Notes:
Phil solo and "Take a step back" to open second set
Set List:
New Minglewood BluesMississippi Half-Step
Looks Like Rain
Dire Wolf
Mama Tried
Big River
Candyman
Jack Straw
Deal
Eyes of the World
Samson and Delilah
It Must Have Been the Roses
Estimated Prophet
He's Gone
drums
The Other One
Black Peter
Sugar Magnolia
One More Saturday Night
Comments
Great night, great weekend!
I was at Syracuse University. We caught the Colgate show the night before in a gym no larger than a HS gym! This was the 2nd show of an incredible 3 night swing thru Upsate NY. Binghampton the 3rd show may have been the best. The streets were closed off around the arena because there were several thousand DH's that showed up to get in and as it was in those days, they would only open 1 door. I was two people away from that door. The crowd was swelling and pushing to the point that my feet were lifted off the ground. I had tried holding off the masses, but it got insane. We weren't frighted as we were you see, invincible. Now the poor old Security Guard on the inside of the door was. I remember the glass of the door start to bow and then it fell in. Of course,we all went in with it. What a relief. As the throng was pouring in, we all collected ourselves and decided we were going to the seats not the floor. It was 1st come 1st serve. We had great seats and watched the packed floor sway all night! There is a Dick's Pick of this show and to not have this one in your collection is a mistake. It was awesome.
The band was totally tight that night!
I was arms on the stage right infront of Jerry the whole first set. It was a tight show in the bands playing and the crowd pusing from behind, which got Bobby singing "Take a step back, let the people in the front breath". My buddies in the back had about the only mics in the crowd. I was so pumped when Dick's Picks 34 came out. I think it was one of the tightest shows the boys ever play...Rock-on!!!
got carried in
What a show!!! SO many memories...Picked up a couple of people on the way, who mixed a little something up in the sink, very interesting effects I must say, so there were 4 of us trying to beat the chartered bus filled with friends up there. When we got there we were just waiting on the steps for them to pull in watching the gargoyles fly off the roof, hehehe. I still have my entire ticket stub (in those days they tore them in half) because the crowd was so intense, and so was the item I ate, that I actually got carried inside, feet never touched the ground, I tried to turn around and my friend caught me and spun me back around so I would not get trampled, my ex-boyfriend who was there with us had his leg in a full cast and was caught up in the door jam. I remember once I got in, I grabbed a seat across stage above the floor section. My friends went to the front and were hanging off the piano while Phil was doing the "take a step back dance". I remember Jerry doing a "Chuck Berry" dance across the stage and Donna coming out in a wig to make everyone think that she had cut her hair.....One of the best memories I have from the early days and I treasure my tape!!!!
blew the doors in
This was my first show, I attended with some friends from U of R (my only year enrolled, if not attended...) and some folks from back home Mt. Lebanon. We got there about 2 hours before the doors "opened."
Long before the official opening time the ticket takers took their positions behind the glass doors (I don't remember if there were turnstiles) - the War Memorial is a round building with glass doors all the way around. The doors were designed to open outwards not inwards if I recall correctly - that was a disaster. The crowd was pressing and humming/throbbing/oozing and building up a head of steam. The ticket takers were innocently and politely waiting for the word and you could see it dawn on their faces that they were powerless to affect the situation - and in fact their presence insighted the mob to move inward ... We looked at each other and realized we could not control where we went - we massed up and linked arms. I think we were about 8 people. We started to hear soft muffled explosions - this was the sound of the doors bursting, at least 4 that I heard. It was TERRIFYING as we were driven slowly inward by a thick unstoppable human wave. Luckly none of us were injured, but inside the show I saw at least 3 or 4 kids whose blue jeans were purple from their own blood, and one guy with a huge swollen gash in his thigh oblivious to everything around him but still somehow on his feet.
The music was amazing, a magical experience. We were about 20 feet from the stage on the floor, and I spent most of the second set continuosly following a small bright red spark that was zipping around on a grid that covered the entire ceiling. How did they do that? hmmm...