[chuckpolzin]

hey guys i was looking for a list on what the general ultimate dead shows ever were, just monumental or peak playing etc,

im looking to get the must haves downloaded, i have all the dicks picks and am looking for more idead,

how does 5-7-77 rank up there, i think thats my fav right now from boston garden its pretty amazing,

let me know what youthink

list away if you can ,

[lostsailor8782]

alot of that depends of your tastes as far as which era's you prefer etc .... some great shows for me .... well that whole run there in 5 -77 was great ... the guys did some peaking there I am sure .... some great sets for me .... second set Boise 9-2-83 second set msg 10-11-83 wow I should have thought about this ... the memories are many ... and many quite clouded .... great sets will do that to you ....

[groovemongrel]

That JFK '73 is pretty popular.

[ebick]

you like those Wang Dang opener shows, eh?

I was at that Boise show. I loved what Brent was doing during Slipknot!

[lostsailor8782]

how about the pre drums with bobby and brent

[ebick]

yeah, that was a great jam.

[jck_strw]

Here's a good list to get you started. From a old-school, long-time trader, Jeff Tiedrich. This list pops up on rec.music.gdead occasionally. Here it is for posterity:

Uncle Jeff's Top Twenty-Five Shows Of All Time
------------------------
An Highly Debatable List

1. 05/26/72 Strand Lyceum Theatre, London, England
2. 11/30/73 Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA
3. 08/06/74 Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, NJ
4. 07/26/72 Paramount Theater, Portland OR
5. 04/26/72 Jahrhunderthalle, West Germany
6. 06/28/74 Boston Garden, Boston, MA
7. 11/08/70 Capitol Theater, Port Chester, NY
8. 06/26/73 Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, WA
9. 02/27/69 Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA
10. 10/19/74 Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA

11. 04/14/72 Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark
12. 02/13/70 Fillmore East, New York, NY
13. 05/02/70 SUNY-Harpur Campus, Binghamton, NY
14. 04/24/72 Rheinhalle, Duesseldorf, West Germany
15. 09/28/72 Stanley Theater, Jersey City, NJ
16. 04/27/69 Labor Temple, Minneapolis MN
17. 03/25/72 Academy Of Music, New York, NY
18. 11/08/69 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
19. 05/19/77 Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA
20. 10/29/73 Keil Auditorium, St Louis, MO

21. 05/26/73 Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, CA
22. 06/26/74 Civic Center, Providence, RI
23. 09/17/72 Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA
24. 08/13/75 Great American Music Hall, SF, CA
25. 09/10/91 Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY

[groovemongrel]

The spring and summer of '90 were also fantastic.

[mttourpro]

That list abpove is a great start, though, it does lean a bit heavy on older stuff. I heartily agree about Spring-Summer 90. My favorite tours. You cannot go wrong with anything from those tours. As for some dates that are less familiar and more rarely cited (and some of my other personal favorites)

6-16-85 Greek 2nd set Breakout of Cryptical---entire 2nd set smokes....one of my fav Scarlet>Fires---Brent/Jerry are just enfuego

6-14-85 Greek They open the show with DEW!! after Phil makes these animal grunting sounds or something

4-6/7/8-85 Philly, Easter, end of Spring run.
All 3 shows are worth getting. Some rarities like Walking the Dog, Do it in the Road, Revolution. Very nice run. Providence Spring 85 also a very nice show.

7-13-84 Greek First DarkStar (as encore no less) in many many moons----in honor of a full moon on Friday the 13th. I've heard ta;es of a shooting star as they broke it out----urban legend??

7-2-87 Pittsburgh Civic Arena 2nd set
They do Shakedown>Samson and then no more GD tunes....All covers with the Nevilles for the rest of the show. Also, they released In the Dark on that day and didn't play one tune off it.

7-2/3-88 Oxford Speedway. Simply killer both nights. Some of the largest Phil Bombs ever on Jack Straw. Great Terrapin and early versions of the "new tunes", esp Blow Away.

6-14-91 RFK often overshadowed by 9-10-91 as the list was similar but Branford was there, this is the first ever Help>Slip>Frank's>Est>DarkStar......I was BLOWN AWAY to get the DStar after the front!!! Also, the GD's 2000th show. 10 song first set---very rare for those days.

Cap Center----whatever show they broke out Lucy in the Sky---perhaps 3-17-93??

hope that helps....MT

[tigerstrat]

7-2-87 Pittsburgh Civic Arena 2nd set
They do Shakedown>Samson and then no more GD tunes....All covers with the Nevilles for the rest of the show. Also, they released In the Dark on that day and didn't play one tune off it.

The date of that one was 7/6/87... 7/2/87 was an awesome show, but it was in Rochester (and btw had a 12 song first set)

and then no more GD tunes....All covers with the Nevilles for the rest of the show.

..see, that sort of takes it right outta the running for me. Don't get me wrong- the Nevilles are great, and I loved seeing them sit in with the GD on a couple of occaisions (one being 12/31/87 and there is a close-up shot of me dancing in TTNY right almost at the end of Heaven's Door)... but ultimately the very best GD for me is pure & unadulterated, no guests... 1 exception for Janis doing Lovelight. Even 2/11/70 with the Allmans is pushing it a little bit for me!

Sorry to nitpick... maybe I'm just jealous because I hopped off the tour after Rochester!

1. 12/10/65 Fillmore Auditorium
2. the untouchable 2/27/69
3. 10/20/74 "The Last One" (10/19 is the best of the run imho)
4. 3/3/68 right on MF'ing Haight Street baby!!!
5. 6/21/71 Herouville, FR a summer lawn party at a French chateau in 1971 ... beat that.
6. 9/14/78 the Great Pyramids (who cares that the music bnasically tanked, right?)
7. 8/27/72 "the 1st Decadenal Field Trip" Veneta, OR
8. Alpine!! any show.
9. the Greek!! any show
10. Red Rocks!! any show

kinda copped out at the end there, but there you go.

[grateful4booze]

Kezar Stadium '73. That '72 Strand show is a very close second.

[devil]

Here are some of my favs not yet listed

I can't really rank these
11-19-66
11-08-69
05-02-70
02-18-71
Dick's Gift (date?)
07-19-74
05-08-77
12-29-77
10-09-89
04-05-91
09-10-91
03-24-93
03-23-95

[BlobWeird]

Anyone know where I can get a good copy of 2/27/69 and that Lovelight with Janis. Ive heard it before but not in a long long time.

[BlobWeird]

Lets see. I dont really remember dates too well but a few shows I really enjoy are:

1. 9-11-73
2. 6-16-74
3. 11-06-77
4. 8-27-72
5. 12-31-78
6. 5-5/9-77
7. 10-17/22-78
8. 2-03-78
9. 12-19-73
10. 10-31-71

Not in any particular order. Oh and pretty much any show from 73-74 there will be good highlights of all of em im sure.

[droppeddminer]

Hard to imagine anything after '77 making any top 10, top 25, maybe even top 50 list. This from a guy whose first show was '79, saw some shows I remember as flat-out GREAT - 10/1/94 was the last night I personally saw them excel all night long, for example - but I gotta be honest with myself, I missed pretty much all the best shows by a decade. The very best outings of, say, '85, or '91, or whatever your favorite is-Jerry-on-junk-this-week? year might happen to be can't hold a candle to just-another-night in '69. I know, the setlists didn't change nearly as much... they stopped for 5 minutes between songs... the valleys were MUCH deeper - a lot of the WORST shows were pre-'77 too, in the later years the lows weren't as low, except maybe at the very end, just as the highs weren't as high... they were technically far better players by the late '70s... the jazz influences of the mid-'70s weren't there yet - that stuff peaked with those spring '77 shows, some of which probably do make the top 25... the '80 acoustic sets were FAR, FAR superior to the ones of a decade earlier... but on the whole, by the time Keith was falling asleep on his grand just before they canned him, the best shows were all in the rear-view mirror... Always be sorry I missed 'em, grateful for the good ones I got.