Dead Show/podcast for 11/13/26

This week on the Deadpod we travel to Providence, Rhode Island, for a show at the Civic Center on November 4, 1979.

The first set catches the band in the middle of a strong fall tour. Brent Mydland had joined that spring and was still settling in at the keyboards, but the new lineup had clearly given the band a lift. You can hear it in the song choices too: four of these songs were only a few months old. Althea and Lost Sailor both debuted in early August, Easy to Love You, Brent's first original song with the Dead, followed a couple of weeks later, and Saint of Circumstance joined Lost Sailor at the end of the month.

I love Jerry's solo at the close of Althea, and the way he and Bobby play off each other on Sailor > Saint. Next week we'll hear the second set, which brings yet another debut.

Grateful Dead
Providence Civic Center
Providence, RI
11/4/1979 - Sunday

Set One
New Minglewood Blues
They Love Each Other
Me and My Uncle >
Big River
Althea
Easy to Love You
Brown Eyed Women
Lost Sailor >
Saint of Circumstance >
Deal

You can listen to this week's Deadpod here:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/deadshow/deadpod111326a.mp3

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My thanks for your kind support!

Dead Show/podcast for 11/5/26

This week the Deadpod heads back to Ford Auditorium in Detroit for the second set of the Grateful Dead's October 30, 1972 show. Fall '72 is a great stretch for the band, and this Monday night set shows why. It's loose, confident, and mostly built on rock and roll.

It opens with the longest piece of the night, a Truckin' that runs past sixteen minutes. In 1972 they often stretched the song past its usual length, and here Garcia keeps finding new things to say. Ramble On Rose slows things down, and then the set moves quickly through Chuck Berry's Promised Land and Around And Around, a solid Candyman, and Weir's Greatest Story Ever Told, which was brand new that year from his solo album Ace. Mississippi Half-Step was also a new song in 1972, and it already sounds comfortable.

Don't skip Tomorrow Is Forever. It's the Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton duet that Bob and Donna sang for a short time in 1972, and you don't hear it often.

The real payoff comes at the end. Sugar Magnolia flows into Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad and then into Not Fade Away, about twenty-two minutes without a break. Listen for Weir at the close of Not Fade Away, where he sings like his life depends on it. Uncle John's Band sends everyone home on a gentler note.

Thanks for listening and for supporting the Deadpod. Enjoy the show.

- The Professor

Grateful Dead
Ford Auditorium
Detroit, MI
10/30/1972 - Monday

Two
Truckin' [16:41]
Ramble On Rose [7:39]
The Promised Land [4:00]
Tomorrow Is Forever [5:35]
Around And Around [4:18]
Candyman [7:54]
Greatest Story Ever Told [7:31]
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [9:39]
Sugar Magnolia [7:44] >
Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad [9:10] >
Not Fade Away [5:41]

Encore
Uncle John's Band [7:21]

You can listen to this week's Deadpod here:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/deadshow/deadpod110626.mp3

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/131821574529

Dead Show/podcast for 10/30/26

This week's Deadpod comes from close to home for us here in Michigan: Ford Auditorium in Detroit on Monday, October 30, 1972. It was the last stop on the Dead's fall 1972 Midwest run, with Jerry, Bob, Phil, Keith, Donna, and Bill on stage just months after the band got back from Europe '72.

This week we're playing the full first set, and it's a long one. It's the 1972 band at its best, mixing tight rock and roll with patient, open-ended jamming. Bertha gets things moving, and from there the Bob and Jerry songs trade off all night, with the cowboy tunes Me And My Uncle, El Paso, Big River, and Mexicali Blues alongside Deal, Sugaree, and Don't Ease Me In. Black Throated Wind and Jack Straw were both still fairly new songs in the fall of '72.

The highlights for me are a long, exploratory Bird Song and a China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider that really flies. Phil also steps up to sing a lovely Box Of Rain near the end of the set.

This is a fine audience recording, warm and full, with a real sense of being in the room. It isn't flawless: there's a splice in Bird Song, Big River gets clipped at the end, but it is said to be recorded by Owlsey. But the sound is so good for an audience tape from 1972 that the rough spots are easy to forgive.

Grateful Dead
Ford Auditorium
Detroit, MI
10/30/1972 - Monday

One

Bertha [7:30]
Me And My Uncle [3:27]
Deal [6:03]
Black Throated Wind [7:41]
Sugaree [9:15]
El Paso [6:36]
Bird Song [12:54]
Big River [4:52]
China Cat Sunflower [6:19] >
I Know You Rider [7:38]
Jack Straw [5:21]
Don't Ease Me In [4:28]
Mexicali Blues [3:38]
Box Of Rain [5:12]
Playing In The Band [10:19]

You can listen to this week's Deadpod here:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/deadshow/deadpod103026a.mp3

Thanks as always for listening and for supporting the Deadpod. Happy Halloween, and enjoy the show.

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Dead Show/podcast for 10/23/26

This week on the Deadpod we continue with the second set from the Grateful Dead's October 20, 1989 show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. As you listen to this expansive set, you'll quickly hear how Brent was at the top of his game during this period. His keyboards and MIDI work really bring these songs to life. The highlight, in my opinion, is the "Other One Jam" out of "Truckin'." It's nearly 15 minutes of Brent and Jerry stretching out on "The Other One" theme, and DeadBase lists it as the band's first "Other One Jam" since 1975. From there the music flows into "Drums" and "Space," then into Brent's ballad "I Will Take You Home," before the band comes back to "The Other One" with a vengeance. This is the Grateful Dead at their most adventurous.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Grateful Dead
The Spectrum
Philadelphia, PA
10/20/1989 - Friday

Two

Hey Pocky Way [6:48]
Scarlet Begonias [10:03] >
Fire On The Mountain [13:44]
Truckin' [7:07] >
The Other One Jam [14:33] >
Drums [10:35] >
Space [10:48] >
I Will Take You Home [5:06] >
The Other One [11:11] >
Wharf Rat [10:26]
Sugar Magnolia [5:52]

Encore

Brokedown Palace [5:46]

You can listen to this week's Deadpod here:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/deadshow/deadpod102326.mp3

Be well and thanks for your kind support.

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Dead Show/podcast for 10/16/26

This week we travel back to the fall of 1989 for the first set of the Grateful Dead’s October 20 show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia—a performance that’s been called their longest of the year.

This was one of the band’s high-water periods, in my opinion, and you can hear the energy and enthusiasm from the first notes of “Touch of Grey.” Brent’s contributions are a big part of what makes this show so enjoyable, not only on his own “Just a Little Light,” but on “Tennessee Jed” as well.

Played just three days after the Loma Prieta earthquake, the show also featured the Dead’s first performance of Rodney Crowell’s “California Earthquake,” which closes the first set.

Grateful Dead
The Spectrum
Philadelphia, PA
10/20/1989 - Friday

Set One

Touch Of Grey [6:19]
Greatest Story Ever Told [4:10]
Candyman [6:44]
Picasso Moon [7:26]
Just A Little Light [4:44]
Tennessee Jed [8:39]
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again [8:56]
Stagger Lee [5:39]
The Promised Land [4:27]
California Earthquake (Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On) [5:50]

You can listen to this week's Deadpod here:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/deadshow/deadpod101626.mp3

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Dead Show/podcast for 10/9/26

This week on the Deadpod we go back 54 years, to October 9, 1972, for the second set of the "benefit for the roadies" at Winterland in San Francisco, CA. It opens with a somewhat amusing, clearly well-lubricated rap from Grace Slick, who was eventually led off the stage by Bill Graham, before the band eases into "He's Gone."

The set features some really fine vocals from Garcia and great versions of "Mississippi Half-Step" and "Brokedown Palace." There's also some unique improvisation in "Truckin'" and "The Other One" that I'm sure you'll enjoy. Unfortunately, the set-closing "Casey Jones" is cut off, and the reported "Johnny B. Goode" encore isn't on the tape. Nevertheless, this one earns its place in the pantheon of fine shows from the fall of 1972.

Grateful Dead
Winterland Arena
San Francisco, CA
10/9/1972 - Monday

Two

Banter (God Is Gonna Understand) [3:13] >
He's Gone [11:46]
Big River [4:38]
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo [9:32]
Greatest Story Ever Told [4:47]
Brokedown Palace [5:53]
Truckin' [11:36] >
The Other One [13:33]
Wharf Rat [11:16]
Sugar Magnolia [8:33]
Casey Jones [1:20] (incomplete, fades out)

You can listen to this week's Deadpod here:
https://traffic.libsyn.com/deadshow/deadpod100926.mp3