Grateful Dead

Chris... thanks for posting your memories of these shows. I, too, remember that the band played two nights in a row at Pirates World that Spring.(See my comments under the Archive listing for "shows by date": March 24, 1970.) It seems from other comments under that date, that there is some confusion in the record as to when exactly the shows took place. So it is good to read your confirmation of my recollection! They would have played either Fri./Sat. or Sat./Sun. nights. I read on another forum, "Miami Memories", where a fellow Deadhead, who also attended these shows, bumped into Jerry Garcia on the roller coaster in the "rides" section of the park about an hour before the show one evening... cool! I grew up in the Miami area and I, too, saw some great shows at Pirates World in the early 70's... Steve Miller, Ike & Tina Turner (Smoking Hot show!), Chambers Bros., Hot Tuna w/ Papa John Creech and others. I would love to have seen the Allman Brothers back then, I didn't realize that they played Pirates World. I did see them play at the Jai-a-Lai Fronton. I tell you those Marshall Amps were loud in that concrete-block building!

There were actually 2 shows at his venue, and this is a fact cause I remember them vividly - The first night the Dead (preceded, unfortunately, by a local band who did a cover of "Goin' Home" by Ten Years After, something that we had to sit/stand through on both nights the Dead appeared!) opened with Casey Jones, then Black Peter, and thirdly Me & My Uncle (which was indeed a revelation! at least to me - I immediately fell in love with the song and have been ever since...) after this, my memory of the set list fails me, but I remember for sure Hard to Handle, Good Lovin' and Cold Rain and Snow.... the band didn't do any > that eve if I remember well but they cooked enough that at the end I was more than ready o take Phil's counsel that "If you want more, come back and see us tomorrow night... " No Encore, which I indeed admired (there were maybe 1000 people there - those were the days!) Well the next night was a Concert for the Ages, probably one of the best Dead shows ever, anyway certainly the most memorable for me... Starting with an intro by Sam Cutler, then a great Morning Dew full of tension , after which a short Cumberland (like a nod to the coming album) and then an incredible 30 minute version of Dark Star > The Other One>St.Stephen>The Eleven>an incredible Lovelight and seemingly out of the blue>Me & My Uncle which came to a thundering crash an hour later, after which we gave this most amazing band a 10 minute ovation( and finally Garcia, Lesh and Weir came out and gave us We bid you Goodnight) the likes of which I haven't experienced since (this was before the days the band became "popular" and there was a notable difference in the audience - true, I'd toked up quite a bit on one of the Amusement park rides pre-show and during but this show was indeed magical - a truely inspiring/transporting musical experience, and I was up there for days after - a true believer in the expansive /inspirational powers of the band - it seemed like anything was musically possible after this concert... So the set listed above is somewhat of a compilation of the 2 nights that the Dead appeared at Pirate's World (where I indeed saw many other great shows first and foremost The Allman's,Spirit, Beefheart, Quicksilver, TajMahal,,Jeff Beck, Traffic, Zepellin, Tull.... but none came close to matching the Dead in dexterity/mobility, and inspiration! (As if I need to say that!)