Yes, I was at that one, too. Fantastic Phil bombs during Shakedown Street. I got the tapes shortly after the show and proceeded to blow my speakers!
During a set break at a June 1977 Winterland show I was heading back upstairs to the balcony as a lissome hippie chick was walking down, and as we passed we both suddenly grabbed each other's hand and gave a squeeze in full uncanny mind-reading strangers stopping strangers mode, and then just kept going.
Earlier today I listened to 8/23/68 (Shrine Auditorium). What an awesome ****ing show this was! Mind-melting versions of Dark Star, The Eleven, The Other One and St. Stephen. The main highlight though was Alligator. Around 30 mins of intense jamming that never let up. Certainly one of the best versions I've ever heard. The mix was very good with Phil's bass being an ever constant force throughout. I just love his tone during that era. Now I'm listening to 12/30/78 (Pauley Pavilion). Man this show is so much fun. A killer Jack Straw opens up the show and the ball is rolling. Every version so far has been on fire. Examples being Tennessee Jed, Mama Tried > Mexicali Blues (a really good combo), Stagger Lee, Minglewood Blues and Sugaree. The band is really on and Jerry solos like a madman. I can already tell this is one of the best of '78.
They even toured with Jesus back in the day. Must have influenced them to do that tour with Dylan later on...
Lost in all the humor is the lissome hippie chick and your cosmic connection. I want to circle back and acknowledge your moment of bliss.
The Dead had an elevated sense of stage energy in the mid-fall of 1976. For me it is beared out in thrustful performances on this Pick, and a few weeks later during 'Day On the Green' DP 33 (of course being billed w/ the who might do that), and the War Memorial show on Sept 28... killer energy, DiP 2o (landover show not so much). It is part of what makes that year special for me. Disc one, has Weir huffing and puffing, blowing it down, and Jer' giving Sugaree those fine lead line treatments.
Unless there's a pre-existing inside Dead reference to it I don't know about, the convergence on the Battle of Hastings seems more remarkable than the handshake with the hippie woman...
(I'm listening to the June 1976 box. I'm going to put this here, because I apparently have masochistic tendencies.) : The slow tempo Friend of the Devil is a significant misfire. The lope of the instrumentation is beautiful. I like it, a lot. The vocal melody of the verses works just fine. The cadence of the vocals, at this pace, during the chorus, derails the entire exercise. I just can't work past it. That's my stance, and I doubt that it's going to change. Be kind. Or not.
It's a well known phenomena that we read by seeing the patterns of letters or numbers, and since you expected a date within a certain range that's what you saw. I did a double take when I first read it as well, then I went for the humor.