the dead on tour again. ---two questions:

I'm hoping and lobbying for these guys to come up to the Northeast. Damn straight I'll be there.

Wow! The attitude of some here makes me think THEY are dead, or just waiting to die. ;-) Get out and hear live music, it will help your audio experience a great deal. And, more importantly, you may just enjoy yourself again.

I had the pleasure of seeing Gov't Mule last Halloween in Boston. The first set was all Mule's best and the crowd was really getting into it. I'd say the age range ran from high school, perhaps a few younger, right up to retirement age.

The second set, the came out and began the intro to Pink Floyd's One of These Days. From there they played just about every song you can think of from Floyd. Everybody in that theater was just blown away. This is the kind of performance you get from musicians like this at live shows that you can't get from their LPs and CDs.

I'm still pissed that I passed up Hot Tuna unplugged, who were performing just 10 miles from my house. But it was NFL opening day and I couldn't get anyone else to go. Should'a gone by myself.

Hot Tuna's first album, Live at the Berkley House has been in rotation here since it first came out many many years ago. I have gone through endless copies and it was this album that truly inspired my guitar playing ambitions. New Song for the Morning, Hesitation Blues and particularly Mann's Fate with Jack Cassidy's bass playing going where no electric bass playing had gone before. Jack was the Starship Enterprise of bass players. It was this album that sent me to my one and only trip to the Fillmore East. It was January 1971 and I was just a kid but what a trip for just a kid. I still have the handbill. To me it is easily in the top 10 if not the top 5 of the must have records ever made.

I'm going to the Madison Square Garden Show April 25.

The Dead were here in NYC on Monday 3/30 and they played three free shows (tickets were distributed via a lottery--I recommend anyone interested in The Grateful Dead get on the GDTS-TOO mailing list, and the Dead.net mailing list). By the accounts I've read, these warm-up performances were not perfect, but still a great success, exceeding expectations, and has whetted our appetites for this soon-to-commence tour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLryAkIS3U0

Going to see them in the Gorge next weekend with Allman and Doobie Bros. Should be fun.