Grateful Dead

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I'd been with my wife a year when I took her to this show. She's been a fan ever since. Between this and the last show I'd seen more than three and a half years had passed, and oy vey, the changes were hard to bear. Specifically the loss of Brent. Brent really was irreplaceable: his energy, chops, sense of adventure, and songwriting skills would be missed no matter who stepped in to fill his shoes. So, I was very pleased to hear Vince's capable fingers on this night, without Hornsby horning in. This show was the last really consistently awesome show I saw (I only saw three more after this, 91, 92, and 94). The Victim into Foolish was inspiring; and this would be the only time I would hear a Dark Star with Jerry still alive -- albeit the second verse. I remember thinking that Jerry was a Stanford scientist in his own right. A scientist of consciousness. I also remember feeling some trepidation upon hearing the intensity of the Heaven's Door encore, wondering how often Jerry had knocked on that door, so many times before. As if to illustrate the sea change that would happen, the weather -- which had started off extremely mild and warm for December -- turned into a blizzard while we were inside McNichols.

A friend of mine and I drove 19 hours straight to get to this show (stopping only for gas).....it's a really long story, but the short version is that during the drive, the annual Geminid meteor shower was at its peak. We had heard from a friend that they did Dark Star at the first show of this Denver run - but what we didn't know upon getting into this third-night show was that the first night's Dark Star was only the first verse. So, after seeing literally hundreds of shooting stars on the way to this show, we were beyond amazed when Jerry started doing Dark Star licks coming out of space, and then they did the second verse. What a grand surprise. Geminids indeed. Maybe that's why they split the Dark Star in two, haha :) This Shakedown was a great one - fairly long for this time period and well jammed; like many people, I was still getting used to the post-Brent sound during this time period, but if you want to hear Vince doing an excellent job without Hornsby, check out this Shakedown.....Peggy-o was beautiful, Let it Grow was strong. This was my second To Lay Me Down of 1990, which made me psyched both because it's one of my favorite Jerry ballads and because it was so rarely played (only three of them in 1990) - Jerry's vocals at the end of this one were particularly on. Picasso Moon at this show had an extra kick as well - same with the Rooster and He's Gone. Overall, I loved this show and must say it has been under-rated since the other two Denver shows before it included Bruce and are considered to be better shows. Well, this one was good too! :)

I remember getting to this show in a camper van and this guy we were with buying a ticket outside the show and it turning out to be a fake. He was truly scalped! Poor guy. The start of victim was really cool and I think someone jumped on stage, did a twirl and was carried off rather rapidly...Did it really happen? During Dark Star a beautiful girl who'd been dancing behind me asked if she could kiss me and I couldn't have been happier to say yes. Wow. (Yes I did get her number)