Oct 24

Oct 24 That Time in 1982 When I Saw The Grateful Dead at Red Rocks

Until this past summer, the last time I saw a show at Red Rocks was 39 years ago, when GA tickets cost $13.75. We drove thirty straight hours from Boston to Denver in a clown car stuffed with pillows and sleeping bags, a cooler of cold-cuts and Molson’s Ale, and my future husband Brian (RIP) and his besties, brother-sister team Jenny and Andy Romeo. The inspiration for the journey to the Red Rocks shows on July 27, 28, and 29, 1982 came out of a desire to honor their beloved older brother (and huge deadhead) Dennis, who had been killed on his way home from the Grateful Dead’s new years eve concert just 6 months earlier. When we realized it would also be Brian’s 25th birthday on the last night of the run, the decision was made: Brian and I would take my 1977 Chevy Nova from Boston to Westchester County, New York, swoop up our friends, and drive Jenny’s roomy Dodge Dart to Colorado, and hightail it back in time for work on Monday morning, August second.

Sharon and Brian and guitar RED ROCKS COLORADO, July 1982

It was an epic and bittersweet journey that contained the best and worst aspects of a summer tour road trip: non-stop Dead and Reggae playing on the cassette deck, chain-smoking Newports, my nose in shared Stephen King paperbacks, stimulants and convenience store coffee, with the inevitable breakdown of the Dodge Dart in middle-of-nowhere, Kansas. Brian hitched a ride with some happy church people, and returned from town with a piece of wire and a fuse to save the day. We bickered, we cried, we kissed, we made up.

Bill wearing Brian’s short shorts, Jenny. Red Rocks Colorado, July 1982

Somewhere around Colorado Springs, we picked up Jenny’s boyfriend Bill, spent one night on his brother’s floor, ate tomato, alfalfa sprout, and cheddar cheese sandwiches and headed out for our final stretch to Morrison. The road trip concluded with our arrival at the majestic Red Rocks Amphitheater, for the 3 day run. We secured tickets to the shows one night at a time by holding up our fingers while we socialized in the parking lots, and didn’t worry about it. The shows, (listen here) July 27th, 28th, and 29th, reflect the quintessential sound of early 1980’s Grateful Dead and are a must-listen, both to the audience tapes (thank you, tapers!) as well as the soundboards and matrix recordings. Back then, we didn’t ride the rail as much as we hung at the soundboard, and it was sweet.

As for my personal recollections, fuzzy as they are, there are some standout memories that are forever burned into my Grateful Dead brain archives. Although I’ve gone back to check the weather records, and don’t see proof of 3 days of driving rain, I clearly remember dancing with Jenny, dripping wet, in our snazzy Danskin bodysuits and gauzy Indian skirts, sharing large handfuls of fresh psychedelic mushrooms. What followed was surely a scene from a Tolkien novel, replete with 9,000 hobbits draped in orange and khaki rain ponchos and backpack humps, illuminated by colored spotlights, swaying in the mist to Crazy Fingers. The ponchos made it impossible to find anyone, or even remember where your spot was if you wandered away, and to this day I cannot look at a poncho at a Dead show without smiling.

Phtotgraph: Gary Johnson 1982. Various Deadheads. Red Rocks

The spectacular trifecta culminated on Brian’s birthday, July 29th, as Jenny magically pulled a chocolate cake from the trunk, sliced it with a Swiss Army knife, and the whole section of our very muddy parking lot sang a chorus of Happy Birthday to Brian as we pushed out for the long journey home.

Little did I know that I wouldn’t have the good fortune to find my way back to Red Rocks until flying out to see another epic favorite, Kruetzmann’s Billy and The Kids (featuring Billy Strings) on July 12 and July 13, 2021, followed just last week, for Dead & Company’s surprise performance on October 19th and 20th.