This was a fun show, tons of audience energy and just what everyone loves about being a Deadhead... I made it late to the party from the Pine Knob show six days before. I remember to this day dancing down the aisles to our seats as Jerry Sang Dire Wolf..(Getting into the show sucked with all of the traffic, but typical Alpine) As everyone said, it was all about the second set. I thought the roof was gonna come off when Lovelight kicked in...Just a great time to be at Alpine, and a great time to be a travelin' Head!

What a great show from a largely overlooked year.
I know people talk about the Fall run at Berkeley, but aside from 11/2 - I don't think those shows are on par with this run. Just my humble opinion.

Anyway first set is very well executed - but it is the second set that is really the standout.
Samson starts things out rocking w/ bobby preaching and "no doubt about it talk to me now".
Playing is gorgeous - for this time period - and leads into an unexpected and ever so delicate China Doll.

During the later part of space you can hear bobby ask jerry "you want to start Terrapin?". These are the things that made you love the shows. Terrapin out of space was really great. Throwing Stones and Not Fade were great BUT it is where PHIL steers the band into LOVELIGHT makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Jerry jumps on board and soon everyone is rocking away.
Bob handles the vocal transition well. And then the boys take it back to the 3rd verse and ending chorus of NFA.

Listen to this one and I think you'll enjoy.

God bless.

Both nights featured focused, intense post-space performance. Often, that part of the show could just get mailed in. Not these 2 nights. Also, these were still in the days where you could enjoy Alpine. There was room on the hill to spread out if you wanted to. Heck, you could still get a GA ticket the day of the show!

Not as good as the first night but maybe I just didn't remember as much of this one. I honestly don't remember them doing Might as Well. But I do remember the Lovelight and everbody clapping and chanting Not Fade Way for hours after the show

Streaming all day today in Jerry's honor. Hard to believe it has been 15 years. Miss you, but Archive.org is a treasured link to the light you shed on your trip through this plane.

It was my 1st experience with DMT...
And it was my 7th show.

Sitting in the 6th row right between Jerry and Brent, with my brother and his buddy.

We smoked the DMT laced joint during space while already well dosed on sunshine blotters... Something said about it being a religious sacrement that would provide me enlightenment... Hell !,, why not huh?

Terrapin kicks in at the same time as the DMT..
WHOA !!! this is getting really good now,,, as I grab onto the arms of my brother and his buddy in order to stop myself from flying away.

I felt like the guy on the Maxell Tape commercials... Hair flying back, being pushed back by the power of the sound, I needed to hold on big time...

I also remember dancing with the cutest brunette who had one brown eye, and one green eye, during S&D...

Good thing I got that dance in...

Because by the end of terrapin ???
I was a deer caught in the headlights.

And to think I still can remember...
That's the best part of it all.

I started at end of tour, in Starlight Theater. They did NFA there and if you listen Phil was tossing Lovelight bombs during the jam but Jerry never followed up. At Cedar Rapids Phil started up again during Good Lovin' but Bobby says push back and saves it for this night. They had fun pulling this out and us heads who were there this night went apeshit.

Stan from STINKIN LINCOLN insisted I double dose at the end of the first set as I felt the liquid hit my tongue.

A double to STAN was more like 5 hits to most HUMANS!!


You could hear the TERRAPIN developing towards the end of space and then you hear Bob say, "lets start TERRAPIN".

Terrapin thru the BUST OUT TREAT of LOVELITE was just DIRTY, NASTY GD at it's BEST for 1984



Regards,

Milt

The 2nd set is great! Actually from 'Let's do Terrapin" to the very end was what I love about it. A friend of mine, Kurt called the Lovelight earlier in the day which when they did it blew my mind. Alpine in the early 80's was one of the best places to see the Dead! And the boys for the most part seemed to be up for the place too.

The bus came by and I got on. This was my first show. I LOVE this second set, for all the reasons already mentioned. This show is where I got my screen name. Enjoy.

Kilt, bobbie said to Jerry/the band, going out of space, "Let's start Terrapin."....and they did. Awesome. The second set just ripped, but the first set was kind of short/lame..maybe since the night before was total boinkness/rocking beyond belief. Check out the playing, especially Phil at the end of the jam, he is on fire, like Jerry...then a beauty China doll. Also, NFA/Lovelight/NFA was a perfect set/weekend closer, when Throwing Stones and NFA had barely been paired. Lovelight was a revial from 81. Brokedown encore/perfect. Check out the review from 7/6/84...

China Doll ? My god sweet stuff.
1984 Alpine is the shit, I luckly caught 88 and 89 this was old school by definition. Heavily dosed scene in the parkling lots of Alpine Valley summer 1984.

I was in the 15th row in front of Jer for this show. Bob leaned over to say something in Jerry's ear and when Jerry turned his head Bobby ended up saying it right into the mic. Jerry shook his head at the crowd in disbelief. (But, went right ahead with Terrapin.)

This was a nice set of shows, despite mud. Thanks for the memories.

They do not let up this whole show BE Women a smoking smoking Minglewood, Sampson, Cold Rain, this is a sizzler. NFA starts out hard hitting and then they bail for lovelight :( in what was shaping up to be a stomper....THEN THEY GO RIGHT BACK INTO IT! What a find not sure why no one else is listening...

Sound quality - 1

Yes I was there.

One of the finer Dupree's solos of this era. Maybe only outdone by 10-8-82. I like his solos and wah effect. Friend called it his "thick" sound. I always pictured "space ducks quacking".

Not the greatest sound for an audience tape but it would probably pick up the wah tones better than a SBD.

check this one out. crisp AUD of an explosive show. check out Jerr's guitar throughout, his playing is consistently inspired. The cold rain is relentless!

For the second night in a row, after space, they turn it up, from the Terrapin (if you listen closely you can hear Bobby say "lets do Terrapin" just a few seconds before it begins), to the out of nowhere Lovelight. Not the best played verion, but a true (spontaneous?! always wondered to this day) breakout, inspired and exciting. Out side of Amsterdam and New Years a few years earlier, this was the first all GD Lovelight since Pigpen, and it became the official revival of the song we still enjoy today.

Many thanks to Jpnathan, archive & co for making this available, lost my lousy cassette a few years ago.

This was one of the first shows I got, in high school. Along with a select few others, I played that tape when people asked how the hell I could be so into the Grateful Dead. Especially the China Doll. How could you listen to it and not be moved? Technical genius and emotional depths, abysses.

The rest of the 2nd set is tremendous as well, powerful Bobby, equally powerful Jerry - confident and remembers all the words, if I remember right. Maybe it's just because it is when I got turned on to the Dead, but the early 80's were a terrific time period for GD music. There were some incredible shows from these years, it seems like people remember the problems and forget that.

The sound quality is excellent, certainly better than the cassette I enjoyed for so long. I lost track of that tape 10 years or so ago, and tonight I just listened to China Doll to see if this is that show. Now I'm all excited to hear the rest of it again, and to hear the 1st set for the first time.

Thank you Steven Ziemba, Jonathan Aizen, Charlie Connor, Mike Lai & Jon Rianhard. And Internet Archive!