An Evening with the Grateful Dead

WE CHANGE and our changings change, a friend said once. It sounded true, but it seems too that through it all we stay the same. That obscure rumination takes us to, of all places, backstage at the Fillmore West, a spot that has mutely witnessed its share of changes and gone through a few of its own. Backstage used to be literally that, a few murky closets with just a few inches separating them from the amps. Now the car dealer on the corner has gone through his changes, and Bill Graham got extra floor space for a dressing room as big a the lobby of a grand hotel.