"Round 157 of Billy Kreutzmann vs. Alien Intelligence"

10-26-80 Radio City Music Hall setlist & soundboard mp3 download a.k.a. 10/26/80 aka 80-10-26

28 Years Ago Tonight...

Grateful Dead ~ October 26, 1980
Radio City Music Hall ~ New York City

Acoustic Set: Iko Iko, Dark Hollow, It Must Have Been The Roses,
On The Road Again, Jack-A-Roe, Cassidy, China Doll, Ripple

Electric Set 1: Jack Straw-» Sugaree, Little Red Rooster,
Brown-Eyed Women, Let It Grow-» Don't Ease Me In

Electric Set 2: Samson And Delilah, Althea,
Estimated Prophet-» He's Gone-» Jam-» Drums-» Space-»
Not Fade Away-» Stella Blue-» Good Lovin'

Encore: Brokedown Palace

Right from the top one might think something like -- "Ahhh, what the heck is this?!" It's an Audience patch to begin the first 1:22 or so of Aiko. That's just the way "they" do things nowadays -- the kind folks who take the time to remaster these to sound as good as they can, they use a patch when possible. The alternative would be to just have the song /cut in. I'm not sure which I like better. The good thing about patches is they're usually seamless so it's a smooth transition but quality could be so significantly different sometimes. In any case... you can decide for yourself what you like; it's only for less than a minute and a half and then the sound gets just downright beautiful.

I suppose while I'm mentioning sound quality, it does sound like there's a cassette generation in here but reportedly there is not. During some quiet moments there's some audible hiss but seriously, it ain't bad and more importantly, except maybe during some of the quiet of Drums->Space, the hiss isn't noticeable during the music. Essentially this is a gorgeous recording!

Fantastic acoustic set. Ya know what, though? It's just like Reckoning. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just that I've heard Reckoning, oh, about 1.4 kajillion times, give or take a few. None of the songs from this show was used on that album... but they surely coulda been! One of the things that helps make this extra special is the banter amongst some of the band members heard between some of the songs. You've gotta turn it up to hear it well because the mics aren't turned up but there's some fun stuff, methinks. Some of the discussion is deciding what song they're gonna play next and if they played something the night before or not. Pre-decided upon setlist? Apparently not! And not only are they having fun but at one point they're diggin' how good a song was played. This acoustic thing they'd been doing was, at this point, a month old now, I believe, yet it sounds like they're not yet tired of it!

The first electric set is only a mere 45 minutes long but it has just a ton o' nice playin' packed into it. Listen really closely immediately after Rooster finishes, again you can hear them diggin' a well-played song. There just isn't a note or a lyric out of place here.

For those interested in Bobby being a dork, there's a prime occurrence of his dorkiness right after Samson -- into an open mic he says something to the crowd with a pseudo-French accent. Oh, that Bobby!

I'm not sure I'm a big fan of Althea played so, so, so quietly like it is here. It's nice but I swear it could put people to sleep. Bathroom break (sorry, Jer.)

More talkative Bob after Althea but unfortunately there's a cut in the recording and we don't hear all of what he said. No worries, what happens next is just priceless. The band tries to start Estimated but, for whatever reason, it fails after just a second. We then get to hear Jerry, Mickey and/or Phil, and Bobby yet again before they give the song a second whirl.

I really dig the brief Jam that He's Gone dissolves into. To complain I don't wanna do but why not like 10 or 15 minutes?!? Grrr.

Drums is kinda a flatliner here. If I was baked, I coulda danced and/or grooved to it just fine but this didn't inspire me too much. Bathroom break (sorry, Mickey & Billy.) Space, too, I think is a little on the tiresome side... until some big sounds from Phil that help lead the way into NFA and the end of the show. Stella Blue is not quite mind-blowing but still really nice. "The Bob Weir Band" is in fine form for Good Lovin'; Bobby's got his spotlight again, his backing musicians play along with him so well and all is right in the world. Again, if only this went like 10 or 15 minutes, how much better it coulda been! Oh well, still a fun way to close things out before the beautiful Brokedown encore.

What a great night in Manhattan!

Source: Soundboard> Master Reel> DAT> CD> SHN Audio Quality:

10/26/80 Radio City @ Archive.org: the SBD for Listening Only or you can Download the AUD

-or-

Download The Show Right Here!

Acoustic Set ~ 10/26/80 Radio City Music Hall

Electric Set 1

Electric Set 2 - Part 1 ~ October 26, 1980 ~ NYC

Electric Set 2 - Part 2