Before I ever applied to graduate school, before I ever thought of attending the University of California, Berkeley, I knew I wanted to see a concert at the Greek Theater. As an ardent fan of the Grateful Dead during my teenage years back in the Midwest, I remember seeing the name of the venue scrawled on the cassette tapes of live concerts that Deadheads used to trade in those days.
The thought of seeing the Dead on their home turf in the Bay Area was exhilarating. In the end, I had to settle for Pittsburgh, but I can’t complain—at least I got to see them live before Jerry Garcia’s untimely death in 1995. It’s true what they say: There’s nothing like a Grateful Dead concert.
Over the course of my graduate career, I saw some great concerts at the Greek Theater, ranging from Jurassic 5 to the White Stripes, from the Pixies to Alison Krauss. Just as Memorial Stadium is one of the best venues in the country to see College Football, the Greek Theater is a beautiful setting for live music on a cool summer evening. Each time I found myself in the seats, even for graduation ceremonies, I wondered what it would have been like to see the Dead play there.
This week, one of the blogs sponsored by SFGate featured a YouTube video of a television interview with members of the Grateful Dead dating to the early 80s. In the short clip is some relatively rare footage of the band playing at the Greek Theater (the interview is pretty hilarious too). They played a lot of great shows there in the 1980s—you can listen to recordings at: http://www.archive.org/details/GratefulDead.
Some highlights from the Greek Theater:
