Reds to host 'Grateful Dead Night,' honoring band's 50th anniversary
Grateful Dead concerts are like baseball games: no two are ever alike. The plays are always different, and there's always fresh hope. Sometimes the game's an all-timer even though individual performances are sloppy; sometimes everybody plays great but the team loses anyway. -- David Gans, from his book The Official Book of the Deadheads
Sure, NBA legend Bill Walton might be the most recognizable Deadhead of them all, but the Grateful Dead, America's most legendary touring band of all-time, was always most compared to the great game of baseball for even more reasons than listed above.
The band used to typically park its traveling tent in cities for three nights at a time, a three-game series if you will, with its diehard fans, just like baseball's, keeping score of every song, hit and error.
The Dead's original four members finished up a three-night run in Chicago over the July 4 weekend to celebrate the band's 50th anniversary, and now the Cincinnati Reds are doing their part to make sure the music never stops with Grateful Dead Night at Great American Ball Park on Sept. 4.
Friday, 9/4 take home our Reds-themed Dancing Bears, available only thru this special offer: http://t.co/fj2nLKEAkb pic.twitter.com/PP6xrSnOvW
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) August 5, 2015
The Reds have created a special ticket package that includes an exclusive Reds-themed Dancing Bears item. The postgame fireworks show will feature a soundtrack of songs from the newly released CD, "The Best of the Grateful Dead" celebrating the band's 50th anniversary.
Hailing from San Francisco, the Dead are noted Giants fans and have often answered the call to sing the national anthem at AT&T Park and old Candlestick Park before that.
The Grateful Dead played many legendary shows in the Queen City over the decades and as far as the Reds honoring the boys, well the Grateful Dead's late, great guitarist and soulful vocalist Jerry Garcia will almost certainly be smiling down while singing, "I'd rather be with you!"
