I got my first Dead T shirt on my 8th Grade trip to Washington DC. There was a little headshop in The Old Post Office. It is quite the lively shirt TieDyed with the Bears. I wore that thing a ton into college (actually surprised it held up). Still have it just a little slim and short now.
I have to wear a size large tall T-shirt now if I want to keep my gun covered with ease or I am constantly tugging the tail to keep it down.
So pretty much all I wear is a solid color T shirt as those are easy to find in my size graphic/logo t shirts are few and far between.
Well a couple months back I found the quintessential Dead logo Large tall t shirt.

I don’t remember people stopping me to talk about the Dead in my old shirt. But I get multiple people a day telling me nice shirt and so forth. It’s crazy people will yell at me across the parking lot. I went to the grocery yesterday and the fella working at the Deli counter talked my ear off about his travels to Dead shows.
Of course Jerry died when I was 12 so never got to see them in concert.
So if you need someone to talk to just throw on a Grateful Dead shirt and head to the mall, grocery, or any other heavily populated place and plenty of folk will strike up a conversation.

I have a drawer full of them from the 80s/90s. Saw them 100 times. Great memories and great music.

I've got one.

I saw the Dead about a half dozen times in the early 90s, it was always a good time!

I always bought a bunch of extra tickets for the shows I went to and would always trade stuff for them. I never traded for drugs, it was always for stuff. I was amazed at the creativity of some of the things I traded for! My favorite was a hand knit beer bottle cozy that you could wear around your neck. The parking lot was half the fun of going to a show!

I still have some bootleg shirts that I traded tickets for, even though they dont fit me 'round the middle now!

What a long, strange trip its been!

Sometimes the lights just shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
Sing it Yooper

I'm over 100 shows myself

I got to see them with Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Bruce Hornsby played keyboards for them that night. It was an awesome show.

I think Jerry explained it the best, the band was like "black licorice, there are people who don't like it, but the people that do, REALLY like it". It's a small number and dwindling number who like them and still look for like minded heads.

I only saw them a half dozen times, but I was trading tapes since high school.

As I grew up, I had a hard time reconciling the "scene" with my different lifestyle. But now I don't think they really are a "hippie" band. The hippies kind of adopted them and defined them, but the band wasn't hippie at its core singing about hippie ideals. Listen to "Jack Straw", "Me & My Uncle", "Deal".....etc. These aren't hippie ideals. It's really Americana, of which liberals today despise. Even "Franklin's tower" is about the Liberty bell, "might have one good ring, you can never tell"

Saw them once, that was a crappy weekend. Not a big fan of them to begin with (sorry guys, just not my type of music). Girlfriend at the time drug (not literally) me to see them at RFK. Ended up parking in a tow zone that wasn't labeled at my girlfriend's insistence. She ended up making out with some other guy at the show, car got towed. Ended up having to take a cab to some tow yard in SE DC. Dude had a nice mac 10 sitting on the table as I paid him in cash of course to get my car back. Later that weekend ended up getting a speeding ticket taking my girlfriend to a church recital and later that night ended up in the hospital with a gallbladder infection.

So I really don't have fond memories of the Dead that's for sure.

Ahh college days.

Chris

In the early 90's I spent a summer living with a buddy in his tiny beachfront condo on Venice Beach. Scored a couple of tickets to a Dead show in San Francisco. Drove up, got wrapped up in the goings on outside, never made it inside but could hear the music outside. Saw a UFO driving back to LA along I-5, good times

Come hear uncle John's band playing to the tide,

Come on along, or go alone, he's come to take his children home.

the music is, fine. some of the fans though, they're really too much.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
I have a drawer full of them from the 80s/90s. Saw them 100 times. Great memories and great music.

I worked with two guys that were both Dead Heads (or is it all one word?), who were both in that same neighborhood of concerts. One of them had miles of reel-to-reel tape of concerts. I feel pretty safe in saying there is no other band in the history of music that had that kind of following and that kind of loyalty. The whole thing escaped me, but I think I understand. Just recently I listened to both sides of American Beauty. I still think it’s not only their best, but one of the best albums-period.

It's always fun to have a common interest with others.

Isn't that why we're all here?

There's a shit ton of stories and urban legends around this scene which always makes for colorful conversation.

You're either on the bus or you're not.

Cheers~

Did not expect to see any Dead Heads in this forum. First saw them free in Golden Gate Park in the 1960's. No idea how many times I saw them over the years. A lot. No two shows were ever the same and they weren’t interested in being in the top 10 in the country. They were more interested in playing music. If Garcia was still alive, they would probably still be selling out stadiums all over the world.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
I have a drawer full of them from the 80s/90s. Saw them 100 times. Great memories and great music.

I worked with two guys that were both Dead Heads (or is it all one word?), who were both in that same neighborhood of concerts. One of them had miles of reel-to-reel tape of concerts. I feel pretty safe in saying there is no other band in the history of music that had that kind of following and that kind of loyalty. The whole thing escaped me, but I think I understand. Just recently I listened to both sides of American Beauty. I still think it’s not only their best, but one of the best albums-period.

Oh yeah, that is one of my favorites for sure. Very approachable for most folks. Lots of country overtones and amazing recording quality.

Does the shirt pair well with a MAGA hat and do the conversations change much when you wear both?

I am sure a lot of people have a Grateful Dead story and like to tell them! They were almost unknown to me in the 80s when I was growing up, the band stayed away from Texas. Then I moved to Colorado and heard about them, but I was not really a fan of the music. In the summer of '93 a friend asked me to fly to Chicago with him to pick up a car and drive back to Texas with him. We went to Wrigley Field in the afternoon to see the Cubs, and Soldier and Field that night to see the Dead. One of the most memorable, fun days of my life.

Oh, I have a couple. Well worn. But I know what you're talking about. I am always amazed how people will comment on that shirt.