Grateful Dead

These two Augusta shows were my personal bests - fall colors, tiny venue, right on the boards in the center, hangin out on the grassy quads before the shows, best set lists I'd ever seen (for my tastes). Skipping out on exams, well rewarded. Wish I could find good recordings of these...(?!?)

camping out under the full moon, the endless giggle that went from tent to tent all night long, high school basketball gym setting, where all the special effects in use at the time, that could lift yuo right out of your seat, say, at the centrum, wouldn't work here, they actually had to come out and play, like actually pick the notes, like bluegrass style. And they did. did i mention camping out on the c.c.'s front lawn under the full moon? indian summer, picnic in the pines, and rock out with the gd. just the top of the heap. the only tapes i had were horrible even for tapes. ahhhhh, augusta 84

Tiny little "arena" with some back-breaking bleacher seats (still there to this day, I understand). I saw my high school hoops team win a state championship there. My first Dead show was there. And Springsteen, Dylan, Petty, and the Allman Bros. Someplace has to be your "first"....this was mine, 30 yrs ago.

2nd set Morning Dew! I still, to this day, have that show on a cassette tape. What a fantastic night. I'm almost 43 years old, and I remember it soooo vividly.

Augusta is way out in the middle of nowhere, unless you lived where I lived, 60 miles north of way out in the middle of nowhere. To us it was exotic as all get-out..we didn't travel much, or very far, in those days. At the time, the civic center was kind of graduating up from the absolutely horrid (but full of fond memories and plenty of ghosts) Bangor Civic Center.

That's Bangor Auditorium. Sorry, I've been away too long.

The night before, after having been to the preceding show, we wound up camping on the shores of Acadia national park. Waking up that morning, it was sunny and beautiful. We then made a little trip up to Bar Harbor, had some lobster, then made our way for the second night of the run. Stranger opener was good, then Roses, On the Road Again and Jack A Roe. It dawned on me then they'd just done three songs off Reckoning i n a row. It's All Over Now, Cumberland and Music Never Stopped. Short set, but just excellent. Finished Playin' from the night before and aside from Brent's buzzkill Don't Need Love, this was just about as good a show as I could have asked for.