1982-07-27 The Grateful Dead

July 05, 2018 in The Grateful Dead, Concerts 1982-1983

Red Rocks Ampitheater

Up in Ithaca for the summer in 1982, my friends there had caught some of the spring Grateful Dead shows but I didn’t. We all wanted to see more shows and decided it was high time to head to Colorado for the Red Rocks shows. We were able to stay up near Boulder at a friend’s house, a buddy that had just graduated with me, he was working in restaurants and he eventually became a co-founder of one of a well-known chain up in ski country - Prazzo’s pizza.

It was obviously always a great objective to see the Dead on consecutive nights, since they had enough material to play different stuff each night, and especially in a premier venue like Red Rocks. After the three Dead shows, I took about 35 years to get back to see another concert there.

Unusual for Denver, there were a lot of showers in the area for several days, and most of the time throughout the three nights. But the shows went on as planned at Red Rocks although McNichols Arena was listed as an alternate venue in case of rain.

The setlists featured lots of songs with allusions to the weather - including, during this first night, a true classic in a super rendition of “China ] Rider” to close the first set. “I’d shine my light through the cool Colorado rain…” - you can hear the crowd reaction on the tape.

I am not sure why no soundboard tapes are available (to my knowledge), but in most cases the audience recordings are quite clear and pleasant sounding. The second sets of the first two shows have killer setlists and overall there’s just a lot of top-notch music on these tapes. The first night has really tight, upbeat versions of so many tunes, and a unique jam section out of the Terrapin (during a Playin in the Band / Wheel sequence similar to one etched in our minds by a popular tape from 5/19/77). In the next two posts I mention the encores. Its a great assortment of tunes over three nights, and, as we expected, with no repeats.

Below: Taken in downtown Boulder, the day before the first show…

1982-07-28 The Grateful Dead

July 05, 2018 in The Grateful Dead, Concerts 1982-1983

Red Rocks Ampitheater

See my Night 1 comments about this run of shows. This show, the second of the run, is a real standout, with its combination of Let it Grow and Spanish Jam reminding me of my last show in Ithaca in 1981. So many years later, I would obtain a fine tape from 1974 with those tunes done in sequence segued by an incredible jam, a show especially noteworthy to Keith Godchaux students/fans like me.

The audience recording of this show is a classic. It begins with a sharp argument between some tapers. The band was evidently onstage about to start and one of the guys is complaining severely to taper Jim Wise that someone had messed with the levels on his deck; the first chord of Shakedown then crashes down, and he’s been informed that his cherished tape deck’s levels are set ok. I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys were close to where we were that night as I do recall sitting near tapers.

As noted above, not sure why the run’s tapes include no soundboards. It seems like these shows have been somewhat overlooked and that’s too bad because they are quite interesting. The Baby Blue encore, to close this great show, combined with the Brokedown encore on the next night, are high among my favorite GD concert moments.