Grateful Dead Talmudists, I have FAILED you. There are people (and I know at least one of them) who can tell you not only where the Dead played at any point or place in their career, but can tell you which songs they played. My own Deadshow memories are not that clear or comprehensive but if I had risked my life by pulling my journal books for 1991 off the upper closet shelf, I could have supplied CORRECT information for you. The lack of information made me do it. I pulled 1991 down and found out that the first Deadshow that I lavishly illustrated was held in a DC-area sports arena called the "Capital Centre," in Landover, Maryland. The moist weather and the playing of "Dark Star" also was at the Capital Centre, but the concert was in June, not March. I found more "Cap Centre" sketches from that June concert too and here are some of them.
The dancing girl at upper center is holding her index finger up - not in a rude gesture nor as a statement of supremacy ("We're Number One!") but to say that this fan is asking for tickets to the show, either legal or illegal. There was a tradition among Deadheads that some generous souls would buy extra tickets not to sell but to give away to worthy souls at the parking lot scene. Of course there were always scalpers as well but were their tickets legitimate? The Dead had a humorous song called "I Need a Miracle," and ticketless fans sought the grace of the ticket-givers, going to the arena just in case they could get a free one. They held their finger up to say, "I need one ticket!" Other fans would hold signs asking for tickets, with "I Need a Miracle" written on them. I don't think the Dead worried too much about this practice but it was technically wrong.
The Cap Centre was decommissioned in the later 1990s and a re-built version was demolished in 2002. By then I had moved on to other things, with only fond memories and a lot of dusty cassette tapes.
Black tech pen on sketchbook pages, 7 1/2" x 9", June 14, 1991.
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