1976-06-14 The Grateful Dead

Beacon Theatre

I had joined the Deadhead fan club at some point before the 1976 tour was announced.  (Similar to how Denis McNally talks about it, I had a "skull and roses" album on vinyl, and I had written to the address printed inside that album.) 

Through their newsletters the Dead expressed a frustration with being forced by their own success into having to play large arenas where the sound was compromised. The amazing but impractical “wall of sound” they had used before their break had been retired.  The GD had been on a hiatus but had released the "Blues for Allah" album, and the landmark 1975 show at the Great American Music Hall in SF had been broadcast on the radio which gave fans a chance to hear them in newly polished form. (One of my first and best loved tapes at that point, the SF show later became the first "From the Vault" release.) 

The Dead were saying they wanted to do a tour where fans would again have a chance to see them in venues with good acoustics. Phil Lesh was quoted in one newsletter saying they wanted to "get the Mother rolling one more time." So I put in for tickets through the fan club and received a pair of tickets to both Beacon shows just as I had requested.  It seemed to me at the time there was no other practical way to have gotten tickets to these shows.  But I did have High School final exams during the week of the shows and I gave one pair (for the second show) to a friend.

I came to the show with friends from Long Island and took the subway up to the west 72nd street station for the first time.  When we came out the subway we saw the whole scene of hippies, tour buses and people who were begging for tickets, implanted there on Broadway.  Inside the Beacon, it was smokey and dirty, with people sitting on the stairs and the floor all over the place.  This was way before the Beacon was renovated and it was an old theater that showed its age.

People walked in, saw the set up, and yelled in excitement seeing double drum sets up on the stage for the first time on the east coast since 1971. Sitting in my seat in the rear half of the Orchestra before the show I was astonished to see a dude jump down from the balcony down to the orchestra, just in front of us. He landed safely in the still sparcely filled seats underneath the overhang, and then scampered up toward the stage.  There was no problem moving around after the show started and I moved into the aisle, getting up very close during both the first and second sets.  I was standing directly below Donna by the time she approached the mic during Music Never Stopped to sing "There's a band out on the highway..."

It was great being able to see them all so close - Bobby rocking and getting the audience up, looking up at the balcony as he pushed the band through the second set through Around and Around.

The recent versions of the soundboard tapes of this show are super great and sound almost like a studio recording in some sections, with both drummers especially clear and prominent. Keith Godchaux’s piano shines throughout. Much more depth in the recordings than my earlier soundboard copies, and without the sort of wooshing or warbling that negatively categorized some of the earlier generations of tapes.

The Deadbase review notes the second set’s unusual mix of tunes and the unusual space break in Help on the Way (actually its Slipknot, clocking in at over 13 minutes). The Lazy Lightning ] Supplication combo that opened the Kingfish studio album and which was part of my Kingfish experience the previous year was now pulled into the GD repetoire, as they focused on the tunes of more recent vintage. Blues for Allah had been the first studio album to come out after I was already into the Dead, and the focus here on those songs, including Crazy Fingers, made this show especially memorable for that.

1977-09-03 The Grateful Dead / NRPS / Marshall Tucker Band

Raceway Park

Much is documented in Grateful Dead history about this show so I won't repeat what is available. I still may have some news clippings to add later.

A memorable part of the show came during the Halfstep jam - during the relaxed part of that jam, a big bloody red sunset hovered in the sky to the right side of the stage, over the freight cars that had been assembled in a circle to form an outer barrier for the field.  Every time since then when I listen to that section, [7-10 minutes into Halfstep],  I can re-envision that bloody sunset.

The show was arranged at the end of the summer after the fans expressed disappointment in the inability to get tickets to the Palladium shows and other shows on the Spring leg that year.  So a half million or so were able to come see this show.  People may have forgotten who else played that day so I put them in the title of the post as well as the GD. Its hard to overstate how much country rock was the big thing at the time. Marshall Tucker, NRPS, Charlie Daniels Band, Outlaws, Skynrd, all of which focused in that genre, joining the existing ranks of rock bands like the Dead, the Allmans and Little Feat which were more broad-based but had focused in on country flavors in their cooking. And of course having NRPS on a bill with the Dead was a longstanding tradition by then.

Going to the bathroom in the back of the field area was an interesting experience, wading through the mud.  And it was a long walk back to the car afterwards... the first part of which we had the Terrapin encore accompanying us... 

We had driven down from Long Island early in the morning.  My friend picked me up before dawn and mentioned that he wasn't feeling too well.... but he was the only one of us who was already 17 and had one of those handy things called a drivers license...  He got really ill and let's just say he didn't enjoy the show too much.  He declined our offers to take him to the infirmary during the show, and just as we had planned to do, we camped-out in the field where we parked after the show and slept the night.  We learned after the fact that our driver friend had an appendicitis attack during the show.  He did ok and got us home like a trooper the next day, and we visited him in the hospital we learned how serious this was and how it could have ended much worse for him.

One of the guys with us had his Mother tape the show as it played live over FM radio. (Not an insignificant thing, as several tape flips and changes were involved in getting it on cassette in real time.)  The tape became a classic in my collection for years.  It was much later I learned about the pre-FM soundboard, which Dick Latvala spoke of early on as something that had to come out, and of course he released it as Dick’s Picks # 15.

Right: Dicks Picks #15 - Dick wrote to us from the great beyond and included this photo of Englishtown 9/3/1977.

1978-05-10 The Grateful Dead

New Haven Coliseum

Thankfully my folks let me take their car all the way up to New Haven while I was still in High School.  It was only my third Dead show, and interesting to compare the experience to Englishtown. Already the Dead sounded a little different than they did in 1977, a little looser and with some extra edginess in the solos, jams and drum sections. Pretty soon after the show I obtained a good audience recording, featuring Must Have Been the Roses and a stellar Eyes of the World to add to the one at Englishtown.

For a long while, and all throughout my tape trading days, I never stumbled across a soundboard copy until Dick Latvala’s copy came out as Dick’s Picks #25.

Like some of the other shows I saw in the era, it is simply amazing to be able to finally hear these shows in great quality after so many years.

1978-09-02 The Grateful Dead

Giants Stadium

I was a freshman at Ithaca College and I pretty quickly found a bunch of cool people and serious GD heads.

Even during the summer orientation I become friendly with someone who was tied in as a tape trader, and right when we got back up to school he let me pick six tapes from his collection. I had listened to GD tapes before, including some reel to reels that a friend’s brother had recorded at the Fillmore East, but I had no copies of those, and I don’t think I had heard much at all that took place after 1971 other than shows that had been broadcast live on the radio. In that week before this show I got my first copies of 6-16-74, parts of the classic April 71 Fillmore East run, a classic Avalon Ballroom tape, and the Binghamton show from 5-15-70. My mind was blown by hearing them for the first time and I will never forget what it was like when I first popped a crystal-clear soundboard of the second set of 6-16-74 in my tape player.

My new friends invited me to head down to Giants Stadium for this show. One of them was a Sophomore who had a car and was as psyched to go as was I.

The Dead were on their way to Egypt to play at the Great Pyramid and this was kind of an unusual stand-alone show before that excursion. They had to watch the time, and someone in the band motioned to their watch during the jam.

I remember that when I heard that Willie Nelson was opening. It was the first time I had ever (like, ever) heard of him.

Few good tapes surfaced for a long time, and until recently I don’t think I ever heard any soundboards of this show. Nowadays I hear stuff like the Looks Like Rain from this show played on The Grateful Dead channel in soundboard form. Fun to hear, unexpectedly, while driving in the car, for the first time in 40 years.

1979-01-07 The Grateful Dead

Madison Square Garden

This was the very first show ever played by the Dead at MSG .... the shows had been rescheduled from the Fall of 1978 when Jerry was ill. 

I sat in the row directly behind the soundboard and - very coincidentally - met members of the Dead's crew, including Dan Healy, before the show and at the break.  I say “coincidentally” because it was a particularly bad night for them as they had some bad sound problems that caused a lot of aggravation to the crew. In the second set an awful loud screeching feedback suddenly came from the PA - and provoked a mad scramble by everyone at the soundboard to try to find the source of the problem; they were running around and checking all of the wire connections that ran along the floors even. They were just frantically scrambling, trying to find the problem, as the Dead played on through NFA and then Black Peter.  I am not sure what the culprit was but it was a level 1 emergency for the sound crew that night.

1979-05-09 The Grateful Dead

Broome County Arena

I got my ticket from a close friend - my freshman pal who got a bad infection in the days before the show.  A junior at school (who we hung out and listened to the Dead with) had the wheels and he drove down from Ithaca. We got there with time to spare and as we walked into what was a fully GA arena, we were free to choose wherever we wanted to be in the arena. We decided to sit in the stands up on the left side, where we would be close but still comfortable for the show.  My roommate from school wanted to tough it out on the floor - and he got right in front of the stage. He later told us all about how people were passing out due to the heat - during the show some some of those folks were lifted up over the crowd to security at the stage in front. 

The 1970 Binghamton (Harpur College) show with its great acoustic set was one of the first Dead tapes I got at school earlier in my first school year. I would also find over the next few years that the upstate Dead shows had a slightly less hectic and more intimate feeling than city arenas. When you came in and looked at the stage all set up with the Dead’s own equipment and the double drums, it seemed more like some of the good old days. Phil Lesh displayed his flannel shirt and Bobby remarked that the shirt had belonged to Pigpen (you can hear this on the tape).

Opening the second set, China Cat was pulled out from what seemed, at the time, like a permanent retirement, to an arena filled with frenzied fans. It was played in the midwest in February before Brent joined, but most of us had no idea, really - there were few mechanisms at the time to find out about setlists.

The audience recording of this show is a real classic; on this tape you can hear the reaction of the crowd at the beginning of the second set… like, are they really playing this?  its a really energetic and unique version, with Brent’s percussive Fender Rhodes very prominent, only to be outdone by the Truckin jam that came later in the set. 

“Blazing” is the word (and its a good one) they use on Dead.net to describe the Spring tour in 1979. It was certainly a very focused, energetic performance on this night. The energy and excitement that came with hiring Brent and having a new configuration was obvious in those early Brent days.  And as noted below, the tape is a classic, but honestly fails to fully reveal the sonic eruptions from the various instruments that we experienced live that night.

Soon after the show we got a copy of that classic audience recording - the same one that has circulated for years. It was written up with great praise in Deadbase, and has gotten tons of listens since then.  (References herein to Deadbase are to my 1994 version, Deadbase VIII). The fan comments on Archive.org for this particular show are a sort of classic collection of fun posts mostly from people who attended.

Below: One of my all-time favorite editions of Relics magazine from that year, with coverage not only of the Dead’s trip to Egypt but also the 1978 Little Feat tour and David Gilmour’s first solo album.

1979-09-01 The Grateful Dead

Holleder Stadium (Rochester, NY)

Another outdoor summer's end concert on the first weekend of September. This was the last time I slept over in a lot for a show, and the only time I did so to gain priority in admittance to a (general admission) show.... We drove up from Ithaca the night before.  The friendly folks in the parking lot kept us up late and someone thought they would let everyone know, loudly, when the clock struck 6 am.   So we were among the first hundred people to bolt onto the field when the gates opened, and stake out our spot. But the trade-off was that we were mostly sitting in the sun all day on what ending up being a brutally hot day.  The Dead's equipment truck was late and by the time we sat through two opening bands, and  the equipment delay, it was a longgggg day.

Fans of the Good Rats - a LI club-scene band, screamed "rats!" in excitement as black rubber rats were thrown from the stage to the audience toward the end of their set.  The sun was still blazing late in the afternoon when the Dead came on, and by that time I was wearing a yellow towel on my head to reduce the sun stroke I felt in my sleep-deprived head.  I could see the band real well during the show from about 30 or 40 yards back, on Jerry's side.  At one point Jerry looked straight at the towel on my head and literally made a goofy face at me, like hey, "it cant be that bad that you need to wear that thing on your head."  

It was my second show with Brent on keyboards, and interesting to really see him up close this time - right up front with his long hair, energetically playing hammond organ and electric piano.  I was pleased to see him playing a Fender Rhodes, as I had bought one just a couple of years back in time, inspired a lot by Keith Godchaux's playing, although Keith played it mostly in 74 and 75 and had migrated from an acoustic grand to the Yamaha electric in 1977.  In those early shows with Brent he just killed it on electric piano and organ, changing the Dead's entire sound, playing unique rocking and funky percussive styles on the Rhodes (and adding grand piano by the time they did the acoustic sets in 1980). 

When Brent was hired and started playing with the band in early 1979 there was no publicity about him - no announcements or anything that I ever saw - a stark contrast to today’s over-hyped world. My appreciation for all of what Brent brought to the band and his songs has only grown and grown over the years.

The show is written up in Deadbase and tapes of this show rate very highly among fans; a wonderful recording is available on the Archive.

At the end, all the hassles of driving up the day before, trying to sleep in a parking lot with people screaming, and then sitting through the good rats on an excruciatingly hot day.... was worth it.

1980-[01-03] Kokomo (featuring Bill Kreutzman)

The Ritz

Not many people will remember this show, with a member of the Grateful Dead playing at the long-gone-but-not-forgetten Ritz in NYC. I went to see Bill Kreutzman’s band at the Ritz, where I saw some other great shows in its day.

The date is uncertain, and I could find nothing online about the tour or tour dates. They hand-wrote the band name on a generic Ritz stub for this event.

1980-05-07 The Grateful Dead

Barton Hall, Cornell University

Below: Early 1980 Grateful Dead newsletter mentioning the upcoming release of “Go To Heaven.”

This was the first of two Grateful Dead shows that I saw at Cornell while I attended Ithaca College.  The concept of springtime tours through smaller cities and college towns - especially on the east coast - seemed a big part of what the Grateful Dead was to us in those days. Ithaca College had a community of serious Dead fans and as soon as school started I met several. A depth and variety of music permeated that community of people.

As it was the year before, there were some Grateful Dead shows we could get to at both the beginning and end of the school year, but the Dead were coming right to us this time in the Spring. Even for IC students, (Cornell's) Collegetown was a fun place to eat and drink, see some live bands and even buy some records at Collegetown Records. We often went to the Chariot and the Nines for drinks and for live music (and, according to my discriminating Brooklyn friend, for the “best pizza anywhere”. Sadly, the Nines closed in 2018.) Barton Hall is just a few blocks from there.  It was really nice to have that feeling that the Dead and all things emanating therefrom were right there in your own small college town. Jerry even noodled around with the Cornell song on this night.

When I started school in the fall of 1978, “Shakedown Street” was the new Grateful Dead album…. and now "Go to Heaven" had just been released and for a couple of weeks we listened to it in the dorm. We scrawled “Sure Don’t Know What I’m Going For…” in chalk inside the stairway of the dorm; we imagined what Saint of Circumstance would sound like live with the big Timpanis.  The Go to Heaven material would indeed fall heavily into the rotation for this year and the next. Feel Like a Stranger - all laid back and funky, with Brent’s new keyboard sounds, was played in classic form at both Ithaca shows, in addition to really classic Shakedowns and Altheas at both shows.

On the afternoon of this show I drove up and headed over to catch the soundcheck.  As I sat there on the lawn outside Barton Hall the Dead ran through Playin' in the Band with some starts and stops, and strangely, in that song, I heard the lyrics being altered by Weir to "Playin in the Barn."  They played it in the second set that night, and he went ahead and sang it that way at one point.  Years later, some of the comments on archive.org may have misunderstood his reference.... Barton Hall is the Cornell campus' old track and field building - and it has a long rectangular shape with a ceiling that made it look like a gigantic barn inside. "Playin’ in the Barn" ... just hearing that outside made it seem like the Dead felt at home at this place. 

This show was three years and one day after the first time they played in the same building, a show that would be chosen as the favorite concert tape among fans (as polled by "Deadbase") from all of the Dead's shows, first on cassette and then digitally, although the Deadbase reviews by the serious tapers talk about how the show is actually overrated, an inevitable conclusion for anyone that knows the overall catalog of Grateful Dead performances and appreciates the band’s long history.  In addition, due weight must be given to Bob Weir’s more recent disclosure that the 1977 show never actually took place.

In 1980, and for some time thereafter, that now-famous 1977 show wasn't famous at all - as many fans know, the original tapes of that show were among the ones recorded by Betty Cantor and left in a storage locker until the late 1980s.  Its just funny because in retrospect I can say pretty confidently that at this show in 1980, most of us knew nothing at all about that 1977 show … In those days, setlists of previous shows weren't even available in any medium, and the only 1977 shows in most of our tape collections at the time consisted of the Chicago, Capitol Theatre (NJ) and Englishtown shows - all shows that had been broadcast over the radio. 

Some fine soundboard tapes of the 1980 and '81 Ithaca shows surfaced in later years and forever confirm how good these shows were.... both are among the strongest sets played in two of the most productive years for the band. This 1980 performance would showcase them in fine form, playing funky, bluesy, spacey and all things in between, earning its release as part of the Road Trips collection of Grateful Dead live shows.

Take note, Senator Al Franken (since you have such a keen interest in comparing versions), that two beautiful Altheas were played here in Ithaca, and this one is worth your consideration, for sure.  (A week later I would see the Dead play the Honorable Senator’s favorite version in Nassau.)

I admit I do have a historical bias for shows in May of any given year ( especially in the peak eras, like the spring tours during 1972 and 1977). I also love listening to the 1977 Barton show, especially after seeing the band in that building twice.  But I do have to cringe every time I read or hear the silliness about how the 1977 Ithaca show was “the greatest” GD concert. I appreciate it as part of ‘the trilogy,” comprised by Betty Cantor’s great tapes of that 3 night run on the road in Boston, Ithaca and then Buffalo. From the time I had first heard the Betty Boards of those 3 shows, it was pretty much a game changer all the way around - for me, none is head and shoulders above the rest (but the Buffalo show satisfies me just fine as the closer, with its perfect renditions of so many great tunes, and with Come a Time in set 2 and then the Uncle John’s encore). The Deadbase reviews (published in the 90s) had cut Buffalo down a notch but raised up the Boston show a notch.

I think that one reason the 5/8/77 got such rave reviews from cassette traders was there was something special about the sound on that particular tape from Betty - not just punchy and clear but it sounded like a matrix recording at a time before people created those. And perhaps the reason for the quality of the sound on those tapes had to do with Barton Hall's acoustics and the kind of hall reverb that was present when the Dead were "Playin' in the Barn."

The 1981 Barton Hall show would bear some interesting similarities to this one and would take it all a step further.

Below: From a 1981 Relix magazine - a nice article on Betty.

1980-05-14 The Grateful Dead

Nassau Coliseum

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Grateful Dead at Nassau Coliseum, May 14, 1980

Three months after seeing Pink Floyd play The Wall at Nassau Coliseum, and a week after the Ithaca GD show, I was there when the Dead rolled back into the Coliseum.  These ended up being considered classic shows in that time period, a great one for the Dead.  Selections were played on the radio (King Biscuit) and taped by fans like moi.  The "Feel Like a Stranger" on that tape was a favorite.

I was really glad to hear Comes a Time.  This one was a beautiful version, and incredibly great soundboard tapes now are available.

I had my telephoto in at these shows and got some nice shots right from the seats.

1980-05-15 The Grateful Dead

Nassau Coliseum

Jerry playing the Tiger guitar at Nassau Coliseum, May 1980

These were classic shows in that time period - and this one smoked from the great Jack Straw opener right through. Also see my post for the night before.

This night and the following are memorilaized on the Dead’s “Go to Nassau” CD release, and excellent alternative recordings are available on archive.org, such as Matthew Vernon’s matrix sound version of this show. https://archive.org/details/gd1980-05-15.126692.mtx.dusborne.flac16/gd80-05-15s1t03.flac

I had floor seats this night, everyone stood on their chairs. I walked up to the front section of the floor towards the end and took some shots of Jerry.

1980-09-02 The Grateful Dead

Rochester War Memorial

Jerry and Bob, Rochester War Memorial, 9/2/1980

Bobby flanked by the drummers

Slideshow below.

Another school year for me upstate began with a Rochester show by the Grateful Dead during the first week of September, this one downtown at the War Memorial, a big general admission arena. In the back of the arena there were some plaques and memorials. I guess being able to get in to the Nassau Coliseum shows with my camera and telephoto lense back in the Spring gave me the idea I could do it here again. I had a hard time shooting over the crowd but managed to get right up close to to the stage for a while. I remember being right up there for “Lost Sailor,” when it was a little quieter for awhile. The song was played at all three of the Rochester shows I attended.

Some of the photos I took are above; I picked one with Jerry and Bob from a few rows back, and other samples of the ones I took from up close are in the slideshow.

Like some of my other Dead shows, this performance was later the subject of a soundboard release by Charlie Miller, who seems to pick the same shows I like the most (although that’s many hundreds of shows). The second set packs in so many tunes, plus interesting and beautifully melodic jams with string synths in the Space section, a fine Morning Dew and a rockin Sugar Magnolia set closer.

Another example of the Dead playing with great energy at a really high level and another top notch show in this era. In the following month they would do the classic acoustic shows in NY and SF.

1980-10-31 The Grateful Dead (simulcast)

Calderone Concert Hall

This was a live Simulcast of the Radio City Halloween show that included Al Franken and Tom Davis as MCs. Ticket demand for the shows far outpaced available seats, thus the idea of a simulcast from Radio City where fans could see and hear the show in real time. Its included here because I have the ticket stub (and because they did it at at the Calderone, where I and am sure a few others had seen both Jerry and Bob play in 1976).

1981-05-16 The Grateful Dead

Barton Hall, Cornell University

Echoing John W. Scott's Deadbase review of this show, the Dead were very much ON here. Perhaps it was my favorite concert experience ever - certainly one very fun Saturday night in my then-home town of Ithaca.

This show was available only as an audience recording for years and suddenly a beautiful soundboard appeared that Charlie Miller graced with his sonic talents, revealing the stunning greatness of this performance if there had been any doubt.  The sound of everything, especially Brent's keyboards, in the opener and throughout is just incredible, and having a great quality soundboard now makes it possible for me to relive the thrill of being at this show.  Near the end, as the beautiful Stella Blue starts, the soundboard cuts out and the old FOB audience tape is still used as a patch, in which you can really hear the hall sound of Barton Hall for the rest of the show.

The show had an interesting resemblance in some ways to the previous year’s Ithaca show, with some of the same classics of that time period. Both times the second set started with Shakedown followed by Bertha. But in 1981 the Dead would harken back to earlier periods more, with renditions of Spanish Jam and Nobody’s Fault Jam and other classics in the second set, the latter preceded by a Truckin with one of of Bobby’s notorious changes to the lyrics.

Let it flow, let it grow.

Ithaca is a magical place of falling and flowing waters and the waters of Cascadilla gorge fall rapidly not too far from where this show took place. Musically, everything just flows on this one. As the first set wound down, beautiful renditions of High Time and Let it Grow made their way through the Hall. Brent drives the set home with his rocking organ before a super jammed-out Shakedown starts the next set, an all-time fan-favorite version.

When I started school in Ithaca, Shakedown Street was the new album, and by now the Dead had played Shakedown twice for us in Ithaca.

By the end it was one great, great setlist loaded with musical treats.. Brent’s intensity and precision is just mind blowing throughout, he kills it on every song right along with Jerry.  Heck, even Weir’s slide solo sounds amazing. Best of all, now you can hear (almost) all in truly sparkling soundboard quality.

At the end of the Charlie Miller version, the audience recording makes you feel like you’re in the middle of Barton Hall for the Saturday Night and then a stellar Uncle John’s Band as an encore. They take their time, playing the D minor jam section over, seemingly trying to leave as much of their magic there in the Hall as possible. This would end up being the last Grateful Dead show in the beautiful city of Ithaca, NY., and in my mind the end of an era.

1981-05-17 The Grateful Dead

Onondoga War Memorial

We headed up to Syracuse for show on the night following the Ithaca show. The Band we saw on this night, called “Grateful Dead” on the ticket stub, was almost as good as the one we saw the night before, called “The Grateful Dead” on the Barton Hall ticket stub.

1982-07-27 The Grateful Dead

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

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.

1982-07-29 The Grateful Dead

Red Rocks Ampitheater

See my other comments about this run of shows.

I have no ticket stub for the third night, so I’ve used a photo of some good-looking fans sporting their official T-shirts purchased at the shows.

Among other things, the Brokedown encore at the end of this night to close the three night run was a moment to remember.

---

Below: (then) state-of-the-art setlist information, handed out at shows, about the 1982 tour.

1983-06-18 The Grateful Dead

Saratoga Performing Arts Center

This is a famous show, the first time they played at SPAC, and my first time there. This one is well- known especially for its inspired performance of Morning Dew during the middle of the second set, on a night when there were lightning storms flashing in the sky.

This yet another show with a fine recording (in this case an audience recording) graced by the talents of Charlie Miller and readily available on archive.org.

1983-10-22 The Grateful Dead / The Band

Carrier Dome

The great Richard Manuel was still there at this time, and it was the only time I got to see him.