Grateful Dead
Date 1984-11-03
Berkeley Community Theatre
Berkeley CA

Set 1
+
d1t01 - Friend of the Devil   /
d1t02 - Down in the Bottom    /
d1t03 - It Must Have Been the Roses >
d1t04 - The Music Never Stopped >      /#
d1t05 - Deal                           //

Set 2
d2t01 - tuning
d2t02 - Feels Like A Stranger >
d2t03 - Cumberland Blues           /// *
d2t04 - equipment break
d2t05 - GLORIA >     #
d2t06 - Why Don't We Do It In the Road? >
d2t07 - Drums >
d2t08 - Space >
d2t09 - Uncle John's Band >
d2t10 - Dear Mr - Fantasy >
d2t11 - Throwing Stones >
d2t12 - Turn On Your Lovelight
d2t13 - encore break
d2t14 - Brokedown Palace

/       tape paused between tracks to save tape/batteries
/#      slight level drop at end (possibly moved knob accidentally waiting to flip)
//      tape swapped at start, missed first 7-10 seconds
///     tape swapped (doing California style- go from side A of tape 1 to side A of tape 2 for Set 1; then side B of tape 1 for start of set 2 swapping to side B of tape 2 for the end of the show.
*     cut at 3:08-3:11

***The Sennheiser MKE2002 binaural microphones were pressure capsule omni microphones designed to be worn on a human head or the supplied dummy head. For the optimal listening experience wear headphones or earbuds; for playback on stereo speakers you may choose to increase bass slightly.***

Recording Information:
+  missing first two songs on masters: Alabama Getaway, Promised Land
#  First GLORIA since 10-16-1981

** This is a 16 bit fileset **
Source: Master AUDCA: Sennheiser MKE2002 Binaurals on dummy head front Row Balcony 145 feet from stage DFC >Nakamichi 550
        Maxell UDXLIIS 90 x 3 No Dolby -Lead deck run by SM.
Transfer: Nakamichi LX-5 > Marantz PMD661|24/48 SD
Processing: SD| Audacity | cdwav editor | TLH | FLAC
Recorded by: Executive Crew: Sean Murtha; Gary Steel
=============================================================================================================
the tour story:
Sean and Gary had figured out the usher situation and the flow of the crowd inside the small BCT. They decided they HAD to gain the opportunity to use the dummy head as opposed to wearing the mics on the head for the final night. They were able to get the dummy head into the building and Butch was set up in front of the front row of the balcony. Sean said butch was the first head in the balcony which the sound hit! Thankfully these shows were the famous first ones with an authorized Tapers section, later to be known as the OTS (Official Tapers Section).

This show was all about the 'GLORIA' > 'Why Don't We Do It In the Road' breakout in the second set. After opening with an odd combination of 'Feels Like a Stranger" > Cumberland Blues, they took a long break to repair some equipment then BAM, those bouncing opening notes and then: "G.. L.. O.. R.. I.. A!" The crowd went nuts as the band played the iconic Van Morrison tune for the first time in 3 years. The 10 to 12 second transition between when Phil teased the 'Lovelight' chords and Bobby said no can play, then Brent steps up with 'Do It in The Road' are classic misdirection Dead! Garcia even throws in the final verses which was received with laughing applause from the audience. This was also the West Coast debut of 'Dear Mr. Fantasy' although the band had been playing the tune all year since the Red Rocks June shows. A long, trippy space led to a cerebral 'Uncle John's Band' before the Fantasy, they ended the final set of the six show run with Bob finally going with Phil's 'Lovelight' request, and an appropriately placed 'Brokedown Palace' encore.

A final note about the making of this tape by Sean and Gary, with added presence by Aaron Yamaguchi. These guys were allowed in by the new rules, so they hauled in a Nakamichi 550 which weighed about 30 pounds PLUS the dummy head and microphones, stand etc. By the sixth night they had figured the scene out and the rest of the tapers knew they were going to mount Butch the dummy head to the front of the balcony, pushing him through some bunting and jamming him out onto the edge of the balcony. Sean described it as looking like a Judge sitting up on the bench with his robes. The tone and sound quality of this recording is subjectively 1-2 steps better than the previous night's from the same seats but with the Sennheiser binaural mics worn on Sean's head. Considering the raucous party going on in Berkeley and it being the sixth and final night of a 8 day run these guys deserve kudos. I'm sure there are "better" sounding audiences and of course the soundboard recording, but this one is special and deserves a listen, especially if one has high quality headphone playback.

[Notes from the editor: I used zero EQ or and other enhancement aside from level balancing between channels. The sound quality is solid via headphones/earbuds, at points you can hear Brent's keyboard accents and Mickey's cymbals clearly above the rest of the band. Turn up the volume a bit even with headphones as the dynamics can be subtle, but the realistic rumble/punch of Phil's bass through my very mid-level AKG's is quite pleasing]

----------------

    length     expanded size    cdr  WAVE problems  fmt   ratio  filename
     8:48.30       93209804 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5862  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas1_16t01.flac
     7:36.67       80596028 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6075  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas1_16t02.flac
     5:47.66       61366076 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5738  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas1_16t03.flac
     8:47.33       93040460 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6096  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas1_16t04.flac
     8:33.63       90640808 B   -b-   --   ---xx   flac  0.5915  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas1_16t05.flac
     1:42.37       18079868 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5363  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t01.flac
     9:45.19      103238732 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5922  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t02.flac
     6:12.50       65738444 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5929  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t03.flac
     1:16.31       13479356 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5153  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t04.flac
     8:30.71       90131036 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.6099  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t05.flac
    10:12.28      108022700 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5636  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t06.flac
    11:59.48      126944540 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.4778  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t07.flac
    11:06.42      117581228 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5157  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t08.flac
    11:38.46      123235436 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5995  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t09.flac
     6:42.71       71079836 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5911  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t10.flac
     9:19.27       98671148 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5797  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t11.flac
     9:08.41       96763676 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5837  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t12.flac
     1:00.13       10614620 B   ---   --   ---xx   flac  0.5594  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t13.flac
     5:41.66       60308276 B   -b-   --   ---xx   flac  0.5709  gd1984-11-03mke2002murthas2_16t14.flac
   143:52.24     1522742072 B                            0.5733  (19 files)



