This show slaps you in the face but also slithers with a calm vibe. I have been in similar circumstances like this in similar sized cities where the onlookers see us as if this is some kind of fictional pursuit but they are wrong! If I saw the sheets floating in the swimming pool i would be the first to jump in.This show really cooks in most spots and the sound quality is fabulous. see ya wondering the streets after the next show WIDED EYED

Drove from Chicago--> Indy--> Pine Knob--> skipped KC on to Cedar Rapids-> Alpine.
The estimated jams and melts into He's Gone. Real sick second set jams.
I remember the open ended parking garages across from this show. We dueled with the other parking structure using fireworks.
These Midwest shows had soul. They always played well around the rust belt and the heartland.
Oh for those halcyon days again.

Hello John,
I know memories fade...
That summer, we actually toured in my Chevrolet S-10 pick up without a cab on the back. So the entire tour, everyone in the back was exposed to the elements. Thankfully, that summer, it only rained once and I'm sure you remember it. The storm the night before the Starlight show. We were pulling up to a mini-mart and the sky OPENED up. We rushed to get everyone's packs in the front and ran inside the store.
As far as the Iowa show...Weir mentioned Paul at the start of the second set and Phil again before He's Gone.
This is still my favorite show from summer '84 and probably the most perfectly played Feel Like a Stranger EVER. Also best Row Jimmy I ever saw.
The whole show was fucking solid.

paul was a friend of mine he was on every tour from 1982 on I would see him everywhere. His last show was at Pine knob. He had asked us for a ride to starlight show but we were in a jeep and it was full.I was actually the one who told him to get on the "RAMBLE ON ROSE" Bus. He died on the way to KC the bus driver fell asleep and the bus went off the road into a small ditch that just happen to have water in it. paul was up front and all the gear in the bus fell on top of him and he drown. Freinds of his and mine had asked the band to mention him in KC but there was no mention. So here we asked Phil to plase mention him. Thats why he is mentioned. I am not sure if Phil says THE RAMBLE ON ROSE? bus or RAINBOW? I can also tell you this he was from New Jersey about 28 years old maybe 25. Good guy always there and sad this happened rest in peace Paul

You may have already found out through reviews elsewhere on this site, but that's Phil saying "this one's for Paul and the Rainbow Bus"which had incurred a fatal accident, if I recall taking 2 occupants lives, Paul one of them in transit from the prior show which I think was in KC.

At the very beginning of Help On The Way, Weir dedicates the show to someone, sounds like Brian or Ryan Paul. At the start of He's Gone someone (drunken Phil, Wavy?) says "This one's for Paul, a rainbow bud". Any ideas on who that was?
Peace, Bob
I like it, it's got a good beat and easy to dance to. Sound is up to cm standards. The end of He's Gone until drums start is very fine listening.

I was at this show. It is true that there were sheets of Pink flying saucers doses available. The show was general admission. I ran in when a back door opened and made it to the second row center. The reverb was incredible sounding given the influence of the flying saucers. Cops were very active in the parking lot right across the street after the show. (they had riot gear on) Overall, it was a fantastic experience given I was 19 years old.

16 yrs old & drove from DSM w/ 4 others in a tiny Civic hatchback. The whole experience was a great 1st show experience. Little road trip, seeing the parade from the previous show on the drive. Seeing the circus in downtown CR. Watching some lady stretch out just left of the stage before the show started...hmmmmm (whats that all about I wondered) and then the place come alive the second the musuc started. Spent as much time watching the crowd as the band. Then after the show stepping outside and watching bottle rockets and roman candles bounce off the buildings.
Great to get this and revisit.
Regardless of the previous reviewers snobbish ramblings (for his friends sake I only hope he writes like this)we had a great time and a great experience. We were hooked and w/ the shows we rattled off over the next 6 yrs (had enough after 5/90) we knew better and took it all in stride. I myself would rather listen to a washed out audience of a great show or one I experienced waiting for that one hook that caught me in the middle of a Jack Straw or Terrapin..than a a great recording w/ a setlist I could never appriciate. Yes, I too can appriciate the work that goes into great sound, but Mr. Audiophile needs to remember why he bought his first ticket.

Out

But it does have great presence. This recording well-represents the full spectrum of sound with nice highs and super lows all distortion free. I am appreciative of all the work that went into preserving this into perpetuity for us music lovers. I imagine that the ones who did the clean-up and speed correction must have thought this show was worth presenting if for nothing else than it is a Phil extravaganza.

I have always believed that a show with good sound reproduction is more palatable than a great performance that is awash in distortion, tape warble and speed variations. If Phil is particularly prominent his playing plugs in and compensates for a multitude of sins.

And honestly, I must admit that it sounds all night like they're giving it everything they've got on an empty tank. After all, the audience paid good money! (and went thru hell). The band feels obligated, (thank God), to at least try to give us our money's worth, And after all, we have saved and planned to be here today for this show, damn it, and muscular or flabby this bitch gotta go down.

That being said...even with stellar sound repro it is difficult to listen for very long when Jerry forgets lyrics and generally sounds a little distracted while playing guitar. It's like waking up on stage with a guitar in your hand and sputtering around to yourself asking yourself if you have been here 5 seconds or five hours.

Major blow-its on Cumberland and then on Help>Slip leave an enthusiastic listener rather disjointed. So much so, that you get up and go wash dishes. That's not a good sign, but Jerry does grab himself up by the boot straps and gets through it in dubiously even, yet suspect, pace.

This is a ho-hum version of Far From Me by Brent. This song could shine and it did here and there but even though the bass is waxing hot and melty the GD just can't seem to pull this one into the fire and it just dies a lukewarm death. Too bad, because I think this song could have been a promising show-stopper type song for the boys from Marin, but it ends like a blow out on the Golden G ate Bridge... And you ain't got no jack.

The conclusion is that even though I do not believe any of the players were actually high on drugs while on stage they sound as if they were still high from the night before. Perhaps I mis-spoke earlier when I said that good sound could make a mediocre performance better. In this case, the great sound reproduction reveals all the flaws. It is a sad testimony. This is the epitome of a drugged band too long on the road.

This show fairly rocks here but not there, you dig? Perhaps if you were a fan out in the crowd with your friends and partying down this show would certainly be adequate. It is certainly not for the spoiled audiophile, but, nonetheless, salt makes sweet, and after much boiling, the Grateful Dead ditches He's Gone and comes rollicking out of Drums with a new found fervor and with an Other One tease. You can hear Phil wanting to break loose, because he's been wanting to all night long but he knows certain band members have reached their limit, and he holds back, and the ensemble goes back into space.

Care not for Wharf Rat? Me, either, but this one I climb onto like a fire escape, drenched in fire hose issue. Oh, Phoenix, Great Bird, I callest upon thee to rise up once again from out of the ashes of larghetto into largess. And it is over. I am quickly spent.

Around falls Good Lovin and US Blues wraps it up, hurriedly. The way it comes down is kinda like a prostitute when she's done wit' ya.

an' there you are..................







But the space part gives the band a collective breather and they catapult sveltely into a cavernous awakening of Truckin>Wharf. And just like that, just as you were going to get up and walk out the band comes alive.

nothing super special

It was my fifth wedding anniversary and my wife and I were staying in the hotel connected to the arena, the second person we spoke to had ice cold doses for purchase, so the night just kept getting better as it went on, most excellent show. Later, partying in our room on the fifteenth floor, we thought we were hearing people talking outside our room's door. It was the fire alarm going off, telling us to evacuate the building via the stairs, long walk with a lot of tripping people. Like the next week, Cedar Rapids adopted a public urination ordinance,due to the large number of deadheads going on the sidewalks, God I miss you Jerry.
God's speed to you all,
B Dylan
PS. met Bobby once after a Ratdog show.

this was my 4th show of 450......... the hotel was a hilton in downtown cedar rapids and they dint expect us at all. i remember sheets of LSD floating in the indoor swimming pool and people just doing laps, it was wierd. the show it self was crazy being that it was the 4th healy had the reverb so high that it sounded like a fuse burning down to the moment the Boys walked on stage. Then it just kind of exploded into this crazy mahem of way way to many people getting off on red flying saucers..........it went from there it was the only indoor show of the tour and they let us know it......... it was cookin and way fast and way hot the city dint know how to deal with all the heads after the show!!!!!!!!!!!