Warfield Theater
San Francisco, CA
Despite long odds, I decided to leave Sacramento and try to scalp a ticket out in front of the Warfield Theater. I walked around in the rain for several hours with no luck — simply no tickets… this was now the norm for Jerry Garcia Band and Grateful Dead shows: no tickets, nowhere, no-how.
15 minutes before show, a staff member walks out and announces 25 general admission tickets are available, and begins pointing at people in crowd (Studio 54 style in 1970’s NYC) to step forward using a bullhorn.
Standing toward the back of the scrum, desperate, I was a wet fan wearing a Houston Astros hat with big orange star. Inexplicably, he points at me: “Yo, Starman — yeah, you in the hat”… I couldn’t believe it.
Out of hundreds still milling around in the rain, I got a ticket, and walked right on to the floor 20 feet in front of Garcia. That was my lucky day, and the show was excellent.