SETLIST:

SET 1 *

01. Brown-Eyed Women (incomplete)

02. Jack Straw

03. Casey Jones

SET 2

04. Intro

05. Althea

06. Scarlet Begonias

07. China Cat Sunflower

08. I Know You Rider

09. Fire on the Mountain

10. Drums

11. Space

12. Dear Mr. Fantasy (includes "Hey Jude" snippet)

13. Stella Blue

14. One More Saturday Night

15. (encore break)

16. Werewolves of London

* also included (but not recorded): Good Times, Playing in the Band, Feel Like A Stranger and China Doll.

NOTES:

Why is this recording incomplete (missing almost the entire first set) you ask? Well you can thank the incredibly inept security/line-check at Dodgers Stadium for that. We got in line shortly after 5:30pm (when doors were supposed to open according to the website), we did not get into the stadium until almost 7:50pm. Yeah you read that right, over two fucking hours standing in a line that should have taken no more than 15 mins to get through. It was seriously fucked up. Fuck Dodgers Stadium and fuck the security staff. Complete fucking morons. I'm sorry, but that must be said. 

Line management was non-existent the closer you got. It went from 5 lines, merged into 2-3, and then finally just a mass of people, many of whom were cutting in front of other people, all just standing there waiting to get let through. And naturally, this wasn't all security's fault, as a lot of the concert-goers, when they finally got to the front of the line didn't have their tickets on their phones out, slowing things down even further, were trying to bring in backpacks and bags, which the stadium and website clearly said were not allowed (they go by the "clear bag" policy, like many stadiums these days). But again, all of that going on, and you had two security people checking people as slow as they could, going through people's wallets, shoes, jackets, and more. What the fuck? It was a complete shit show. The lines sucked. The crowd was getting rowdy and angry and that sucked, and the whole thing, which should have been a fun "shakedown", turned into a disaster that just put me in a bad mood (can't you tell?).

We finally got in, got our floor wristbands (another 10 minute fiasco) and made our way to our seats next to the soundboard. But of course, by then the band was well into the first set. I set up my recorder and mics as fast as I could (didn't have the windscreens with me, sorry) and hit record. When the band left for the break between sets, I looked at my recorder and saw it captured the last 20 minutes of the set. 20 minutes! That's it!? We missed almost an hour thanks to that fucking left field entrance line. Never again.

Set two was pretty good though. I loved hearing "Scarlet Begonias" and the whole "Drums" into "Space" interlude was pretty cool too (wasn't expecting that - but then again, this was my first Dead show, so I really had no idea what to expect at all). I was offered this ticket at the last second for free, and since I had nothing going on Saturday night (per usual), I couldn't say no. It had been a while since I last saw a show at Dodgers stadium (Paul McCartney, which I didn't record sadly), but this time, the seats were in the field (as mentioned earlier), so it was pretty cool to be standing in the middle of the field watching a concert. Even though I fucking hate the Dodgers and everything about them, it was still pretty cool I must admit.

I unfortunately was next to talkers though. People just came and went as they pleased, no one sat or went to their correct seats at all. The area may as well have just been an extension of the "pit", but then they couldn't upsell for "pit" tickets, so alas, here we are. Anyway, I was happy to finally scratch a variation of the Grateful Dead off my list finally. I grew up listening to them, I still have the Dead records my Dad gave me, and I'm happy Weir and company are still out there touring and playing music. It'll be a sad day and a pitiful world when that finally ends.

P.S. I'm still having trouble believing that a woman behind me in line mistook my Devo energy dome tattoo for a skeeball machine (not joking). Must have been some good shit being passed around...