Grateful Dead
Date 1986-03-25
The Spectrum
Philadelphia, PA
Tuesday

Set I
01. tuning
02. Feel Like A Stranger
03. Tennessee Jed >
04. C C Rider
05. Tons Of Steel        ++
06. It Must Have Been The Roses >
07. Desolation Row >       ##
08. Don't Ease Me In

Set II
09. tuning
10. Scarlet Begonias >
11. Touch Of Grey >
12. Looks Like Rain
13. Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad >
14. Jam >
15. Drums  >
16. Space >
17. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues >
18. Black Peter >
19. Throwing Stones >
20. Turn On Your Lovelight
21. Encore	Brokedown Palace

note:
++ Bobby says before they start playing, "This next one is in the key of F...I think"
## First time played
There is a grinding sound from the PA, thought to be Weir's rig distorting, throughout this entire spring tour. It is present only when they are playing, not during breaks.
I listened to several FOB audience sources from this tour and they all have this "noise".

Recording Information:*** This is a 16 bit fileset ***
Microphones: Beyer m201 (hypercardioid) XY 90Âº
Recorder:    Sony TC-D5M No Dolby
Location:    35' from stage; DFC; chest height on stand
This Source: Master AUDCA Maxell MX90 No NR [KH]
Transfer:  Nakamichi LX-5 > Sonic AD2k @24/48 > Marantz PMD661|24/48 SD
Processing: SD| Audacity | cdwav editor | TLH | FLAC
Recorded by: Executive Crew; Mike Davis, Kenny Davis, Sean Murtha, Gary Steel? Kyle Holbrook? Tom Pinney
===================================================================================
the tour story:
After doing these stories since summer 1982 tour, I am going to shift directions a bit. I am going to discuss the Grateful Dead scene overall in 1986, rather than focusing on the personal travel tales. In a large way Jerry's "health issues" were front and center to all of us "tourheads", having had a Mikel and several other flyers going around the parking lot discussing Jerry's "failing health". I am hoping to attach some of those if I can locate them in time. I would also like to dispel the notion seen so often in print about the band and the quality of their performances being terrible during this timeframe. This was simply untrue. Some nights Jerry or Bob were off and not fully there, but plenty of nights when they would just wail and put out some fine sets. Yes, most of 1986 has short sets, some first sets are barely one hour long. My premise here is that if you listen carefully enough to the entire seven months before Jerry's diabetic coma you will hear some of the weirdest, worst, and best the Grateful Dead had to offer.

In the "best" category might be the song selections. On this recording, two Dylan tunes are played, "Desolation Row" and "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" stand out. Of course, we know now, but did not in March 1986 that the band would announce the summer tour with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty as his backup band. That hindsight goes a long way toward understanding the emergence of so many Dylan tunes during fall 1985 and spring 1986. And back to the earlier point, how in the hell could Bob and Jerry recite the lengthy lyrics to those songs but forget the words to Truckin'? Amazing and puzzling at the same time. Put the flubbed lyrics and short first sets in the worst category. Then there was the weird. They ended the previous nights' show in Philadelphia with only one song post drums, Morning Dew. The reason, confirmed after all these years with video evidence, was "sometime late in the show, Bill was hit by a bottle and was totally angry and flipped off the crowd and that was why they left the stage". I was there, and it certainly was confusing at the time with about ten different stories as to why there was only one tune after drums.

For this specific show they opened with another less than one hour first set. "Feel Like A Stranger" led off with some fire, Bobby doing some over the top vocals at the end. Jerry had a chance to rest his voice with Brent singing "Tons of Steel" in the number four slot. That was one of my favorite Brent tunes and I alway really grooved on his histrionics while singing. Bobby's intricate rendition of "Desolation Row" is worth a listen. The band was putting in all the fine instrumental touches behind Bobby's vocals. Jerry had some sweet vocals and the band jammed into "Touch of Grey" as opposed to the usual "Fire on the Mountain", more of the weird. It is almost comical hearing Jerry crooning "I Will Survive" then the whole band shouting it as the song closes. They made a quick segue into a rare second set "Looks Like Rain" which Bobby sang well. A right turn into "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" completed this set's application for weirdest of the tour so far. GDTRFB is a fine tune to dance to, that hockey arena was shaking! "Just Like Tom's Thumb Blues" emerged out of space with Phil kicking out the jam with a giant smile on his face as the crowd roared their approval. They worked their way through "Black Peter" and "Throwing Stones" landing on "Lovelight" for a quick closer, the curfew must have been 11PM.

    length     expanded size    cdr  WAVE problems  fmt   ratio  filename
     3:15.72       34567388 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5815  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s1t01.flac
     8:44.63       92581820 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6658  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s1t02.flac
     7:50.33       82985660 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6590  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s1t03.flac
     7:22.67       78126428 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6403  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s1t04.flac
     5:09.65       54660524 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6725  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s1t05.flac
     5:31.74       58562492 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6295  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s1t06.flac
    11:05.29      117374252 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6543  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s1t07.flac
     3:06.11       32835912 B   -b-   --   ---xx   flac  0.6620  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s1t08.flac
     2:45.32       29181308 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5755  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t01.flac
     6:25.28       67979900 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6677  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t02.flac
     6:13.39       65888972 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6953  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t03.flac
     8:35.38       90935420 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6431  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t04.flac
     0:03.34         609212 B   --s   --   ---xx   flac  0.5991  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t05.flac
     6:18.51       66799196 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6695  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t06.flac
     1:27.63       15495020 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6131  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t07.flac
    11:06.00      117482444 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5708  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t08.flac
     7:34.72       80254988 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5748  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t09.flac
     5:03.12       53477468 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6525  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t10.flac
     7:19.48       77552540 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6265  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t11.flac
    12:37.46      133643036 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6460  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t12.flac
     5:49.34       61644784 B   -b-   --   ---xx   flac  0.6249  gd1986-03-25beyerm201-murtha-16s2t13.flac
   133:28.11     1412638764 B                            0.6380  (21 files)


