Mets Mash Marlins! + 22 Yrs Ago: These Hartford Fillies Start Lookin' Good!!

Nice game from the Mets last night ... fun to watch but looking back I'm not entirely impressed with the performance. The sole reason being -- they played the Florida Marlins. I think there are probably some 10 year olds in America whose comic book collection is worth more than the Marlins' entire team payroll. The NY Yankees organization wouldn't keep half these players on their A ball teams.

But there was still some good run production including homers from David Wright and Ryan Church and 3 doubles from Carlos Beltran. Starting pitcher Oliver Pérez gave 6 great innings and 3 relievers only gave up 1 hit over 3 innings to keep Florida scoreless. It might've been the Marlins but a Shut Out is ALWAYS a good thing!!!

Hopefully while Pedro's out the Mets can hang onto first place. If that can happen and he can come back and pitch okay, we'll be lookin' good. Still gonna be a bumpy, edge-of-the-seat ride for awhile. After all, it's the New York Mets we're talkin' about.

Grateful Dead April 3, 1986 Hartford Civic Center Hartford, Connecticut

1st Set: Iko Iko, New Minglewood Blues, Peggy-O,
Me & My Uncle-> Mexicali Blues, Bird Song,
Supplication Jam-> Let It Grow-> Don't East Me In

2nd Set: Uncle John's Band-> Playing In The Band->
Don't Need Love, Drums-> Space->
The Other One-> Wharf Rat-> Around And Around, Not Fade Away

Encore: It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Second to last show on the Dead's 1986 Spring Tour. Any gas left in the tank? From being able to faintly hear the crowd on this beautiful soundboard, I've got a feeling the crowd was absolutely loving the opening Iko. I'm quite sure if I was there I wouldn't have been criticizing the tunes while I was happily dancing my ass off! The negative side of beautiful soundboard recordings -- you can hear how the band's just not all together there at times just like with this Iko; you can easily hear how bland it really is... at least for the most part -- just before the 7 minute mark, we get a pretty heavy dose of enthusiasm from Jerry. I went from mildly groovin' to thoroughly satisfied in about 1.75 minutes. Iko was completely redeemed!

Minglewood, Peggy-O, Uncle-> Mexicali all go by in fine fashion, keeping the crowd entertained and happy. But it's the Bird Song that absolutely shines brightest here. Gorgeous. Back when we were getting a nice, fairly steady stream of Dick's Picks releases and the Download Series, '86 was completely passed over -- the only year without a single note of live music released commercially. I am no Dick Latvala and I haven't listened to everything from '86, but through Bird Song, this show makes me think it coulda been on the short list for release from this year. After a little Supplication Jam, unfortunately it's the Bob Star who goes and blows what woulda been a perfect Let It Grow. Some flubbed lines momentarily make me cringe but other than that, it's pure beauty to match the Bird Song from a little while before. Jerry & Bobby have completely got it goin' working in perfect tandem on lead and rhythm guitar. Mmm! But it seems they ran out of steam with a kinda lackluster Dough Knees set closer. Not bad but it can nowhere match the greatness of the nearly 25 preceding minutes.

Set 2 starts out with more lyrical ugliness. Within 3 minutes of UJB, it's Jerry who just goes blank while falsetto Bobby tries to keep him on course. Piss poor from the soundboard and earphones point of view but at the same time I'm fascinated that you can tell so many of the 10,000 plus in the Civic Center that night really didn't care too much about what we can completely pick on now 22 years later with a high quality digital recording. It was a rare thing when I'd be at a show and would just stop dancing and go: "Oh, this is awful." A few people did that but not me and not most. Yet today it's so easy to criticize. I wonder if it has anything to do with all the dang effort (money and time) put in to see a show -- all I wanted to was have fun, not play critic.

In any case, kinda like the 1st Set opener, UJB seems to pick up some steam in the last segment as they slide into a fun and definitely crowd-lifting Playin'. Again here, Jer and Bob are together painting as a beautiful a picture with this as you could ask for. I guess it's those two who I mostly focus on but it's the whole band here, four Other Ones all helping to round out all the corners, smooth all the edges and fill in every nook and cranny in between, as well. Just gorgeous. Yeah, same word as earlier but how sweet this is!

I really like the mostly low-key Don't Need Love that Brent turns in. It's weird to hear Jerry & Bobby hangin' really far back through most of it, just letting Brent & Phil and Mickey & Billy carry it along. Unfortunately with that tune, they don't let 'er jam along into Drums; all you get is a pause, for the most part ... quite the opposite of a transition. Oh well.

Maybe the extra time for Jerry to rest was a good thing. Comin' out of a nice Space, The Other One is so brief (normal for the time) but on fire!! Whew. I tell ya, if the Dead did their shows lyric-less sometimes -- wow. The blown lines can bring a song down but sometimes even with them, the music is often so great as it is on this night in The Constitution State. A lyric-less Wharf Rat would have been a perfect one. One minor flub (God, I hate mentioning these!) is all there is, not a horrible moment by any means and even with it, what an excellent Wharf Rat that Jerry gives us here. Can I once again go -- Mmm!! Soon enough Not Fade Away helps add to the fine end of the 2nd Set. Some fun echoing and very cool rhythm from Bobby really make this a bit different than a run-of-the-mill romp that's turned in time and time again. Nope, not tonight.

Finally, a very nice and essentially flawless Baby Blue wraps it all up in a nice tie-dyed bow for everyone. Quite a satisfying show without a doubt and terrific sound, too. '86 might be one of the least listened to years but this show might very well stand out near the top.

Source: Vault Soundboard PCM Master>DAT>.wav>SHN
with some digital mastering mambo jambo thrown in
that doesn't mean squat to the average listener

Sound Quality: straight ahead A+ all the way

4/3/86 at Archive.org: three different Audience sources for your downloading pleasure and the soundboard for listening only.

-or-

Download The SBD Right Here

GD 4/3/86 Hartford Civic Center - 1st Set

Set 2, Part One - 4/3/86 Hartford

4/3/86 Hartford Civic Center - 2nd Set, Part 2

4-3-86 aka 04-03-86 aka 4/3/86 aka 04/03/86 aka 86-04-03 320 kbps mp3 download and setlist