Cooler Heads Prevail

“HANG IT UP AND SEE WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS” – Truckin‘, Grateful Dead

7.25.25

It’s best to travel light when going on a trip to chase live music. There’s no need to have a large variety of things to wear when your sole purpose for traveling is to boogie in a field of grass that will surely become mud by the week’s end, and the notion that anyone is really clocking your outfit as they walk by in their pig pen clothes is rich. Bringing less also lowers the stress of your trip, as less on your person is less to worry about and I’m all about not worrying when I’m searching for the sound, hopping on the train, or truckin’ to new orleans-ing in a city other than my own. 

On my 7-day trip to San Francisco I will be bringing the following (I can do laundry):

– 1 small weekender bag

– 1 camouflage backpack from Walmart to fit in weekender for Lot Treasures (sure to be many t-shirts, pins, stickers, and who knows what else)

– 1 pair of Levi’s

– 1 pair of vintage military chinos

– 1 pair of Vans (to be cooked)

– 1 vintage military deck jacket

– 1 rain jacket

– 1 pair of sunglasses

– 1 notebook

– 1 thermal

– 1 juul

– 1 pack of juul pods

– 1 toothbrush

– 1 tube of toothpaste

– 1 razor

– 1 iPhone

– 1 polo

– 1 short sleeve chambray

– 1 bucket hat

– 1 lucky belt that used to be my dad’s

– 2 packs of Zig Zag rolling papers

– 3 lighters

– 3 pens

– 3 t-shirts

– 4 large yellow envelopes (folded)

– 5 packs of Camel Blue cigarettes

– 5 pairs of underwear

– 5 pairs of socks

– 60 free zines for Heads (these take up very little space)

The key of traveling to see music is to be as transient and low maintenance as possible, embracing the chaos, keeping it simple, and following the bliss that comes your way while not getting riled up if stuff runs amok. Something bad will happen, but you must be stronger than that. Cooler heads prevail and hopefully make it to the next show. Other people go to jail or die or quit riding on the bus, so I am told. 

I also have a rule that I do not travel through security checkpoints knowingly with drugs. When you are going somewhere that is effectively a Temporary Autonomous Zone¹, or somewhere the police leave the public alone while they manage their own debauchery with a social construct teetering on hard street-governance, there’s really no need to risk the entry-level TSA schmuck or Border Patrol guy catching my weed or mushrooms on the x-ray or with his sniffer dogs when I can walk up to damn near anybody and get some of the good stuff before I snap my fingers…. and there’s always a chance it’s free or up to trade.

***

My next show is August 1st for GD 60, the 3-day blast in Golden Gate Park with Dead and Company headlining and Billy Strings, Sturgill Simpson, and Trey Anastasio kicking off the festivities each day. It’s a much talked about event as it’s certainly a money grab and price gouging bonanza considering the Grateful Dead played the Polo Field free of charge to the public at the Human Be-In in 1967 as a demonstration and protest of the Vietnam War. A 3-day pass goes for $645 face value, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t consider looking at anything more expensive than that due to general admission already being well above my pay grade.

I was able to secure tickets this morning, though, on a payment plan with a former lover who I will be seeing in SF as we are now just friends and keep in touch to see if we may cross paths at a show or in the city. I agreed to send her 300 bucks and will send her another $150 over the following 2 paychecks from work to get even. It’s a pretty penny to see these fucking songs I love loud and outdoors, but I know it’ll be worth it and the stress of looking for a Miracle could certainly detract from my ability to survey the land. I need to be focused and in the right mindset. I need to be able to party seamlessly. I also have a question to answer.

***

It’s been since the mid-2000s that I’ve been to San Francisco, and I really don’t know what to expect beyond massive urban hillscapes, being told to avoid the Tenderloin, “hit the Presidio if you got time”, trees I will try to wrap my arms around but will inevitably fail, and the patchy waft of patchouli, marijuana, and cigarettes everywhere as the town will be overflowing with an army of freaks that gets together less and less these days. It’s bound to be a hoot, and I am ready to holler, talk, drink, smoke, and dance with the best of them in the place they call home.

***

I’m not in the business of predicting what will happen at shows, despite predicting who the openers would be when a little bird told me they would be doing shows in August this year for GD60. I like to be in the know before prescribing any sort of flimsy proclamation, and in the case of shows I prefer to hope for songs and jump around when listing bands’ catalogs like a kid naming off ice cream flavors he can’t wait to sample. I’d be hard pressed to say I can tell you what they’re gonna play before I hear a chord, and anyone who says they can is lying and cannot be trusted — but here are my thoughts on the openers:

– Sturgill Simpson will not play any Grateful Dead-related music but will cover Prince, which will be sick.

– Billy will be the best opener of the 3.

– Fuck Phish. I do not like this band and we will get into that later. Trey is a fantastic musician and surely will put on a great show.

Of the three openers Sturgill is probably my favorite, but I do believe all 3 acts are key in the continuation of this culture. They are the anointed ones with the songs that have the most heart and soul (besides Phish) and are still chugging along strong with what I believe to be a lot of exciting track to cover. I would follow all three of them on tour if I was able, as I think they are the best way to get a look into where Heads and Hippies will go when the last remaining members of the Grateful Dead have kicked the bucket. Bobby is going to die, as will everyone else who’s still alive (Billy and Mickey), and while that feels almost unreal to think about there will be new songs that carry this scene forward. It will without a doubt be different, but it’s also an opportunity to add to the pages of the Great American Songbook and lineage of performers with new perspectives and sounds and followers that go far beyond the Grateful Dead and their immediate ecosystem. We wouldn’t have Railroad of Sin or Slow Train without Casey Jones, and if we want to continue this side of Americana that has bridged many a gap, we sure as shit need people like Billy and Sturgill to keep writing and playing songs.

As long as there are Americans, there will be Hippies. The two things are now bound for eternity. It started 60 years ago, it continues in a strange form today, and will continue in a strange form tomorrow. It’s our nation’s nature — to tolerate and supply the freakishness after cultural movements clashed with government mind control experiments augmented by brain altering drugs to create a whole new form of anti-capitalism capitalism and an anti-ideological wave-making base that as we have now learned is really fucking influential.

I have started this project to see just how influential, and if the hippie dream is a scam or a reality, which feels like the ultimate American question. Is this but a smokescreen, or will I find substance in the land of joyful abuse?

1. Rose McManus put me onto this term, and she references “TAZ” for short, which comes from 90’s short hand.  ↩︎