Grateful Dead Meet-Up At The Movies 2016, Thoughts Afterward

It was wonderful revisiting the Grateful Dead concert from July 2, 1989 at Sullivan Stadium. I watched it at the AMC Theater in Burbank, and we had a good group. The guy in front of me had been at the show too. He also worked on Dupree's Diamond News with his wife, which is wild. I still have several issues of that magazine from back in the day. The guy next to me had seen several shows on that summer 1989 tour, but not the July 2nd show. The movie theater was kind enough not to subject us to any advertisements or trailers (although, actually, there was one brief ad, but it was for a Shakespeare performance, so I was happy to see it). Instead of a lot of commercials, before the show they played some footage from a Dead & Company concert (though I'm not sure which concert).

Just before the show started, a woman came by and gave several of us Grateful Dead water bottles, with the artwork from the new Red Rocks 7/8/78 3-disc release. Very cool! I still need to order that CD; or, better yet, I need to order the July 1978 box set. And on screen there was a promotional interview with David Lemieux about that 1978 box set. And then the show started. There was no footage of the glider, by the way. I swear I remember seeing a glider overhead during "To Lay Me Down," dipping its wings in time with the music. Does anyone else recall this? Anyway, I had a great time watching the concert on screen. It was perhaps even better than I'd remembered it, especially the first half of the second set. Many people in the audience applauded after certain songs, and a few people danced off to the side. And on our way out, a guy handed out photos he had taken of the band in the late 1980s. The one he gave me is of Brent. He said he thought he'd taken it at Laguna Seca.

I hope they keep doing these screenings. And if they're looking for suggestions of shows to screen, I would love to revisit the concert from June 17, 1991 at Giants Stadium when they opened the first set with "Eyes Of The World." Ooo-wee!