CRANKING UP THE STEREO
CT MAN AIMS TO BUILD REPLICA OF GRATEFUL DEAD’S ‘WALL OF SOUND’
In 1974, the Grateful Dead, the stalwarts of the counterculture music scene, unveiled to the world its latest creation — a three-story PA system that would pioneer the advancement of modern concert sound amplification.
Originally tested out in 1973, it wasn’t until the following year that the “Wall of Sound” made its official touring debut at the Cow Palace in Daly City, Calif.
The rig, which at its height included 600 individual speakers and took a whole day to build, would see a quick retirement by the end of the year as the associated costs to maintain the “Wall” made it virtually impossible to keep on the road, according to Vice.
“I don’t think that it necessarily ever crossed their minds that it might nearly bankrupt them, which it did. I don’t think they gave much thought to how much gas prices were in 1973 and 74,” said Anthony Coscia. “They just kept going until it naturally burned out,”
Almost 50 years later, Coscia, a Southbury resident and Deadhead who saw the band a number of times between 1988 and 1994, is on a mission to slowly build a fully functional, full-size replica of the “Wall of Sound” — one model at a time.
“To me, the ‘Wall of Sound’ was essentially the ethos of the Grateful Dead. It was the physical representation of the metaphysical Dead,” Coscia said. “When they did something, they did it because it was a direction that they just wanted to explore to produce the best product or explore new boundaries.”
Coscia started his original model in early 2021, which was a small-scope version of the “Wall.” That version was essentially “a two-channel stereo” that Coscia said was more like “a toy” in which “no speaker cost more than $1.”
However, the little model, which became known as the “Le Petit Mur De Son” (which translates roughly to “The Little Sound Wall”), quickly drew national attention, getting coverage in the Wall Street Journal and InsideHook.
Coscia, a luthier who specializes who specializes in making guitars and guitar cabinets in the vein of the Grateful Dead’s instruments, expected that fellow gear-focused Deadheads would cling to the build, but what surprised him was the thousands of fans that went to follow his builds on social media.
“I didn’t have any doubts that the community would embrace the project but I think I misinterpreted how big the community is,” Coscia said. “[Some people] probably weren’t even born at the time that the ‘Wall’ was being used.”
After the success of the first model, Coscia went on to build the fullyfunctional quarter-build last summer; three of which are currently in existence. One model was sold to a private individual, one model remains with Coscia and the last one that was given to Headcount, an organization that promotes voting registration, and fundraised $100,000, Coscia said.
Last October, one of the quarterbuilds was set up at Garcia’s at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y. during a run of shows by Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh.
Deadheads looking to experience Coscia’s “Wall of Sound” in person will have the ability to on May 21 when local jam band supergroup Z3 perform its Zappa Meets The Dead show at the Bijou in Bridgeport.
Building the ‘Wall of Sound’
Coscia’s next phase for the “Wall of Sound’’ is a half-build of the original version. Coscia said that he is a “fair ways into the half-scale wall,” which is expected to measure 17 feet in height and 35 feet in width.
He said that he is currently putting in upwards of six hours of work a day outside of his job in order to complete a half-scale version of the “Wall of Sound.” When completed, the halfscale version will be 100 percent functional and will feature 24 input and 11 output channels, ensuring that “every musician will have their own dedicated speakers for themselves.”
The half-build is expected to cost roughly $100,000, according to Coscia, which he says is being funded through private events and fundraising concerts, his own self-funding and donations made through his GoFundMe.
Coscia said the more that he can crowdfund for the project, the less it will cost for venues to have it. Ideally, Coscia said the intent of the half-scale version is to move it around for monthly increments to music venues across the country in order to give “large acts, regional acts and give local musicians an opportunity to try playing through it.”
Additionally, Coscia hopes that the half-build will only further “prove the concept that doing a full-scale wall in a museum or venue would be ideal.”
This “community project,” as Coscia calls it, harkens back to the “ethos” of the Grateful Dead. For Coscia, that ethos was best exemplified in the Dead’s determination to experiment in order to progress the sound and longevity of the band.
“Sometimes it’s going to work. Sometimes it’s not. But when it does work, it’s perfect,” Coscia said. “It’s a great way to live your life.”
Rocking for charity
In the spirit of giving back to the music community, Coscia’s “Wall of Sound” will be used and on display at the Bijou at the end of the month for
Z3’s performance.
The group is composed of guitarist Tim Palmieri (Lotus, The Breakfast), drummer Bill Carbone (Max Creek, Melvin Sparks) and keyboardist Beau Sasser (Kung Fu). The band will be playing a variety of Frank Zappa songs through the quarter-build version of the “Wall of Sound.”
The concert will also double as a charitable event, with 100 percent of proceeds going to music education in Connecticut. The two beneficiaries of the concert are SpreadMusicNow, a Redding-based organization that funds music education and promotes the development of careers for budding musicians, and TeachRock, an organization launched by Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band multi-instrumentalist and ‘The Sopranos’ actor Stevie Van Zandt, that offers free teaching curriculum for classrooms looking to incorporate the arts into other disciplines.
Carbone, who serves as the Executive Director of TeachRock, said that proceeds from the concert will go directly to “art-integration curriculum” in Connecticut classrooms. Carbone said that TeachRock has partnered with the state’s Department of Education and is currently working through a pilot with 15 districts that aims to
directly with teachers in order to find areas where art can help educators better teach their material.
“When I was a kid, there was the attitude of ‘learn this and someday, you’re going to use it.’ Now, kids have the internet in their pocket,” Carbone said. “Why should they listen to us? Wouldn’t they have an answer in their pocket?”
Some of that material includes using Beyonce’s social media metrics to understand graphing and ratios in algebra and even building an operational speaker that replicates the sound technology of the “Wall of Sound.” Currently, there are more than 300 free lesson plans that teachers can access online for their classrooms.
As for the “Wall of Sound,” Carbone said he was excited when he found out about Coscia’s project. “I love the Dead. I grew up on that music,” Carbone said. “Immediately I was like ‘I have to meet this guy.’”
Carbone said that the band has already had a practice run with the quarter-build ahead of the Bijou concert, which the drummer said sounded like he was “swimming in the sound.”
However, there is a deeper meaning to the “Wall of Sound” for Carbone.
For Carbone, pioneering the “Wall of Sound” was the Grateful Dead exemplifying “the pursuit of a moment and the idea that everyday is a new day.” On a scientific level, the work that went into making the “Wall of Sound” a revolutionary pioneer in modern concert sound design shows that science is “something you don’t need a lab coat on to do.”