Grateful Dead

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I remember the house lights coming on after the 2nd set to a rousing chorus of booing from the audience. Then they went out again and we were treated to a great Satisfaction encore. Indeed....

This was the opening night of the East Coast Spring Tour...and the Boys did not disappoint! The Help On the Way > Slipknot!> Franklin's Tower was absolutely unreal. I think my favorite part was at the end of Franklin's, and it seemed they didn't know what to do next, Jerry Bob and Phil formed a circle and they broke out Truckin'. Lest we forget the Smokestack Tease...The arena eRUPTED. This show ranks in my top 10 for sure.

For those of you who care about these things. "Bob Star" the brief "As long as we're gonna be, as long as we are. I just wanna be one of those little stars" poem originated this night going from space into throwing stones. Not 4.15.83 Rochester, NY as deadbaser would have you believe. Listen closely to the right channel on the deadlist SBD.

Daniel A. DincherThis Hampton show was my first general admission show and I took full advantage of it. I got front and center. Both sets were fantastic. Bertha>Promised Land, West LA, Esau, Candyman, Minglewood, B.E. Women, LL Rain China Cat>Rider. What a kick ass first set. And the second set was all kinds of crazy. I just loved the Smokestack jam and Black Peter>GDTRFB. What a wonderful show. I got my satisfaction that night.

RODGER ALLINSON i really loveed it when a hot china rider closed the 1rst set it was an indication of a real hot 2nd set as this show proves

I drove all night from Florida spring break to get there. The Phil bombs during Bertha woke me up. Does anybody notice that around this period that it took a couple of songs to get the sound up? What does it say on the home page? They got it right, eventually. I have to say Hi to the man in the overalls with the mikes and tape deck tucked into his top pockets next to me in front of the stage. I got a copy of that tape a couple of years later from a friend. I Still have them. This was a great show from beginning to end. Really.

ill tell you what. the music this night couldnt have been any better. my mind was blown to pieces. the only problem i had was leaving the show a thick fog rolled in and i had trouble finding the days inn i was staying at. what a trip.

This was my first Dead show. I drove down from Richmond Va.with 3 friends to see the show.I was 19 at the time and my friends were all still in high school. I'll never forget my friend Scott asking some deadhead chick ,who was decked out in a peasant skirt and beads, if this was her first show too. She sacastically replied.."sure kid". We sat stage right just above the walkway the band used to get to the stage. My friend Meredith brought a bouquet of roses which she dropped at Jerry's feet as he walked under us.Jerry bent down and picked them up and smiled at her.She absolutely freaked. During a very quiet part of space my buddy Scott screamed out.."Jerryyyyyyyyyy". Jerry looked up from his guitar and gave him a nod of the head.What a great show.

I think I was at that show too.

It was also my birthday. Drove down from northern VA with 4 friends and my future wife. Stayed in a motel off of Mercury Blvd. Didn't know much about the music, but sure did enjoy the scene. Little did I know that 24 years and about 80 showslater I would still be enjoying the music as much as ever.

For my buddies and I this was our first long adventure to a show. We drove down from CT in a early 70's Chevy Impala, with temp plates, that has spent shocks and springs so the car swayed when you drove down the highway. First we are speeding down the Saw Mill and ofcoarse get tagged for speeding but there is so much traffic the cop can't pull into traffic. My buddy Dave then pulls up a couple exits and starts making rights and lefts and we end up in a strip mall in Westchester. Great our first road trip and we are already wanted men. We drive all the way to NYC by the back roads and make it across the GW Brdige and are 3 miles onto the Jersey Turnpike and we are all high 5'ing each other when once again the men in blue are in the rear view mirror with their sirens on. We are legal so Dave pulls over. It was classic, a young trooper approaches and says someone is looking for you, and ask what we are doing. We say we are going to see the Grateful Dead in Virgina.Yes we were young. He ask for the registration checks that everything is cool and says "I saw them once and have a good time, just please drive slower". We were like wow this trip is meant to happen. We make it down there and we are also going to tape. This was before the taping sections so between the three of us we are sneaking in all equipment . I have threaded metal pole in my pants and are hobbling along, oh yeah we ate too, so we get in set up oposite the stage in the first row and get set up to go and go we did. Phil had just broken out his new 6 string base and they also just broken out Help>Slip> Franklin's. The first set was amazing and many older heads are totally grooving, they introduce two new songs too. The lights go down and the band is bathed in red, we are tripping our brains out and between Jerry and Phil you know exactly where this was going, but for many of us we had never seen the Suite played live so when they explode into Help the audience is entralled and erupts. The Slip Knot I think was one of the best ever, as good as as Binghampton or the Meadowlands.When they drop into Franklin's we are all in heaven! Brent plays this cool Carribean/ percussion sounding riff which they only did a couple of times ,10/14/83 Scarlet is the most famous example.Jerry forgets a verse and laughs, as we all did in Franklin's, but redeems himself and then the band rips into Truckin' which has two highlights one is if you were there was when they turned up the house lights on the chorus "Sometimes the lights are are shining on me"It was hilarious and very poweful. For 5 second we all just stopped as we are looking at each other, us at the band the band at us. It was too much! The audience roared it's appreciation and the lights drop back down on the band.What a long strange trip it has been! The jam out of the Truckin was intense, Other One written all over it and the band then just drop's into Smoke Stack , which is in the same key and pitch as they would play it with Pig Pen. His spirit was right there at that moment,wow!!!! Listening to the tape in the parking lot, in that dense fog that made the Coliseum look like a flying saucer ,although not the best quality, was a great treat for all.

amdew122, we meet again ;-) We were together the year before in Hartford ;-) but I am really digging your story here! This was also my first long-distance show. My friend PK and I piled into weezer's crummy little honda civic for a mad-cap overnight drive from Jersey, arriving at the coliseum in the wee hours of the morn, when there were about 30 cars in the lot. We immediately spy my friends from Pratt and thus the party began. All day we had a blast, one very fond lot memory is of the heads that pull up in the microbus with the malfunctioning wipers. They had tied a string to the wiper arms and were using the string, through the open vent windows, to see-saw the wipers back and forth to clear the drizzle... We all partook of some VERY high quality paper (I think the entire venue did that night - it was absolutely crackling in there). From the opening notes of Bertha, the band just EXPLODED into this show. Weez and I were also up above that walkway above the side of the stage, but immediately booked down and up front. The minute we got down in front, I took one look at Phil and says to myself - Holy Shite, that bass is HUGE. Wait a miunute! It's a six string! WOW! I had never heard such power in a bass guitar before. I remember Brent's synth being so loud I thought my eardrums would split open. Brother Esau was a new treat that I immediately fell in love with - I never understood why Bob dropped it later in the 80's. They closed with a thunderous China/Rider which was absolute bliss to me. The prelude to the second set was exactly as amdew122 described - the stage was bathed in red, and the band's tune-ups sounded very ominous and spacy to me. I had no idea they had broken out the H/S/F suite a couple weeks before, and when Jerry hit that first chord BA-DA, BA-DAHHH!!! Oh my gawsh it was just unreal - we were in for a treat. The entire rest of the set was just sick, absolutely fantastic. This show remains one of my top three of all the 89 I saw over the 16 years I saw the band... I highly recommend to any and all that you seek out a recording of this show. Ex #11

Mystical Hampton! Saturday Night Everybody's rocking, going round and round, faster and faster w/ all around. Back and Forth from crowd to band, energy building, spiraling down, mingling sweat to lube the dance and adding smell to the sound the song is alive and circling quicker, fleeter, passion running through the tightness of the jam. The whole arena pulsing, throbbing till at last no more can it be contained. A crescendo frenzying along with blinding speed to escape with a whirling blast - BOOM, the roof lifts up ( just another lid on a boiling pot)with the force of a tornado. This gets everyone's attention and we all stop in our tracks - dance steps frozen and instruments still we all look at one another and in a second or two that seems a lifetime know the power of music and dance is a force to be reckoned. Afterwards the fog and spiraling exits add to the mystery and we float meanderingly back to the school yard parking area where we are camped.

This was an amazing night. Thanks to Chuck Stoner for getting me into the Dead. After this night, I was hooked. I would love to have a copy of this show!!! Anyone with a copy that I could buy?

I will never forget how the 1st notes of Help on the way made us insane and jumping for joy knowing it was back in the rotation and not just a sample breakout. Phil was certainly excited about the breakout it seemed.