Greatful Dead Art

Dead's Bob Weir debuts TRI Studios on Web

"A lot of guys when they have a little success in life, they go out and buy a yacht or a fancy car or something. What I did was go out and buy a flying saucer."

That's how the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir describes his new toy, a multimillion-dollar recording and broadcast facility in San Rafael called TRI Studios, which he took on a shakedown cruise recently before two dozen guests and the rest of the world via a live Webcast.

Weir gathered members of his band Ratdog and four horn players from the Marin Symphony to sample Grateful Dead repertoire in the main room of the Tamalpais Research Institute, as Weir calls his place. The small invited crowd included Jerry Garcia's ex-girlfriend Mountain Girl and Dead lyricist John Barlow, along with Weir's wife and family. The 11,500-square-foot complex includes the 2,000-square-foot main studio, a smaller studio, two mixing rooms and five additional isolation rooms, all interconnected, for audio and HD video recording, plus enough server power to run a small government bureaucracy. At the heart of the main room is the revolutionary Meyers Sound Constellation System, an entirely new approach to public audio developed for the classical field by Meyer Sound Laboratories in Berkeley.

The room contains more than 80 separate speakers and a couple of dozen microphones all over the room to pick up and disperse sound. The entire system is run through sophisticated software capable of duplicating various acoustic environments, from a baseball park to a small nightclub, all controlled from a tablet computer on the bandstand.

"What we're looking to do is create a new venue for musicians," says Weir.

Weir, who undertook this bold step into the future largely with his own money, found the building in foreclosure in an industrial park on the edge of San Rafael. On the other side of the wall, James Hetfield of Metallica keeps his hot rod chop shop, and across the street is Sammy Hagar's studio.

Almost alone among major rock groups, the Dead always devoted a lot of resources to research and development projects and, along the way, sponsored some major innovations in concert sound production, musical instrument construction and more.

With TRI, Weir continues this tradition, following his own fascination with the possibilities for musicians posed by the Web.

Weir admits he has built it, but does not yet know if they will come. He rented the space to Journey for a pre-tour sound check and rehearsal. He plans to produce further Webcasts on his own (he brings in his band with Deadmate Phil Lesh, Furthur, for a pay-per-view Webcast today). He does say the studio "has to pay for itself." He is just not sure how it will at this point.

The Grateful Dead « Art at the Katzen

I found the Post review a bit baffling. What does it matter that two of the solos are thematically linked while the others are not? Wilcoxon and Kaffeman are the anchors of the show in my opinion — their work carried their messages without unnecessary artifice and also were formally strong and full of a certain life force that I seek in art. Baumgardner’s work did not engage me, I’m sorry to say. It lacked imagination, and for me the concept was not very interesting, though I am a DC native also. Overall, though, I truly enjoyed the shows and the variety of work represented. Congratulations!

Perspectives on the Grateful Dead, critical writings

The art of rock, posters from Presley to Punk

The Grateful Dead in concert, essays on live improvisation

The Grateful Dead and philosophy, getting high minded about love and Haight

Conversations with the Dead, the Grateful Dead interview book