Grateful Dead

This show has gotten a lot of trash under Dick's Picks. I would agree that it would not be my first choice to come out of the '80's, and the first set generally bites, but the second set is stellar and seeing it live, was amaizing. The Jerry jamming for the entire second set was non-stop, and the CD captures it well. What a lot of folks seem to miss, at least from lack of comments under DP, is the Stella Blue -> Jerry's mid and closing jams are awesome. Well worth listiening too. Scott

My First Show. Senior year high school. Wow.

First show - from the classic Fire licks, kicking the song off, to the staggering Stella Blue, I was hooked. 50 shows later, they only got better. Seems like a common theme, but the St Stephen the next night (10/15/83) was almost primal. Heads praying in the aisle upon song recognition. This is the scene I always desciribe when attempting to explain the phenomena to non-believers. Merry Xmas to all and to all a Dead Night.

Set 1 -Sound isn’t right at the beginning, Jerry’s guitar is too low in the mix throughout the set, opening Alabama (Jerry improvises some “words” opening the 2d verse) & GSET seem like they could be part of the soundcheck -TLEO is very good, with a nice Brent solo with interesting notes from Bobby, a very good Jerry solo at 4:30 – 6:55 -Cowboy combo Mama > Big River is ok -Althea seems to me to often be played at too slow a pace, well sung, nice build up to the solos, but they are mostly merely competent, outro 5:55 – 8:49 is very good -CC Rider: more suitable for the laid back, screechy playing the band is putting forth this set; Italian chick next to me at work looked at me & smiled while Bobby’s slide solo wailed, probably wondering about the noise the silly American called music (not the prettiest solo) -Tenn Jed: Jerry’s voice is going, good outro -Bucket: Maybe it takes a new song to fix the disconnect that has plagued the set. I don’t think lifelessness or heart is the problem with the set, they’re just not clicking. -Day Job: good energy, very good solo Set 2 -Scarlet: Jerry’s voice is getting worse but the band sounds “on;” solo 3:17 – 5:39, 5 hot runs, great smile-inducing 2d run; jam starts off with the reprise, changes to an improvisation, Jerry plays some really neat notes, tempo builds, gets very hot quickly, seems like it could segue into Fire at any moment but Jerry isn’t ready, he pushes further and further, beautiful, settling down, stretch it out, not ready for Fire yet, tension building, reminds me of Slipknot in that way, but different energy of course, 14:20 total -Fire: tease us a bit, at 0:28 we get the Fire notes; 1st solo 3:16 – 6:25, different tones, awesome solo; 2d solo 7:50 – 10:56, really good, almost but not quite explodes at the end; outro 13:00 – 15:00, excellent, then comes the reprise; 15:27 total for the Fire -Estimated: solo 3:28 – 5:05, excellent; jam starts slow, stays mellow, nice relaxing jam though; 13:11 total -Eyes: nice tempo throughout, not so fast that it loses the subtlety that the song needs; long, excellent 1st solo; 2d solo, long again, floating, above the clouds, fanning ending: outro good but not as interesting; 17:50 total -Drums: -Space (entitled “Spinach Jam” on DP#6): starts off as Space but Jerry has a Spanish Jam in mind, Bobby excellent in rhythm here, this is a very pretty jam though it is mostly just Jerry and Bobby; hints and then very blatant Other One runs -Other: great buildup after the 1st verse, explosions, the Dead are taking no prisoners; 2d jam is much mellower, still nice -Stella: the first solo is almost like a continuation of the 1st jam in Other, until the end when the requisite gentleness is evoked; beginning of outro is exquisite, and the rest is simply beautiful -Sugar Mag: excellent intro, tempo is very nice, high energy rock & roll, great jam in btwn Sugar Mag & Sunshine Daydream -E: US Blues: nicely done Overall: the 1st set is pretty weak, effort seems to be there but the result generally is not. TLEO, Althea, Bucket and Day Job are all worth listens, but none are really highlights. The 2d set is the reason why Dick picked this show, and he made a great choice. This is one of THE Scarlet/Fires, and also one of the better Estimated > Eyes of the 80’s. The Spanish Jam is a highlight, as is the Other One, especially the powerful first jam. Stella is gorgeous. Sugar Mag ends the set on a great rocking note. So we have a Decent set 1 and a Great set 2. Tough to give it a number rating, but I say 8.5/10 overall.

Just one man's opinion but this was the best show I ever went to. I remember leaving the Civic House of Fascism and everyone just being stunned. The 2nd set was almost 1 long play. I realise that there are many shows that people will react similarly, only to realise in the cold light of day maybe it wasn't "the greatest". Not this one. I have a 1st gen tape of the show from a very wealthy taper friend (wealthy = the best portable equipment of the time) it blows away DP. Sorry not ment to insult anyone but this aud has a lot more dynamics than the official release and it ( the show) is just incredible

A college friend (John T- if you are here drop me a line) had some tickets and we drove up from NJ and then stayed at my house (I Lived in CT). I had been a fan for a long time, but never made it to a show ( My Older brother was at many including Yale Bowl 71 and Dillon Stadium 74- so I had some great tapes) The first set was Pretty cool, I was just taking in the scene live. It was the second set that I will never forget. It was like one long evolving song, with an incredible set up where the speakers were more Quadrophonic than can be ascertained from the DP release. I would say that the second set set the bar pretty high for my expectations at future shows!

This was Trey Anastasio's first Grateful Dead concert. For a high schol metal head, it was life changing, and very well could be the fork in the road that led to Phish. As he told Bobby Weir about that show: "It was the first time I had seen, in a rock 'n' roll setting, music as a community builder, where the band members were all listening to each other and improvising, the audience was an active participant in the musical event. It totally changed my concept." See clip from the 2001 Connecticut Forum event where they spoke and later jammed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ItoM-wrmc

My first show, I was 13 years old-wow!

It was also Trey Anastasio's first show as well.

what a quintessential set 2 opening (!).. really the entire 2nd set, right ? I recall when DP VI was released > one of my favorite tapes .. that I actually recorded ! ... a bit unusual was the length of Scarlet >Fire ..... like 30 something minutes .. ...... so as Estimated was winding down, most of us noticed there’s no way we’re gonna fit Eyes on what little tape was left ... (!) .. so many scrambled to pop in a fresh Maxell XLII S (or metal as the case may be ;-) > (I believe this was before 100 minute tapes ...) ... the rest was history ... I made an mp3 of that 20 seconds of Brent’s xylophone intro to Scarlet & used as my ringtone for years ! (lol) ... about 5 years ago (maybe more ?), Apple came out w it’s own xylophone ringtone as the default, and so many people would hear mine and say “that doesn’t sound like my ringtone..?” (close, but no cigar ;-)