Hippy Yearnings
The Dead & Co. poster features hippy girls and a motorcycle man. The girls are dancing, twirling, with hair wild, barefoot in rags, liberated and free. The guy’s in a leather jacket. A rebel. These images are on their website, on the outer sphere, in glass windows in a mall that looks like plastic Venice. It’s the official Residency 2 image, and they are auctioning signed posters of it for $5k and up. These symbols are obviously tied to the history of the band, but even as standalone images with no context, I wonder if the hippie/motorcycle have a psychological power that taps into the troubles and desires of 2025 people? Might also explain some of the Dead’s rising popularity (the brand of the dead feels aligned with the “touch grass” catalyst of always-on computer culture).
(At the official Dead & Co. merch store, I noticed that the VIP tickets are branded as the “Vibee” tier, with 2 Es, and those customers should head to the “Vibee Check-in.” I know that “vibes” is a 60s word that has regained popularity today, and I wonder to what extend that word is correlated with Deadhead culture.)