Now I must admit I initially wasn't excited about going to this show, and I have to thank my cousin Jimmy for both convincing me it'd be good and getting myself and Paula great seats. I think part of me had feared that any post-Jerry touring would be more likely to resemble the New Main Street Singers from the film"A Mighty Wind" than it would the Grateful Dead, but I'm pleased (and very surprised) to report that they are probably better then they sounded in the 18 months leading up to Garcia's passing. In retrospect this makes sense, but it's a testament to these guys that they still have the energy and passion to play as well as they still do.

The"scene" or circus looks remarkably similar to the one I left in 1994, although one of my favorite characters in Dead parking lots, a fellow named Norm who would do a sort of hippie rap performance he'd call"deviations" for a small fee, was nowhere to be found. He probably left the road somewhere in the middle of the dot-com boom and is now the head of Cisco or Intel right now.

There's even a healthy dose of intelligent thinking about markets and intellectual property rights on this tour. It's now possible to buy sound board CD's of each show on the tour (eventually through MP3 download) directly from the band. Fans can also get copies of shows using the traditional method of trading recordings of tapers. For a bunch of old geezers, the Dead continue to think well ahead of their times when it comes to business and fairness.

So for anyone who's felt a small part of their lives missing since 1995 I'd urge you to check out the Dead if they are touring near you this summer. The long strange trip continues.......