HowlRound: I have enjoyed the Grateful Dead since I first listened to the Workingman’s Dead album in high school, but I couldn’t call myself a fan, not compared to my cousin Bobby, who’s a tie-dyed Deadhead. “They’ve been one of the constants throughout my life,” he said recently, when he invited me to a Dead and Company concert (three of the four surviving members of the Grateful Dead, plus John Mayer) at Madison Square Garden. In return I invited him to a play at Playwrights Horizons. We both enjoyed both events, but I found the concert eye opening: more than 10,000 people of all ages coming from around the country for a four-hour event. Has that happened for live, legitimate theatre since Ancient Greece?
1 comment:
One of the comments on this article talks about how the community aspect of Grateful Dead fandom is one of its strongest facets. I agree with this to some extent. I think the more relaxed nature of concerts in general (but especially Dead shows) doesn’t necessarily translate to the refined and high-class environment that theaters try to cultivate. In any case what I think draws deadheads and the average concert-going public to shows like the Grateful Dead (and modern incarnations) is the uniqueness of the experience. Bands like the Dead promise a unique concert every time with one-time setlists and jams and music that will never be repeated or heard live again. This is another thing that the vast majority of live theater just can’t replicate. The thing that makes bands like the Dead and their contemporaries so compelling is their uniqueness, as if every band did the things the Dead does they wouldn’t be half as compelling. I think some of the other points in this article have something to them though, as crowd control and merchandise are much more achievable goals for live theater. Free ticketing is an interesting though probably unachievable goal as well. I just don’t want to hear any chompers the next time I go see Hadestown on Broadway because of the “free spirit” of the new age theater crowd. Sometimes, some things just have to stay in their own lane.
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