Grateful Dead

RFK is my home show and usually the floor(field) is wide open general admission but this year some knuckle-head made the decision to put chairs on the field!!! hippies on the dancin full tilt boogie vibe and 10000 + chairs do not mix!!We need our space not broken bones! Set list looks good but I really only remember the obstacle course.......

On the other hand, I can say that I saw Dwight Yoakam live!~plus a damn fine Grateful Dead show! Cheers! JG “The Omnipotent Grateful Dead!”

The bleachers at RFK bounce a good 6' in the air when everyone gets in the groove. It may just be a mind fuck, but the lights on the bilboards hanging from the ceiling of the upper deck move quite a bit as well. DMD

I made it down to about the 25th row for this one, sneaking behind security when they weren't looking. It was so much easier to flit about when you ditched your friends and went solo, eh? I remember the big screens showed something like a huge, revolving gray plate that splintered into tiny shards at the beginning of Help On the Way, and Jerry's hair blowing in the wind as he belted out the ending to Stella Blue like he'd sometimes do. The Dark Star was a singular version because it was so focused and fast but still trippy. An absolutely tremendous show that I was ecstatic to see officially released.

If memory serves me well (hmmmm...). This was the night that 3 planets aligned and could be seen in the night sky as they played Dark Star.

My buddy and I didn't even have tickets to this show (we decided to skip all the football stadium shows on this tour) but decided to go hang out as we were going that way anyway. Once we got there we figured we might as well try to score some tickets. Tickets were nonexistent but we finally found a guy who claimed to have a "rain check" for two people that he was willing to trade for a bag of precious smoke. I was skeptical about getting ripped off but the guy walked us up to the gate and made sure we got in.We were in seats in the lower level directly opposite of the stage. Right behind the soundboard was a roped off area with no chairs. Right about the second or third song somebody asked the Staff Pro if they could go dance in there. Next thing you know everybody in our section was pouring over the barrier. I hung down there for a little while before it got too crowded for my increasingly complex mental state. I noticed that there were uncrowded sections in the upper levels so I meandered my way up there. By the time the second set started I was having to hold onto my chair to keep from falling down onto the floor of the stadium. When the band launched into Help I felt like I was mentally communing with them. So naturally when I told them to play Dark Star and they started showing the interplanetary space travel stuff on the video screens I was thinking to myself, "Greatest show ever!". My pal and I hooked up back in the parking lot and argued over who was going to drive. I elected to "navigate" but found it exceedingly hard to decipher the bowl of worms that was the road atlas map. All in all it was a great time and I was really glad we went. Sadly though when I bought my copy of the DVD the stellar levels of cosmicality didn't really translate through the sober light of day.

i'd just moved to philly the week before. i was kinda worried how to tell work that i'd need to take next friday off (mail order in hand, not going was not an option). i went to my supervisor to ask to take annual leave for the 14th- she replied,"it's flag day. it's a city holiday." SWEET. was going to give my extra to a buddy interning in dc. "i'll meet you at the entrance of the metro"- seriously how did we hook up before cell phones? me and thousands of heads waiting outside the subway, so i spend 2 hrs before the show looking for my friend. i hear the tune up notes AND I'M NOT IN THE STADIUM (turns out my buddy bagged on going to the show)! try to sell my extra (@cost) to a couple needing one and a DC cop tries to arrest me for selling a ticket! the girl says,"we're not buying we're trading shows." away goes the cop [i'm posting this as thanks to that quick thinking head] what about the show? cold rain was great even tho i wasn't in my seat which turned out to be on the floor. does anyone else remember the paper floor underneath the chairs to protect the turf? i'm a first set guy and this one just makes me smile just looking at it. Maggi'es Farm was so much fun w/the band trading verses. the second set w/the help>slip>frank opener just rocked. this was my first dark star, but i got distracted during it b/c of crowd issues (security clearing the aisles which pushed heads into the rows-seats on the floor not a great idea) one of my favorite dead shows

my 1st rfk show was incredible, but it took a while, and a LOT more shows, to realize just how INCREDIBLE this show really was- great set list, great jams, great vocals.....NICE

When I think back to the days on tour. All I can do is Smile. Wow good times!!!!!!I miss the boys so much. Thank you sirius radio and the Grateful Dead channel 32

Strange to have assigned seating on the floor.We went to this show in our friends big orange step van with about 13 people.What a great time we had!

yes! Friend! It absolutely was the night planets aligned that we could theoretically see - especially good while standing on those stupid chairs!

Arrived in DC nearly dry now from the experience in NC. Hit the stage before the show to see if we could bum buds. But better yet, we got a handful of tickets & passes from a friend.Headed out to shakedown street to perform miracles. Could have easily traded for buds but that ain't the "deal". Besides, no need too. When your handing out miracle tickets everyone has a spleef to pass you. "Instant Karma" works both ways for sure! Funny watching all the heads trying to figure out what this hillbilly was doing on a Grateful Dead stage! Till he broke into "truckin", he stole their harts... Go Dwight!

What a fantastic day! I had NO idea what was up & wondered why people were walking around with their fingers up! :) I didn't even realize they had gone to set break...I was still dancing! I was sooo green :) Had a bunch of friends there that day, fresh off some time at the beach. I know it's cliche, but this show changed my life! I enjoyed the time Bruce Hornsby spent with the band.

Man was it hot that day on the asphalt before the show... i remember having my very first Gerry Garcia ice cream from a vendor..it was magical too say the least..saved my space..great show!!!

This show is rightfully enshrined in official release as View From the Vault II. Jerry was all over it all night. Doesn't get better than Help -> Slipknot! -> Franklin's -> Estimated -> DARK STAR. This was the Help/Slip I'd always wanted to see, they'd had it out long enough to really stretch on it, as they had circa Merriweather '84 (which I just missed). And I hadn't seen Dark Star yet, was out of the country the previous year at RFK. Outstanding versions of Stella Blue and Lovelight (with its prankstery false ending). Wonderful 1st set, too, especially Black-Throated Wind. Very memorable show, and it was a stadium, even.

This show is rightfully enshrined in official release as View From the Vault II. Jerry was all over it all night. Doesn't get better than Help -> Slipknot! -> Franklin's -> Estimated -> DARK STAR. This was the Help/Slip I'd always wanted to see, they'd had it out long enough to really stretch on it, as they had circa Merriweather '84 (which I just missed). And I hadn't seen Dark Star yet, was out of the country the previous year at RFK. Outstanding versions of Stella Blue and Lovelight (with its prankstery false ending). Wonderful 1st set, too, especially Black-Throated Wind. Very memorable show, and it was a stadium, even.

This show is rightfully enshrined in official release as View From the Vault II. Jerry was all over it all night. Doesn't get better than Help -> Slipknot! -> Franklin's -> Estimated -> DARK STAR. This was the Help/Slip I'd always wanted to see, they'd had it out long enough to really stretch on it, as they had circa Merriweather '84 (which I just missed). And I hadn't seen Dark Star yet, was out of the country the previous year at RFK. Outstanding versions of Stella Blue and Lovelight (with its prankstery false ending). Wonderful 1st set, too, especially Black-Throated Wind. Very memorable show, and it was a stadium, even.

This show is rightfully enshrined in official release as View From the Vault II. Jerry was all over it all night. Doesn't get better than Help -> Slipknot! -> Franklin's -> Estimated -> DARK STAR. This was the Help/Slip I'd always wanted to see, they'd had it out long enough to really stretch on it, as they had circa Merriweather '84 (which I just missed). And I hadn't seen Dark Star yet, was out of the country the previous year at RFK. Outstanding versions of Stella Blue and Lovelight (with its prankstery false ending). Wonderful 1st set, too, especially Black-Throated Wind. Very memorable show, and it was a stadium, even.

This show is rightfully enshrined in official release as View From the Vault II. Jerry was all over it all night. Doesn't get better than Help -> Slipknot! -> Franklin's -> Estimated -> DARK STAR. This was the Help/Slip I'd always wanted to see, they'd had it out long enough to really stretch on it, as they had circa Merriweather '84 (which I just missed). And I hadn't seen Dark Star yet, was out of the country the previous year at RFK. Outstanding versions of Stella Blue and Lovelight (with its prankstery false ending). Wonderful 1st set, too, especially Black-Throated Wind. Very memorable show, and it was a stadium, even.

for the quintiple posting.....I always wondered how/why some people did that, and now it's gone and happened to me. Well, hey, while I'm here ~ really fun Maggie's Farm, too, eh? Phil's and Bruce's verses are my favorite. If you watch the DVD, you can really see how much Bruce enjoyed playing with Jerry.

Caught this show with my Sis and a couple head friends. Great second set. Hot Help-Slip-Frank, one of my all time favorite Estimated Profits. I love it when Bobby does the voice echo. Dark Star was a nice surprise also.

5 stars .. was an awesome night

I haven't listened to the release only because I am one of those guys who never listens to shows he has attended- preserve the sanctity of the live moment. Great show, I remember, with it being lackluster until midway through Maggies Farm. Row Jimmy seemed like it would kill the energy at the time but I remember this being one of the better RJ's I had ever seen. The rest of the set speaks for itself, as does the second set. This was one of those shows where a giant stadium felt like an intimate theater. Sadly, the parking lot scene was a terror! J.T. Gossard http://thehallucinogenicbible.blogspot.com/