Grateful Dead

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This show fell on a Saturday. I was 18 at the time and asked my mom if I could borrow her car to drive from Chicago to Boston for a dead-show. (for ONE dead-show). The answer was a definative "No". However, when I threatened to hitchhike, she offered me a ride to the highway. Thanks for the ride mom! .........."I Would Tear This Old Building Down"

After the previous night's amazing show in Portland, the drive to Boston in my girlfriend's giant '73 Impala, staying up all night, and hanging around town all day, this was a hard one for me to get up for. So rather than fight it, I just mellowed out and hung out in my seat and took it all in. Always enjoyed the Baby Blue's.

We ate for this show and expected a barn burner. It was my second show at the Garden and it was always a trip trying to find your way around. I finally figured it out in the 90's The first set was reall fun and the crowd was definetly more crazy than Portland. I remember a kid taking one of the water hoses and spraying down all of us who were dancing in the hallway.Far from Me stood out from set one. For set two we went upstairs where there is no air circulation, there was never air circulation at the Garden God Bless the place, and Samson was quite appropiate. UJB> PLaying was good but they played Throwing Stones, for the second time,and it went over like a lead ballon so I think they really made an big effort to have a strong finish, which they did. The Baby Blue was sweet.

In '82 I too was 18 & just out of high school. My girlfriend's mom knew someone in the promoter's office who got us second row floor seats, so off we trucked down to the old "Gahhhden" with GF's younger brother and a couple other kids in my father's old 73 Impala coupe (and yes, those cars were huge compared to today; we once got 20 cases of beer into the trunk of that thing lol!).At the time I had been I'd been studying black Chicago blues records by Muddy Waters, LIttle Walter and all the big Chicago cats to get the "feel" for a band I was in. Admittedly, I knew little of The Dead other than by rep...didn't have any of their records, but we figured it'd be interesting. Suffice to say Jerry, Bob and the guys "altered" my perspectives a little with this show. I remember The Old Garden that night as being incredibly humid and packed to the rafters with spinning 'Heads (during shows I went to in later years there it sometimes rained INSIDE the building due to the "unique" environmental effects that sometime happened there). To that point, I'd been to a lot of concerts, with a big variety of genres including Bowie, ZZ Top, The Clash, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, The Allmans, and so on. But I'd never seen anything like this, and it sorta blew my mind 'cause it wasn't just a show. It was like a big group conciousness coming together. I recall thinking it was strange they played one show and then took a break (later I would come to find this was standard procedure 'natch), but I do recall really digging (though I didn't know the songs back then) the second set, from the shave and a haircut beat of S&D to the "OMSN" closer. What can I say? After this one, I immediately got on the bus and have stayed on ever since. The GD have shown me how you could take blues, bluegrass and country fundamentals and do your own thing with the mix on the other side. It's really helped me broaden the way I look at and play music. And the community of everyone involved has sorta felt like home. So in closing, thanks guys for helping to change my life and how I see the world a bit. And Jerry, wherever you are in the universe, just know we really miss you.

Was in High School and working full time.. had the cash to see many shows. More importantly I realized that having a car and gas money meant I could take others or be taken but when the dead came to here it was best. that is... in my hometown of Boston. I wasted too much money and time on lesser bands previously and since. I miss the days where I could ride the T into town to catch a concert for under $10.00

Far from me was a strange way to end the set.I must say i thought for longest time it was 2nd set opener i think something was wrong with there stuff because there was a long pause before they came up with gonna take a short break

We were at dinner at my aunt's in Beverly, and halfway through the meal I just blurted out, "Can someone drive me to the train station? I'm going to see the Grateful Dead at the Garden." My aunt was shocked, but my parents drove me, and I met my friends just in time on Causeway St. I had been to dozens of Celtics and Bruins games, but never a concert there. What a scene, I loved it from the moment I walked in. My friends that I went with were really good at calling songs, and from the sounds from Jerry's and Bob's guitars while they were tuning, they knew it was going to be a Jack Straw opener. So many of the songs I had never heard: West LA, Far From Me, Dupree's, and Throwin' Stones, but the rest I knew pretty well. I think my favorites of the night were Jack Straw, Sugaree and Baby Blue. I didn't get to see them again for another year, at the Hartford Civic Center, but after that, I'd go to 10 to 20 shows a year. But, like all of you, that first show changed my life.