DeadCo In Hartford, 2022

Originally, we had thought we weren't going to go through the hassle again if Dead & Company played Hartford this Summer.  The parking fuckup from last year was agonizing and it's a long way to drive back on busy interstates with crazy Connecticut drivers late at night.  But ... every time they've played there has been fantastic and we thought maybe we could spring for a hotel, get there early to avoid traffic, and have a nice retreat after the concert.  Well, it was a good try.

So we got tickets to DeadCo at the huge amphitheater just outside of downtown Hartford on July 5 and the first part of our plan was executed as well as possible.  Dave (see earlier post) is still out with COVID so it was just Sarah and me, driving down through thick but fast-moving traffic in the middle of the afternoon through some off-and-on rain.  Yes, that's right.  The traffic was thick with trucks and on the verge of clogging up several times on a mid-Summer Tuesday afternoon!?!  But we made it to exit 50 in Hartford without getting smushed and luckily we were just in front of the crowd when we got into town, drove by the venue, and then got to our nearby hotel just before 3:00.

But that part of the plan had some flaws.  We hadn't wanted to pay multiple hundreds of dollars for a room we were just going to sleep in, but we should have!  We and then carloads of other Deadicated types arrived at the Super 8 by Wyndham Hartford on West Service Road and checked in, only to find that we'd landed in some sort of prison.  Perhaps we'd broken some obscure Connecticut laws and had to spend a night in a cell?  Our "room" had two spongy double beds which hadn't been made right and were kind of covered by spreads with cigarette holes in them.  The window was too damaged to shut completely and the air conditioner worked a bit but sounded like an air raid.  The smoke detector had been ripped out of the ceiling and thrown into a drawer, where we found it along with other trash when we checked out the bureau.  The TV had been violently broken off its base.  The fire doors at the end of the hall were propped open.  The sink had multiple cigarette burns and I was too frightened to try the shower.  Every wall had cracks in it, the floor was tile, should I go on?  Oh yeah, and they had no complimentary coffee and had cancelled the free breakfast they advertised.  DO NOT STAY THERE!!!!!  As mentioned in some online comments, they have graffiti on the walls *inside* the building, that's how bad it is.

Oh well, we chilled in the room for a bit as well as we could and then left.  The plan was to walk into the downtown area and find a nice restaurant where we could have a long late lunch/early dinner and then get back to the amphitheater at some point.  This plan worked pretty well!  It was a 1.4 mile walk into town, and we were very glad we'd arrived at 3:00 because even by 4:00 the traffic was already pretty bad, lined up almost all along our route to get into the free lots.  We proceeded past the Yard Goats' ball park and by the (closed on Tuesdays) City Steam Brewery that we'd loved back in 2017, and then over to Pratt Street, which is part of a pedestrian mall in the middle of Hartford, and to Vaughan's Public House.

They had outdoor seating and a hamburger/hot dog grill going outside, but no service out there, and so we sat at a table in their window area.  This was a fine Irish pub meal, accompanied by some Irish ciders and Vermont beers.  The guy at the waiter's station told us that they hadn't even planned to open that day because they couldn't get staff, but realized there was a concert going on and they'd better.  The inside tables were almost full when we got there, and it just got worse.  But us sitting up front in the window enabled the maitre d' to wait on us himself, and things went just about right for us there.  They were playing GD and DeadCo music, mixed with a few other tunes.  Everybody there was a Deadhead (one was sound asleep in the patio area and apparently had a nice nap), and the guys at the next table were mortified that they had missed StS > The Eleven the other night and hoped that this show would make up for it.  We smiled.

Left there and joined the tendrils of people dressed for a Dead concert as they gathered from all directions and converged on the Xfinity Theatre.  We detoured to the extensive Shakedown Street they always have at Hartford and were on the verge of buying a few things, including some excellent hats, but we didn't.  The rain had gotten steadier by then and we finally joined the long line to get in the main entrance when the gates opened at 6:30.  I asked a hassled security guy why Gate C wasn't open as well and he said it was because they didn't have enough staff, so I just told him to keep up the good work.

So they let us *in* but didn't yet have the seating or lawn areas open, and we just had to mill about the concourse while the rain intensified.  We were able to grab seats in the sheltered Xfinity tent though, and coincidentally a work friend of Sarah's was sitting at the same table, so we had some fine conversation.  Both Sarah and I spun the Xfinity wheel at a promotion they had set up and she won a koozie and I won a freezer bag, score!

OK, enough setup and we finally settled into our seats in section 600, dead center and about a dozen rows in back of the soundboard.  It had been a long, adventurous afternoon and we shivered at the thought of going back to the "hotel" (could we just drive back after the concert??).  But we knew we had great seats and were in for some great sound, which turned out to be putting it mildly.  This was an incredible concert!  Here's the first set:

• The Music Never Stopped
• Liberty
• They Love Each Other
• Loser
• Alabama Getaway
• Iko Iko
• High Time
• Cassidy

Boy, did they get after it right from the start!  Music was rocking and Bobby and John were singing like angels, and then they did the first Liberty of the tour, a relatively obscure gem that I really like.  One of the great things about the sound in the center of that huge amphitheater was the bottom end.  I've mentioned Oteil's new bass and this was as good as I've ever heard it.  I texted Dave that Oteil was just eating up TLEO, that's the best description of the way he dominated that gentle song with his elastic, bouncing sound.  I was loving it.

And they'd just started!  Loser was all about building up to and then everyone singing the chorus, and then Alabama Getaway was another feel good rocker.  The whole place was grooving to Iko Iko and then they started into High Time and Oteil stepped up to the mike.  As good as everyone else was (again, Lane and no Kreutzmann), this was Oteil's night to shine and he out-did himself over and over.  Then they closed with another explosive song, Cassidy, building and building up to the last coda.  Dave called it the best Cassidy ever.

What a set!  I texted Dave "OMGOMG" because I couldn't think what to say at first.  I'd called Hell In a Bucket (which they always do in Hartford) and I whiffed on that one.  But that was fine with me!  The wind was building through the whole show from the Northeast and did a fine job of drying things out after the downpour, but it never affected the sound.  The lawn was not quite full ... in fact, you could have had a croquet game up in the far corner (the grass was in great shape).  But the rest of the theater was pretty packed and so my strategy was to head uphill to the cluster of port-a-potties up there.  Sarah had gone for the inside bathrooms earlier and then gave up on getting back to our seats before the end of the set, there were so many people dancing in the aisles.  I guess the security staff was really short, there were just a few people checking tickets and no one was clearing the aisles.  I looked for good beer after the bathroom break but they didn't have any up on the edges of the huge lawn area, and I figured I might not make it out to the concourse and back in time.

Whatever, back to the seats without a beer but had plenty of water (one of their water filling stations was not working but the other one was) and I was sure they'd open the second set with the Scarlet > Fire of death, and that later they *should* be giving us a big TOO.  And I was pretty much right!  Here's the list:

• Jack Straw
• Scarlet Begonias
• Viola Lee Blues
• Fire on the Mountain
• The Other One
• Drums
• Space
• The Wheel
• The Other One
• Black Peter
• Sugar Magnolia

The first notes of the jam into Jack Straw were distinctive and let me down a bit because I'd anticipated Scarlet, until they started singing again about leaving Texas on the 4th of July ... it was the 5th but what the heck, why would anyone want to stay in Texas anyway?  And then they tried to hide it in the tuning, but I told Sarah they were about to play Scarlet, and it was an incredible version.  Viola Lee split up the pairing with Fire and I was afraid they weren't going to let Oteil sing again.  But Viola Lee built to its climax and then boom, Oteil was playing that bass line and warming up the vocal chords.  It was his day!

And then he kept it going into the Other One of death.  This song can take so many shapes and on Tuesday it was long and loud, but spacy and went way off the reservation at the same time.  I was ecstatic, especially when I figured they'd break for Drums and Space and then get back into it, maybe after a ballad.  Well, that's what they did!  Bob teased us over and over that he was about to sing the second verse, then they'd go another round, and another, and another until finally we were escaping through the lily fields (maybe leaving Texas but probably figurative you know).

Dave called the next one, because Bobby always sings Black Peter for me.  He didn't really go over the top on this one, luckily.  IMO, it requires some gravitas and Bobby brought it this time, continuing his great singing.  I was surprised to see, after he'd seemed to settle on his green and brown guitars in Foxborough, that he was back to the one with the white pickguard, and he stayed on it all of the second set.  Whatever, he often knows what he's doing and it was just the right sound to add to the mix.  And then another vintage song in Sugar Magnolia, with the whole crowd joining in, especially the Sunshine Daydream coda!

Wow that was great and I was just about to resume texting while they took an encore break.  But they didn't, they put their arms around at center stage and took a group bow, what a fantastic concert!  I looked at my phone and realized it was already a few minutes after midnight.  They'd just given us four hours of extreme brilliance.

Sat back in our seats at that point, while the large crowd jammed the exits.  Waved goodbye to a few seatmates whom we'd been talking with, there was not a frown in the house.  Eventually grabbed our stuff and shuffled after the crowds, then past lines of vehicle traffic back over to Weston Street and soon the Super 8 (which is right next to Erotic Zone!).  Had some crackers and cheese and then lay down for a fitful few hours of trying not to worry about the missing smoke alarms and the unlocked doors downstairs.  DO NOT stay in this hotel!

Oh well, got up at 5:30 or so, gathered our stuff, and took off in time to join rush-hour traffic on the Mass Pike.  Goodbye to Hartford and Connecticut, hate to see you go!  Again, what a hassle to get there and back (and stay there) but wow, what excellent music the band plays in that town.  Maybe next year at a better hotel??