chevet, Mike Capriotti. I do see my ex neighbor Kevin Reed once in a blue moon..he told me a kid who use to hang out with Mike, Kathaleen and me died a few years back, which shocked me Jay was a few years younger then me. Then there are the friends from The Hun School that probably don’t even remember me, but who I remember fondly as well as the friends from Newtown Friends School. I do hear from my buddy Bill Magod from NFS every few months or so..but don’t see him much since our schedules never seem to mesh.

I asked a question to a friend of mine at work the other day “if you could back to High School with what you know now and do it all over again would you?” She said she would..she of course asked me the same thing and of course I had some wise-ass answer because I didn’t want to admit I would go back farther then high school. I would go back to that second year of The Hun school and maybe really apply myself….see I was never one for school and back in 7th grade I just didn’t care and my following school years show it.

Even before I asked her the question I had been thinking about the past a lot and wondering how much my life and even me as a person would be different if I had done things differently? Would I have had to move to Bath if I had been doing better in school, would I have gone into radio at all, would I have gotten into computers and system admining? If this were a movie I would now be hit on the head, be knocked out and dream that I was back in 7th grade and see how life would be different.

Now don’t get me wrong I love and am happy with what I have become as a person and what I have done with most of my life, but we all have those few little things we did that we wish we could have done differently or not done at all. I turn 42 this July and I look back and realized that somethings I could have done differently. So as my life moves on it will always be in the back of my mind what if I had really studied for that science test or taken the time to really apply myself in high school instead of just trying to get by (my parents are nodding there heads right now saying “we told you so”) and going to college and getting the ever coveted degree, how would life be different for me and my family.

Well this month I have hit a new milestone in my life. My daughter turns 16 this month. So does this mean boys will suddenly start appearing at the front door, she is going to start driving soon, she is going to get a job and then she will be going to college in a few years. I am sure my dad looks at me now and chuckles to himself as he remembers his son turning 16. I wasn’t that bad as a teenager but I did have my bad points. It makes me feel a little bit older, but it also

So now my daughter is turning 16 and I can see the change in her already, she is becoming more independent and is living her own life without her parents always being there. She is off to the mall more and hanging out with her friends. She passed her drivers ed class with an A+ and aced her written test and is looking at Carolyn’s car with a whole different look….I know in her mind the word “MINE” flashes up when she looks at it. So now we have to get here signed up to take the 6 hour mandatory behind the wheel class then it will be a year of “Can I drive? Can I drive?” all the time. This will be more of a problem for my wife since she has the car with the automatic transmission and my truck is manual. See I was thinking when I made that purchase.

I know it sounds like I am complaining but I think it’s great that she is now 16 and is growing up and is starting to make a bigger mark on the world. So Happy Birthday Avery and may you have many more. Hey she can start working now…hmm rent is starting to sound good.