I live in a college town. I remember in the late 80s/early 90s it was common to see/hear those buses around town. I don't think I have seen or heard one since.
Quite a few '80s shows sound much better when listening to the audience recordings! Don't skip the next night, it's even better. '83 might have been the best year of the '80s....maybe tied with '81, in my preference. (Phil woke up in '83, which makes a big difference.) But I suspect if there was a poll, '89 would win in a landslide. With a few sympathy votes for acoustic '80 and summer '85. And maybe a few lonely voices for the dark '84 vibe or the cheery '87 stomp.
26 March 1972- Academy of Music, NYC. Prepping for E72 and doing a bang-up job! Gonna save the deep listening of the second set jam from this show, and the '73 show, for this evening when such things work better.
In addition to the above, This uvm show I just listened to has a fantastic cracking Scarlet/Fire and awesome Dew. Just finished it this am 4/13/83 Edit: continuing in the realm of lesser mentioned but still great shows: I always loved 10/15/83, Hartford also
The aforementioned Hartford shows from October. The Worcester show that was on 30 Trips. New Haven show from April with a great "Scarlet>Fire" and one of the best "Other Ones" of the 80s. Two-night stand in Santa Fe in September, has some great playing and unusual setlists. The second night (9-11), in particular, is a long-time fave of mine.
It's like heavy metal with saxophone. Agreed about 83, though 85 is cool too. I'm just getting started with 88, so can't comment there, but it's been 4 solid shows and one great show so far. I wonder how much that's prejudiced by the overwhelming number of official releases from 89 as opposed to any other 80s year. 4-20-83, after a lacklustre Touch of Grey opener, a great show. Also I like 9-10 better than 9-11, but both are good. There are a lot of Dark Star references in 83 (some, like 4-20, go as far as teases...)
I was just thinking this morning about how one of my favorite things about the Grateful Dead is how they changed from year to year pretty much throughout their career. Mostly for the best. Change is good. Although I hate change in my life.... But really, '69 was different from before. '70 was a big change from'69. And so on. Almost every year. So I can love the feel of '76 and then really appreciate though the sound of '77 and then '78. It kept changing and we have such an embarrassment of riches we can re-live it all when we want.
Thanks everyone for the 83 recommendations. It’s been a couple years since I spent time there. If there’s one positive during these bleak times is more time to listen to the dead.
I had a couple of friends make up their own language, and use it exclusively, for about two weeks surrounding the '90 Cal Expo/Shoreline/Eugene run of shows. Fortunately we had enough people traveling in our crew that it didn't drive me completely insane, and it did make trips to grocery stores more interesting. After the first night of spring tour in Atlanta in '88 or '89 (all the years combine...), a whole pile of us came back to our hotel room across the street from the Omni. We had invited a gal from Boulder we met earlier in the day to join us. Everything was grand, the liquid was plentiful and powerful. About an hour after the show our new friend pulled up a seat on the end of the couch and started making squirrel noises. It went on for quite some time, and she showed no inclination of stopping, so eventually the dozen or so rest of us just joined in. It was a very "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" kind of evening.
I listened to the first set from 10-31-91 this morning. Strong Help>Slip>Franklins. Phil sounds like he is playing lead coming out of Help. Vince fits in pretty well too. Why does Bobby always follow monster openers with a blues song?!? Nice Loser to follow though. I'm a big fan of Fall 91. I wonder if we get a Boston Garden Box someday...?
That's an interesting question. In the late 70s, he often used "Cassidy" in the "second" slot (which was usually a rockin' song as opposed to a cowboy song or a ballad), but by the end of the 80s, "Cassidy" had become a set-closer or a penultimate set-closer, to be followed by "Deal" or "Dough Knees" or one of those songs. I'm racking my brains (not looking at any actual setlists at the moment) and I don't think he had a lot of really rocking songs for the first set besides the blues songs and the cowboy songs. By the end of the 80s, most of the big "rock" songs were either reserved for the second set (like "I Need a Miracle") or reserved for the set opening/closing slot (like "Hell in a Bucket").
That's because he stopped playing Lazy Lightning > Supplication. Until Picasso Moon came along he did not have another first set rocker.
Ha! That’s hilarious. Fvcking DeadHeads, man. Whatcha gonna do? We were slinging nitrous on the super downlow and every time they took hits they’d go off in full conversation mode and answer us in their language. It was ridiculous. ...but that squirrel chick was special. I wonder what she’s up to? Could still be communing with the squirrel mother and Gaia.
Right. I knew I was forgetting something, but those were pretty much exclusively set openers/closers or encores.