Grateful Dead Live at College Of William & Mary Hall on 1976-09-24

Friday. Oct. I. 1976

THE FLAT HAT

Page 19

Grateful Dead Return to Hall; People’s
Band Plays to ‘Dead Head’ Crowd

by Jonas H. Bernstein
Special to the FLAT HAT
The Grateful Dead were given
an enthusiastic welcome by the
near-capacity crowd at William
and Mary Hall last Friday night.
The audience, mostly ‘Dead
Heads,” were unquestioning in
their devotion. True to form, the
Dead played a tight three hour
set — a long performance for a
group of super-star status
To do a fair review of the
group is a difficult task. For
instance, I was .told by a
Greatefhl Dead enthusiast that
the ideal review of one of their
concerts should be written by a

dedicated fan. Perhaps this is
true in a sense. An integral part
of a Dead concert is the
“unconcert-like” atmosphere.

A Dead concert can be viewed
as a “gathering of the tribes”
where people of similar
lifestyles and psycho-chemical
states get together to have a
good time. In this respect, the
music is merely a means to an
end, and 1 believe the music was
secondary to many in the crowd
Friday night. I went to critically
evaluate the live performance; I
did not go as a fan of their music,
nor did I go “blitzed,” so
perhaps I missed the boat.

The Dead were definitely into
the role of “people’s hand” as
opposed to “space band” Friday
night. This was reflected in their
selection of many 1-4-5 rock and
roll numbers from their
repertoire, as opposed to such
pieces as “Dark Star” or “St.
Stephen” which are geared
toward improvisation. Well,
people don’t trip as much these
days anyway, and the audience
was definitely of the “boogieing”
variety.

The Dead began the first set
with a rousing version of “The
Promised Land” and then
launched into another rocker,
“Deal,” off Garcia’s first solo
album. Highlighting the rest of
the first set were the old
favorites “Sugaree,”
Tennessee Jed,” and “Playing
In The Band” which was more in
the West Coast tradition of
extended jamming than
anything else played at the
concert. A good phase-shifted
guitar solo was included by
Jerry Garcia, along with some
interesting counter-point

provided by Keith Godchaux on
electric piano. The Dead have a
knack for dynamics, which they
exhibited in “Playing In The
Band.” This was the first
challenging music of the
evening

The second set began to cook
with an up-tempo version of
“Help On The Way,” the first
song of a trilogy off Blues For
Allah, which flowed into
“Slipknot!” Both erf these pieces
showed that the Dead are
capable of diversity.
“Slipknot!” incorporates
diminished harmony and
complex syncopation, with a

resulting sound not unlike some
European Jazz-rock groups.

After Garcia's solo in the
middle of the composition. Bill
Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart
did\a double drum solo (with a
brief, disco take-off). This
brought up the tempo
considerably, and the band
brought in the melodic theme at
this speed quite impressively.
They then slipped into
“Franklin’s Tower,” the third
part of the trilogy.

“The Music Never Stopped”
featured some solo singing by
Donna Godchaux, who had spent

SEE DEAD, poge 17

J*rry Gordo, Domo Godchaux, and tha D*od unit* "fha Irlbai” lost Friday tn Wllttom ft Mary Had. pw* by fcifflwiit, m UBoir .

DEAD, cent, from page *9

moat of the evening contributing
back-up vocals, The set finished
with an old rocker, "Around and
Around." The Dead returned to
- the stage for an encore, pleasing
the zealous crowd with a version
of “U,S. Blues. '

There was one thing about the
concert that was pusling: Dope
and Tbe Grateful Dead have
been closely related for over ten
years. What troubled me was
that many members of tbe
audience seemed to be incapable
of following the music because
they were so inebriated, i sat
next to two people who were
comatose for most of the
concert. They were in bad shape,
and it was frightening that
people merely passed by them,
looked, laughed, and walked
away. When it was established
that they were alive and not in
danger, it struck me bow
difficult it must be to appreciate
music in an incoiiscious state. 1
realize that tins was probably an
extreme case and that such
things do not only occur at Dead
concerts. But it did reinforce my
view that a Dead concert is as
much a sociological
phenomenon as it is a musical
one.