Grateful Dead
Date 1985-03-27
Nasssau Coliseum
Hempstead NY

Set 1:
d1t01 - tuning
d2t02 - Mississippi Halfstep >
d2t03 - Hell in a Bucket
d2t04 - West L.A. Fadeaway
d2t05 - Mama Tried >
d2t06 - Big River
d2t07 - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues #
d2t08 - Brown-Eyed Women
d2t09 - Tons of Steel >
d2t10 - Might As Well

Set 2:
d2t01 - Shakedown Street >     +
d2t02 - Uncle John's Band >
d2t03 - Playing in the Band >
d2t04 - Drums >
d2t05 - Space >
d2t06 - Stella Blue >
d2t07 - Lovelight
d2t08 - Encore break
d2t09 - Touch of Gray

+ first 12-15 seconds of file garbled; missing first 60-80 seconds of song
# First time GD played tune
last half step 10-17-1982

Recording Information:
Source: Master AUDCA: Beyer M201's XY > Nakamichi 550 > 2nd Sony TCD5M in line >
        Maxell MX 90s No Dolby -lead deck run by ??.
Location: 40 feet from stage  DFC, 8 ft up
Transfer: Nakamichi LX5 > Marantz PMD661|24/48 SD
Processing: SD| Audacity | cdwav editor | TLH | FLAC
Recorded by: Executive Crew: Tom Pinney; Kyle Holbrook; JJ Hance; Eric Britt
===================================================================================
The tour story:
This night was the opening of a 3 day run which started on a Wednesday. Therefore it was crazy weekday traffic and everyone getting settled in at the venue, many looking for tickets. The ticket situation was getting tough on the East coast for Dead shows in 1985. Many scalper mobs as well as heads were selling tickets for twice face value ($13.50-face GA) This was the first time in several years that Grateful Dead shows at Nassau were allowed to be General Admission. It was wild without seats, and you got a perspective of just how wide those old hockey arenas were on the floor. Probably 100-120 people could be in a row across and I am betting they crammed 10,000 people on that floor. Eric reminded me that there were also people with sources and methods who got in for a $20 bill at various side entrances.

The show contained several fine moments although the setlist is not as strong on paper as the next two nights. Listening back, of all things I hear is the Mama Tried > Big River and the energy they played with. Then Phil steps up to Bobby's mic and to a bit of aplomb sings Tom Thumb's Blues. The heads had been clamoring for Phil to sing, even making bumper stickers in fall 1984 pleading "Let Phil Sing". Wellm here in Long Island NY he sang live for the first time in many years (1974? Pride of Cucamonga?). The crowd went wild, the band was laughing and yukking it up and little did we all know the next two summers would feature the Dead with Bob Dylan, even being his backing band for their 1987 summer run (Tom Petty was Dylan's backing band for summer 1986).

Shakedown Street shook the coliseum with it's bass runs and crowd shaking their asses to a straight forward but rousing version. I would guess Jerry was "sick" this evening as the setlist shows mostly Bobby or band tunes with Jerry doing some solid guitar work, but less vocals than usual. Bobby steered them through the UJB > Playin' sequences, leading into a long and stilted space. Then Stella Blue. Jerry came alive and popped a serious high energy version of the ballad, but with a ragged segue into a bouncy Lovelight. Pretty standard fare, but it didn't matter, the heads were happy, we got a Phil song!!

Trouble ahead, Jerry in Red!

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     8:06.520     140117804 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7462  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s1t02.flac
     7:04.560     122273324 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7533  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s1t03.flac
     8:11.293     141492524 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7350  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s1t04.flac
     2:26.280      42128684 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7519  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s1t05.flac
     5:43.907      99045164 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7458  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s1t06.flac
     5:41.240      98277164 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7366  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s1t07.flac
     4:34.573      79077164 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7530  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s1t08.flac
     4:16.800      73958444 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7509  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s1t09.flac
     4:40.538      80794970 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7623  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s1t10.flac
    11:21.307     196216364 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7631  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s2t01.flac
     7:52.333     136032044 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7550  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s2t02.flac
    12:35.453     217570604 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7299  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s2t03.flac
     7:44.307     133720364 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7072  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s2t04.flac
     7:29.347     129411884 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7021  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s2t05.flac
     8:55.400     154195244 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7200  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s2t06.flac
     8:38.360     149287724 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7478  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s2t07.flac
     0:14.547       4189484 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.6953  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s2t08.flac
     6:43.508     116210432 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7705  gd1985-03-27beyerm201s2t09.flac
   123:34.726    2135441990 B                            0.7407  (19 files)



