Grateful Dead

Incredible middle show of the three-night Hampton '88 run. Smoking hot first set which included the breakouts "Ballad of a Thin Man" and "To Lay Me Down". Second set continued along in the same smoking vein with 5 song pre-drumz barrage into a scary quadraphonic Drumz>Space with Micky working "The Beam" that shook the entire building, into a classic 80's post-space GDTRFB>Miracle>Fantasy>Sunshine Daydream, topped off by a celebratory US Blues encore. Incredible... and there was still one more Hampton show yet to come!!! This was first real GD road trip, driving down from NJ with my brother and his girlfriend at the age of 15. Good times indeed.

I had been seeing shows for 4 years and every night I'd go the person that shot Kennedy from the grassy knoll would go to the band and say "He that guy Sal is here don't do "Fire" tonight. If I was seeing all the shows in New Jersey and Philadelphia, they'd do it at the shows between in Maryland. I'd get to the show and look over my copy of "Duprees Diamond News" and there it'd be. Well if I had to wait for one, this was the one to wait for

This was just a fucking insane show. I'm just gonna leave it at that.

I was16 years old @ the time & I got my mom 2 take me & 2 of my friends 2 the show & drop us off!!! WOW WHAT A TRIP! We didn't get in but we did the next night! The radio station simocast the show live as they were playin inside! If u were there & didn't get in u know! It was AWESOME!!!! It was rainin & everyone who didn't get in had their car doors open & stereos cranked 2 the show! Cops were in disbelief as we danced our asses off trippin sooooooo hard on some wash, INCREDIBLE!!! That was my introduction 2 The GRATEFUL DEAD! LOVE @ FIRST SIGHT 4 REAL!!!

I only got to see the Dead one time and it was this show. It was probably the best concert up to that time/since then that I've seen. I didn't even know if I'd get tix, but I trustingly gave my money to 2 girls I didn't even know and they came back with 2 tix about 30 min later. LOVED IT!!! :)

i had tapes of this, show, and the whole weekend for that matter. i never replaced them when they no longer played. how can i download this show, and the others from this run also?

This was my first dead show. I planned all winter to travel to this particular arena. I wanted to see the Dead in a place they had played before and in city I wasn't familiar with. I was from Westchester New York, I had no experience with the Dead. My girlfriend and I rented a car and drove down south for this one show. We were so naive, we had no tickets and we had no idea what even went down during a show. Lots of amazing things happened, lots of weird unbelievable cool things. We were just kids and totally open. We got tickets the day before, near the parking lot, for face value. I remember the guy wouldn't take more money. I offered him 50 bucks. I was used to NYC. We probably could've got them for free but that's not the point. We wandered around outside the stadium parking lot, I remember a lot where everyone was hanging. It was like I journeyed to the past. I loved it. My girlfriend was so wonderful and beautiful. I loved her. She was a little scarred but just as curious. We stayed in a motel that night and came back the next morning and ate mushrooms. The day was too intense and I almost lost it, but my girl took care of me and I saw my life stand still for a moment. The road lay out before me. I knew I was a teenager and I knew this life was temporary but it was heavy and philosophical to me then. I felt the sun shinning on my face and I felt happy. The world was a strange place and you can see it many different ways but you need to open your eyes. I saw the trees sway in slow motion and I saw the beauty of people when they are innocent. When we finally got into the show, we sat down on the floor and people were immediately lighting up and being super generous. I remember a hairy dude catching a balloon and writing with a magic marker on it. He wrote "iko iko" and threw it in the air and laugh loudly. I didn't even know that was a song. I though it was a spell. He asked our names and I have forgotten his name. Low and behold the band came on and played "iko." He looked at me and winked. I rememer listening to "eyes of the world" for the first time. I was so moved by the words I could hear. I thought, "this is us, this is my girlfriend and myself. We don't even know what's happening but we like it." I met so many awesome people at those shows. We were just learning and it was incredible. I was thankful to be alive and I felt love for everything and everyone. Thanks to everyone who was nice to us. Peace and love to "iko" man where ever you are.

Where's the SO WHAT in the set list? This was one of my favorite shows but for year's I was convinced by people that I had "dreamed" SO WHAT since it was missing off of so many list. Let's show some love for the Dead's jazz props.

Home in the mission of San Fran our phone wrang and it was marc Steve on the other end saying the broke out to lay me down after 5 years. Next day people on the tour gathered up the cash for us to fly east. went to western union and the airport. Flew to Jersey. And went to the rest of the tour.

After this show we left to catch Meadowlands the next night. There was construction on the bay/bridge tunnel and we got stopped on the above ground section in the middle of the Cheasapeake bay. Some guy in a tour bus gets out and jumps on the roof of the bus and starts doiing this juggling performance with flaming sticks...Holy shit was that trippy....most bizzare thing that ever happened to me on tour....It was very surreal out in the middle of the bay watching flaming sticks....

That was a great moment with an old friend... Second set was off the hook. So What?>Sugar Mag.....more magic! The Scarlet > Fire goes down as the best I ever witnessed first hand. Very powerful! I later brought the tape to my religion class as an assignment and played Eyes of the World...that killed at least 15 minutes of class and the teacher-Nun was trippin' by the end! Thanks Gents!!