Boston’s Deadheads explain their love for the band
A long, strange trip to Fenway Park.
On Friday and Saturday, Dead & Company, a supergroup featuring three original members of the Grateful Dead, packed Fenway Park for the final two shows of their summer tour. The band is just the latest iteration of the Dead to carry the torch since Jerry Garcia’s passing in 1995, but this one features John Mayer on lead guitar, and was met with a very favorable response from the Dead faithful in the Fenway crowd.
Before the shows at Fenway, the streets and surrounding parking lots were transformed into a bazaar of vans, makeshift trading posts, and excited showgoers—an experience known to Deadheads as “Shakedown Street.” In anticipation of the shows, we saw what was shakin’ on Shakedown Street and asked some fans what it means to love the Dead.
Jeremy
“When I was in high school, because of the skull or something, I thought they were heavy metal. But then my friend played me their album American Beauty, and I think we listened to it two or three more times that night. I instantly fell in love with the complex simplicity of the Dead. Being able to see them now finally has been even better—becoming a part of the whole experience, feeding off the energy they put out there and then also being able to give it back.”
Bob and Carla
“A friend of mine, I think we were freshman at BU in ‘77, said ‘Hey, the Dead are at the Music Hall, let’s go.’ And I said, ‘OK, let’s go.’ So we did and it was a life-changing experience. It’s all about the music, there is nothing like a Grateful Dead Concert. [I’ve probably seen them] about 50 or 60 times, as far south as the Spectrum in Philadelphia. I’ve seen them in Madison Square Garden, Saratoga Springs, and as far north as Portland.”
Brian and Anna
“I first discovered the Grateful Dead in high school and immediately fell in love. The song that really pulled me in was ‘Fire on the Mountain.’ I began to search for shows containing that song and before I knew it, the set list didn’t matter. I became addicted to listening to shows. When I first started attending concerts in the flesh I was blown away by the overall kindness and generosity expressed by fans. The scene is just filled with so much love—love I hope to continue to experience for many years to come.”
Daniel
“I listened to the Dead a bit in high school, and I was into them, but I only really listened to their studio material. Then when I got to college, my roommate exposed me to some of their live recordings, and I got hooked. Going to a Dead show is a pretty unique experience. You know you’re going to get a unique set list, not just some canned performance. You also get a huge amount of passionate fans, every time. The audience at a Dead show seems to feed off its own energy, and it’s cool to both witness, and to be a part of. Other jambands have similar traits, but the Dead are the pioneers, and they do it better than anyone else.”
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