Project Ticket Stub - 1979

1979. Sid Vicious. Pol Pot. The Shah of Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini. C-SPAN is born. A swamp rabbit attacks Jimmy Carter. Margaret Thatcher is elected, and Muhammad Ali retires. (No, those two events are no related.) Saddam Hussein gains power in Iraq, and Diana Nyad swims from the Bahamas to Florida. (Those two events aren't related either.) Chrysler needs money. Pac-Man. Eleven people are killed in a stampede at a Who concert in Cincinnati. The Clash releases London Calling.

And my year was bookended by the Grateful Dead...

Grateful Dead The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA January 12, 1979 This night sure did alter the course of my life, or at least how I spent a bunch of time in the next decade. Sure, I was familiar with the Dead before the show, particularly the Europe '72 album. But in terms of a concert experience, this was something completely different and unlike anything I had experienced to this point. Maybe Zeppelin could be compared, but an awful lot of my first concert experiences had been "shows", but this was music. I was hooked. If I remember right, I went to this concert with Mark, Scott, and my brother, Bob.

Grateful Dead Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, MO February 11, 1979 A month later and I'm back at school in St. Louis.

Steve Goodman Graham Chapel, Washington University, St. Louis, MO February 17, 1979 It's too bad I got the bottom half of this stub instead of the top half. Nevertheless, I wrote Steve's name and the concert date on the back, and this stub is a prized possession. At the time of the concert I didn't know that Steve Goodman had been fighting leukemia since 1969, nor of course that he would lose that battle in just another five years at the all-too-young age of 36. I just knew that I was hooked on his quirky songs such as The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over, and also that Steve wrote City of New Orleans. This concert was held in the incredibly beautiful Graham Chapel, with its breathtaking stained glass window backdrop. If there was any one concert I could go back to and re-experience again, this one is it.

Sea Level Graham Chapel, Washington University, St. Louis, MO March 31, 1979 Sea Level was a rock/blues/jazz band spun out of the Allman Brothers. They were quite popular on my campus, but I don't recall a thing about this concert.

J. Geils Band Keil Opera House, St. Louis, MO April 6, 1979 Can't tell from the ticket, but I'm fairly certain this was held in the opera house side of Keil, not the auditorium side. The building had both back to back, sharing a common backstage area. I bet this concert was fun. Too bad I don't remember it.

Dixie Dregs Washington University Quadrangle, St. Louis, MO April 29, 1979 What can be better than a springtime Sunday all-afternoon concert on the college campus? Called "Quadrock Sunday" because it was held in the picturesque campus main quadrangle, it featured a bunch of local bands all afternoon, with the Dixie Dregs as the headliner and show closer late in the afternoon.

Supertramp Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ May 11, 1979 Supertramp was big in 1979, and this concert was a lot of fun. Bloody well right. I think this whole outing was organized by my friend Scott. I wonder about the date, though. My ticket stub clearly shows "5/11", but I found this concert program that says it was a week later on May 18. Was it originally scheduled for May 11 but postponed for a week for some reason?

Jorma Kaukonen Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ July 14, 1979 There were both acoustic and electric sets, but no Jack on bass (at least according to db.etree.org). Me, Scott, and Mark? Anyone else?

Jethro Tull The Checkerdome, St. Louis, MO November 8, 1979 Back in St. Louis and yet another Tull show.

Jorma Kaukonen Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ November 24, 1979 Back home for Thanksgiving. Interestingly enough, this show isn't listed in db.etree.org. Maybe that's because this was when Jorma was playing with a band called White Gland, and the music was more punk than anything else. I remember that Mark and I were horribly disappointed in this show. We came to hear Jorma and Hot Tuna material, but they played what can only be described as weird punk. This concert is a solid contender for my bottom-of-the-barrel list.

Grateful Dead Keil Auditorium, St. Louis, MO December 9, 1979 As I began the year, so I ended it. First with the Sunday night show in St. Louis, and then...

Grateful Dead Memorial Hall, Kansas City, KS December 10, 1979 ...the Monday night show in Kansas City. I distinctly remember this particular show, both for the 250-mile drive (each way) across Missouri and back just for the show, as well as for the show itself. The second set, in particular, was rockin' (Scarlet > Fire, Easy To Love You > Let It Grow > He's Gone > Truckin > Drumz > Wharf Rat > Johnny B. Goode E: U. S. Blues) and the crowd went nuts for a long, long time after the band left the stage. While a 500-mile round trip drive (in my 1970 Chevy Impala) to see one concert might seem excessive, it will turn out to be nowhere near my single-concert drive record, although all of my distance records will turn out to be for the Dead.

So there is 1979, starting and ending with a pair of Grateful Dead shows - and setting the tone for the next ten or twelve years.

On the trivia front, three of those four Dead shows had U.S. Blues encores. What's up with that? I grew to groan at "Useless Blues" encores, wishing for almost anything else!