Bill Kreutzmann To Release Memoir, 420 Play In Denver Featuring Members Of SCI And Big Gigantic

BILLY & THE KIDS

Monday, April 20th
The Ogden Theater
Tickets: $25 Adv. $30 DoS
Purchase Here

The Grateful Dead are perhaps the most legendary American rock band of all time. For 30 years, beginning in the San Francisco hippie scene in 1965, they were a musical institution, the original jam band that broke new ground in so many ways. From the music to their live concert sound systems and recordings, they were forward-thinking champions of artistic control and outlaw artists who marched to the beat of their own drums.

Now, in his upcoming memoir DEAL: My Three Decades of Drumming, Dreams, and Drugs with the Grateful Dead (St. Martin’s Press; on-sale May 5, 2015; $27.99), Bill Kreutzmann — a founding member and drummer for every one of their over 2,300 concerts-has written an unflinching and wild account of playing in the greatest improvisational band of all time. Everything a rock music fan would expect is here, but what sets this apart is Kreutzmann’s incredible life of adventure that was at the heart of the Grateful Dead experience. This was a band that knew no limits and he lived life to the fullest, pushing the boundaries of drugs, drums and high times, through devastating tragedy and remarkable triumph.

On April 20, for one night only, Billy & The Kids featuring Dominic Lalli from Big Gigantic and the String Cheese Incident’s Jason Hann, will perform at the Ogden Theatre in Denver, CO, performing a “Spring ’90 Revisited Show.” At this exclusive event, Kreutzmann and his band will revisit the catalog from the Grateful Dead’s famed Spring ’90 tour. Billy & The Kids will also feature Reed Mathis (Tea Leaf Green), Aron Magner (Disco Biscuits), and Tom Hamilton (Brothers Past).

With Billy & the Kids, Kreutzmann has enjoyed engaging some of today’s hottest players and letting them explore the Dead’s repertoire with new ears, but the relationship is symbiotic as the “Kids” have introduced Kreutzmann to some of today’s hottest directions in jam band music. So when Big Gigantic’s Dominic Lalli heard that Billy & the Kids were coming to Denver to revisit the Spring ’90 catalog, he jumped at the chance to join in for the evening — filling the shoes of Branford Marsalis. As a youth, Lalli studied Branford’s horn parts on live recordings of those classic Dead shows. Now, as an honorary “kid,” he gets to put his own stamp on it, as well. Kreutzmann also brought Jason Hann (String Cheese Incident / EOTO) on board, so they could do a drums segment that was as modern and forward thinking as the original “drums” portion was back in its day.