Was it Live or Memorex? The Grateful Dead Movie Felt Live

Maybe the holograms will come out during the tenth annual Grateful Dead Meet-up.

You know, like the resurrection of Tupac last weekend at the Coachella Festival where the murdered rapper appeared as a hologram singing along with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre.

By year 10, I predict, Deadheads will sit in a theater and watch a Dead show performed by holograms. Maybe sooner.

What happened Thursday night, across the country and in Santa Cruz at the Regal Cinema 9, was pretty close to that.

This was a one-time showing of a concert film recorded July 18, 1989 at Alpine Valley Music Theater in Wisconsin, but there were many times during the 2.5 hour film that it felt like being at a Dead show, with better seats and no one throwing up around you.

The audience started dancing a little during the first set, and as the band cranked up during the second set – just as at the live shows – spinners spun, twirlers twirled and people let out long screams after great vocals by Bob Weir or Brent Mydland.

People even got so caught up in the experience, they yelled out requests. As the cameras flashed on rows of microphones recording the show, something the Dead was the first to allow, one woman yelled, "Thank you, tapers."

There was one early glitch, when the film stopped during the first song, but after a few minutes of darkness, they started the film over.

Other than the Rocky Horror Show, this was the most interactive movie experience I've seen. But there was also plenty of respect for the music and quiet during the quiet parts.

The Dead put on a great show that night 21 years ago, highlighted by a "Sugar Magnolia" that began in the first set and ended the second one; an enthusiastic take on Bob Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again," the first song to get the movie crowd on its feet; and soulful renditions of  "Eyes of the World" and "Bird Song" that had Jerry Garcia, who died six years later, smiling, looking healthy and singing great.

A vigorous "Throwing Stones" had the band members smiling, and the real and the movie audiences singing along.

The theater's sound was great and mostly caught the magic. It which was crisp and handled the guitars, voices and piano as close to live as you could imagine, although it was light on the drums. They seemed pretty two-dimensional without bigger speakers and more volume.

The directing was also good. It was shot from the stage and gave great in-your-face images of the band members that few fans saw so close in those later years, when they were playing stadiums and theaters after a revival sparked by the 1987 song "Touch of Grey," their biggest mainstream hit.

And luckily, there was none of the bad 1960s-style effects used in so many other films of that era, in an attempt to create a psychedelic feel. The cameras kept pure, as if you were there. The only time an effect might have helped was during the drums/space jam, which for years many who weren't stoned out of their minds, used as a bathroom break.

The audience sat through this one. Some snuck out for popcorn.

And while those interludes were what made the Dead famous back in the days when LSD was legal and they were the house band for many a trip, the spark didn't ignite through the movie screen.

It did for most of the rest of the night, however. "We will survive," the band sang in the opening song, "Touch of Grey" and they have, even on film.

But really, I don't think the holograms would work. Right?