1986-04-21 Maybe You Know Brent Got Wasted:: So What

Yes it's true. I was there  It was my 75th show.  Brent did get really messed up at the famous Brent meltdown show but big fucking deal.. We all have off nights and we all got too messed up at the wrong time  but it still was a remarkable night with a very cool drum fueled keyboard thing in the middle that you hear now that lead into a crazed 3 minute solo Maybe You Know>Goin Down the Road>Dew (second and late Dew of 1986, by the way).  I loved Berkeley shows. Where else are you going to see that at the high school auditorium five blocks from your house?

My 1986 Ticket with my 2016 Thumb

You never know what's going to happen at a Grateful Dead concert. And maybe you know someone who got too wasted that they slept through a show or forgot their tickets.  I feel for Brent's pain, especially in hindsight when he died of an overdose four years later, but his condition lead to an unpredictable night at this REX benefit at 3,000 seat Berkeley Community Theater. No drums, no space.

Note that this was not the first time Brent played with the drummers in Berkeley; at the September 13, 1981 Greek show I saw the second set of jam of Lost Sailor>Saint>Terrapin>Good Times pre Drums..

RIP Brent. You were truly one of the boys.  We all have been there. We all feel pain. But you rocked Brent and you rocked us. People remember the Maybe You Know but they forget the once-only cool jam with and without the drummers that preceeded it.  Just listen and enjoy a unique moment in the Grateful Dead History.