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The Other Ones in concert The Other Ones play the MCI Center in Washington tonight at 7. Tickets cost $48.50 at Ticketmaster.com |
The Grateful Dead, or what remains of the Grateful Dead, was in town to play.
Star had driven 20 hours to see his fellow hippies at the Thursday night kickoff show of The Other Ones tour, the latest incarnation of the Grateful Dead sans Jerry Garcia.
Officials refused to allow fans into the parking lot at the Roanoke Civic Center until 4 p.m. to minimize the rowdiness and illegal activities that followed Garcia and crew when they last appeared in Roanoke in 1987. But when 4 p.m. came, the lot filled fast.
By 4:07 p.m., police made their first arrest, although they wouldn’t say what for, and vendors were hawking tie-dyed shirts, glass pipes, posters and veggie burritos. Civic Center officials had said earlier that vendors would not be allowed in the area.
Police also had warned fans that drug use of any kind would not be tolerated, but the smell of marijuana was evident despite the presence of mounted police patrolling the crowd, undercover and uniformed officers. Many fans also were drinking beer.
Police said about 30 people were arrested, mostly on drug or alcohol charges.
The concert, which became an 11–000-seat sellout late, started at 7 p.m., and the crowd quickly went into its standard formation, swaying with the music.
The band opened with perennial favorite “Saint Stephen,” and the crowd kept moving to other Dead favorites like “I Know You Rider” and “China Cat Sunflower.”
Earlier in the day, Deadheads, their children and others _ many of whom weren’t even born when the band started playing together in the 1960s _ were all over the city at coffee shops, restaurants and motels, looking for their like-minded brethren.
Shusen Shibata, of Toyko, rolled into town Wednesday night to catch “the scene” that is one of his favorite aspects of American culture. When he was turned away from the parking lot, he found refuge underneath a nearby juniper tree for the night.
Shibata has seen The Other Ones play in California and hopes to catch a few of the shows as the band snakes up the East Coast. “There are so many markets, so many people,” Shibata said of the usual parking lot scene. “A lot of kind people.”
The band hardly resembles the gang that first entranced a generation 40 years ago. Band founder and lead singer Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack in 1995, when the band last toured, and Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart are all over 55 now. Each also has his own band and they’ve moved in different artistic directions.
The decision to tour together came gradually, band members say, as each began to play the old tunes. One by one, they realized how much the music had adhered to their souls. They got back in shape to play together in sessions at the Dead’s California studios for three weeks, singing around a piano at first to remember everyone’s part.
Jimmy Herring, a journeyman who’s sat in with the Allman Brothers and Jazz is Dead, also was brought in and given the daunting task of handling Garcia’s guitar part.
Thursday night’s show was to be the first in a 14-city tour. Band members said they will shuffle about 130 songs during the tour, including a number of Dead standards.
They’ve also pulled out several songs from the early 1970s, such as “Till the Morning Comes,” that have never been played live, as well as songs from their own bands.
Many said this time around, people are going to be more respectful of “the scene,” which included riots and deaths at concerts when the band last toured in 1995.
“When I went to my last show it was a zoo,” said Steve Smith, who came from Alaska to see the kickoff show. “As long as everybody has a good time, it’ll be all right.
“I’m just excited to see some rock ’n’ roll.”