Irvine Meadows Amphitheater: Dead and Company, Mayer,Weir,Hart, Kreutzmann & Dirty Heads

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Michael Hepworth

By Peter Peterson

Dead and Company

Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, CA, July 26, 2016(Perfect Music Today)7/1/16/–: For anybody that doesn’t know; Dead and Company is made up of former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir (Guitar), Mickey Hart (Drums), and Bill Kreutzmann (Drums). New members include keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, bassist Otell Burbridge, and guitarist John Mayer. I mention this because John Mayer’s guitar work this evening was downright epic. I have been to more than a couple Dead shows and Jerry Garcia was always the reason why I went. Jerry, everyone misses you. But don’t give up on the Dead! John Mayer nailed the Garcia guitar position. I was melodically amazed, as well as the audience. John, fans can tell you love to play this music. Keep the history alive!

The barricade crew did not know what to expect for this show. At the pre-function meeting, management stated that “there will be an older crowd and to perhaps be aware that there may be creative drug use”. Now, creative drug use shouldn’t involve 14 medical calls and 6 ambulance extractions, not to mention the fighting and throwing up incidences. The crowd at the pit was mellow but as the night continued (and Dead and Company played for over 3 hours) they became more aggressive. Pit crew had to physically restrain and remove over 20 fans. They were drunk, high and belligerent. Trying to live your Woodstock moments at Irvine Meadows that night, was not a good idea. The lawn area was busy with over 30 fans hopping the fence. It took a major amount of staff to control this activity. On a funny note, I had to actually wake people up because they were passed out asleep, standing up, on the barricade rail. There is no sleeping on the barricade rail!

The night ended, and as usual all staff “sweeps” the House and the Plaza areas to remove any lingering fans. We are closed, it’s time to leave, get out! Sober up in your car during the 40+ minute wait to get out of the parking lot! But, during this particular sweep, we found 8 people passed out in the bushes, and am talking PASSED OUT! But, after a nice cold water bottle shower, they woke up, confused and wet, and moved on. We told them the sprinklers turned on, damn, that sucks you got wet sleeping, drive home safe, thanks for coming out!

Staff leaves with quite the experience to talk about. All sections had their own adventures. We all wonder what the Dirty Heads show will bring us, management indicated that it may be the same type of crowd, less the creative drugs. Gee, thanks boss! Come check it out Dirty Heads, Tuesday, July 29. Peace Out!

Dirty Heads

Irvine Meadows Amphitheater, July 29, 2016: Barricade staff knew this would be another difficult crowd. You would think that a stoner crowd would be easy to manage. Most fans are easy, but there is a portion of the crowd that sums up the courage to feel empowered to be above the rules. I see it at every show that hosts this type of crowd. These fans were no exception. The worst part of the evening was up in the lawn section. You know, from my previous articles that it is standard practice for fans to climb to fence and blend into the lawn section. But this got way out of hand. Over 60+ fans charged the fence line. This was very bad. It took all available staff to try and stop the mayhem. Fans were specifically assaulting Live Nation Staff, similar to recent attacks on law enforcement. Irvine PD was called in to try and stop the chaos, but they were not staffed to handle this and did not do much. Although they did manage over 20 arrests for assault and trespassing. Live nation staff had several injuries from being overwhelmed with a violent crowd. In barricade, we had to stay at our positions. But, there was no shortage of stupidity in the pit. Again, that certain percentage of fans that feel they should be allowed in the pit area. We had 8 staff in the pit and we could have used 4 more. I had to get very physical with I don’t know how many. I was pushed, punched, threatened, spat on, and beer thrown at me. At least I hope it was beer! So, overall not a good night for staff, but the show was great. I grew up in OC and have seen the Dirty Heads many times. Mostly in Huntington Beach as that is where they are from and played many local shows.

This crowd was no different than any show I attended, but working their shows is entirely different. When it was all said and done, and the crowd was dispersing, the fans had a great time. So many did not know what was going on in the behind the scenes. So many people would be waking up the next morning hungover in jail or at the hospital. The other’s perhaps just hungover and sore. In the end, Live Nation Staff gathered their injured, wounded, spat upon and the weak. Management was no exception, they got the aftermath of this event and will be here quite late to put closure to all the chaos. We all laughed and compared this event to other events in the past. Management thanked us and stated “Duran Duran was the next event and this crowd will be mostly older women and should be a cakewalk” It was good to get home and take a shower that night. On another positive note, I purchased a motorcycle so now I get out of the parking lot in under 5 minutes! Gosh life is good! Until Duran Duran, July 30, 2016. Peace Out!

Peterson: Photography

Michael Hepworth

287 S.Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211