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The thing about the "Dead" is there was no middle ground. Almost to the extremes. Either you loved them or you...lets say disliked them.

I am glad you liked them and on that night at the Fox you heard things clearer than ever before.

As a vet of many Dead shows the place that got me was The Palace at Auburn Hills. That place was designed with concerts in mind. The Dead filled it perfectly. Another was The Pyramid in Memphis. Incredible sound.
I’m so grateful I was young when the Dead was still around. I’m so grateful that I got on the bus when it went by. What a strange trip it was. Nothing in the world like a Grateful Dead concert. It was like running away with the circus. So many incredible nights.

The best place I've ever seen live music from the standpoint of acoustics is The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Both the ambience and the sound is second to none. The Ryman was the home of The Grand Ole Opry from 1943 until 1974. It was originally built and opened as a Church in 1892. Seeing a show there is an awesome experience.

Jerry famously compared them to black licorice. You either love it or hate it. Nothing in between.
The Dead were an acquired taste I had heard them on recordings prior to seeing them. I enjoyed some songs… was maybe a little confused by others. I then saw them live. Again much the same. Enjoyment mixed with confusion. Then during my fourth show something clicked. What once sounded like endless noodling mixed with noise came into focus. I could see that at times they weren’t trying to play music, as classically described, but they were describing space via sound. After that click happened I was in love and couldn’t wait to be wrapped in that weirdness again and again.
There were nights that, through that expression of describing space, they melted rooms. They could describe spaces larger than the rooms they played. Walls fell away. Even at a venue as big and open as Soldier Field I heard them call to the clouds. Massive sound describing vast spaces. It’s hard to describe and have anyone from the outside understand. You either got it, or didn’t. For those of us that got it… surreal nights of magic.

I was never into the Dead at all but saw them twice in concert, the first time being at Blossom Music Center. I was already on acid and we bought more from someone at the show. The acid we bought there was excellent. It was how LSD is supposed to be (I hallucinated a lot). I didn't know my left from my right. lol. It was pretty incredible.

That song 'space' was great while tripping.

We also played imaginary frisbee on the grass, running all over the place to catch it. It was a lot of fun. I don't think anyone noticed we didn't actually have a frisbee.

‘Space’ wasn’t really a song. It was more of a breakdown of song into chaos and back. A jazz-like journey meant to describe time and space, and to take the listener on a ride. One that could be beautiful, or dark, or ethereal, or jagged and sharp. At times uncomfortable. But always with intent to return you to the familiar, song.

For those not aware, the Dead came out every night and traded opening performers. Alternating from a Jerry song opener to a Bobby song opener. They’d then play alternating songs all night… with exceptions to songs that segued into each other that were all one vocalist. Such as Help on the Way>Franklins Tower. They’d play the first set, about an hour and a half or so, then break. The second set would open and the guys would play 5+ songs before it broke down into just the drums. Mickey Hart played all kinds of percussion and he invented something called ‘the Beam’. Listen to the Apocalypse Now soundtrack to hear a little of it. That thing could produce sounds I can’t describe. Vast sounds. Sounds that’d lose audible texture but you could feel. Crazy. From that the band would come back out and play ‘Space’. Again, jazz-like in lack of structure, not song structured or melodic, but always interesting. They’d slowly transition then back into song. Finishing shows with another 5 or so songs and an encore or two.

This is a clip from a great documentary about Bob Weir. Everyone talks about Jerry but Bob was an under appreciated and unheralded rhythm guitarist and song writer. He was also the band ‘heart throb’. His story is actually pretty cool. Even if you’re not a big Deadhead it’s still a good documentary.

The Tivoli theater here in Chattanooga has great acoustics. It is very similar to the Fox in Atlanta but about 1/3rd the size.

Severance Hall in Cleveland has outstanding sound.

I went to CIA. Cleveland institute of art. I was walking home one day a two block walk, some friends stopped me. They asked if I wanted to go to a dead concert. I was starting to think about it. They said free ticket, I said ok. They said your driving. My Van was within eyesight. We got in my van and went to see the dead in downtown town Cleveland. I forget which venue, great show. Fun story.

As performers, we interpret "The Ideal Sound" from one perspective: how well does the auditorium's acoustic signature effect the nature of our performance?

We play acoustic-based music, written to fill the hall for the audience. Old-school music halls were built to accommodate this feature. The very best in the world are shaped like a shoe box. Imagine 2 cubes staked end-to-end. lots of wood surfaces, mixed with just the right amount of fabric (seat upholstery, wall treatments, etc.) to tame excessive reverberation times, and ornately decorated, to break up the sound from spurious spikes in either the high notes or low notes. There are a scant handful of such venues, world-wide that hit the sweet spot.

I've been lucky enough to perform in 3 of the world's top 20.

Symphony Hall, in Boston.
Meyerson Symphony Center, in Dallas
Carnegie Hall, in NYC.

I've never performed internationally, so I've never experienced the Musikverein in Vienna, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, or the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Bucket list: to sit in these halls, after my playing days are done (I have the money to travel, once I'm retired).

Meyerson in Dallas was a trip. A thoroughly modern installation, designed by the Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei. I saw his austere-looking, thoroughly modern setup and thought, "Yeah- I know what I'm gonna get from this- more of the same. I was wrong. That hall was everything a playa could want: the right feedback, the right acoustic, the right experience for the audience. We had 2 days to play/listen to the hall. Trust me- it was great from both vantage points.

Symph Hall, Boston: delivered as advertised. We filled the hall with with a warm, enveloping sound, and got excellent sonic feedback from the hall, both empty (in rehearsal), and with a 2/3rd-filled hall that night.

But the best concert hall experience I ever had was Carnegie Hall, NYC.

After years of fighting with our concert hall to get our voice out to the public, we found ourselves on the stage of Stern Auditorium, corner of 57th and 7th in Manhattan. 5/7/2011.

20 minutes into our dress rehearsal, Stefan Sanderling stopped the rehearsal, and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, this isn't our home venue. We needn't try so hard to to achieve what we want. We must relax, listen to the hall... and enter into a partnership with the venue. Simply play what's on the page, listen to each other, and allow the hall to help you." Total transformation, less than 20 minutes later.

We projected into that space all the things we had worked so hard to make, and played better than we'd ever played before.
The space makes the sound, if the players know how to use it. That concert was one of the Top 5 gigs I ever played... and the hall helped to make it happen.

_______

Deserving of notice, 2 other events:

1. I was onstage at Tiger Stadium in Detroit for a performance of the 1990's operatic 'supergroup' The Three Tenors It was one of the very last events held at that venerated place on Michigan/Trumbull Ave. The conductor for that gig was the the NY Metropolitan Opera's music director, James Levine.

The entire outfield was the stage. We played back toward home plate, to a crowd of roughly 30K rabid Opera fans.
Unless you actually experience it, you simply cannot appreciate/comprehend the sound of that many screaming fans when they aim their voices at you. We 'note-playing grunts' were the first to hear that crowd. The ThreeTenors will never know the energy that we experienced at Moment One, when we 'noise-making grunts' took the stage.

2. A handful of years later, I played The Palace at Auburn Hills for Luciano Pavarotti's (final) farewell tour.
Portland Dawg was right: The Palace (home of the Detroit Pistons' 'Bad Boys') was The Shoebox, just like the great concert venues of Old School.

We played at the Eastern end of the venue.

Sound reinforcement was necessary, to fill such a big hall... BUT:
The techs weren't ready for the pre-game sound check, and Luciano went ahead with the sound check, anyway.

Dude filled that voluminous space with his own human voice, sans sound reinforcement for almost 30 minutes, until the techs finally got their s# together.
The Palace at Auburn Hills... seating capacity: 20K+... and that brother filled the hall without sound reinforcement.
It was one of the most impressive things I've ever witnessed, in a lifetime of amazing music-related events.

From the Detriot Free press:
Read this here.

I only got to spend about 2 minutes with Pavarotti, but I knew David DiChiera for years, ever since Michigan Opera Theater's renaissance. I was there for Pavarotti's appearance at the inaugural performance when the Detroit Opera House re-opened as part of Detroit's first steps toward rejuvenation.

This was my office, when Detroit mounted its comeback:

Great stuff as usual, Clem. What amazing experiences.

I will third the props for the Palace. I saw Pink Floyd there years ago, and consider it one of the best sounding concerts I've ever attended.
Until this thread, I never considered that the venue played a big part in that.

My sister saw the GD play back in the early’90s. She went through her “dead head” faze in high school. - Dressed like a hippie and all that good stuff. I liked their music. “Althea” was my favorite. I remember buying the double cd “Without a Net” for the live version of the song.

Also back in high school, I remember all of the wannabe dead heads that put stickers on the back of the car, wore loose jeans , and tie dye shirts.

Much respect for the Dead but I’ve never been into them. I like “the hit”, haha Touch of Grey.
But a legendary band no doubt.

We have a small, soft-seat theatre where I live, the deCoste Performance Arts Center. Sound is always fantastic, beautiful venue inside and outside, seats around 400.

Pine Knob is a great outdoor place to perform.

It's not a big place, BUT:
It's just an almost-perfect concert venue.

Great sound for the crowd: great place to hear a concert.
Great place to produce the concert onstage.

The back of our stage is a deeply-pitched hill.
The 'house' is gently-sloping hill.

The stage is the center of a "V"-shaped" out-door amphitheater that gently slopes up + back to the seats on the grass.



Pine Knob: one of the best outdoor places to play.


.021,
clem.