Rare Grateful Dead Film to Show Thursday in Santa Cruz

This year's annual Grateful Dead movie meetup Thursday features a rare concert film that will make even veteran Deadheads swoon.

The movie called "Sunshine Daydream" documents a show from Aug. 27, 1972, when the band was in its prime, at the Old Renaissance Faire Grounds in Veneta, Oregon. The movie has been around in shoddy versions. It's been remade for Thursday's showing in 500 theaters across the country.

It plays at 7:30 p.m. at Cinema 9 downtown. You can buy tickets here. I just bought mine. 

Here's a good review of the film from the Boston Globe.

I covered last year's meetup for Patch and was pleasantly surprised. The picture quality was great and so was the vibe. It felt more like a great Dead show than the current live cover Dead bands, be they Ratdog, Phil and Friends, the Other Ones or whatever permutation the surviving members are playing under.

Normally, movies don't capture the concert experience for me, but this one really did. People were dancing and singing and bringing back the magic of the band in its prime.

Here's my review and some video from last year's meetup.