OVER 7,000 ATTEND / CONCERT "FANTASTIC"

BUT CROWDED

by John Tennis

I had heard there would be a lot of people at the Grateful Dead concert Friday night, and that there were only a small number of tickets available, so I got there early to buy one at the door. Sure enough, there were a lot of people there, and a lot of them were waiting to buy tickets at the door.

Fortunately, though, I was one of the thousands who got in, and I took a seat in the bleachers because I saw that the floor was getting pretty crowded. After waiting outside for an hour, I wasn't relishing the idea of sitting for another hour. After amusing myself watching the activities of the crowd for awhile the concert started with Notary Sojac, who played for about 40 minutes.

They played some nice stuff, which was all their own material. Its rather complex though, and therefore hard to get into.

One of the reasons for that might have been their lack of equipment, which made it hard to hear the instruments. When Sojac's set was over, the lights came on and we got to see each other. Reports have it that there were over 7,000 people there, and that over a thousand of those crashed their was in, which brings me to my main complaint about the concert.

There were just too many people there. I suppose the blame goes to the crashers.

A thousand less bodies sure would have been nice.

The New Riders of the Purple Sage were next, and they were great.

I didn't have too much time to worry about all the people during this set because the music was so good. Their set lasted about 40 or 50 minutes, and then we saw the slides of Woodstock. They were interesting for awhile, but it became a drag when they were shown over and over.

Another thing that was a drag was the non-stop talking by the crowd. It wasn't cheering anyone on; it was just talking.

Next came the Grateful Dead, and from about 11:30 until 2:00 a.m. the Dead demonstrated why everyone was there. Their first number was "Casey Jones" and it set the speed for the rest of the night. By the end of that number, everyone was screaming and cheering them on. It was a fantastic concert, in spite of the things I mentioned above, and should help White Bird Clinic and LCC's financial aids program, which share in the profits.