Grateful Dead
Date 1986-03-27
Cumberland County Civic Center
Portland ME

set I
d1t01 - tuning
d1t02 - Jack Straw >
d1t03 - Peggy-O
d1t04 - New Minglewood Blues
d1t05 - Revolutionary Hamstrung Blues >
d1t06 - Bertha
d1t07 - Wang Dang Doodle     //
d1t08 - Big RR BLues
d1t09 - Supplication Jam >
d1t10 - The Promised Land

Set II
d2t01 - China Cat Sunflower > +
d2t02 - I Know You Rider
d2t03 - Estimated Prophet
d2t04 - Eyes Of The World >
d2t05 - Drums >
d2t06 - Space >
d2t07 - Spanish Jam >
d2t08 - Truckin' >
d2t09 - Wharf Rat >
d2t10 - Sugar Magnolia
d2t11 - Encore  Keep Your Day Job #

Comments
+ Missed start; borrowed 3:24 seconds from: Pinney Beyerm88 1st gen
# before they play, Bob says: "We'd like to leave you with this thought- that is, it takes a heap of homing to make a pigeon toed" (h/t Walt Kelly, the comic strip POGO)
Only Grateful Dead version of "Revolutionary Hamstrung Blues"
Black Peter tease before Wharf Rat
bass distortion from overloaded pre-amps/low 9v batteries at several points in recording
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:
speed corrected 1.75%
Microphones: AKG 422 XY fig 8's > Nakamichi 550 >
Recorder:    Sony TC-D5M No Dolby Maxell MX90 x 2
Location:    40 feet from stage DFC
This Source: Master AUDCA Maxell MX90 No NR [KH]
Transfer:    s1: Nakamichi LX5 > Sonic AD2k @24/48 > Marantz PMD661|24/48 SD
             s2: Nakamichi 680ZX > 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, Kyle Holbrook, Tom Pinney, Gary Steel, Greg Martens
Transfer by: Kyle Holbrook
This Executive Crew AKG c422 recording is dedicated to Kenny Davis RIP
==========================================================================
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, the only time the band played Dylan's "Revolutionary Hamstrung Blues" 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 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, which for this show, came in the first set, with an odd, lengthy "Supplication jam" before "Promised Land" which certainly did not "fit" with the rest of the set, and of course, Bobby didn't want to finish it with "Lazy Lightning".

At the beginning of the recording, you can hear the tapers talking. Kyle and Tom's voices are prominent, talking about putting the mics up higher at the start of set 1. Then another taper asks us to borrow our flashlight. It is funny to hear all these years later. They opend with a Jack Straw which was jagged, typical for an opening tune. The Peggy-O was slow with Jerry gaining some footing. You can hear the crowd not knowing what was being played at the beginning of "Revolutionary Hamstrung Blues", no clapping or cheering acknowledgement. To me, the "Bertha", "Wang Dang Doodle", "Brown Eyed Women" sequence was top notch playing for 1986.

The "China Cat Sunflower" begins with a patch from the Beyer M88 recording as the start was missed with the c422. They play a tight jam into I Know You Rider, ending with a nice crescendo getting the crowd revved up. During "Estimated Prophet" Jerry starts to flag and Bobby takes over with his falsetto screaming. At the end of "Eyes of the World" Jerry stays on with the drummers for almost 3 minutes for some "between the lines" jamming. The drums are cut abrubtly, recording starts again when space begins. A full fledged "Spanish Jam" developed before "Truckin'" and to this reviewers ears adds to my point that the Dead played some great music even in this timeframe. An impassioned "Wharf Rat" leads to the show closer, "Sugar Magnolia" as Jerry pulled up short on the "wait and see" portion. Bob flubs the lyrics to "Sunshine Daydream" much to the crowd's bemusement while they end the tune with flair and Phil bombs galore. The "Dayjob" encore implored us to make our night job pay so we don't need to keep that ol' 9 to 5.

For reference, this is the link to Tom Pinney's Beyer M88 recording which was uploaded by Russ Cansler in 2010. https://archive.org/details/gd1986-03-27.beyerm88.pinney.russjcan.107068.flac16

    length     expanded size    cdr  WAVE problems  fmt   ratio  filename
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     5:37.053      97071404 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7492  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks1t02.flac
     7:01.440     121374764 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7451  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks1t03.flac
     8:53.573     153669164 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7489  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks1t04.flac
     4:24.160      76078124 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7621  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks1t05.flac
     6:00.533     103833644 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7820  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks1t06.flac
     6:05.933     105388844 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7601  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks1t07.flac
     5:43.813      99018284 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7733  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks1t08.flac
     4:32.733      78547244 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7567  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks1t09.flac
     4:15.672      73633574 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7819  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks1t10.flac
     6:26.013     111171884 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7670  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t01.flac
     6:18.213     108925484 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7633  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t02.flac
     9:31.453     164578604 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7591  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t03.flac
    15:45.467     272294444 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7608  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t04.flac
     8:20.907     144261164 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7311  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t05.flac
    10:33.507     182449964 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.6960  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t06.flac
     2:24.413      41591084 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7286  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t07.flac
     6:30.813     112554284 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7818  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t08.flac
     9:07.653     157724204 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7554  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t09.flac
     8:19.520     143861804 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7802  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t10.flac
     4:43.378      81612896 B   cxx   --   ---xx   flac  0.7839  gd1986-03-27akgc422-davis-holbrooks2t11.flac
   142:34.037    2463563466 B                            0.7554  (21 files)



