All my friends were there and will tell you these were the 2 greatest shows every witnessed. The Music energy and venue were incredible. Fire on the mountain was a highlight. Not to mention the Acoustic sets each night.

This show has one of the great moments in GD history--the ONLY New Orleans version of Truckin--but is extremely hard to find, because only a couple of people were successfully able to tape this show and the night before, both in New Orleans, without getting busted by the band security. The Dead were doing the multi-track recording of this Sep/Oct 1980 acoustic/electric tour for what would become Reckoning and Dead Set, and so they were REALLY cracking down on tapers. These two shows from NOLA are real treasures, because the band plays with more energy these two night in the Big Easy than they do in the longer runs at either the Warfield or Radio City. It is worth checking out these New Orleans shows.

Now about this version of Truckin: as we all know, part of the lyrics were based on the Dead's infamous drug bust in New Orleans in February 1970. These two shows in October 1980 were the band's first return to NOLA--they hadn't played there in over ten years since the drug bust. The Deadheads who were at these shows were wondering when Truckin was going to come out, and sure enough it happened after Drums on the second night.

The crowd gets roaring in the second chorus when the Dead sings, "Houston...too close to New Orleans." But the REAL fun happens during the specific verse about the drug bust, right around 3 minutes 20 seconds into the song. Just as Bobby starts singing that verse, "Sitting and staring out of the hotel window," you can hear the entire theater starting to make noise. The crowd continues swelling in volume as the verse progresses, and when the band finally hits the chorus, "BUSTED down on Bourbon Street," the whole place erupts! It's just one of those priceless (and very rarely heard) moments in GD history that most Deadheads have never known about unless they were actually there. Check it out, and crank it up! This audience tape sounds good, and we're very lucky to have it around, because these two shows are rare.

burned this disc years ago...and always see it bouncing from box to box bag to bag (yes, still a Gypsy) popped it in (set 2) and certainly know why I burned it. that dude must have not gotten on to set 2 due to his problems w/ the taper talking... I haven't heard taper talk at all. I did New Orleans Jazz Fest. '97 '98 '99 '00 and there is something just plain mellow and think in the air down there-when eating,talking to people,buzzin' around towm, and of course SEEING MUSIC. Smooth set! in drums right now and can't WAIT to hit the Wharf Rat.
yeah, true-backround music as I clean and organize for a travel -but I am gonna straight out say in my 25 years of listening to live dead boots of all sorts-due to the vibe,venue,era,and quality-this is suddenly in my top 20 or so of audience recordings. plain and simple. I listened to the Terrapin Station TWO TIMES in a row. 4.5

I had to stop listening to this recording because of the constant talking of the taper. Ya'd think that if u were a taper u'd know how important it was to shut up while recording a show. This guy just kept babblin the whole show and ruined the recording for me.