Hello out there in Radio Land!
On the May 31st broadcast of The Golden Road, listeners may tune in to KDRT and hear the legendary Frost Amphitheatre show from October 10, 1982. You may ask, "What makes this Grateful Dead show so legendary?"...well, though you will hear plenty about it on the broadcast, here are a couple of things that may help to answer the question:
The Frost Amphitheatre is located on the campus at Stanford. Bill Graham had worked on trying to land a Dead show there for quite awhile. And lucky for us, he finally did and the band really rose to the occasion. The Frost is a gorgeous venue and remains one of the best loved places the band ever played.
But more importantly, when it comes to recordings of live Grateful Dead shows, most Dead Heads prefer nice, clean copies of the soundboard feed. However, there is another camp REALLY digs a classic audience recording. No matter which you prefer, you will never hear a better aud recording of the Grateful Dead than 10/10/82! And I will be playing plenty of it on the May 31st edition of the Golden Road.
Sunday at 7:00 pm, hope to see you there!
Rod
Comments
...as I usually do. Still, in FM form nonetheless, over the airwaves here in D-town.
Hey Rod,
I've really fallen in love with the Dead since I started listening to your show. Saw them @ the Rec. Hall in...by gum, I think it was '82...but never really appreciated them 'til these daze. Lookin' forward to another brilliant Golden Road. Da Cycle RN
Rango lived in LA at the time; so he was up here for the shows. I recorded the shows with him. They were indeed amazing recordings. That's what happens when you put two Deadhead engineers at the sweet spot in front of the board. We met lots of people those two days. They were very special.
Yes, I was living in LA at the time and had come up for the weekend. I remember these shows very well due to they really are my favorite shows, musically, that I attended. Both days were beautiful October days. I was there with then my friend and sometimes roommate, Mike, from college who had just moved to the area, we recorded the shows together. For some reason I remember we used our own set of mic stands for 10/9/82, doing an experiment in different mic arrangements. I think I put mine in a spread V form and Mike did the reverse, inverse V. For 10/10/82, we may have used the reverse V and patched in together. These are details I can't recall with utmost clarity, I'm sure you'll understand. :) These were also my first Bay area shows. I had moved to LA in Feb of '82 and had attended the San Diego and Pauly Pavillion shows. Then over the summer saw the Ventura shows, US Fest, and then came these. For both shows, we were about 20 feet or so from the stage, center. I think just after the dip in front of the stage? Tough to get the decks and mics in, but once we were in, absolutely no hassle. I think we both had tripods with us, so probably about 7 ft. in the air.?
10/9/82 ended with just a beautiful 2nd set. The sequence of Truckin' > Other One > Dew was really a great statement by the band. After the show, Mike and I went to dinner and we sat there and jokingly discussed why bother with the next day, no way they can top that. IMO, we were wrong! :)
The first set of 10/10/82 is, IMO, spot on excellent. The opening sequence sets the tone, and the LLR > China Cat > Rider is solid. High energy there. Lot of dosed people around us, as well. The 2nd set, though, for me, it seemed like every tune that came was perfect for the moment, and fit exactly into my mindset. I remember when they were finishing with Throwing Stones, which at the time was a new song and one that I hadn't got sick of yet, I was thinking, perfect time for a rocked out tune, and there it is, NFA! Then I remember thoughts of having to fly back home and I'm always a bit apprehensive about planes, so there's a song about dying, Black Peter! Then the rousing Sugar Mag to send it off, with Bob going political in the break spot. He probably felt empowered to go there with the TS song now being part of the mixed bag of tricks.
I'm pretty sure it's me who got the One More Set chant going by screaming it out, and then around us it started up (for some stupid reason we didn't tape that, maybe to conserve tape/batteries?). So, they of course took the lead from Ventura and played Satisfaction.
Over the course of the years, I've heard these tapes probably a 1000 times. By far my favorite, both sonically and performance wise, of shows I've attended. We were very lucky, got the right spot on the field, fell into some great mics by accident (I picked them up on Sunset just before the SD shows, didn't have a ton fo dough with me then, so picked up the pair not knowing much about them). You can hear the band listening to each other with great intent throughout. Playing off each other. After the show, a guy on the cleaning crew came by and said, "Bill Graham said this was the best show these guys have played in 10 years!". Hyperbole, no doubt, but fit the moment!
It really makes me happy that so many people have enjoyed these shows from our tapes. It makes me really happy that Charlie Miller did such a great job transferring them. And thanks to Rod for playing these. I'm sorry I couldn't call in, family life got in the way a bit.
The journey continues.
Rango Keshavan
I should add, Mike is of course still my friend, and also now my brother in law. :)
Would really like to thank all of the folks that posted comments about the "Legendary Frost Amphitheatre Tapes" broadcast....especially Rango for illustrating what it took to capture the sounds with a fly-by-night rig that paid off in spades. When you buy microphones on Sunset Blvd., they must have the mojo that we all need to tune into now & then!
And no matter if it is 1982, or current times, seeking out adventuresome music has this interesting payoff that can often stimulate the mind.
Not Fade Away!
First set on 10/9/82 is fantastic! Jerry's voice on Alabama is stellar. I think it was the 1st West LA- Love Jerry's raunchy lead. Then my favorite Music Never Stopped. But that Deal? The best.
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