11/6/2003 Setlist, Photos, and Reviews

We scored padded comfortable chairs behind the mixing board, 30 feet from the stage. Good Beer! Security was tight at the show; nobody was allowed to smoke. People around me had their things taken away. I don't care because I don't anyway! When I went to the bathroom, two security gurillas were leaving the bathroom with a bag of something confiscated. I went into the bathroom with the 10 people who were already in there, and some guy said I was a cop becuse of my long hair & workshoes. It's hard to pee when 8 people are yelling at you, "YOU'RE A COP, YOU'RE A COP" over and over again! Too weird! At the end of the show, one of the band members told the crowd during the BOW to "go out of the building and smoke ----." Bobby Weir was not real happy with that comment.
Music-wise they got the crowd going with a lot of old DEAD tunes before going to the less familiar jams. It looked like Bob Weir was playing more lead than I've seen before. Vocals were strong, and the sound mix was good.

The whole band sounded great, especially bobby. Great Blackbird, keys/sax/drums, Truckin, and B.E. Women, and everyone in the place sang along to Brokedown Place. Great show; I'm buyin it.

Seeing no reviews on Detroit yet... here goes. We already knew what a great venue the State is so we got in line early and got great seats--real chairs with waitresses serving drinks and close to the main bar. A nice intimate setting with a friendly crowd. As Bob Seger said, Detroit audiences are the greatest rock-n-roll audiences in the world! Jam>Truckin' was a great way to start a show and brought good memories of a Truckin' played in Detroit way back during Summer tour '94. Brown-Eyed Women seemed kind of sloppy and made me miss Jerry and his versions of this tune, one of my favorite Dead tunes. Rooster featured some nice, bluesy guitar work. I thought the show really caught fire during Bird Song. Looks like only the second Bird Song of the tour. Great sax work on this and throughout the show. Ditto for keyboards. A huge version led into the first Watchtower of the tour. Rockstar Bob! Odessa was great as usual. "I used to love her but it's all over now" and "2 Djinn" rocked the set to a close. Somewhere in there was an Other One tease? A good set but the best was yet to come.
     Blackbird is one of my favorite Ratdog tunes. I was a little annoyed by people talking during this one, and it seemed to me that the acoustic tunes would have worked better in the middle of a set. A minor complaint. FOTD had me missing Jerry again but was well done. From here on, the show just raged. Everything sounded great especially when the band went back into Bird Song after the drums/keys/sax Jam. St.Stephen> the 11 >China > Rider!! WHEW! What a ride! The Brokedown encore was a welcome slowdown becuase the crowd was about danced out. I know I was. After the show we walked around Comerica Park and Ford Field. Maybe someday some real sports teams will actually play there???!

What a fabulous show this was. Bobby was smoking, the band was very together, very impressive. The music, everything felt like the good old Grateful Dead. It was a magical night. They were so good! I took a friend with me who had never been to a Dead Show. He absolutely loved it. He asked me to please tell him when they're coming back.