Well, allow me to start by saying that I love the Forum in LA. Abandoned by its former residents, the LA King and LA Lakers for the newer, shinier confines of the Staples Center, it remains a viable venue due to concerts and other events. It might feel a little old and dated, but it sounds great and has a good old feeling to it.

Where to begin with the Grateful Dead’s history in LA? With “only” 41 shows in LA proper, there were at least that many shows at venues that I’d consider LA without actually being in the city limits. Shows in Irvine, Hollywood, Inglewood (home of the Forum for this stop on The Dead’s tour) El Monte, and Santa Monica total about 40, and add to that a dozen in Long Beach and one near Long Beach at Terminal Island, and you have close to a hundred LA-area concerts.

As some of you might know, LA was the Grateful Dead’s home for a few months in early 1966, when Bear brought them down to live, rehearse, play gigs and possibly get a record deal. They played some great little early gigs (check out the CD Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966 for some of that early 1966 material that’ll knock your socks off) and rehearsed a lot. And ate a lot of meat and drank a lot of milk.

There are really so many ways to look at the band’s history in LA that we’ll do a quick run through of the places and times they’ve played in the area. They played this very same Forum seven times, in 1977 and 1989, with other major indoor venues for the band being the Shrine (10 shows 1967-1968), the other Shrine (four shows 1976 and 1978) the UCLA Pauley Ballroom, and seven shows at the LA Sports Arena. In the early years there were several shows at venues with names like the Danish Center, AIAA Hall, Ambassador Hotel’s Banana Grove, The Club and other cool one-off venues for the Grateful Dead.

Most famous amongst Dead Heads in terms of Grateful Dead music from the LA area are likely the two shows from the Hollywood Palladium in August 1971. These shows featured not only one of the greatest versions of Hard To Handle ever played on 8/6/71, but plenty of other fine music. Some it was included as bonus material on Road Trips Vol. 1 No. 3 and some was included as part of Dick’s Picks 35 (aka the Houseboat Tapes), so definitely check those two CDs out for some great playing. Between them there is about eight hours of stunning Grateful Dead music from Chicago, San Diego, Terminal Island, Yale Bowl and Hollywood. Two perfectly complementary albums. While we’re talking about the Hollywood Palladium, I have to mentioned to the excellent shows on 9/9&10/72, just after the Boulder show on 9/3/72. Of course, from the Shrine Exhibition Hall on 8/23&24/68, there were the two exceptional shows that make up Two From the Vault (8/24 plus a big jam from 8/23), some of the finest 1968 Dead you’ll hear outside of January and February. One of the great missing shows from the vault is from this very venue, the Great Western Forum, on 6/4/77. This show was just a few days after the world theatrical premier of The Grateful Dead Movie on 6/1/77 at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York, and was the show that fell between the end of the massively great April-May 1977 tour and the three magical nights at Winterland 6/7-9/77. What a terrific run of shows this was. So, although the June 4, 1977 show isn’t in the vault, there are excellent audience tapes of this show floating around, so do try to hear it if you can.

With so many shows to mention in the LA area, we likely should keep it to what we’ve already mentioned. Otherwise we’d start talking about the three nights at Legion Stadium in El Monte, the many great nights at Irvine and Long Beach, the 1976 shows at the Shrine, the show in 1989 at which Bob Dylan showed up, the other shows in 1989 at which Bruce Horsnby and Spencer Davis sat in.

Have fun at the show!

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.