Golden Shower For Deadheads

11/11/08 12:25pm

by Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

If you've ever had a full bladder, you know how grateful you are once you empty it. And if you've ever had to spend much time around Deadheads, you know they don't always smell the best. So why is there so much controversy over the New Jersey politician accused of peeing on fans at at performance by a Grateful Dead tribute band in Washington, D.C. last Friday night?

Jersey City councilman Steven Lipski was arrested for simple assault after allegedly urinating on audience members while standing on the second-floor balcony at Washington's Nightclub 9:30. But Lipski claims he merely spilled a drink on the tie-dye-clad stoners who assembled to watch Dark Star Orchestra.

Club staffers claim they spotted Lipski tinkling from the balcony and removed him from the premises until police arrived to arrest him. An unnamed source told The New York Daily News that the councilman was "very drunk," and it wasn't the first time he'd been a nuisance at the venue.

"We've dealt with this man before," the person said. "He's never peed on anybody, but he gets really belligerent and drunk."

Whether Lipski let the trouser snake unleash its venom or not, the 44-year-old told The New York Daily News that he won't touch alcohol again and called the incident "deeply humiliating" and "troubling." Sure.

Sheriffs apprehended 411 (why couldn't it have been 420?) folks for violating drug laws at a Grateful Dead reunion show in Milwaukee, Wisc. six years ago, where they seized more than 51 pounds of pot, 7,300 doses of LSD, 8.8 grams of liquid LSD, 10 pounds of 'shrooms, nine grams of heroin, 82 grams of hash, 6.3 grams of cocaine and one tank of nitrous oxide.

Two dozen people were arrested for drug-related incidents when the four surviving members of the real Grateful Dead performed as part of a show at Penn State University to support U.S. president-elect Barack Obama last month, including three caught inhaling nitrous oxide.

So what's the big deal about a dude possibly giving Deadheads their first shower in weeks?