Good Golly Miss Molly

The good old month of March. Lots of folks may first think of March Madness when they think of March, or maybe the end of winter, or even St. Paddy's Day! But there was a group of people who I knew with only one thing on their minds when it came to March: in the voice of Dick Vitale, “SPRING TOUR BABY! “ Even though the 21st is the official start of spring, whether it was the 1st or the 31st, or it was snowing, sleeting, raining or freezing, if the Grateful Dead were playing on the east coast and it was March, spring had technically sprung.

Truth is March Madness was a big part of the Spring Tour for my crew. The parking lot scene was usually a great time for pre-show activities, but holding an ice-cold beer on a freezing day while shivering in a cheap Guatemalan poncho and pretending I actually like to play hacky-sack was not really my thing. But throwing some good tunes on the boom box (surprisingly not always Grateful Dead tunes) with the TV on mute, catching a quality NCAA tourney game while 'tuning up' for the show in some hotel room somewhere was way more appealing. (And for all you ipod/MP3 era audio file youngsters, a boom box was a machine into which a pre-recorded thing called a "cassette tape" would be inserted and, after pressing play, which was a piece of plastic about the size of the enter button on your keyboard, sound would come out of the two round things at either end called "speakers".)

So many dates in March conjure up some blurry (and not so blurry) memories of great times and great shows! From the Hampton Coliseum to the Hartford Civic Center, out to the Igloo in Pittsburgh, and right back to the great, great Philadelphia Spectrum (moment of silence please), 3/14, 3/15, 3/16, 3/19, 3/24, 3/26, 3/27, 3/29, 3/30, 3/31 and of course 3/17. St Paddy's day shows were always a lot of fun. Like stumbling over a pot of gold...or a pot of golden pot! However for this maiden voyage segment of T.R.I.O., March 15th is where we will drop anchor.

For the last 20 years or so, when March 15th would come up on the calendar I couldn't help but to flip through that file cabinet of useless information in my brain to the year 1990. Down to Landover, MD; more specifically the Capital Center…another great venue that, like the Spectrum, met its end a few years back. (Instead of a wrecking ball though they just blew that fucker up. Gotta love youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3BLayiGEf8)

The Pringle, as it was referred to, was home to the NHL Capitals, and, I think, the Washington Bullets? (Are the Bullets still a team? Shit, does anyone even follow pro basketball anymore?) But way more importantly, it was home to many incredible Grateful Dead shows. Home to some grade-A major league breakouts - Ripple (88), Loose Lucy, Black Throated Wind, Easy to Love you, Revolution (all in 1990), Ruben and Cherise (91), Satisfaction (92) and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (93 - a St. Paddy's day show). The Cap Center was also home to my first road trip in the fall of 1987, as well as a horrible trip to a scary Emergency Room via ambulance missing an entire 2nd set. (not my proudest moment!) But that's a whole other story. Sans the nightmare trip to the ER, I saw about 15 shows there and had many a great night in that building.

Anyway back to March 15th, 1990. Phil Lesh, the Dead's bassist, was turning 50 years old that night. There was an extra energy in the air that day. The night before, they had played Loose Lucy for the first time in like 17 years. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNuCa7Zb1C4) HOT!!! As Paris Hilton would say, it was “huuuuuuge”! So by night two at show time the whole place was vibrating with an insane sort of intensity! It was always cool to see a show on one of the band members birthdays (or on your own birthday, for that matter), but this was Phil's 50th! This was the big one! At least back then it was. Phil is still playing his ass off at 71!

I'll spare you a full-on review of the show but it was a smoker! A limited edition CD called Terrapin Station (not to be confused with their studio album also titled Terrapin Station) was released a few years later and I'm sure it can still be had via Ebay or some other internet music buying site. Or just listen to it at archive.org. http://www.archive.org/details/gd1990-03-15.senn-hubbard.cpb.83675.flac16 The audience recordings capture the true vibe of the show more so than the soundboards. For example, check out the rocking Tennessee Jed. At about 4:45, Garcia cuts out on a vocal and lets the crowd yell out the last line and with one fell swoop of his guitar carries everyone right back to the chorus. Sorry for this digression but this particular Althea>Tom Thumbs Blues>Tennessee Jed is still one of my favorites. Just do yourself and your neighbors a favor if you do listen to it...crank that shit up!

A few tunes into the first set, the crowd started a "We want Phil" chant. Phil only sang a few different tunes, so it was kind of special when he did sing, even if he wasn't exactly the greatest singer (let's just say he only sang a few different songs over the course of the band’s 30 year run for good reason). So… “We want Phil, WE WANT Phil, WE WANT PHIL”...louder and louder and louder. Of course he was going to sing something, I mean, he was the birthday boy and all. So he belted out Dylan's Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues (the “We want Phil” chant is not on here, but an edited few seconds can be heard at the end of Althea on the archive.org link above. Apparently, Foggybottom is an area near DC). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DrR_SvJ2gg)
It was great fun! A few songs before was the big breakout of the night: a Brent Midland tune called Easy to Love You. They had only played this a couple of times 10 years prior (useless brain file again).

Anyway, the 2nd set started with a half-hearted attempt at singing Happy Birthday to Felipe. 20,000 buzzed freaks singing Happy Birthday..well, you do the math...needless to say, it didn't last too long until the familiar first few notes of China Cat Sunflower started popping out of the speakers and for the next 90 minutes we danced. (Well, at least we called it dancing. Dancing, twitching...it didn't matter as long as you were shakin' something)

So, the whole point to all this nonsense is that for the last 21 years, I have remembered this night like it was yesterday. Fondly. Until of course last week. 3/15/2011. At 1:50 pm, my beautiful wife gave birth to our first child. Beautiful Molly Ann Race. (And, no, Philomena was never a name option.) And while that night back in 1990 will always be a great memory in my useless-information-brain-folder, it pales in comparison to the memory that will be on the forefront of my mind EVERYDAY for the rest of my life. The day Molly came high-steppin' into town!

Ira the Race is on