Blue J Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 No. A five hour show would kill them at this point. It's not realistic. I agree, it's not realistic at all. And surely the guys in the band know that, too. Stranger things have happened...Phil Lesh (former Grateful Dead bassist) has just cut back his touring schedule over the past couple of years so that he's just playing residencies at a couple of venues- the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY, and one other place, in Calofornia. The shows he and his ever-revolving band of musicians plays are still around the three-hour mark. He'll be 75 next month. He and Bob Weir (also an original member of the Grateful Dead) played a show together at the Warfield in San Francisco in 2008 that was in excess of five hours- he was 68 at the time.  Point being, there are those who have that kind of energy, and can pull it off. Sometimes. But I don't know of anyone who can play for the duration of an entire tour where the shows are consistently five hours in length. It just doesn't happen. Not even with younger folk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015  I think they could do ONE five hour show, with lots of breaks throughoutVIP Platinum ticket holders get served Prime Rib during the breaks. And wine, from Geddy's personal collection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christo Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I wonder whether they would be capable of doing three one hour sets? With say, two twenty minute breaks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del_Duio Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I'd bet there'll be at least one Caress of Steel song for this tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I think they could do ONE five hour show, with lots of breaks throughoutVIP Platinum ticket holders get served Prime Rib during the breaks. And wine, from Geddy's personal collection!  I'M IN!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleMoon Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I think they could do ONE five hour show, with lots of breaks throughoutVIP Platinum ticket holders get served Prime Rib during the breaks. And wine, from Geddy's personal collection!  I'M IN!!! I'd like to taste some really good wine. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRogers Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I think they could do ONE five hour show, with lots of breaks throughoutVIP Platinum ticket holders get served Prime Rib during the breaks. And wine, from Geddy's personal collection! Only $500 per ticket plus Ticketmaster "fees". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disk98 Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I'd bet there'll be at least one Caress of Steel song for this tour.Please no. No, no, no, no. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John V Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Looking at the tour dates I see they take only a one day break, before playing again.They are playing every other night.It would seem they could take three, maybe even four days off between shows to rest up.Why do they cram so much into the schedule? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I think they could do ONE five hour show, with lots of breaks throughoutVIP Platinum ticket holders get served Prime Rib during the breaks. And wine, from Geddy's personal collection! Only $500 per ticket plus Ticketmaster "fees". I think this is low-balling it a bit, actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Looking at the tour dates I see they take only a one day break, before playing again.They are playing every other night.It would seem they could take three, maybe even four days off between shows to rest up.Why do they cram so much into the schedule?I noticed this particular tour schedule to be especially grueling. It's almost as if it was scheduled to wear them out in the shortest possible time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 Looking at the tour dates I see they take only a one day break, before playing again.They are playing every other night.It would seem they could take three, maybe even four days off between shows to rest up.Why do they cram so much into the schedule? I've had a similar thought- I think it's definitely good for them to not be playing on consecutive nights...and then as far as not taking more time off between shows, it could be that it would just make a 34-date tour go on too long. As it is now, they're taking roughly 85 days to play 34 shows (including a couple of week-long breaks). If they added more off nights in between each show, it could be that they just don't want to spend that much more time on the road. (I would think that they pay their crew for the duration of a whole tour, which would be a lot more overhead at 150 days, versus 85). All just speculation, of course. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRogers Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I think they could do ONE five hour show, with lots of breaks throughoutVIP Platinum ticket holders get served Prime Rib during the breaks. And wine, from Geddy's personal collection! Only $500 per ticket plus Ticketmaster "fees". I think this is low-balling it a bit, actually.If called the Farewell Tour I'd pay $999 per ticket for such a show...I really like prime rib and wine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluefox4000 Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I could go 5 hours. i sit down all day anyway. and there would be plenty of pee breaks with songs i don't like. but it would kill them dead, lol So no. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnRogers Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 One show a week in twenty select cities? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 This will be the second time I've brought up the Grateful Dead in this thread, but anyway...in the last several years that they toured, they used to do runs in the fall and spring of multiple nights at the same venue- six shows at Boston Garden, for example, then maybe four at MSG, maybe three shows in places like Charlotte, four in Atlanta...and on and on. Spending a week or more in one city was de rigeur. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Case Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I don't think that residency tours should be out of the question going forward. The problem lies more in the fans demanding that they play in their backyard and being all bent out of shape when the tour doesn't come their way. With the Dead, the fans never had that expectation....just the opposite...where the band chose to play, the fans would just go, Didn't matter it it was an hour or a week of travel time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaminbenb Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 I don't think the travel part of it is the issue, it's the playing that set of songs two nights in a row is a killer! The Dead played songs that they could take to different levels, play some soft stuff...run one guy off stage for a break, etc... Rush is THREE GUYS playing balls to the wall stuff every song for the most part, and ONE lead singer... I don't think they could do a residency... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Case Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) A residency does not have to be 5 nights on, 1 or 2 off. They can still do the every other day thing, just fewer cities and more time in each. The only real difference is cutting out the actual going from place to place on a schedule. The type of travel one does on a concert tour is extremely strenuous and exhausting...and that's not including motorcycle rides from show to show as opposed to sleeping while the bus driver does his job. Edited March 3, 2015 by Justin Case Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disembodied Spirit Posted March 3, 2015 Share Posted March 3, 2015 For a 5 hour show I require a cot and adult diapers.And a dedicated Beer Getter PersonAnd a place to take a nap during anything from Caress of Steel or New World Man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 And a place to take a nap during anything from Caress of Steel or New World Man No worries about that- I'd love to hear anything (most likely instrumental) from Caress of Steel, but I think anything we get would be very short...and New World Man, that's short, too. I can't imagine them making a big, long jam vehicle out of that one. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John V Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) Whats up with the Grateful Dead? Why are/were they so popular? I don't see anything interesting about them and they sound like a cross between bluegrass and blues?I know a giant fan and he thinks they are the best. I just don't get it. Edited March 4, 2015 by John V 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disembodied Spirit Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Whats up with the Grateful Dead? Why are/were they so popular? I don't see anything interesting about them and they sound like a cross between bluegrass and blues?I know a giant fan and he thinks they are the best. I just don't get it.I think you do not do enough LSD John V to qualify.Neither do I 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Whats up with the Grateful Dead? Why are/were they so popular? I don't see anything interesting about them and they sound like a cross between bluegrass and blues?I know a giant fan and he thinks they are the best. I just don't get it. I used to listen to them much more often than I do now. I still love their music, but I've been absorbed in so many other things, for the past couple of years. Anyway, more to the point of your question- there is bluegrass and there is the blues, to what they did...but there is also straight rock and roll, folk, funk, and just about everything else in between. In my opinion, there isn't anyone else on Earth who has had a tone or a playing style like Jerry Garcia. And that isn't to say that I think he's the best guitarist who ever lived- he had plenty of shows that were just sloppy as anything.  When they began, they were just a band of hippie outlaws. But even in the locale and the scene that spawned them- San Francisco in the mid 1960s- there was no other band who sounded like them, nor evolved like them...and even as they changed musically, through the years, they never lost that image as a band of outlaws- even as they became ridiculously rich, in the late 1980s and into the '90s.  Some people on their tours were there more for the scene that surrounded them, and some were there more for the music. I enjoyed some elements of the scene, but it was always about the music, first and foremost. It's difficult to describe what try sound like; I just call it Grateful Dead music. They are sort of their own genre. They are as distinct (to my ears), but in a much different way, as is Rush. (To my mind, Rush also just makes Rush music- they are equally unique). I don't know how to explain the appeal. Some people get it, and some people don't. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Case Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Whats up with the Grateful Dead? Why are/were they so popular? I don't see anything interesting about them and they sound like a cross between bluegrass and blues?I know a giant fan and he thinks they are the best. I just don't get it.  It's something that has to be experienced and is about way more than just the music. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now