Girl Jerry Brings the Tunes to South Florida
Love the Grateful Dead? Check out Girl Jerry!
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Love the Grateful Dead? Check out Girl Jerry!
Read MoreWith an interesting line-up and a great set list, the July 4th "Fare Thee Well" show was epic!
Read MoreI find a lot of inspiration in popular culture, especially science fiction. Sometimes wisdom comes from unexpected places.
Read MoreGrateful Dead Meet Up at the Movies 2015 revisited one of the best shows I ever saw. A lot has changed in twenty-five years. Some things haven't changed.
Read MoreI have been to my share of restaurants, nightclubs and cafes in many parts of the world. This is why it is no small thing when I say that Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa, FL is by far the coolest, most unique establishment I have ever visited.
Skipper’s is a fish-shack sort of a restaurant and bar. The only food I have eaten there so far is one deep-fried mushroom, which was awesome. I assume I will try a meal there before too long.
Skipper’s has many small buildings that connect one to another, leaving an open-air area in the middle, which is the music venue. There are huge trees that seem to be incorporated into the structures and provide something of a ceiling for the music venue. I would probably choose not to see a band in the rain.
The way it is set up you can have a meal and hear the music without paying the cover for the band, but if you want to be in front of the band and on the dance floor, you pay the seven dollar cover.
The prices, overall, seem very reasonable – especially after five years in South Florida where everything is overpriced.
I was at Skipper’s last Thursday to get my Grateful Dead fix. Every Thursday is Grateful Dead night at Skippers, featuring Uncle John’s Band. Yes, they rock.
One of the things that makes Skipper’s so unusual is that they have a live band every night of the week. I haven’t known a club to do this since Toad’s Place in New Haven before Connecticut raised the drinking age to 21.
Skipper’s is decorated in graffiti art. Even the (clean) women’s room has inspirational graffiti scrawled in the stalls.
One of the oddest (and most fun) thing I noticed at Skippers were a rack of guest hoops. Yes, if you want to hoop to the music, go for it.
The scene Thursday night was tremendously cool. Under the canopy of trees and stars children, young adults and senior citizens danced together. Vendors in the back sold tie dyes and jewelry. People watched the band while munching on fish, fries and wings.
All I can say is I can’t wait for next Thursday.
This week I had the rare opportunity to see one of my favorite touring bands. Dark Star Orchestra played Revolution Hall in Fort Lauderdale.
Dark Star Orchestra has been touring for fifteen years. Their name reveals their intent.
"Dark Star" is a much-beloved Grateful Dead song that for many fans typifies the Grateful Dead experience.
An orchestra dedicates itself to preserving, interpreting and performing the works of long-dead great masters.
So the intent of Dark Star Orchestra is not to be a tribute band, or even a commemoration or reenactment of the Grateful Dead scene. The intent of DSO is to take the music of the Grateful Dead forward. They do it well.
Most Deadheads will admit that on many nights DSO's performances are technically better than the Grateful Dead's, especially vocally.
The remaining members of the Grateful Dead seem to appreciate DSO. John Kadlecik, one of the founding members of DSO has been playing with Furthur since 2009. Furthur is a touring band that features both Bob Weir and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead. What a job promotion for John Kadlecik, and what a vote of confidence for DSO!
The February 26 performance at Revolution Hall was the first time I had seen DSO without John Kadlecik. I did see Furthur with him in 2009 and they were fabulous.
As it turns out the new DSO line-up is terrific. As with any good orchestra, a change in personnel does not change the quality of the performance.
DSO reproduces Grateful Dead shows song-by-song, note-by-note. The show for this special night was from June 22, 1976. In 1976 I was in middle school and had yet to fall in love with the Grateful Dead, but the songs from this show were some of my favorites.
One of the best parts of the night for me was a deeply reverent Cassidy that exploded into a Promised Land at the end of the first set. I also enjoyed the earlier fun and funky Tennessee Jed.
The second set included an absolutely joyous Eyes of the World and a Samson and Delilah that really could have torn "this old building down".
Revolution Hall is a quintessential rock club. I found the bar on the second floor and discovered the entire second floor was wired for sound. When it comes to Dead shows I don't need to see the band, I need to hear the band and I need room to dance. I found all that on the second floor. It reminded me of the coliseums that would put speakers in the hallways for those of us who needed room to groove.
Travis Newbill wrote a great review of the show for the New Times. He said that Dark Star Orchestra provides a healing service. He's right. It is a healing service for those of us who spent years organizing our lives around Dead shows, traveling to gather with our brothers and sisters in parking lots across the country to eat fried rice and burritos, trade handcrafted items and join in that sacred dance.
But DSO isn't just for my aging brethren to remember the days of yore. DSO, along with Furthur, 7 Walkers and the many other touring projects have attracted new, young fans; kids who never saw the actual Grateful Dead. These kids tour with the bands, know the songs and feel proud to carry on the traditions.
I danced next to one such kid (well, he could have been thirty). We were tearing it up in the second set. Without being asked, he told me he understands the sacred nature of the music and feels a personal responsibility to keep it going.
The Grateful Dead, capricious as they were, did not always play an encore. On June 22, 1976 they closed the show at the end of the second set and called it a day. Dark Star Orchestra would never leave their audience so deprived. They chose Ripple as a special treat with which to send us on our way.
Ripple in clear water
when there is no pebble tossed, nor wind to blow…
That song describes the spiritual mystery of the Grateful Dead. That spiritual mystery is preserved by many musicians - local bands playing Dead covers, new projects of the original musicians and, of course, Dark Star Orchestra.
I'll be turning 50 very soon. I've been practicing owning that age for a few months so it won't be so traumatic when it actually happens.
As I contemplate a half-century on this very strange planet, I think about the cultural snapshot of now, what that looks like, and how I feel about it.
Here's where I stand.
I love Gangnam Style. Recently a CNN Blogger declared Gangnam Style over and dead. I think he's wrong. Gangnam Style makes the whole world dance together. Who cares if the dance is silly?
Honey Boo Boo who? I don't watch broadcast TV, so I only see snippets of stupidity. But, apparently, there is plenty of stupidity to go around. I still like Glee, which I watch on Hulu. I'm also watching The Voice, but was bored with blind auditions - 16 team members per coach seem just too much. And, as usual, the Brits do TV better than we do; Dr. Who was terrific this season.
My favorite adult cartoons are getting grosser and grosser. Vomit and dismemberment just aren't funny. Politics and religion are. Don't forget why I first loved you, Seth MacFarlane!
The new SNL cast is pretty good. I am expecting great things from Vanessa Bayer, and then I am expecting her to be over-used and worn-out, just as Kristen Wiig was.
Right now, the Western world is mourning the tragic deaths of two young girls. Jessica Ridgeway was the victim of kidnap and murder in Colorado, while Amanda Todd took her own life in Canada, a victim of bullying. I guess really sad things have always happened to kids and there have always been monsters in the world; the internet just makes sure we all know about them.
The presidential race is too close to call, with each side terrified that awful things will happen if the other candidate is elected. What a weird national mindset that is. We are ideologically divided. The Tea Party and Occupy extremists seem to have lost their credibility, but that hasn't brought us closer to center, or to each other, as a nation yet. One thing we all agree on - the government has lost its way. We are only divided on what we need to do to fix it.
It has been a long time since there was a national mandate in a presidential election. According to my research, it would have been 1984, when Ronald Reagan was re-elected by a landslide. At the time, I was not a Reagan supporter. In retrospect, I think he and Nancy did a good job in certain respects. The funny thing is that his policies (that many of us considered too right-wing then) now wouldn't be enough to win him the support of the current Republican party, so far to the right has the GOP moved.
I never thought I would say this, but we could sure use a guy like Reagan right now. Doesn't that make me sound old?
But how long can a nation stand so evenly divided, so angry, and so afraid?
The only answer I can think of? Oppan Gangnam Style! When in doubt, dance.
I guess things haven't changed so much over the past quarter century. Then I was seeing as many Grateful Dead shows as I could, always hoping to hear my favorite songs, including this one (Throwin' Stones), whose lyrics described the situation then just as it feels now.
"So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And the politicians throwin' stones,
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down."