Tunesday: The Dead, Box of Rain

Another rain post–AND a Tunesday post–one of my favorite songs.  Anyone who ever had the pleasure of attending a outdoor Grateful Dead show in the rain knows what very special luck that is. Some bands run for cover, but the Dead just kicked it up a notch and dove into a “rain set.”

The last Grateful Dead show I ever saw, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, was twenty years ago today–June 30, 1995.  I went with Brian & Donna, my sister, and my mom–yep, my mom, whose eccentricities have been discussed elsewhere in this blog. Local heroes Rusted Root opened, and nearly shook the place apart, then the Dead hit the stage like a cool summer breeze.  About halfway into the evening the skies opened–it was a rain show, and it was amazing, beautiful, and tight–a rarity on that tour, from what I understand.  Maybe it was the rain?  Maybe it was the roses?

A mere forty days (and forty nights) later, on August 9,  Jerry Garcia was dead.

The last Grateful Dead show I ever saw, a mere forty days (and nights) before Jerry Garcia died was a rain show, amazing, and beautiful.  How lucky was that?