Grateful Dead

Spellbinding 2nd set and I think this was the first time the NFA clap was used.

Still enjoy listening to this show. I never saw so many people in the place before or since, and I've probably been to 50 or so events in the arena over the years.

John

Chuck

I didn't know many songs yet but the Terrapin made my spine tingle.

This was one of the earlier Not Fade Aways when the audience clapped along after the band had left the stage. When the show let out the entire crowd continued to pound out the NFA by clapping with their hands and banging on every available wall, pillar, trash can... outside the hall is a second-floor atrium of sorts and people continued to beat out the beat on the railing... right up to the part where someone decided to jump from the second floor down to the street level -- almost always a bad idea. Glen

This was a good show, very good weather report i remember. I dont remember anyone jumping but i do remember that happening in 1979 because after that show the band was not very welcomed. Thats what it said in the paper anyway. I think 83 was the year they returned and it was a good time had by all. (except for the person who jumped anyway)

I was going to high school in the area then. It was in the papers. I was into the Dead and really wanted to attend, but was forced to wait until college to start going to shows.

What an amazing set list. I wish I had known the songs at that point in my deadification. I'd love a good recording of this. His job is to shed light, not to master.

This is another one of THOSE places were the band can do no wrong. We dropped hits early in the afternoon and walked through town for a little while. Cool town. We didn't look for trouble and none found us. This show was general admission and I don't recall any stampede. We could have been leaning on the wall up front but in our state I figured some space was in order. This was a small hockey arena. We moved back about 1/3 and hopped up on the first row. There were no railings from there to the floor, which was about 4 or 5 feet below us now. we were the same height as the stage. Eye to eye with the band and had a great view of the whole party. The boys never let up, from Jerry mumbling through "Alabama Getaway" to the Binghamton hand clap at the end.

It was just another Tuesday night in upstate New York or was it.For me and a small group of college friends from Clark University it was Pure Magic. We had the experience of our lives. We surendered to the music and were rewarded. It was the first Not Fade Away chant in modern times. The conection between the band and the audience was so strong. The fade away chant blew all of us away and went on to define the next 10+ years. The first set was loaded with jamming songs from bird song cassidy to let it grow...The start of the second set Help/Slip/Franklin's was the first in the north/east since 77/78 and the rest is history to the few in attendance.I have seen many grate shows in very sacred places ..the greek..frost..red rocks...alpine..kaiser..I've seen many special nights including four new years dylan&dead...etc. Of all those nights this one in Binghamton on a cold Tuesday night in the spring of 83 stands out from the others. Thats part of the Magic. It can happen anywhere anytime... Thanks for the music and the memories that they bring back. Health & Happiness

music scene here now is limited to your memories.

I remember easily making it to right in front of the stage, with room to dance. I was a new deadhead and had never heard Help On the Way but it blew me away.

I attended this show as a 15-year-old high school sophomore, and remember it mostly as a solid concert, which I attended with young friends, all of whom I eventually grew apart from, and one who died some years later, sadly. We were chaperoned by my one friend's pot-smoking aunt, who was a cool lady who kept us all together and got us there and back safely and responsibly, on a school night. At the time, we felt the set list was a great cross-section of what the Dead were up to at the time. I remember Weir making a great entrance in "Greatest Story"; "Bird Song" was very nice. We all loved the sing-along at the end of "Not Fade Away" and talked about it for weeks afterward. We felt so special that it happened in Binghamton and we all thought the Dead had a special affection for our dismal post-industrial city. I do remember though that Garcia seemed to be having a little bit of an off-night, not to say he played badly, though. He forgot the words entering "Help On the Way", and his time was lagging somewhat during the difficult parts of "Slipknot", even though we felt very fortunate to have heard the "Help On the Way" sequence played in concert; we all loved Blues For Allah and the more jazz-related Dead material. I read later on in posthumous biographies that Garcia was pretty into junk at the time and indeed, at this concert, he was obviously committed to performing but seemed somewhat aloof or separate from the others, or not in good humor, and certainly he has had better nights; his moments were truly good moments but Weir clearly carried the show, and it's obvious on any tape of this show that Weir's tunes had the most impact. I think Garcia may have just wanted to "sit in" with the Bob Weir Band and not be in the position of de facto leader on this particular night. The crowd left the concert chanting "Not Fade Away", continuing even outside. It's a sad thing, the passage of time, but this was a cherished memory from my youth.

I agree this is the day the Not Fade Away clap and begining of the chant. I remember thinking this is so cool back then. Was still new to the whole every show scene even though was maybe my 50th show at this point..And also out to the parking lots the chant and clapping went. Reminds of what is like to see them in Seattle Had thought wow these people here are crazy beating (in rhythm to the drums)on anything they could get there hands.

If i remember correctly this show was on a school night. I was a sophmore, and skipped a couple days to get to it from my house. Well worth the punishment from the rents!!

I was in my second year at Sullivan County Community College. I had a roommate (Tom) who played them constantly, which drove me nuts. He kept saying "Its a live thing", so we went to this show. We ended up too close to the stage on the floor, I was a bit high and the crush was too much. After getting off the floor and into seats, on Jerry's side but back up a bit. I met up somehow with a local guy who Tom and I had meet while waiting in line to get tickets a month or so earlier. I don't remember so much of the music as much as being blown away by Jerry's playing and the fluid sound of it all. I was hooked. I have seen them over a 100 times and have some great life memories from live Dead. I met my future wife at a Laguna Seca show south of San Francisco. My first back stage was at Red Rocks. My first Garcia Band show was also in Binghamton but at a different venue.With any luck, the mail order I just sent will come back with tickets for the upcoming final shows this summer in Chicago.

NY