Just back from our honeymoon, my wife and I (engaged at Worcester centrum in april) went to three of these msg shows. She was a second grade teacher, I was a struggling entrepreneur, and five shows were out of the question.
The dead were just en fuego. Jerry was just killing it. Bobby was full on energy. Brent/Jerry connection looked to be at a sober great. Phil was on and sans rift-inducing ego. Billy and micky sharp. This show is fuckin' nyc strong.
There were la bamba whispers, there was in the dark and Jerry was in the captain kirk seat... the band to hit it. 1987 was their strongest in years (my first show was '78 Meadowlands and my first live experience the Jerry bronchitis-a-thon '77 radio broadcast from the cap) and this was just such a moment of affirmation for this boarding school/ivy league adhd/ dyslexic work in process.
They killed this show. Just killed it. Masterful post-letterman appearance melting musicianship. I just can't find a note out of place. Jerry's voice strong. Bobby singing. The finale post space ENERGIZED.
There are moments I remember from my dozens and dozens of shows, from the Lewiston double encore I heard from railroad tracks in the woods to the scarlet-fire and China doll and other one of msg spring 81 to the Philly show where Bobby's string broke during gdtrfb and Jerry just kept soloing while bobby went offstage for a string to the soul crushing disaster of Memphis 95 where Jerry just wasn't there and his guitar was not even on the p.a. during unbroken chain to the post- coma candy man at the greek...even the wedding proposal crazy fingers in Worcester 87 and and and... but this one is just such a happy place for me from Bobby's rocky and bullwinkle to the lights up on us dazed and grateful.
Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan, soy capitan , soy capitan... Jerry, Jerry, jerry it's been too long you know, it was ALWAYS a hoot.
Thanks guys. Jerry, miss you so fucking much every single fucking day... tears in my eyes now. Bobby, thank you so much for your amazing efforts, successful efforts, to ensure the songs stayed alive, got new lives, and carry on... you got to live and led us forward.
This show deserves to be in the metropolitan museum of art of dead shows of the post 70's, the one that you get to see full on at the end of the gallery as you enter, with all the school kids sketching it and the docents pausing to talk about it.
Grateful dead, New York fucking city, 1987. I just feel so lucky to have been there and to hear it now not on my tape, not on my dat, not on relisten... full on high quality. Goose bumps... bird song just started and the audience just hushed...
Onward and upward.
