Courthouse Nights hoping to turn tailgating area into Shakedown Street
By Kyle Mooty
LPR Editor
Will Rhodes, of Rach and Rhodes Presents, is a self-proclaimed a Deadhead, a subculture of fans of the Grateful Dead band.
Rhodes and Rachel Lingvai’s next Courthouse Nights attraction will be DeadEye, a Grateful Dead tribute band from Austin that keeps the Jerry Garcia-led band of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and into the 90’s at the musical forefront.
DeadEye will take the stage on Friday, June 21 at 8:30 p.m. on the Market Street stage in downtown Lockhart. Rhodes will begin entertaining the crowd with deejay music beginning at 7 p.m.
“Our friends at Plum Creek Records have had them a couple of times at Commerce Hall, and both nights they were sold out,” Rhodes said. “DeadEye’s bassist, Lee Braverman, is also a bandmate of mine. These guys always headline the Jerry Garcia Fest in Austin on Garcia’s birthday (Aug. 1). I play in a Grateful Dead cover band (Steep Cats).
“DeadEye is one of those bands where if you close your eyes, you feel like you’re there. They’re definitely carrying on the tradition of jam band music.”
DeadEye was founded in 2010 by Joe Faulhaber and Shadd Scott. The band Grateful Dead’s entire music catalog. DeadEye hasbeen called one of the four best Grateful Dead tribute bands in the country.
“With DeadEye, we expect to attract not only a lot of locals, but this one should be where we really get to show our talent because there will be a lot of people from the psychedelic music scene,” Rhodes said. “With that kind of genre, people travel a lot, so we plan on seeing a lot of people from Austin and San Antonio. One thing the jam band community is really good at is communicating online.
“We’ve posted in many jam band forums and getting a really good response because usually people have to pay $20 or $30 to see this band and this is for free. A lot of people are really excited.”
Rhodes envisions the area on Commerce Street known as the tailgating area for courthouse nights, becoming what Grateful Dead purists refer to as Shakedown Street at their concerts.
“I was lucky enough to see Jerry Garcia five times,” who hopes to have Deadheads of plenty in the tailgating area area Friday night.
Shakedown Street (1978) was one of the 22 Grateful Dead albums.
The Courthouse Nights stage will be sponsored by Wella Bar.
Friday’s DeadEye performance will be part of a Grateful Dead tribute around Caldwell County as Kelly Dugan’s 4th annual River Sings Sweet Songs event will be in Martindale on Saturday.
“I think it’s gonna be a fun vibe,” Rhodes said.
Courthouse Nights is in its fourth season, one Rhodes believes has become an epic one.
“The last two (Dale Watson and EZ Band) have had more than 700 people each time,” Rhodes said. “It’s becoming a very, very real community event. The second year was the hardest because that’s the year we went into football season. We’re starting to figure out what works.
“When Rachel and I started this four years ago, she said, ‘You know, we should have Deadeye out.’ I remember thinking, no, no. That’s too risky to play. We thought it was too edgy. And now I feel like it’s no big deal because we’re gonna have so much fun. It’s been so much fun seeing the community come around and accepting everything. Some people may not know the bands we’re having, but they come out. This will be one where people will be dancing. This will like nothing they’ve ever seen in the town square.”
DeadEye can be visited online at deadeyeaustin.com.
