The Golden Road Archives

This week the Golden Road takes us back to the Pittsburgh, Pa, the Steel City, for Grateful Dead music recorded live at the celebrated Stanley Theatre on Friday November 30, 1979. Brent Mydland was the new guy and the new energy he brought to the Grateful Dead was immediate and abounds at this show. Friday night with the Dead, it doesn’t get any better than that! Oh yeah did I mention the killer Scarlet>Fire?

This week on the Golden Road, we are taking a trip back to late Fall 1969 for a mix of Grateful Dead music recorded live at the New Old Fillmore (after Bill Graham closed down the Fillmore Auditorium in 1968, the venue reopened sometime in 1969 as the New Old Fillmore). This week’s music is culled from the November 8th (Dick Latvala’s favorite show!) and December 20-21 shows and features several songs by the one and only Ron “Pigpen” McKernan! Call the Fillmore Auditorium by any name, but these shows must have felt like old home week for the band and their playing was very inspired! Now get ready to dig the Pig!

This week the Golden Road returns to one of our favorite venues, the Rochester War Memorial for Grateful Dead music recorded live on November 7th, 1985. The RWM was the scene of many great GD shows in the seventies and eighties. Sadly, this show and the following night were the last Dead shows at this venerable hall. The hit Touch Of Grey spelled the end to shows at the smaller more intimate venues and arenas and stadiums were the only venues large enough to handle the new audience.

Tonight’s show was smack dab in the middle of the very well-played 1985 Fall tour. While the setlist is pretty standard 80s fare but the Boys were having fun on this night and the music reflects this. Jerry’s voice is a little rough here and there (it was much better than the Summer tour), but he made up for this with some outstanding playing. Plus we will hear a touch of Richmond November 1st, 1985.

We like anniversaries here at the Golden Road and this week we have a big one! This week marks the 40th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s October 1978 five-night stand at Winterland. Billed as the From Egypt With Love shows, these concerts (October 17th,18th & 20th- 22nd) were played just a month after their Egyptian fieldtrip. If their Egyptian shows were subpar, the band made up for it over the five night as every one of these shows was extraordinary! And guess what? Our esteemed Golden Road founder and Silver Nine Volt Heart host, Rodriquez went to all five nights and has kindly agreed to sit in with us this week and play cherry-picked highlights from these stellar shows!  Thank You Rodriquez!