Encore
Black Muddy River

By this time I had learned a lot more Dead songs. I had tapes that I would play in my car, and I was gradually learning a lot more of the songs. After I heard Touch of Grey a few more times I ran right out and bought In The Dark. Generally speaking I liked the whole album a lot.

That Summer the Dead was touring. Unlike most bands that tour behind their latest release, this was just another tour in a life-long marathon of tours for the Dead. They were coming to Silver Stadium in Rochester. A whole bunch of my fellow fraternity alumni decided to go. The show was on a Thursday, but most people had the following Friday off for the Independence Day long weekend. We met up in Syracuse to caravan to Rochester together. One guy, Pud, was coming down from the Potsdam to meet us. He hadn't yet arrived at the rendez-vous point. Pud's essentially a nice guy, but can be more than a little pesky. We decided to go without him.

We cruised along the thruway headed for Rochester. Things were kind of wet and drizzly, but we had hopes that it would clear up in time for the show. I was the last in the line of four cars in our caravan. Suddenly I noticed Pud's car coming up from behind. He went past me without noticing. He went past the third car without noticing. Then the second. He got up to the first car in line, piloted by Scrotus, and Pud suddenly recognized him. He did a double-take, and when he realized it was Scrotus he stared intently at him. Then his car, as if following his gaze, started veering towards Scrotus' car. He regained control in time and continued until he got up in front of Scrotus. He then put on his directional and pulled over onto the shoulder. All four of our cars went zooming past him at highway speeds. When he was able to get back on the highway he took his place as the fifth car in the caravan.

We got into Rochester and managed to find our way downtown in the vicinity of Silver Stadium. The place was crawling with deadheads and all their deadhead vehicles. Unlike Rich Stadium the year before, there was not a humungous parking lot for everyone to park in. By some amazing stroke of luck we found a place where we could all park. There was a dirt parking lot where a bunch of people had parked. We pulled in and down to the end. While it appeared full, we found that we could drive off into the tall grass behind the lot, and thus open up much more space. We all pulled in and had a little tailgate party before the show. By this time the rain had let up and everything looked fine for the show.

We got into the show fine, and it kicked off with "Hell in a Bucket," off In The Dark. In stark contrast to the previous year when I didn't really know any of the songs, this time I knew the very first song I heard. As the concert went on I recognized some of the songs and not others. Still, I had a really great time during the whole show.

After the show Hermie (one of the Psi Phi brothers) invited us back to the apartment of his friend Daphne. We got there and everyone kept shushing us. Apparently they were in this conservative apartment complex where people freak out if there's any noise at all. We were like, "Do you mean to say that you invited a bunch of drunken fraternity guys, all jazzed up from a Dead show, to an apartment where we have to WHISPER?!?!?!? What were you THINKING?!?!?!". They just kept shushing us, so finally we went back out to the parking lot to figure out where we were going to go next.

Within minutes a police car showed up. The bastard neighbors called the cops on us! As he was getting out of his patrol car I noticed that Pud had left an open beer bottle on the ground. I stood right in front of it and blocked the view with my shin. The cop was like, "What're you guys doing here?" And we were all, "Our idiot friend invited us here after the Dead show, and believe us we're on our way OUT." The cop was actually pretty cool. He could tell by our perturbed mood that we were serious about vacating the area, so he just told us to be quick about it. JUST as he was stepping back in his car he noticed the open container behind my leg. "What's up with that?" he asked. I didn't know what to say, so I decided to go with the truth. "It's not mine," I said. Unbelievably, he didn't make an issue out of it. "Just take it with you when you leave," he said, and got back in his car. I couldn't believe our luck. An open container is no small affair, and he just blew it off.

We decided to surprise Kermit at his father's cottage on Cayuga lake. I knew how to get there, and I knew he'd be there, so I told everyone to follow me. We left Hermie behind and drove directly there. It was a bit of a drive, but we were all still totally pumped up, so it went quickly. We got there to find Kermit still awake, despite the fact it was very late. He said that Hermie and Daphne called to warn him. He was psyched to have us there.

The next day we spent the whole day on the lake. Even more brothers showed up over the course of the day (Hermie and Daphne included). It was an incredible follow-up to an incredible Dead show. We went swimming and boating and water skiing and had a fantastic day.

The next day was the 4th of July. Some of us decided to keep the party going and drove to SUNY Oswego to visit the Gamma chapter of our fraternity. By the time we got there Hermie was already passed out. We left him in the car. We hung at the Gamma chapter house, drank lots of beer, and watched fireworks from the roof. Afterwards we all split up. I took a small group back to my apartment in Syracuse to crash. The next day was Sunday, and we were all pretty burnt out. After everyone left to drive home I spent the day recovering.