Dateline: 1987. Location: Alpine Valley music amphitheater in southern WI. The largest outdoor music venue in the country. Gargantuan capacity. Endless sloping lawn down to the stage. When the Grateful Dead played there each summer, it was an invasion for several days, as they played for multiple nights. The entire 'deadhead' city spread out all over the place, over 50,000 twirling hippies. It's a huge marketplace / bizarre. It's not a normal concert scene with generally normal concertgoers with normal lives & jobs. This ain't that.
Anyhoots. '87 was the 1st of 3 summers of Grateful Dead concerts. Almost went in '86 but wasn't quite into them enough at that point. But when '87 rolled around I was primed & ready after a steady diet of Dead on CD. Four of us went. I lived in a house with 15 guys (upcoming multi-part blurb) for most of my college. How I graduated is the eternal mystery. I went with flatmate Todd, his buddy Dave, & my buddy Brian. For some reason I drove, in my tiny dodge colt hatchback 4 speed. Four of us in my tiny car for 3 days of supplies (2 nites of concerts). Here were my own 'supplies,' this is literally all I brought with me: cigarettes, weed, weed pipe, sleeping bag and $20. Didn't really think that one through. Fortunately Brian brought a tent.
Don't recall buying tix. Mail order? Must have been. I don't recall much from that weekend but the memories I do have, one in particular, are cautionary tales of something that could have been far worse. We set out from St. Paul, in the evening, and drove through the nite to arrive around sunrise. But first, we had to learn where Alpine Valley was, as none of us 4 had a clue other than 'Wisconsin.' Called law student friend Jeff who went each year and fortunately he answered, and said 'East Troy.' Had to find that on the map, not easy as it's a tiny town. But we did and off we went.
I recall insisting that each of us share the driving. A good idea, except Dave had never driven a stick before. They're all I drive, I loathe automatics (bumper cars) but let's focus. Since it was interstate most of the way, Dave just had to get it up to highway speed. He rode the clutch badly. So badly that I needed a new clutch upon returning (I could shift without a clutch, is how burned it was, cost hundreds). We should have given Dave a pass, in hindsight. I also recall Todd in one of his eternal hustles hassling the petrol station guy on their 'no checks' policy at 3am in the middle of nowhere. Todd refused to pay cash. It wasn't going well. Finally the petrol guy caved. Todd world.
Around 7am we reach the wee hamlet of East Troy, WI. Nobody has any idea where the theatre actually is. It's not in town, it's near town. So I'm driving, it's 7am, slowly going down main street. Why slowly? Because there are cops everywhere. Like every 30 feet. Most have red lights on writing tickets to other drivers. I park in front of a diner, not up for driving around aimlessly in this scene. We agree we need directions. They agree to send me into the diner for them. Which I do. Packed diner, wall to wall hippies having brekky. For some reason I decide to look for 'the most knowledgeable' hippie because I figured they'd know where the theatre actually was. I walk all the way to the back because I spot an old guy with long beard, hippie duds, the full ensemble. I walk up and the table freezes. Guy says 'you joining us?' I ask him for directions and he provides them. Off we go back into the countryside, sans gendarme.
Todd & I had earlier agreed that if we get separated, to meet 'in front near the gates' not realizing how comical that was. This is where thousands and thousands, a river of hippie humanity, flowed for an hour to get into the show. Very long queue as security was patting everyone down, bag checks, all that. Takes forever. I decided to climb up on a street light platform, 5 feet up, to scan the hippie river. Impossible. A sea of brilliant, blinding tie dye. I turned around on this tiny elevated platform at the exact time Todd did the same thing, 20 feet away, on another platform. Stuff like this happens at Dead shows. Ask around.
We wind our way past security and into the giant ampitheater, following friend Mark who's been to shows and taken LSD also. I could write an entire blurb on Mark and mayhap will one day, but again: let's focus. Close to the stage where the reserved seats are it's oddly empty and Mark leads the way and we 5 plop down in the seats where we enjoy the entire first set. Opening song as I know you're on the edge of your seat: Iko Iko. Or whatever it's called. Jerry says into the mic 'hey now' and instantly 50,000 scream back HEY NOW! Oh it's quite the scene man. Nothing like it.
Back to Dave. So me being me, I had a pocket kaleidoscope with me in my pocket. About a foot long tube with a real deal kaleidoscope on one end. It was quite trippy, even when not on drugs. I didn't bring any food or water, but I did bring a kaleidoscope. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to give Dave my kaleidoscope. Initially at least it was a good idea as he stopped running to & fro finally, and stood there looking into it, hypnotized, but at least remaining stationary. To this day I wonder if this helped or hurt, but who knows. And then poof, both he & Todd were gone. I'm guessing Dave took off again & Todd had to chase after him. The 2nd set started, I was sitting on the grass, and when the song started, I noticed a buzz go through the crowd. Just a quiet buzzing. Turns out, the band was beginning the song Terrapin Station. This is a loooong song that builds & builds to an utterly epic repeat riff with guitars like bagpipes and waves of thunder elsewhere. And I didn't recognize the song until the famous latter part, as, lo & behold, after 3+ hours, the LSD I had actually figured was a dud, started swimming up to the surface of my brain. When the big repeat riff began, enormous sound bubbles emanated from the stage, causing the entire audience to ripple towards me as if on a giant wave. Oh it was quite the scene man.
I recall Brian & I finally leaving to find the car and setup the tent. Walking through the crowd I felt like a fish swimming through a lake with thousands of other fish. It was like walking in syrup. Brian remembers setting up our tent, I don't recall anything until the next morning, just a blank. Brian also remembers a car ran over a tent with people inside, saw the ambulance load up the injured. But the morning was definitively vivid, when Todd came over and told us what happened at the show. Dave basically had a meltdown so intense that Todd took him to the first aid tent. He told the helpers they were both on too much acid, which was wise. Can't fake that. So they loaded Dave into an ambulance and strapped him to a stretcher. They took him, and all the other acid casualties, to the local jail, where they had the beds. They put him in an actual jail cell bed and strapped him to it. No movement. Dave told me later that people were howling all night long, nonstop. He had a cellmate, also strapped down. In the morning when the jailer unshackled them, he told me his cellmate, as soon as his arms were free, reached into his pocket, pulled out 2 hits of acid, and said, for real: '1 for me, 1 for Jerry' and plopped them in his mouth right there.
I got all this directly from Dave, later that day. In the morn we of course had no idea where he was, other than he was taken away. There was a show that nite, then we were splitting. But he was driven back in an ambulance, dropped off, and found us. Oh and: then he told me the worst part, yes worse than an LSD overdose. When they took him to jail, not sure why, but they forced him to call his parents in Florida, and talk to them, while he was tripping his brains out. I don't know if it was a form of punishment, or they needed someone to pay for the ambulance or what, but that's what happened. Dave was pre-med. Not a drug user. Not even a GD fan, really, just along for the ride.
I saw him a year later, we chatted, still pre-med. Was fine. Wouldn't go near drugs. Oh my laws no.
