4-19 DCU Center

Venue History

Show Recap

DCU Center

::venue info

Aside from Boston, Worcester is the place most-played in Massachusetts in the Grateful Dead’s history, including 12 shows at the Centrum 1983-1988, and a show in both 1969 and 1970 at smaller venues. The show in 1969 took place almost 40 years from the date of these shows by The Dead, on 4/20/69 at Clark University. In 1970 they returned to Worcester, playing the Worcester Polytechnic Institute on 5/9/70, the magnificent tour that included stops at Harpur College (Dick’s Picks Vol. 8) , Alfred, NY and MIT, amongst other great shows. Starting in 1983, the band played the Centrum every year up to 1988, with the exception of 1986.

Loads of great music was played at the Centrum, including the Fall tour shows in 1983, 1984 and 1985, and Spring shows in 1987 and 1988. In 1983 and 1984, the band played excellent Help>Slip>Franklins at both runs of shows, and in 1985, on 11/5/85, the band offered a Happy Birthday wish to Bill Walton, who could be seen hanging out onstage beside the monitor along with several of his Boston Celtic teammates. If you get a chance, check out the version of Let It Grow from 10/9/84 at the Centrum, truly a monster rendition. In 1987 the band had its triumphant return to Worcester after Jerry’s 1986 coma, and in both 1987 and 1988 all three annual concerts were broadcast live on the radio on WCUW. The Centrum was a bit of a smaller venue than the band usually played at the time, so these radio broadcasts certainly brought the music to more people who wanted to hear it than could actually fit into the building.

We'll update this page during the show with the confirmed setlist and a recap on the performance.

Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux will be out on the road with The Dead at selected shows, including this one. He'll be hanging out at the Grateful Dead Productions merchandise booth to answer questions, talk about the archives, or anything else. This booth will have available the brand-new Hartford '77 release, Rocking The Cradle: Egypt 1978, and loads of other great music, and is the only place aside from dead.net where you'll be able to pick up the 9-CD Winterland 1973 boxed set and all of the Road Trips releases including the recent Volume 2 Number 2 from 2/14/68. David will be around before each show, at the set break, and after the show, so feel free to come by and say hi.

Pre-show

After a largely cold and rainy day and evening on Saturday, Worcester on Sunday was a perfect Spring morning, sunny, cool, but beautiful. Arriving to the venue a few minutes before the crew, it was fun sitting in the empty stands for a while to write and hear nothing but the hum of the building’s systems. As I mentioned yesterday, this building really has a huge amount of character. It was built in 1982, with its first-ever concert being Frank Sinatra in September 1982, just like the Knickerbocker in Albany in March, 1990. Multi-night runs are interesting in that you walk out of the venue at night with trash and other debris all over the floors, and arrive the next day to a near-spotless facility. I’ll be hopping off the road after tonight’s show to get some work done on other projects, but I’m looking forward to meeting people at the Rhino booth in the concourse. In my absence, feel free to stop in to say hi to Sherri, who is running the booth. Outside of the venue today, on such a beautiful day, people started arriving early to hang out in the sun, walk around and check out this very cool historic city. The staff of the venue was busy discussing the playoff hockey game last night, Worcester at Hartford, which the Worcester Sharks lost 5-3. But, the local Boston Bruins won their game, which had the Massachusetts hockey fans smiling. Oh, off to soundcheck. More later…

Set 1

A rousing taste of 1973 to open the show, Here Comes Sunshine, featured some as-expected tight jams and great work by Warren. That was followed by a bluesy Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, with Warren and Bobby trading some intricate interplay. A superb surprise came next, Alligator, sung by Phil with terrific percussion work by Billy and Mickey. The vibe in the room is very smooth and mellow, which isn’t to say it’s not pumped with energy. Everyone is dancing, but it does feel like a Sunday show. To keep the high energy going, they ripped into a nice Deal, with some excellent solos by Warren and Jeff. Next up, Hell In A Bucket! Yes, indeed, we’re enjoying the ride. That then went into an even bigger surprise than Alligator, a hugely impressive Cream Puff War! And it was realllllly good! To end it all off they played another 1966 era song, Good Lovin’. All in all this was a very, very good set. The second set ought to be excellent.

Set 2

There’s just something very Worcester-like about Scarlet>Fire, and so it seemed very appropriate that they’d begin the second set with a smoking hot Scarlet>Fire. The instrumental break in Scarlet was nailed to perfection by Warren leading the way and everyone hammering away in unison. Again, Bobby sounds great, both in the mix and his performance. Likewise Phil sounds amazing. Derek Featherstone really has it dialed in at the soundboard. Warren nailed a few solos in Fire that had the entire house cheering ecstatically. Oh, lest I forget, a few nights ago they played Bertha, and I forgot to mention that on the jam they nailed that terrific bomb that Phil and Bobby coordinate on the “3.” For an example of that check out the Bertha on the Egypt 1978 DVD. Anyhow, back to Sunday in Worcester. Scarlet>Fire went into another insane Rhythm Devils. Followed by a spacey Space, the improv of the show went into a powerful Satisfaction that had the entire building singing along, the beginning of a sequence that was as good as anything on the tour. Then came more fireworks with Born Cross-Eyed>Slipknot!>Let It Grow. It was truly a spectacular sequence of music, both in song selection and execution. Kudos again to the lighting crew of Dan English, Groove and the rest of a hard-working and talented crew. It looks great, guys! Next up was the tour’s first repeat, Uncle John’s Band (well, Slipknot! was a repeat, but it was out of its normal context of Help and Franklin’s), amazing considering this is the sixth show of the tour. So far this little sequence after Satisfaction featured music from 1968, 1975, 1973 and 1970. Nice. This was a great sing-a-long version that had the place singing as one. Epic! Next up, from Jerry’s excellent first solo album, came a very smooth version of The Wheel with a long and winding introduction. It also featured a cool calypsoish ending with Bobby again singing some terrific stuff at the end. Between Hell In A Bucket, Satisfaction and this version of The Wheel, Bobby’s singing has been exceptional, like it’s 1989 again. Next up was Lovelight, a great way to end the set, and what loads of people around here are raving is the best show of the tour so far. Very good stuff from start to finish. Warren played some really nice leads. Then, for the encore, hanging out with recordingman David R., we speculated on the encore, completely forgetting it was Sunday, and of course they played a rocking Samson and Delilah. What a way to end the night, and a great two nights in Worcester. Thanks again, Worcester!

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