Editing Deadhead (section)

==Impact on shows==
[[Image:Red Rocks Amphitheater with deadheads waiting to start taken 8-11-1987.jpg| thumb |240px|Fans attending a [[Grateful Dead]] concert at [[Red Rocks Amphitheatre|Red Rocks]], Colorado, 1987]]
The Grateful Dead's appeal to fans was supported by the way the band structured their concerts and the use of the jam band format.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McNally |first=Dennis |title=A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead |year=2003 |publisher=Crown |isbn=0767911865}}</ref>
* From the early 1970s on, the Grateful Dead performed few shows with a predetermined setlist.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schlansky |first=Evan |date=2009-05-29 |title=The Grateful Dead's Set List Secrets Revealed |url=https://americansongwriter.com/the-grateful-deads-set-list-secrets-revealed/ |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=American Songwriter |language=en-US}}</ref>
* At the behest of the band, a section of the audience was walled off to be used exclusively by fans recording the concert.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Coscarelli |first=Joe |date=2015-07-05 |title='Tapers' at the Grateful Dead Concerts Spread the Audio Sacrament |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/arts/music/tapers-at-the-grateful-dead-concerts-spread-the-audio-sacrament.html |access-date=2023-07-18 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> 
* From the 1980s on, the second set usually contained a prolonged percussion interlude, called "Drums" (and eventually incorporating electronic elements), by [[Mickey Hart]] and [[Bill Kreutzmann]] (also known as the "Rhythm Devils") followed by an extended [[improvisation]]al jam, known as "Space", played by the rest of the band (as featured on the album ''[[Infrared Roses]]'').<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howell |first=Dave |date=2011-12-30 |title=Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart a complex groove-master |url=https://www.mcall.com/entertainment/mc-xpm-2011-12-30-mc-mickey-hart-20111230-story.html/ |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=The Morning Call |language=en-US| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130051818/https://www.mcall.com/entertainment/mc-xpm-2011-12-30-mc-mickey-hart-20111230-story.html/ |archivedate=2020-11-30}}</ref>

The band's extensive song catalog enabled them to create a varied "rotation" of setlists, which were never exactly the same for each performance ("show") throughout a tour.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Fricke |first=David |date=2020-08-08 |title=20 Essential Grateful Dead Shows |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/grateful-dead-shows-david-fricke-247878/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref> The use of these unique set rotations created two phenomena: The first had to do with Deadheads wanting to go to more shows in order to get a chance to hear their favorite song(s) – the same song was rarely played the same way twice during any given tour.<ref name=":2" /> Also, a great show often inspired many fans to begin following the band for the rest of the tour, as well subsequent tours. The second was that having a large number of traveling fans had empowered the band to perform multiple shows at each venue, since they were assured that their performances would mostly sell out (almost all shows sold out from the mid-1980s and on). At this point, it became apparent that Deadheads were a major driving force that encouraged the band to keep going. Along with the large number of people attending several shows, a traveling community developed amongst fans in response to the familiarity of seeing the same people from previous strings of shows. As generations turned from the [[Acid Tests]] to the 1970s (and onward), tours became a time to revel with friends at concerts, old and new, who never knew the psychedelic age that spawned the band they loved.<ref name="Grateful Dead 2003, pg. 174">''Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip'' edited by Jake Woodward, ''et al.'' Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2003, pg. 174.</ref> As with any large community, Deadheads developed their own idioms and slang.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2015-06-26 |title=How Grateful Dead Fans Became Deadheads |url=https://time.com/3919040/history-deadheads/ |access-date=2023-07-21 |magazine=Time |language=en}}</ref>