people-watch - if not for the fact that I then proceeded to go inside the venue, where the pickings were equally plump. This would have been the best opportunity to soak up the vibe of fans at the event - i.e. There, hundreds of fans wearing tie-dyed shirts and reeking of a particular green herb milled around the famous (infamous?) “Shakedown Street,” an almost-overwhelming collection of rows and rows of vendors that springs up outside every Dead & Company concert - and that is at once endearing and disturbing.Īlong with the Middle-Eastern food stand selling “Philafel With Hummus” and the T-shirt tent hawking ones screen-printed with “Jerry Loves You” are seedier folks: roving salesman offering “gummy bears” of unknown origin random dudes with card tables, handles of well vodka, and pieces of paper with “$5” scribbled on them and eerily cheerful strangers, at every turn, looking from their outfits like they stepped out of a time machine that just arrived from 1970 and holding up one finger, in the hopes that someone would shove a ticket to the show into the hand that finger belonged to.

Best grateful dead space