Reply #74: That is extremely not true. [View All]

[Warren DeMontague]

Hey- I saw the Dead over 100 times. But to assert that "the same 50,000 people" were the only ones going to see the Dead is just plain ludicrous. There are alot more Deadheads than you think.

As for "jam bands" in general (of which I think Dave Matthews is on the more watered down end of the spectrum) I think industry and critical voices tend to pooh-pooh what is, after all, probably the most lucrative and vibrant subcategory of American live music nowadays. And while I don't like all of those bands, and I don't think many of them have a whole lot to do with the Dead, you can thank the Dead for almost singlehandedly engendering that scene.

And even if your assertion above WAS true, it should tell you something about committed fans being willing to pay back artistic integrity in spades over the years. The numbers don't lie.