My first dead concert was 8/6/74, I was 13.  This show was to take place on 8/2, but was postponed due to heavy August rains of the New Jersey
swamplands.  I was given the ticket by my 2 older sisters for my birthday.
On the 2nd we got there early and spent the whole day hanging out on the
field having a great time.  At one point Phil came out, plugged in his bass
and played for about ½ hour.  Wow.  Then the skies began to darken as did the mood.  Soon the clouds burst and the field became a mud pit.
Eventually Bob Weir came out and said,  "the speakers are cardboard and
it'll sound like shit if they are soaked so we'll try again on Friday (or
whatever day).  Immeadieatly a riot ensued and we were right in the middle of it.  Clearly the drugs of the day were in full effect by now and it was a strange riot, kind of half hearted and clumsy.  At one point I looked
down to see a naked bloody person slither over my feet through the mud and broken glass.  We made it out of there just as beer bottles began to fly,fences ripped down, and basically all hell breaking loose.  Fast forward to the next weekend?Cruising to the show in the VW squareback, I'm sitting in the back when all of a sudden pow! And I felt something hit the bottom of the car hard.  Oh, it's just a piston rod, darn another blown engine.Quick, abandon the vehicle on rt 287, make a few calls, get a ride back home from a friend, pick up another vehicle at home and off to Jersey City once again.  We walked up to the stadium just as Bertha began and entered the bleachers just as they went into Mexicali Blues.  That is the 1st memory of the live GD I have, the wall of sound with a clean shaven Garcia doin the mexican horn section thing with a grin I could see all the way across the stadium.   We settled in for one hell of a show.  An intense stand alone Eyes of the World in the middle of the first set, after which Bob Weir curses out some guy hanging on the fence in front of the stage. A 45 minute Playin-scarlet-playin to end set 1.  Then Seastones, personally I love this stuff and it fit perfectly wafting across the hazy swamps of beautiful Jersey City.  The 2nd set was amazing, Uncle John's Band,Truckin'->Other One->Spanish Jam?some way out stuff.  During Truckin,somebody hit Bob Weirs guitar neck with a glow stick.  There was an old,like 80 years old woman in the stands right near us, she had a shopping bag next to her and she just stood there and watched the whole show.  The show concluded with massive fireworks set off all around the top of the stadium.Due to the weather, or perhaps it was planned, all the smoke, gunpowder and sulfur from the fireworks decended into the stadium and pretty much gassed everyone as a good night.  After the show we headed out, into a huge traffic jam.   I purchased a snow cone from a mobile ice cream truck in the traffic jam.   After about a ½ hour of unsuccessfully biting it I chucked it out the window, where in the August heat on the pavement, it still refused to melt and only yielded when it was crushed by a passing car.Though I was a dead fan before this from hearing some live tapes and all the albums, this show literally blew my mind open.  What a great way to change your life.

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