Grateful Dead
Date 1986-03-21
Hampton Coliseum
Hampton VA

set I
d1t01 - (I'm A) Road Runner
d1t02 - Dupree's Diamond Blues
d1t03 - New Minglewood Blues       **
d1t04 - Bird Song
d1t05 - Tons Of Steel >
d1t06 - Supplication Jam >
d1t07 - Let It Grow

Two
d2t01 - Uncle John's Band >
d2t02 - Terrapin Station >
d2t03 - Playing In The Band Reprise >
d2t04 - Drums >
d2t05 - Space >
d2t06 - I Need A Miracle >
d2t07 - Stella Blue >
d2t08 - Sugar Magnolia
d2t09 - Encore It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Comments
** Missed start
[2] 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:
Microphones: Beyer m201 (hypercardioid) XY 90Âº
Recorder:    Sony TC-D5M No Dolby
Location:    40' 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
Transfer by: Kyle Holbrook
=================================================================
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 coma you will hear some of the weirdest, worst, and best the Grateful Dead had to offer.

In the "best" category might be the new song selections. On this recording the Bob Dylan cover, "Visions of Johanna" stands 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 this year. 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 Philadelphia The Spectrum 3-24-1986 with one song, Morning Dew, out of space. 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". ##

For this specific night look no further than the opening of "(I'm A) Roadrunner" for the weird. Bobby played it straight but the band made it swing, especially for an opener. Another short first set punctuated with two lengthy tunes, "Bird Song" and "Looks Like Rain". The Duprees Diamond Blues was slow and loped along with Phil playing some neat lead bass on the high strings. The aforementioned "Birdsong" is slow and jazzy keeping the musical mood light and airy. The "Supplication > Let it Grow" was a bit meandering leading to the end of the set. The second set started off with Jerry completely flubbing the lyrics on Uncle John's Band with Bobby and Brent adding the key lines while the crowd howled. The lyric "How Does The Song Go" elicited a bronx jeer type crowd response. The Terrapin was equally uneven and slow but they did do the "Playin' in the Band reprise" to complete what they started on night 1. Jerry played some pretty guitar for Stella Blue especially the ending sequnce. Bobby sprang into a Sugar Magnolia and they finished with a tight rendition of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".

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