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What was your favorite Grateful Dead show?


Captain Zap

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I was trying to figure out what my favorite Grateful Dead concert was and why ...

I went back to my first shows and it was New Year's Eve ... 1978 at Winterland that stuck out. I just got done listening to the show and I think I hit my nail on the head. Not one, Not two ...but three sets including Dark Star and Saint Steven and TWO encores. 


Here's hoping Dark Star Orchestra finds this playlist somewhere in the future where I'll be there.

 SET 1:

 

SET 2:
 

 

Set 3:


Encore 1:

Encore 2:

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They played that show in Baltimore, rams head on a new year’s Eve run somewhere between 2005-2010. I tried to stay vague, unfocused so as to keep it fresh but had the misfortune  of having my niece’s boyfriend at the set break, proceed to rattle off the set list to me. Buzz kill. 
7/12/90 RFK or 10/27/80 Radio City are my top two that I was at. 

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Favorite show I was at…”The Mescaline Show”

Springfield Mass 3/11/78  Lots of roaring and giggling in the lyrics…broke out werewolves masks.
Great acid and hot girlfriend to boot.
 

Cold Rain

BIODTL

FOTD

Looks Like Rain

Loser

Mexicali

Mama Tried

Tennessee Jed

Minglewood

Peggy O

Lazy Lightning

Supplication

 

Scarlet

Fire

Dancin in the Streets

D/S

NFA

Stella  Blue

Around & Around

 

Werewolves

Johnny B Goode

 

close second was 6 months earlier at Englishtown.

 

 

 

 

 

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Well.

 

The 12/31/78 show, as well as the shows mentioned by you, 2muchfun and Greg, are all incredible shows.  
 

This assignment is obviously next to impossible.  Which year, which season, indoor/outdoor, which city, the list, the performance, the companions, the party, the journey.

 

So much to consider.

 

The totality of it all brings me to humbly offer up the best Monday of my life:  

 

July 17, 1989 at Alpine Valley.

 

Setlist

  • Let the Good Times Roll
    Feel Like a Stranger
    Built to Last
    Me and My Uncle
    Cumberland Blues
    It's All Over Now
    Row Jimmy
    Masterpiece
    When Push Comes to Shove
    Music Never Stopped

    China Cat Sunflower
    I Know You Rider
    Playin' in the Band
    Uncle John's Band
    Standing on the Moon
    drums
    The Wheel
    Gimme Some Lovin'
    Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad
    Not Fade Away
    We Bid You Goodnight

    Johnny B. Goode

 

*First Bid You since your show, Captain.  😎

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11 minutes ago, Greg from Chestertown said:

3/31/87 was another nice one I got to experience live and in person. That night’s first two tunes, Jack Straw and Franklin’s are worth mentioning for Likeeveryone’s request for favorite two song combo. Tons of energy there. 

That Desolation is a romp!  That FM broadcast was One of my fave tapes

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Merriweather - June 30 1985.

 

Mississippi Half-Step
C.C. Rider
Brown Eyed Women
Mama Tried
Mexicali Blues
Keep on Growing
Big Railroad Blues
Looks Like Rain
Don't Ease Me In

Shakedown Street
Samson and Delilah
Gimme Some Lovin'
He's Gone
Cryptical Envelopment
drums
The Other One
Stella Blue
Around and Around
Sugar Magnolia

U.S. Blues

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Fall 1981 there was a three show run at the Greek Theater, University of California in Berserkly. All three shows (September 11 through September 13th) were really awesome. The huge tie-dyed tapestry behind the stage was memorable. China/Rider to end the first set and no slow going into the second set with Scarlett/Fire ... what a great buzz to feed on.

I can say that this show on September 12, 1981 was the stuff that kept me coming back for more.

            Set 1:

 

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The closing of Winterland show was one of the shows that really turned me on to the Dead. Dcfrank and when I posted as rickE listened to that show over and over again in our early college years. I was already listening some but those years were transformative in my transition from a fan to what some may call a Head. 

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Indeed Mason's Child ... I had not been on the bus for long but was enticed by new friends I'd made earlier in the year to make it to this show in specific.

The show went on forever as Bill Graham was hell bent on showing all of us a good time and ignoring the local ordinances. Champaign and eggs for all who braved the night.

It was the longest show I ever went to and stuck with me for decades. I still hail this show as the perfect storm. An historic venue on it's final night with thousands of like minded individuals ... shaking our bones through the night and into the morning. They finally broke their Dark Star silence and hearing those first chords coming from Jerry's guitar .... WOW

It was an incredible night that had I not been there ... would have left a crater in my soul

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After the 3 set shows at the Warfield and Radio City Music Hall in the Fall of 1980 I took a month long respite. On November 30 I found my self in Atlanta at the Fox Theater.

No disappointment ... it was a barn burner in an ornate venue ...

First Set

Second Set

  Encore:

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