GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERT CITI FIELD FULL
GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERT CITI FIELD FREE

Similar versions of that explanation have been repeated here, here, here, and here. “The Grateful Dead offered to sponsor the team if they played in tie-dyed uniforms.” But the most common folklore is fairly straightforward, as summarized in this misleading tweet from a verified account: You’ll hear a few versions of the story if you ask around. But I also found out that what Walton said - that it’s hard to capture the magnitude of what these shirts really meant to the people who first wore them - is true. I had suspected the answer would be weird, and it is.

GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERT CITI FIELD FULL

So I’ve spent the past few weeks obsessively researching the history of this tie-dye shirt to report the true, full story of how it ended up in the hands of the Lithuanian basketball team. What the hell was going on here? Did a band as distinctly American as the Grateful Dead really fund an international basketball team, or is that just urban legend? I decided that I wanted to know everything that I could about this story. He’s right: The night of the show, I had only the vaguest idea of how these shirts became so enduringly popular. “It’s really difficult to understand the magnitude and the significance and the impact and the power of what went down with those shirts.” “It always brings the biggest smile to my face because I know how much went in,” Walton told me.

They’ve become collector’s items – there are multiple versions, some rarer than others – that re-sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay and vintage clothing sites such as Grailed.īill Walton, who has been to over 1,000 (!) Dead shows, says the shirts are at every show. The sportswriter Jack MacCallum has described the shirts as “ a stoned-out psychedelic masterpiece” and his favorite sports memento. Lisa Kudrow’s character, Phoebe, wore one on an episode of “Friends” in 1997. There is a photo of Jonah Hill rocking the same look. You may have seen this t-shirt before without realizing it.

I recognized this as the iconic tie-dye t-shirt worn by Lithuania’s men’s basketball team that won the bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. What could be further from an NBA game than this ubiquitous blend of bluegrass and rock and funk? I started paying attention to the fashion that surrounded me.Īs my eyes scan the rows of people surrounding me, however, I notice that one of the most popular shirt types doesn’t even mention the band.

GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERT CITI FIELD FREE

But what I didn’t expect, with the draft and free agency behind me, was to think about my day job of covering basketball. When I caught up with Basketball Hall of Fame big man Bill Walton, who was at the concert in Queens as well, he referred to it as the night that “Mayer turned into Michael Jordan.” But I didn’t hesitate at all when one of my friends from college asked me if I wanted to head out to Citi Field for the final show of Dead & Company’s recent tour with John Mayer.

Most of the Deadheads are here because for them, in a way, this is home. I put on another big goofy grin with raised, knowing eyebrows whenever I can look at my friends and sing along to whatever lyric I recognize simply because I recall it from when I heard it for the first time when the song began half an hour prior. I wish I was a headlight on a northbound train. Now that I’ve heard them sing it, you know what? This psychedelic cowboy music kind of rocks. There are so many things to look at around me right now, and the music is getting louder.

If you get confused, listen to the music play. But in the stifling heat, I’m trying to absorb as much chaos as possible, and the lyrics are swimming around my brain. This is my second Grateful Dead concert, so I sort of know what to expect.

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