1980-05-14 The Grateful Dead

July 06, 2018 in The Grateful Dead, Concerts 1980-1981

Nassau Coliseum

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

July 06, 2018 in The Grateful Dead, Concerts 1980-1981

Nassau Coliseum

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

July 06, 2018 in The Grateful Dead, Concerts 1980-1981

Rochester War Memorial

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.