The Grateful Dead and its spinoffs, including Dead and Company, are a particularly enduring institution in rock ‘n roll. Their songs, their legendary tours, and the fan culture that emerged along with them are remarkable. And with the news that Dead and Company have decided to call their Summer 2023 tour their last, their live music juggernaut will finally be nearing its end.
Deadheads, the devoted fans of the band, are the focus of the heartfelt documentary Box of Rain. “Box Of Rain” is a song from their album 1970 American Beauty. It has a poignant quality to it, and the music documentary Box Of Rain evokes that as well.
The film includes extensive interviews with Deadheads, all of whom had their various reasons for becoming such devoted fans of the band. We hear from men and women who discuss concerts and tours, particular songs, dancing and traveling, comparing versions of the songs, and many other ways in which the band’s music and the fans themselves inspired and comforted them, and brought them joy.
We hear from the woman who made the film, Lonnie Frazier, who sought solace in the Dead’s music after a traumatic event. The Deadhead community was where she found a home, a family, a support system, and a lifeline that was more than just the music. The documentary truly gets across the camaraderie and love of the fan group.
The film also explores the fan's road trips to see shows; bonding over the music and the culture; seeing places and cultivating a sense of adventure; the economics and finance of being a Deadhead and side hustles, buying food and swag from fellow Deadheads. As some of them mention, “It’s a shared voyage” seeing the Dead, and even “Deadheads became the show.” They explain that the Dead’s music was “not neat and formulaic” but often “a beautiful thing to watch unfold.”
We hear about how a typical Deadhead is more than just an observer of a band but something deeper, and many mention the sense of community, warmth, and created family. “Boundaries fall down” and “The Dead collected a wide variety of people who didn’t fall into the mainstream.” We hear how different types of Deadheads “enjoy (the scene) in their own particular way”, which even included those who abstained from drinking and drugs. A few even state that the music and culture were “kind of like a religion” and helped some to “create your own unique life” and tap into a communal feeling.
Overall I enjoyed the documentary, primarily because I am something of a Deadhead (I bought my first Dead album, a used copy of American Beauty, in 1986 and saw my first concert in 1987), and the target demographic.
It must be noted that none of the band’s actual music is heard here, for legal reasons, although there are many photographs of the band’s members. The lack of the band’s actual music will be confusing for non-Deadhead audience members.
Another drawback is that the documentary doesn’t explore the continuation of the band after Garcia’s death in 1995, into the Other Ones and Furthur and Dead and Company. Younger Deadheads and fans, such as my own daughters, have “gotten on the bus” since that time. The documentary focuses on people who are at least in their late thirties, and most are older than that.
Box of Rain was a bit too glowing of the Deadhead community and didn’t deal with tougher issues of drug and alcohol abuse, and runaways. It would have been worth mentioning the Wharf Rats movement, a kind of straight-edge subgroup of Deadheads.
However, this fascinating documentary is worth including in public library collections for any Deadhead patrons. It is also worth including on library shelves about pop fandom and music. If you are an academic media librarian, consider this title for students studying group identity and psychology, sociology of pop culture movements, and grassroots entrepreneurship.
Related films include Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead and Tie-Died