Grateful Dead fans have been forced to find new ways to share their love for the famous rock band with the cancellation of events like California’s Skull & Roses Festival and more for the foreseeable future thanks to COVID-19. Some have opted to fuel their Dead fix by tuning into Dead & Company‘s weekly “One More Saturday Night” concert re-broadcasts, while others are watching Bob Weir‘s performance of the “The Star-Spangled Banner” for NASCAR‘s iRacing Pro Invitational last week on repeat until this is all over.
One fan, however, has opted to use his/her newfound free time by recreating the band’s infamous “Wall of Sound” P.A. system from 1974 entirely out of LEGOs.
In a video shared to Reddit by user “bojackstrawman” on Sunday, fans are given a glimpse into the fan’s quarantine creation which shows members of the Dead and crew standing underneath what looks to be a pretty cool recreation of the giant P.A. system, which made its public debut during a show at San Francisco’s Cow Palace on March 23rd, in 1974. This person is clearly no stranger to the world of the Grateful Dead, as evident by the tapestry background and audio of “Let It Grow” also playing in the video.
Check out bojackstrawman’s LEGO creation below.
LEGO Wall of Sound: what happens when obsessions collide and I’ve got all the time in the world from r/gratefuldead
In a recent interview with industry publication Pollstar earlier this year, the band’s longtime live sound engineer Dan Healy talked about the impact which the “Wall of Sound” had on the touring side of the industry at large.
“The Wall of Sound was a turning point in the entire world of sound reinforcement,” Healy admitted. “By end of the ’60s, myself and others like me had hot-rodded it and milked every nuance out of [existing P.A. systems] … We had to move to a whole new concept, scrap everything and start over. That was the purpose of the Wall of Sound. And while it in itself wasn’t that successful, the endeavor, the goal of it was completely successful: completely rethinking and revamping the entire approach to sound reinforcement.”