Ah, yes, back at the Meadowlands, where the Grateful Dead had a long, at times outstanding, history at both venues here, Giants Stadium and the Brendan Byrne Arena (aka Meadowlands Arena, aka the current Izod Center). The band performed 30 times at the Meadowlands, with a nearly-even split between indoor and outdoor shows, 14 at Giants Stadium and 16 in the Arena.

The Grateful Dead’s first visit to the Meadowlands was on 9/2/78, to Giants Stadium, with the show being a kind of send-off for the Egypt ’78 shows, which took place two weeks later. This show in 1978 was the band’s second consecutive Labour Day Saturday visit to New Jersey where they drew massive crowds to both gigs (the 1977 show on 9/3/77 at Englishtown, of course, was made into the stunning Dick’s Picks Vol. 15), owing to two main factors: the huge numbers of New York City-area Dead Heads, and the fact that the show in 1977 was the first New York area show since May, and in the case of the 1978, it was the Grateful Dead’s only New York area show of the year, and aside from 11/24/78 in Passaic, the band was seemingly avoiding the city. With five Nassau and five Madison Square Garden shows in 1979, they sure made up for it quickly. After 1978, the next Giants Stadium shows were in 1987, 1989 and then every year between 1991 and 1995, with two shows per summer from 1989 onward. The 1987 show was part of the Dylan and the Dead tour, and featured some great energy. Starting in 1983, the Grateful Dead visited the indoor Brendan Byrne Arena every year up to 1989, with the exception of 1986.

There were loads of musical highlights at the Meadowlands, and in terms of just Giants Stadium performances, they included the stellar Scarlet>Fire on 9/2/78; the Morning Dew second set opener on 7/12/87 (a show the featured an excellent first set); the two great shows on the summer tour of 1989, with numerous highlights including an opening Shakedown>Jack Straw>West LA Fadeaway on 7/9/89 that began two incredible nights of music. In 1991, the new version of the Grateful Dead returned to the Giants Stadium after a year off with new keyboard players Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby, playing two solid nights of music, with the second show in particular being a standout. This second show featured a rare Eyes of the World opener and a Dark Star theme throughout. Thankfully, this show was not only video taped (some of which was broadcast on network TV), but it was also recorded to multi-track tape, so hopefully a nice 5.1 DVD release is produced some day.

On the indoor side of things, the Grateful Dead played plenty of great shows at the Brendan Byrne starting with shows in 1983 that featured an appearance by old friend of the Grateful Dead Stephen Stills on 4/17/83, playing on his own Black Queen, as well as Iko Iko, One More Saturday Night and Johnny B. Goode. Also in 1983, at the first show on 4/16/83, Bobby debuted his Little Star song that only lasted a short while in the repertoire. In 1984 and 1985, the band made two-night stops here on the Fall Tours, with a spring stop in 1987 and 1988. The shows in 1988 were excellent, coming on the heels of three great nights in Hampton, VA. The 4/1/88 show had an extraordinary first set, and a second set that didn’t have the most insane setlist, but that featured monumental playing. Finally, in 1989, the Grateful Dead played a five night run at the Brendan Byrne Arena, with Bobby and Jerry visiting David Letterman for their final trip together to Late Night, performing Second That Emotion. They did not attempt to levitate Jerry, as they had in 1987. The 1989 shows wrapped up on 10/16/89, Bobby’s birthday, with a show for the ages, one so good that it was released in its entirety as Nightfall of Diamonds.

We'll update this page shortly after the show with the setlist and to recap each performance by The Dead as it relates to the context of the Grateful Dead's history at this venue or city.