July 15, 1989 Grateful Dead Deer Creek Part 3

A look back….

July 15, 1989

GRATEFUL DEAD

Part 3

The Show

?Deer Creek Music Center

Noblesville, IN

?? FIRST ONE IN….LAST ONE OUT

? LAST ONE IN…. FIRST ONE OUT

?We opened the doors at 5:00 and the first people that came in were the approximate 200 “tapers” with their very sophisticated portable taping units. The tapers seats were in section F, behind the sound board. The Grateful Dead encouraged their fans to tape their shows as the band felt that once they played their music live it then belonged to the fans. People would trade and collect tapes, and this helped to continually expose the band AND its many facets to their fans and to a new audience all of the time. A unique thing about a Grateful Dead show is no two shows are the same. They played a different set at every show and often improvised on their songs. Until the advent of more “Jam Bands” this was unique to the Dead. Once again, the taping element was brilliant. Let’s face it, the Grateful Dead had very few songs that were played on traditional rock radio and the live version of their music is much better and preferred over the studio version.

?Another unique things was a bulletin board which was next to the Wharf Rats, NORML and Green Peace booths.. This location was on the north side of the venue, and it was noted in the previously mentioned show flyer. This bulletin board was basically a message board, and it was a great way for people to communicate with one another. They would simply write someone’s name on a post-it note and say I am in this seat, or I will meet you at a certain location at a designated time. This was way before we had instant communication, yet they figured out a way for the Deadheads to communicate with one another.

?The listed showtime was 7:00 and you would think that everyone would be in the venue by that time but that’s not the case. That said around 7:00 – 7:15 we experienced a gate crush with many people in a frenzy to get in. Several of these people didn’t have tickets and they went with the notion of being in a large group and hoping that they could squeeze past the ticket takers and security. One tactic was to simply have a Ticketmaster ticket of some other show and flash it as they walked in. With the gate crush it diverted the workers attention and several got through. Once again this was something that Ken Viola and Amy Polan-Clark alerted us to, and the venue managed it in a very good manor. Remember this was way before the method of scanning tickets began.

?Throughout the day as well as the day before the vibe was great. You could feel it in the parking lots and in the stagehouse. This great vibe increased during the show. It was so thick that one could feel it in the air.

?The band took the stage around 7:40 and the crowd was electric. The vibe and energy was magical, and you could sense that the band felt the same. As the band did their usual tuning and making a few guitar noises along with their on-stage talking the crowd grew more exited and started cheering. As the band began I walked out in the house and then up on the lawn. Another first for the venue was the band had their own lawn / delay sound system which was rare at that time as many bands used the in-house system. The sound level was very low, approximately 100 – 102 decibels, if that at the sound board. The clarity was very unique. It helps that the bands onstage volume was low. One thing that helped in managing the onstage volume was the Leslie cabinet for Brett Midlands organ was in the back of one of their semi-trailers with a microphone, ?sitting at the loading dock. You may recall that they requested 12 packing blankets. They lined the inside of the trailer with the blankets, and this helped to “deaden” the loud Leslie cabinet.

?I spent most of my time going between the front of house sound position and the onstage office. Watching Dan Healy run the sound system was like watching a great artist at work. He was at ease doing his job, yet we conversed back and forth about a few things. I went back to the onstage office and sat with Robbie Taylor, and I couldn’t believe how low the stage volume was. Here we were just behind the backline and yet we could easily talk back and forth without the need of raising our voices or talking directly into each other’s ear. Then, out of nowhere a helicopter emerged just behind the lawn and it was roughly 25 feet off the ground. This caught the attention of the audience, and it startled the band. As soon as I saw the helicopter I guessed that I knew who was on it. The helicopter hovered for roughly 20 – 30 seconds and then it flew away. I was next to Robbie when this happened, and he became upset. Also, in that area was Cameron Sears, the bands road manager and Jon McEntire, the bands manager. I assured them that I would check into it and that it would not happen again. At this time everyone who was on our house walkie talkie’s wanted to know why this helicopter hovered like this since nobody know that it was going to occur. I knew who was on the helicopter as it was one of my bosses Steve Sybesma. It seems that Steve had an opportunity at the last minute to get on the chopper and he had his camera and took a few fantastic pictures. It was best not to tell the band who was on it, and I simply said that someone took the liberty to do this and didn’t ask the venue for permission and that we told them that we would file a complaint with the FAA if they did it again. Yes it was exaggerated BS but was necessary and it worked. This put everyone at ease. That said, I wish I had a copy of one of those photo’s!

?Shortly after that the fax machine at the onstage office received a fax and it was addressed to Jerry Garcia. Robbie took the fax and walked over to Jerrys amp and gave it to Steve Parish who in turn showed it to Jerry. A few songs later Jerry went over to the onstage office, picked up the phone and called whoever it was that sent the fax and sat down and talked on the phone for about five minutes. For all I know he may have done this during Drums, but I think it was during a regular song. Either way another first!

?Here is the setlist:

?Set 1

?1. Bertha

2. Greatest Story Ever Told

3. Candyman

4. Walkin' Blues

5. Peggy-O

6. Queen Jane Approximately

7. We Can Run

8. Bird Song

?Set 2:

9. Foolish Heart

10. Victim or the Crime

11. Crazy Fingers

12. Truckin'

13. Smokestack Lightning

14. Drums

15. Space

·?????? (Jerry and the band played the 5 note medley from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind as we were 35 miles from Muncie IN as referenced in the movie!)

16. China Doll

17. All Along the Watchtower

18. Stella Blue

19. Sugar Magnolia

Encore:

20. Brokedown Palace

?Toward the end of the show, we staged 2 passenger vans and a police escort in the backstage parking area as the band always does a “runner” from the stage to their waiting transportation with the goal of getting out of the venue and onto the road quickly. The band was going to a regional airport to board their plane and fly to the next city. As the encore began both Candace Brightman and Dan Healy came backstage as they travel with the band. Their assistants took over the sound and light boards to end the show. Also, the caterer Jim Voss had prepared 10 specialty meals that were placed on plastic plates and covered and then each was placed in a brown grocery sack. Each sack had the proper individuals name including Jerry, Bob, Mickey, Bill, Phil, Brent, Cameron, Jon, Candace, and Dan. As the band left the stage each member picked up his assigned bag. My other boss Dave Lucas was standing in the backstage as they hurried to the back door, and he asked Jon McEntire how we did. Jon immediately smiled and answered, “We give you guys an A Plus!...see you next year” What a compliment!

?When Deer Creek opened we knew that we had something special starting with the very first show with Sandi Patti. Hearing this from Jon McEntire cemented that. Everybody poured their hearts and souls into the venue and in particularly this show. This show was an immediate game changer.

?During the load out there was constant chatter on the house walkie talkie’s about traffic. The “blow out” as we referred to it was very slow. For the most part many of the concert attendees were from out of town and just about everyone was asking the police and traffic personnel for directions which slowed down the process. I saw Rick Fuson and he and I came up with the crazy notion of the possibility of going up on top of the roof to look at the traffic….and we did. We climbed the stairs and then the 12 – 15-foot ladder and opened the hatch to get on top of the roof. We walked to the edge and the visual of all of this traffic was a sight to behold. We had not seen anything like this. I wish I had a picture of this as it was unbelievable.

?The load out was complete just after 2:00 AM and the production left just before 3:00 AM. By this time the parking lots were empty and several of us went into the Green Room next to the office and had a beer. Many of us had been on site for close to 24 hours and we were tired but by the same token we knew that everyone did a great job.

?What did we learn?

?We learned that we had a great venue and a great staff.

?We learned that we could play with the big boys and do it well.

?We learned that the Grateful Dead and their crew have passion.

?We learned that we have passion.

?We learned that The Grateful Dead fans have passion.

?We learned that we could put more than 12,000 people on the lawn and from that moment we adjusted to lawn capacity to 14,000.

?Little did I know that 23 years later I would become a born-again Deadhead.

?Please let me know if you attended the show or if you have seen The Grateful Dead in the past as well as your experience.

?Are you looking to book entertainment? If so, please contact me.

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