Overall: by near unanimous decision - these are the best shows of East Coast summer 88. I don't think they are head and shoulders above others, but they do stand out (both at the time and even in hindsight with the benefit of listening to them all again). But I don't think that this night, in isolation, is a five star. Together the two nights are a five star, but this one just falls slightly short in my book. Aside from Jack Straw, the first set is not spectacular (it's very good, but doesn't hit that five star mark). The second set, however, is where things get great. The post-space section of this show can stand up to any other show I ever saw.

The scene: Chard, Peter and I drove up in the bus from Rochester. At some point I crawled in back for a nap and let Chard drive. When I woke up they were both trippin balls and we were pulling up to either a traffic jam or a roadblock - I don't remember which. What I do remember is that Chard's pupils were exploding all over his face and he was behind the wheel of my new baby with cops around. I was, uh, worried. Anyway, we made it out of that mess and wound up parking about a mile down from the venue in a little camp-type area with trees all around and only about 10 other cars. The sun was shining, it smelled like Maine in the summer time, and it was a beautiful day. Little Feat opened both nights, which was nice, but I actually enjoyed them more the next summer in Oregon. At these shows, I don't even think I went inside until they were almost done.

The music: Set I: um, can we get a sound check on Phil's bass? Yeah, that's nice. Now turn it to 11. Oh yeah, that's the stuff. Good song choices. Every song is really well played. Energy is flowing freely. Iko gets the crowd in the high energy dance mood. One of the best Jack Straw's I ever heard. Brent's piano animates Row Jimmy nicely. Blow Away keeps progressing, but at this early stage hadn't yet made it to where it ended up. His piano solo on this sounds a little bit "Little Feat" influenced, IMO. Maybe he was grooving to the opening act. Best Victim yet (in its short life span), giving a hint of the better, creepier, drawn-out jams that it would sprout later in its life. Foolish Heart is also getting better with each time out.

Set II: Crazy Fingers was just played two shows ago, but it's hard to ever argue that it's played too much, right? The jam isn't particularly special. The Playing jam, on the other hand, has Phil leading the charge and obviously everyone is really on. Jerry takes things deeper than usual for this time period (and even deeper a few weeks later at Laguna). This jam also allows more space (not in the drums>space sense) than was typical in 86-87 - that feeling that things can get loose without someone having to immediately step in and drag the jam into the next song. Towards the end of the jam, Bobby and Brent start chipping in nicely as well. UJB is good, but not great. I was fully expecting that they'd go into drums from UJB, and was very pleasantly surprised by Terrapin. The jam at the end of Terrapin is really nice. A furious space follows an interesting drums. Jerry is just going nuts all over that fretboard. As I stated above, this post-space section is as good as it gets in my book. Phil and Brent are fantastic for GSL. Listen to Phil and Jerry trading subtle beautiful chops in Morning Dew and you'll wonder, is this really 1988?? Just like Terrapin was a surprise before drums, we all expected Dew to end the set, so Sugar Mags was a great addition. Compared with most shows of this era, we really got two free extra songs this night (Terrapin and Sugar Mags). This Mags has legitimate energy - not one of those end-of-show dragging versions. Brent especially is strong on this one. Quinn ends the show on a high note.

five stars. fantastic sounding show, from not one of my favourite years.
Don't fall into the trap of burning and then hearing static- you need the right hardware, as detailed elsewhere.
If you haven't got the hardware- get an amp for your DVD player. I got mine all second hand from a pawn shop for less than £50- $80 in the states.

Many thanks to Dan for his amazing work on the mastering

For those of you that are like me, and had some pretty crappy sounding tapes in their collection in the past, makes me really apprecite these DTS shows. Ive gotten some on etree and this one here, fantastic stuff!! Thanks to all who are involved in doing these!!

You have to have a player that decodes DTS and you MUST use the digital, optical, or 5.1 surroud outs. Regular analog outs will not work. You will only get static.

This show is fabulous, btw.

Don't download the vbr .mp3s they do not work the next recording of the same show has working .mp3s. Really good show.

The 5.1 is outstanding. It really expands the music and makes listening to individual instruments a real treat. It doesn't hurt that this is a really good show either. If you have a surround system then you should get this one. My only complaint is that the vocals are sometimes too far in front but I could probably adjust that by turning down my center channel. I give a big thanks to whoever the kind soul is that worked so hard to create this mix. Thank you!

Considering that the reviews thus far were reviewed on systems without the total DTS system in tow I thought I would add mine. I have an audiophile type system with full DTS capabilities and this treatment is spectacular !! I agree the bass is heavy but it is also the closest replica of how the actual show 'felt'. I am bias since this was my first show and I have had every incarnation of this show at some point. If you feel you have a system that can show this mix off get it right away. I can only hope there will be more of these shows available in the future. IMO this is one of the best surround treatments of a live Dead show thus far. I think it beats out the '78 Winterland mix which is an official Dead release !! Nice work !

I have 5.1 and these discs work fine. Phil was a little loud (is that a complaint?) so I turned my sub down from where I normally have it, a minor annoyance, but worth it. Fun to hear a show mixed this way. 5.1 stars for the effort!

I gave this a five-star rating to counter the one-star rating below, which I feel is unfair. After all, the .txt file for this source makes it clear that this source is not intended for people who lack a 5.1 DTS or Dolby Digital set-up. So giving it one star because you failed to read the .txt file doesn't seem right.

But that doesn't mean I'm exactly pleased with this source myself. I'm sure it works for some people, but it doesn't work on my system. I have a very good surround-sound amplifier with Dolby Digital. I do not, however, use a center channel, nor do I have a sub-woofer. Perhaps those are necessary. I tried tricking my system by claiming to have a full 5.1 set-up (i.e., I turned on the Subwoofer and center channel options), but that didn't work either. So I'm not really sure what's wrong, but even through an optical cable into an amplifier with Dolby Digital, two front speakers, and two rear speakers, this source didn't work at all. The files decompressed and burned fine, but I only get white noise when I try playing the discs.

I'm holding onto the discs, though, and will test them at my brother's house, where he has a full 5.1 DTS set-up. I'll update this review after I've done that.

This show is only intended for those who have full five-speaker 5.1 digital surround sound. Download the regular version if you have a conventional two-speaker stereo setup (like me!)