By Pat Christenson
Vegas Event Insider is a weekly blog covering the history and stories about the Las Vegas event industry.
Booking the Dead in Sam Boyd Stadium
In the eighties, While Deadheads flocked to the Aladdin for the annual show, I made my way across the valley to see Bob Barsotti, Bill Graham’s promoter rep. With a plea, the band graduated to Thomas and Mack Center. The shows at the 7,000 seat Aladdin barely sold out, so it was difficult to justify a jump to an 18,500-seat venue. But then “Touch of Grey” dropped, and LA was no longer welcoming the Deadheads.
January 5, 1993
“We had the band and production crew at “hello”. When they saw the location— eight miles from The Strip and neighborhoods, nestled in a desert, mountainous setting with a ten-foot fence creating an imposing barrier to the thousands of non-ticketed fans now jumping fences at their stadium shows— they were sold.”
-Pat Christenson, Stadium Manager
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To strengthen ticket sales, the Vegas shows were the first on tour and announced before any other dates on the West Coast; no shows in L.A. or San Francisco were scheduled until months afterwards.
Both Graham and the band did not have the confidence Barsotti had in the shows, and weren’t willing to take the risk. Consequently, the guarantee was 50% higher than normal. Graham had a lot of confidence in Barsotti’s instincts, but for a 50% increase in the guarantee, he wanted a partner.
And then came Danny Zelisko.
Promoting the Stadium Shows
Danny Zelisko was a longtime fan of Bill Graham and was confident the shows would do well. In December 1990, six months earlier, he’d promoted two Grateful Dead afternoon shows in Phoenix, selling a total of 70,000 tickets.
That same year, Zelisko co-promoted two Lynyrd Skynyrd shows with Bill Graham, at the time the manager of the band. The shows tanked.
Traditionally, a promoter who loses money on a show will ask, and usually receive, relief from the manager. In this case, however, Bill Graham was both the manager and co-promoter. He told Zelisko he was sorry, but he had a deal with Lynyrd Skynyrd that disallowed any money back to the promoter. But don’t worry, he said; he’d make it up to him.
The Dead shows at Sam Boyd gave Graham the opportunity, and Zelisko got his piece of that action.
The shows would attract Dead fans, But how many? Traditionally, the Grateful Dead didn’t book opening acts. A bit nervous, Barsotti convinced Graham and Zelisko to add Santana. The 60,000- $23.50 tickets, sold out in two hours.
Concert Challenges
Now the focus shifted, and we had to consider many issues in connection with a site that had yet to hold a concert.
The Deadheads weren’t a crowd-management problem. Instead, the challenges were drugs, vendors, and gatecrashers, along with vagrants perverting the scene both in the parking lots and the city.
Armed with past successful Dead concert-management plans, we met with Campus Police, Metro, Highway Patrol, and the Grateful Dead production crew. We all agreed that crowd management and safety were the overarching objectives. Minor drug use like pot would be tolerated, but it was critical to stop the nitrous oxide (laughing gas), which caused the predominant medical issues.
LSD and the other psychedelics were also a concern. Local hospitals weren’t experienced at treating “complications” from acid trips.
Coincidentally, Barsotti had had an interaction with a Metro police official at a rally he’d attended a few years earlier at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site, 60 miles north of Las Vegas, protesting nuclear-weapons proliferation.
“We were holding a peaceful demonstration outside the Test Site, and I could tell by the posture of the police that something was going to happen. I strolled over to the lieutenant and asked why they looked so nervous. ‘We’re really concerned about your dog’s running free and want to let you know that if any of them approaches us, we’ll have to shoot them.’ I reassured him. I said, ‘We don’t mean any harm. We’re all pacifists.’ We tied up our dogs and the whole situation was diffused.”
-Bob Barsotti
Barsotti continued, “At our first meeting to organize the crowd management of the shows, I was staring at this Metro police officer before I figured out where we’d met before. I must have made him uncomfortable, because afterwards he came over and said, ‘Do I know you?’ I asked him if he remembered me—the Test Site? He said, ‘Oh yeah, the dogs.’ Then he thanked me for having them tied up. He liked the way I handled the situation, and we got along great the whole time the Dead played Vegas.”
The Dead’s representatives told us that a couple of doctors in San Francisco would be managing an onsite treatment center called Rock Med, which was critical to Dead shows. Barsotti told the police, “If you see a crazy naked guy running down the street, don’t arrest him. Just bring him to Rock Med.”
Camping around the stadium was prohibited, which made for an interesting fusion of Deadheads on the Strip and the surrounding parks, especially Lake Mead.
The planning was done. Time to open the doors.
Coming Next Week:
Deadheads Teach County Commissioner A Lesson: First Vegas Shows
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