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Ah, yes, the flood, the lightning....get a recording of this show if you don' t have it

The main reason I gave this a five was the the rain, lightning, the Truckin' where the power went out for a matter of seconds, because of a strike, and they didn't even miss a beat (This was the second time I had seen this - my first being the second night at the Garden in 81'), the Sugar Magnolia, the mud, and for just the overall craziness and fun that we had. Remember the guys sliding down the mud hill. Crazy fun and a great show! Dougles

The rain, the swollen creeks, the way during Music Never Stopped the lightning would hit and the band would get louder. The thunder and Phil during Wharf Rat. Incredible

I'd forgotton about this weather event/show until my second Further in Denver where it just pounded down all day. The weather didn't seem to slow us down any on either day! But man, was I sick for the next three days... awesome show, though! I'd love to hear it again.

The Peggy-O from this show features an especially sweet solo by Garcia. I remember there were motorcycles near the footbridge in water almost up to the handlebars. This was my first show, it was amazing.

This was the beginning. The Grateful Dead, and "out of body/mind experience", and the most intense rain I've ever seen at a show. Wow! This site is great. I've been looking for the exact date of this show for a long time!

i always tell folks about that and they don't believe it..and that rain rain rain.. not till i went to gathering of the vibes did i ever again see rain like that.. seems to me one or two of those songs is acoustic ish cause of the pwoer issues.. but i dunno..tk

what a complete free for all house of acid laced fun! it rained and rained and everyone had a complete ball. the guy next to me had a watermelon on each foot and was dancing in the mud. the lightning strikes were mind blowing to go along with a fun, fun night. i remember stumbling out to what was left of the parking lot after the rain got through with it and everything was mud and ravines. ah, it's hard to believe it was 24 years ago. the good ole grateful dead....

My father worked for Columbia and had to clean up the mess inside of Merriweather. He said they took a dump truck full of blankets, clothes, chairs, etc from there.

Daniel A. Dincher I was all kinds of blisssed out and I was on the hill. It rained twice. I think the first one was during the first set and it quick and refreshing, Man, I felt good. By the second set the heavens opened and just about flooded the place. Of course lightning hitting the stage and the very brief burn out of the music , but some how they would come back on time harder and more powerful. If you have a copy listen to the wharf rat just at the moment before the sing "Ill get up and fly away" . The ligtning hit the stage at the perfect momebt and they came out of the burn out light champions. I still get chills when I listen to it. God I believe was truly sitting in with the Dead tha night!!

What can you say about this show?? All I can say is listen to it! I lived in walking distance to the venue and I had front row seats. What a show...I can never forget or listen to it enough!!!!! PURE ENERGY!!!

Unbelievable! As I look back this was why I became a head - I saw many, many after this but this was the best mainly because it was the first. It helps to have a recording so I can really flashback.

Never got rained on so much in my life. The highlight was the lighnin strike during the peak of Truckin' then as The Other One got more intense, so did the storm.

I have always felt there should be a club of the folks who were there (cause if you weren't you wouldn't truly understand) I often think the 100+ shows I went to afterwards were an attempt to capture that again - and many of the songs from that night are and always will be some of my favorites.

Best Underwater Dead Show Ever! See my comment misposted on the 21st.

A friend of mine recorded this show and someone stole my cassette copy years back at college. I was compelled to search today for the recording and found this site and am overjoyed to see the comments and memories "flooded" back!!! The rain, the lightning, Truckin dropping out and in, cars under water....I remember being on the top of the hill and swimming in the culvert while looking down on the stage with no cares of lightning all around......most memorable concert ever!!!!!

Yes of course the driving wind and rain and then the power went out-I seem to recall it was during the other one (and yes, Truckin' now that I think of it-at of course the most appropriate moment), and it came back on right on the Phil Bomb - blowing the collective minds of everyone-including it seemed the band- the lights and everything perfectly in time with the music. Talk about the music playing the band they musta just kept a goin' through it all. You could definitely tell they were equally moved as the audience. One could feel the electricity everywhere in the air. I recall lighting a bowl and sending it back into the field to the delight of my new neighbors. and I never saw it again. I did the whole east coast Spring tour from the board and my listening ears were on. Sounded amazing both in, and outside the shed, although outside was another world...what fun! John

I think it rained during the 1st set and then dried off, but during the 2nd set, the rain came down in sheets in a full-blown apocalyptic monsoon. I was in the pavillion (and feeling lucky about that one, though I'm sure the mud people have the better stories!) Talk about a sensurround experience. Ahead on the stage, the band, who seemed electrified by the storm; behind us, sheer madness; in the sky, the elements of nature seemed to have joined the music, even to the point of being synchronized, or so it seemed. The Wharf Rat bombs were beyond belief. One of the most memorable shows ever.

Out of the 128 shows I saw, this is still the best. The planets were in alignment for me, and I guess a lot of other folks who attended...and The Band !!.It was my 7th show. It is a time in my life I will never forget. I was on tour in my Jeep with some very cool people, all from different places. The energy of the first set culminated for me during West L.A. .... as the song progressed, you could feel the intensity grow. Probably one of the best Music Never Stopped I have ever heard. The Peggy-O will make you cry. Jerry's notes are so beautiful. This is just the first set ! I was with people at the show, but I was dosing and completely immersed in the experience of what was happening, so we were separated and I was dancing at the back of the pavillion in front of the lawn where the roof didn't cover. I never felt alone after I was separated from my friends, we were all witnessing something incredible, and there was this feeling of unity of all the heads that were there. I remember Weir saying "for those of you who are following us, we're going to badger you with a few tunes until we get them exactly right" or something to that effect before Brother Esau. At that moment, I fell completely in love with every Deadhead on earth and the Band. Words cannot come close to describing the emotion I went through this night. There has been so much written about this second set and I don't want to be redundant but I'll say a few things. It is one example of the reason we all followed them to the ends of the earth. From the moment the China Cat started, the energy was palpable. The notes Jerry was playing were totally unconscious . They came from his soul and flowed outward. Listen to the jams during China-Rider and you will get a small sense of what I'm talking about. The rain continued and Sampson exploded with a force stronger than thunder and lightening. The He's Gone that followed was the best I ever saw. It's important to note how the crowd influenced the intensity of this show. Before the band even hit the stage, the collective, psychic energy of the crowd was already off the charts. That contributed to a slow burn during the 1st set that completely caught fire during the 2nd set. Also the best version of Truckin' I ever personally witnessed. The second half of the 2nd set is for the books. Everything about the rest of this show is beyond human description. You just need to listen. Just make sure you don't miss the Baby Blue encore. Every single time I ever saw a Baby Blue encore back in the day, it followed an amazing show.

The bus came by and I got on, and this is where it all began...for me.

this show was one we talked about for months - and here it is almost 30 years later and still talking. The rain, the mudslide, the lightning strikeing at the PERFECT moments; the 'herd of cattle' walking/swimming through the very swollen creek back to the parking lot; and the MUSIC. I still smile picturing the scenes in my mind's eye! If anyone happens to have a copy of this, somehow it isn't in my collection but I'd love for it to be. I'd be so grateful! what a long strange trip it continues to be.

This 1st of many Dead shows, saw me wondering around with my eyes popping outta my head for various reasons. Amazing Amazing A maze...ing.....I'm sure I got struck by lightning....& I remember feeling or surviving the sound suction effect when the power was cut......LOL !

For those of you who were not there - Read the comments and BELIEVE the passion behind them. For those who were there - Remember this one forever! I agree with many that have commented that this was the most incredible experience of my Deadhead life. I saw somewhere between 95 - 100 (Lost count, sorry) shows myself. I was luck enough to catch a New Year's show at end of '85 and also saw them once in an amusement park (Wonderland in Toronto anyone?), but this, by far, was the most mind blowing. My friend even ran away from home to go see this show! Rode a bus from Doylestown, PA and then hitchiked out of Baltimore. The whole story is amazing really involving spending the night outside the Sears customer pickup roof at the mall, hidden bags in the woods that we found after the show with lighters in the rain, etc. Another time for all that as I don't want to clog things up here. THE SHOW! Oh my, what a show! I agree that the boys fed on the frenzied madness and energy of the crowd this night. For those who have never been to the Merriweather Post Pavilion I HIGHLY recommend it! If you are anywhere near that area go see a concert there, ANYTHING! It is set in the woods in suburbia and is just super cool. I think this was only my 4th Dead show so I was still pretty new to the scene. The energy in the air was palpable. There was a buzz in the air (and in many heads) that is unlike anything I had experienced before, or since for that matter. The first set was amazing in its own right, the playing was fantastic, the boys were grooving along with the crowd. It rained but we didn't care since we were in the pavilion near the left rear. The second set was legendary. The RAIN, the RAIN, the RAIN! Wow I have never seen such an intense storm. I remember looking back at the "Mud People" over and over again, shaking my head. Many times it was like a waterfall coming off of the pavilion and you couldn't even see them. When it did slow down Mud People were sliding down the lawn a la Woodstock (the original one for you young folks) and it was total chaos! China>Rider>Sampson was so freaking intense my brother blew a fuse. He kept asking my friend and I if we should go. We were like "Go? Go where?" His altered state couldn't stay there anymore and he left. The band then immediately started playing He's Gone (which was really creepy). I found out the next day he got so confused trying to get out he actually climbed the fence! He's the only one I know who ever scaled the fence to get OUT of a Dead show! LMFAO! The lightning strikes were absolutely INSANE and interrupted the sound multiple times, especially during Trucking and The Other One. While I am usually a fan of soundboards, this is a show where you should search for a clear audience copy and listen with your headphones. You can hear the energy build in the crowd as the night goes on, especially during lightning strikes. After Bobby does his "Aboriginee Rap" during Sugar Mag he says "So what do you think about that?" There is a 1 or 2 second pause and then this girl screams as her mind is completely split open as she processes what he just said. Absolutely priceless! The next day there were cars under water, motorcycles under water, etc. Hell, I'm surprised there weren't people under the water. That place never recovered from that night. Neither did anybody who was there. That would be great to have some kind or reunion party like somebody suggested, it was THAT remarkable. Peace!

The Canada show you mention was the the first of the '84 summer tour. It was in Maple, Ontario. It was actually a very special show. Ken Kesey and Wavy Gravy were there and there was a radio simulcast of the show. We were fortunate enough to be in the pavilion and although this wasn't the best show of the tour...it most certainly was a memorable one. Jerry had a very funny interview for the show and made reference to New Yorkers putting their feet in toilet water (if you can imagine) to get relief from the early summer heat wave. My favorite part of this show was the three song (I think) encore. What a great start to an epic summer tour.

Still the most intense show I ever attended. I remember it like it was yesterday. Some of my fondest memories with my best friend. We will never forget this day.

Yes to all of the above. This one was just 1 of those shows none of us will ever forget. I was just outside the pavilion completely soaked to the bone. Not sure many of us cared about how wet we were. I think its because the boys gave us there all so in turn we did the same. after researching this one I just thought wonder how many "bob stars" I saw. well all 3. rather lucky I guess

1st and last time for Merryweather post

Somebody please tell me there was a lightning strike at the peak of the buildup at the end of Truckin. I have a really good Matrix of this show and the crowd goes completely berzerk.

There was for sure lightning threw out the entire second set some closer to us then other times. I will never ever forget these 2 shows scared for my life at times.

The pa cuts out 2 times, phil bombs could be the best Sugar Mag of all time

"sweet Cathrine the Great" never heard that before. Is what bob sings during only their 4th Hell in a bucket.Collection: GratefulDead Band/Artist: Grateful Dead Date: June 20, 1983 (check for other copies) Venue: Merriweather Post Pavilion Location: Columbia, MD Source: Set 1 and Set 2 up to Drums is: FOB-Sennheiser 421>MasterCass>Dat>CD Taped by: Transferred by: Keywords: Live concert

That was so much fun that night I miss that kind of fun you do nut see much of that kind of shit know

as has been mentioned, the thunderstorm during the 2nd set made this an extraordinary experience. The blast during Wharf Rat just before "I'll get up and fly away" sends shivers thru my body just thinking abouit it. Pull up an aud recording from the archive if you've never heard this one before. Absolutley incredible!

It had rained HARD the night before. Lightning struck the stage during Wharf Rat but the band played on. The next day, for this show, the lawn was a slick, tilted sea of mud. Perfect for sliding!

I read somewhere this recording is lost and not in the vault. I find that hard to believe. I’m inclined to e-mail David to see what it’s status actually is. Still the best Grateful Dead show I ever saw.