We all had pickup trucks in those days, so when not roadie-ing musical equipment around, we very frequently moved people's homes, offices or whatever, for merely a smile or a toke. When a pal's older brother (an old 1st grade school chum of mine, co-incidentally) announced he was moving house between points in the Bay area, 450 miles to the north, we decided it wouldn't be that outlandish to mix a bit of exercise and a Dead show. I'd seen a great "Christmas run" show the year before (12/26/79 DP5), so was raring to go!
We arrived the night before, and started work at the crack of dawn. All day long it was non-stop boxes, big wooden desks, massive sofas out second story windows, refrigerators, lots of stairs, more boxes, a dozen shuttles, but finally we were tired but done. We all showered and headed to the arena.
We were real close to the stage on the floor. The band came out and a few songs in it became obvious that they were tired and a bit flat. THEY sounded like THEY'd moved furniture all day, too! We went through the motions, they went through the motions, and we were done with smiles (but no amazement). A tape may someday prove me wrong, but it was one the least memorable shows I've attended. We had a good laugh about it.
Pal Joe and wife headed straight home to LA after the show to rest up and catch Todd Rundgren the next night. We drove back the next day, three riding shotgun in the pickup cab, and one riding in the back with a refrigerator and a ghetto blaster pumping Dead tapes all the way home down Hwy 5 under a big blue sky.