Grateful Dead
Date 1983-08-29
Silva Hall at the Hult Center
Eugene OR

Set 1
d1t01 - Shakedown Street      * 
d1t02 - New Minglewood Blues
d1t03 - Friend of the Devil
d1t04 - Hell in a Bucket
d1t05 - Bird Song             //
d1t06 - It's All Over Now
d1t07 - Might As Well

Set 2
d2t01 - China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
d2t02 - equipment break        +
d2t03 - Estimated Prophet > Eyes of the World >
d2t04 - drums >               
d2t05 - space >              //  
d2t06 - The Wheel > 
d2t07 - The Other One >
d2t08 - Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad >
d2t09 - Johnny B. Goode
d2t10 - crowd
d2t11 - encore U.S. Blues

\\    Tape Flip
* missed start; level changes at 2:40 thru 2:54 (limiter off>on?)
+ must have been an equipment issue After Rider

Source:   Master Was: Beyer M201's X-Y 6'up > Sony TCD5M no dolby 
          Denon DXM 90 Metal x 2
This take: First Gen TDK MA90 x 2           
Location: ~80 feet from stage, 40'ROC
Transfer: Nakamichi CR-5A (24/96) > Tascam DR680|SD > i7Windows7
          Audacity > cdwav editor > TLH flac level 8 
          This is 24 bit copy
Mastered: Executive Crew Kyle Holbrook Chris Kidwell Tom Pinney
Transferred: Kyle Holbrook
===================================================================================================================
The tour story:
If I recall we took our time leaving Seattle and arrived Eugene the day of show in order to save money on a room. we did not know it but Tom, Lynne, and Will were about to join us in Will's car. When we got to Eugene we checked into a room on the edge of town and went over to the Hult Center. We had no tickets for any of the three shows and I',m sure they were advising people in the previous two cities NOT to go to Eugene without tickets. What we found was dozens of heads looking for tickets. The finger up, need a miracle hadn't been de rigeur at that time, but I recall many cardboard signs and the like looking for tickets. I'm not  certain if it was the first or second show, but we fell in with our newly made taper friends, Chris and Cliff, and Chris got involved in counterfeiting the tickets at the local Kinkos. I think Kidwell had found one real ticket the night before, but Tom, Will, Lynne and I couldn't locate any by the time we had to go inside with taping gear. So we suited Kidwell up and wound up only able to sneak one deck inside, which looking back is a miracle in itself. Once inside, I had a tap on my shoulder and it was Will; he asked if I could give him my ticket stub. Chris was way right, by himself in a seat taping. I was in a section with floor access but far behind him, somehow Will found me. So then, the ruse was revealed.

They had figured a way to use both counterfeit tickets and real tickets because the lobby of the Hult Center was open to all, no ticket required, "ON NIGHT ONE" so someone without a ticket would go in, hang around the lobby go to the coat check and one of us with a ticket stub would walk up and hand it to him, while also holding a ticket stub. The two would go in and after making way around a bit one would go out with the two stubs. In this manner I gained entry on this night, and several other people also used the same ticket stub I used to gain access. Silva Hall was using volunteer ushers like the way many community or civic venues operate. So at one point, without an actual seat to go to, I was up in the top balcony trying to "blend in" during a quiet moment in the first set and an usher came up asking me to sit down. Luckily an empty seat was right there and she didn't ask for my stub as I had none at that moment. If you knew the deal you could look out into the audience and see folks doubled up in chairs, two to one chair as well as heads just blending in at their downstairs lobby area where they had placed some Meyer UPA-1's and a screen showing the stage. So, to wrap up this part of the story: the Hult Center had designed a method to show off their lovely new facility which didn't require one to buy a ticket to gain access to the lobby. They were solid enough to provide a real coatcheck with bathrooms which allowed us to blend in and swap stubs very easily. Then, when checking tickets at the theatre door (on Nights 1 &2 only) they weren't marking the stub or providing a wristband. Therefore someone with two stubs inside the venue could walk out hand one to a person at coat check, walk back in behind or next to them, then once settled somewhere the sneaking in person could hide out either in the balcony or in the bar lobby area downstairs. Brilliant Deadhead assessment and advantage taking of that situation!

Part of the fileset includes the original handout from Kesey's Creamery Productions; looking at it one can see they really did not spend a lot of money designing/preparing it. The picture of the band was about 4-5 photocopy generations down and the words were one page of motel addresses with phone numbers while the other page had the "Hult Center Rules". Looking at it in 2018, and showing it off and discussing it I can tell the Deadheads weren't expected to be the most polite concert goers. Go to the images links to see, but two of the rules were:
          #4- no standing on seats and #7- no activity which may result in injury to self and others or that may interfere with the performance is allowed.
I guess that last one is about dancing in the aisles or bringing fire twirling sticks etc! Besides I am pretty sure the one of my underlying goals when going to a Grateful Dead show in 1983 was NOT to injure oneself and others!

This first show of the run had fine moments, and in my opinion listening back, none of the three shows was THE show; each one had it's high points and low points, just like life and all Grateful Dead concerts. Of course the Shakedown had the place groovin; for my tastes, in this first set, the Friend of the Devil sticks out. Maybe the fine acoustics of the stage and room brought out some fine licks from the boys but it stands the test of time. Of course in a seven song set there isn't much to really bite into. The ten minute Bird song is good and the audience was revved up by that point. an odd intro to All Over Now but then a typical high energy Bob vocal brought the tune home. The China Cat had typical Jerry vocal flubs with some sweet Jerry solos and the tempo was mellow, not rushed out like they can be at the end of the Rider. A slightly long and meandering Estimated gave way to a beautiful uptempo Eyes of the World > drums > space > the Wheel sequence.

- - - -
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   148:21.807    2563721136 B                            0.7680  (18 files)

