Dead in the Dome 2.0!
One More Saturday Night!
(Saturday – night number one – November 9, 2019)
“Dead in the Dome 2.0”
a concert with Melvin Seals and the Jerry Garcia Band
with Steve Kimock and DJ Logic
and Samskara at the Wisdome in DTLA.
NOTE: The concert was November 9th, 2019. We started this Blog Post and then it sat all through November-December, and now it’s January 2020. So we are finally posting it.
The Jerry Garcia Band (JGB) is a San Francisco Bay Area rock band. It was founded in 1975 by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. It and his collaboration with David Grisman (Grateful Dawg) were the most important of his many side projects before his death in 1995. The JGB continues to tour with Melvin Seals and Steve Kimock.
Downtown Los Angeles! Somewhere near the Urth Cafe in a kinda sketchy part of the Arts District is WisDome.LA. It’s a collection of container buildings and geo-domes. Enter through a container Box Office and “Lobby”. The open air space and astroturf with psychedelic mood lighting puts you in the mood for “Dead In the Dome 2.0”!
The WisDome Facilities:
The large Domes contain the exhibits and the performance venue. One had the Samskara visual art exhibit, one had mirrors, one just had psychedelic projections and music with cushions on the floor to sit and lie on, and one had the stage and projection setup for the band’s performance with dance space, chair seating and reclined VIP viewing sofa seats.
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The restrooms (Banos) are in a portable trailer with tall stairs to negotiate and a swinging door that might knock you out. The VIP Section was fenced off and adjacent to a two-story container building, with the bottom floor seating available as a VIP lounge space and the upstairs used as the Artist Dressing and Green Room area. There was a vegan food truck and a cocktail bar serving food and drink. And there was a small Merchandise Dome and a few Vendor Tents and Tables set up outside selling cool “Shakedown Street” stuff. There was a cold Mediterranean food buffet inside the VIP.
Samskara Art Exhibition – the walkthrough experience:
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And here is only a small sampling of the Visual Art:
NOTE: Samskara = Very trippy psychedelic art that was also interactive. The art changed colors on it’s own, depending on lighting and “mood” settings. And there’s an APP for viewing the art that adds a whole other dimension of psychedelia! It has to be seen to be experienced. There was also video art with both small, medium and very large screens for art viewing. And more cushions on the floor for sitting and lying down on while viewing. We also shot some video of the experience, so check it out!
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Inside one of the Domes there was a giant kaleidoscope type projection set to music being projected, and unfortunately our pictures just don’t do the effects justice. They were very beautiful 3-D CGI graphics that moved and morphed. There was another Dome that had mirrors reflection different graphic patterns.
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“The VIP Experience”
included a COLD vegan Middle Eastern vegan buffet and one drink ticket.
We sampled most of the items and the food kinda totally sucked.
(Seriously, how do you screw up hummus?)
So, vodka and sprite for a liquid dinner!
NOTE: There was a guy doing promotions for a Cannabis Ginger Lemonade in the VIP Section, so we sampled one, and then added vodka/sprite to make a “Mary Jane Mule”.
Bob Minkin, the photographer, was at the show vending his “Just Jerry” book. He also shared a live presentation before the concert with projections and commentary on some of his fantastic photos from the book in the Main Dome.
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and Other Vendors:
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THE SHOW!
Melvin Seals and The Jerry Garcia Band with Steve Kimock and DJ Logic!
(with cool projections of Jerry Garcia’s art on the Dome tuned to the music)
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The JGB Band ROCKED! It was a great show musically! Melvin Seals and Steve Kimock played great and brought back sweet memories of Jerry as the band performed some JGB setlist staples:
Steve played so well, the band made him a permanent member a couple weeks later! Well deserved and a great addition to The JGB! There were a couple moments during the show that took me right back to seeing Jerry in the 80s at The Stone in San Francisco.
The projections were cool, and added to the experience, but the focus was on the band. the music, and the lightshow, and since we didn’t add any psychedelic enhancement to our experience, the visual effects were secondary to the concert experience.
NOTE: The concert was billed as a “2 Night Event”, but we only went on Saturday.
NOW HERE IS THE THING! VERY IMPORTANT! AND ALSO A RANT!
We paid a lot more for the VIP experience and recliner sofa seats upfront near the stage. And when the concert started our viewing experience was ruined by the standing crowd that was allowed in front of the stage and in the aisle next to our low lounge seat.
And there were NO USHERS, STAFF OR SECURITY PEOPLE ANYWHERE! Seriously, we went looking and had to go to the Tech Staff at the sound/light/projection board and ask if there was anyone! We went outside to find someone and encountered a private security guard who told us that he wasn’t security for the concert, but he would try to find someone. So we went back and tried to enjoy the first set with the rude millennial jerkoffs who never saw Jerry standing in the aisle blocking the audience’s view of the stage and completely inconsiderate of anyone else. So, at the Intermission we went and found the PERSON IN CHARGE and told him what’s up. He was apologetic and responded to the problems and for the Second Set there were Ushers placed to keep the dance floor crowd on the dance floor at the back of the house. Of course, it was too little too late, and there still a crowd in front of the stage (and it’s always the tall people who do the one step right, one step left dance of course). The PERSON IN CHARGE told me they would refund my ticket, and they did!
Thank you WisDome.LA for the Tremendous Customer Service and satisfaction!
That being said, THERE IS NOT ENOUGH SECURITY AT THE VENUE!
The Deadhead crowd was older and very well behaved, with the exception of the Millennials who never saw Jerry, and the lack of Security and easily identifiable Staff, was still a problem! We would not recommend anyone we know attend an event until they fix this problem! If there had been an Emergency or a Situation, it would have not gone well. Additionally the Door Security at the Box Office was almost non-existent: there was no search or surveillance security that we could detect. It’s a really nice facility and the concept is great, but we didn’t feel safe. And all it takes is one unfortunate incident that gets some press and no one will ever go there again…remember Westwood?
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After the show, we walked the two blocks back to our car. There is lots of street parking, but it fills up if there’s an event, and the neighborhood remains sketchy…. so we found a parking space across from the Urth Caffe (got lucky) because it’s well lit and there’s a lot of foot traffic. Also, they have a clean restroom without a line for use before and after the event, which is a definite benefit. And we drove home without incident.
Update 01-09-19: Found this. Thank you Trixie!
Update 1-16-2020: Pictures of Jerry Garcia from our Blog Archives:
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JoshWillTravel 
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