DSO Forums: Mrs Deviled Egg - Viewing Profile

I didn't even like the Grateful Dead until I saw my first DSO show in Atlanta 2.7.09. I had to bribe security to let me and my friend in because I goofed and got tix for the night before, and the night we were there the show was sold out. So after bribing our way in despite our "altered states" we made it to our friends who were of course holding down a great space right up front, knowing we would find a way in. The music started shortly after and we were thankful we'd made it "just in time!"
I didn't know any of the songs in the first set, I remember thinking "I guess this isn't hoaky country music after all" as I danced my little butt off. I kept looking at all the people around me in the front (who I now know are the most amazing family on EARTH- DSO FAMILY!) I remember dancing so hard that I was sweating more than I ever had at a show, and then every time I thought I couldn't take it anymore, the music would slow down into beautiful swaying melodies and I would cool off and just lose myself in the songs, then just when I had caught my breathe they would speed it up again and I would find myself in the same sweaty predicament, but knew that the band would do exactly what I needed them to do... and of course they did. By set break I was breathless and beyond myself with excitement... there was much, much more to this music than what I had always thought. I had spun conversation with the strangers around me, struck by this incredible sense that these people were not "strangers" at all, but long lost family and friends.
When second set started, I was really starting to get into the music, and I started getting this really crazy nostalgic feeling like I was listening to things that millions had heard before, but at the same time was brand new and happening for the first time RIGHT NOW. When they started playing Dancin' in the Streets, I remember thinking "I KNOW this song! The Grateful Dead played this song? WHAT?!" It was so groovy and I danced so hard, then as they took it down and did that sweet quiet harmonic part in the middle, at about the point where Lisa started cooing softly beneath the music which was so soft it was barely there, I SUDDENLY GOT IT! As she cooed like a freakin' angel, I realized what it was about the Grateful Dead (and LIFE) that was so epically magical... they could take a sound and make it a big blooming flower of a song, and then stretch it out in every rainbow colored direction, then just as quickly pull it back in and wither it away back into the earth, only to burst with blooms again at just the right moment. The music represented life and death in all its glorious joy and heartbreaking sadness, and as John's fingers moved across his guitar so fast they were a blur and I looked around at the musicians on stage, I realized that they were not so much "playing the music" the MUSIC was playing THEM and they were letting it flow through them, carrying on a legacy of love and song that my generation (at least I) would have missed out on if they weren't up there doing what they do best.
By the time the next song started, ALLIGATOR!, I could SEE an alligator crawling around among the crowd on the floor, because the sounds the band was making had simply taken me to that place where they were shamanistically CREATING the images they were playing and singing through the music.
By Uncle John's Band (a song that had been kind of a lullaby for me as a kid because my older brothers both loved the Grateful Dead when I was young) I was a Deadhead. Though I still knew nothing about the Grateful Dead, I was ready to learn and listen every day for the rest of my life.
I went to see DSO in Asheville a few nights later, and met the Deviled Egg (which is really how I knew him then, too, because he'd been at my first festival in 2008 wearing that ridiculous costume for the first time.) Although we instantly had some connection, we weren't able to recognize it in each other or act on it until September 2009 when we finally re-met. He had spent the end of the summer of 09 on DSO mid-west tour, and was a completely obsessed Deadhead. I had seen the Dead on Easter Sunday and 4th of July (though now I wish I'd KNOWN about GratefulFest!) and though I didn't know much about the Grateful Dead or DSO yet, just that I LOVED IT, we struck up deep conversations that weekend (like hearing he'd dumped some girl because she didn't like "Looks Like Rain"-not the whole story, but hearing that got me interested! haha) and the conversation continued after our reunion festival, and we've been inseparable ever since.
Without DSO, I would not have found the best music in the world, nor would I have found true love. We were heartbroken when John left the band, for those of us who never got to see Jerry, the way he played with DSO just meant the whole world to us because watching him with the band we could SEE how our favorite music we listen to all day everyday was actually created night after night. But, we made it back to DSO with Jeff, who makes it so much fun, and we've gotten to see Furthur, and now we realize that we get to have 2 favorite bands that play the music that is our life.
Now, we have started our own business called "Uncle Jon's Stand" (the Deviled Egg IS an Uncle and his real name is Jon lol) and plan to live on the road for as long as we possibly can, which should be a long time, indeed.
Because of DSO, not only did I find the music and man of my dreams, but I have become connected to a family of people that have more love in their hearts than pretty much any other family in the scene today, and finding them means I have found my little place in the world and can proudly say I am not just a fan of the Dead, I am a Deadhead.
I LOVE YOU GUYS! SEE YOU AT THE NEXT SHOW!