Grateful Dead

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Thanks David, both for featuring this show on the GDH and then for choosing to archive it on this site. I was there in Rochester that night (on the floor) so of course I'm very partial, but this was an exemplary performance for '76. How the previous concert and the next one (Syracuse) got paired and enshrined together as a Dicks Pick -with this one left out- will always be a mystery to me.As a born-and-raised upstate New Yorker, when I Iook back, it seems surprising the Dead got around to the extent they did. Consider all the places they performed, many venues off the beaten Buffalo-Rochester-Syracuse-Albany-NYC Interstate path: Lake Placid (for crying out loud, what was that all about!), Alfred (the night before the legendary 5.2.70 performance in Binghamton), Cortland, Stony Brook (! 1970 fans unite), Colgate (Hamilton, NY), Ithaca (Cornell), Saratoga, Glens Falls, Niagra Falls (why does this have me thinking of The Three Stooges?), Troy, Utica (! '73 baby), Watkins Glen, on and on. I'm just sayin'...... I'm such a big Dead fan it's always made me proud of how it seemed like they just loved playing upstate NY.

Sweet!!!!!Love the Furthur tracks.... Man the boys are sure playing well these days. Can't wait to see them again in Eugene and Red Rocks!!!!! Woody www.myspace.com/woodyinthebasement

Thanks Golden West for your observation. There are probably other parts of the land that can recollect plenty of cherished shows by our favorite band, but I myself got on board the bus in upstate NY when I was in college, so it sure is special for me as well. My first show was March 23, 1973 in Utica. Yes, my friends, it was intense and the blotter was clear. I had tickets for Watkins Glen, but it's a long story on why I never got there, but I had a place in several other venues around the Empire State back in the day. The Dead brought some needed wide and deep perspective to that province for sure. ~ I'll meet you some morning in the sweet by and by

My first show was eight days later. Like your comment concerning the Wide and the Deep. As maybe a P.S. to my previous post it occurred to me- not only did they get to all these places but maybe there's some objectivity to the observation that they liked playing the Empire State about as much as we liked having them there. That being the number of official releases hailing from NY: There's the famous Binghampton show; two Rochester War Memorial shows were represented in the DP series (one from '77 and one from '80); a U of R Palestra show ('71) was an early download release; there was a Syracuse DP from '76; a Buffalo ('89) Fourth of July CD and video; where the Vault series is concerned there were Albany ('90) and Portchester ('71) performances featured, and of course MSG and Fillmore East performances were included in the DP series. And none of this is to forget the Legendary Status of the '77 Cornell and Colgate performances. Again, just sayin'....