The University of Colorado Boulder will hold an event on Friday for people to celebrate the Grateful Dead and learn about the band’s history in Boulder, which will include a recreated light show with original assets from the band’s concert at the university in 1969.
“We’re going to be able to do a demonstration of the original technology of the ’60s and ’70s,” CU Boulder music lecturer Micheal Sebulsky said, adding, “We’re very grateful to have some of the original Grateful Dead lighting members involved.”
Hank Schmidt, Chas Barbour and Patrick Cullie are members of Spontanuity, a light show that provided visual background for the Grateful Dead using multiple image-making devices. They’ll be on the light panel for the event.
There will be a demonstration of the liquid art technology that was used to get the Grateful Dead’s liquid light psychedelic illusion during the band’s concerts. A 60-plus-year-old projector will showcase the lights.
“We will recreate the light show using some of the original assets, the transparencies that were projected in the light shows,” Colorado Music Experience Director G. Brown said.
The Grateful Dead performed at CU Boulder four times. Their first performance was at the University Memorial Center in 1969 followed by two concerts at Folsom Field in 1972 and 1980. The last show at CU Boulder was held at the CU Events Center in 1981. After multiple members of the Grateful Dead became part of the band Dead & Company, shows at CU Boulder continued. Dead & Co held its final concert at Folsom Field last summer.
“The purpose of the event is to talk about the role of Boulder and the music scene in Boulder on the technology of music,” Sebulsky said.
Experts will discuss the role of music and live concerts in Boulder, focused on the Grateful Dead, and how that’s helped build the growth of music technology.
Musician, broadcaster and author David Gans and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist who played with Joe Walsh, Elton John, Dan Fogelberg, Stephen Stills and Hall and Oates, will participate on the sound panel.
Brown said the event will be educational and entertaining. He hopes people gain knowledge and an appreciation for how concerts were done historically without things like digitized lights.
“It was a unique time and place and in no way resembles modern-day concerts but some of us think it was important and I think we can convey that in an entertaining way,” Brown said.
The event is presented by Colorado Music Experience in partnership with the Fiske Planetarium at CU Boulder. The first show will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. and the second show from 9 to 10:30 p.m. Friday at the Fiske Planetarium, 2414 Regent Drive.
For more information and to buy tickets, visit tinyurl.com/4r2c87bb.
