was leery about just one audience source but as discussed, most say it's very viable. i concur -- it actually sounds pretty decent. just a solid show both sets and may even give the nod to set one, esp w/ the cumberland. worthy listen

The first Cumberland Blues in nearly 7 years. Although it was played in 12.3% of the shows after its introduction, it saw most of its play in 1970, 1971 and 1972, when it was played more than the rest of history combined.

When the remembered it in the middle of 1981, they played it pretty frequently for the rest of that year, but after that it was a relatively rare occurance.

and well played. Highlights: Black Peter

Other than slightly lacking in the Bass department I find this to be more than adequate. Jerry sounds great and the vocals are clear. This is what an early 80's Aud should sound like IMO. The show itself is worthy of the 3 hour time investment!

I remember this as being a very good show. This was my 4th Dead show and by far the best one up to that point. I'll wait for the Soundboard though.

Not the best show ever, but very, very good, and the hollow, woody tone of the recording complements the soulful renditions. Mydland is really on.

Sounds like crap. Too much crowd noise and hall echo.

And whether it was your first show, or your wife's first show is really not relevant to either the quality of the recording OR the performance.

Let's get a clear version for the historical record, please.

Solid Getaway>Promised Land opener. Typical for the summer of 81 in song selection and playing for this first set. Everything is played tightly up to Peggy-o. I am a big fan of Peggy-Os from 81. Jerry is so comfortable in the song and regardless of how the rest of the show is going Peggy always seems to come across just right. The Bird Song is average but an average bird song is better than most music available so listen to it! Passenger like many others.

Ahhhhh Cumberland, yea, watch out, its swingin time. Bop bop bop bopbop Kwooooo!@! I GOTTA GET DOWN! One of my favorites. If I was constructing a dream setlist this would definitely be in the first set. I don't know if I love Jerry's part vocally, Lotta poor man... or the G-B-C run right after it more, but together they rock my house to the ground on a regular basis. Nothing mind-blowing about the Cumberland years later, except that the tune always kicks ass, almost every single time it was played. Is this the best, no, but it was the FIRST TIME IN ALMOST 7 YEARS THEY PLAYED IT!!!When a song is played 150 (give or take) times in under 5 years and then gets shelved for the next 7, well, therein lies the definition of bust out. Can you imagine being in this crowd, every head in the place must have said, "wow, this is a real funky sounding big river... huh?!?"-last time-played 10/18/74(394 shows).

81 is my favorite year for L.L. Rain. Jerry's metallic mu-tron solos do the song the most justice imo. Not to mention Brent couples it well. This one is nothing special though. Mighty Swell, well I love this song, and it always works the best when the vocals are together, especially Jer and Bob. It is done well here. Nice nice Sampson here and then...

Kablooey- Scarlet-kick ass>Fire-kick ass, E. Prophet-kick ass>Eyes-here is my brain, it's of no use to me now.

The drums>space seems cut out for the most part. 4 minutes of space. Oh well.

The NFA is short but real nice. There is a split second in there where the music transplants itself to the mid 70s and the possibilities seem endless. It really does!! I get the feeling that someone in the band pulled the troops back in line on this. Obviously without a video there is no way to verify anything like that but the cut off in the music is very suspect to me. The Black Peter is huge. Jerry really belts it out. The Good Lovin is piggish & awesome, much shorter than a pig one but really fun. The Don't Ease cuts into white noise, ouch TURN IT DOWN TURN IT DOWN, SERIOUSLY!

The reason I reviewed this show, well its 8/27 and I figured anyone else reviewing might be doing another show from this date and b/c this is a pretty kick ass AUD. The vocals are a little choppy depending on what sort of system you have and what levels you use with it

This show is worth having for the Cumberland significance alone, add to that the tremendous per drums set II and it's a keeper.

Sound: 7/10
Show: 7/10 + bonus point for Cumberland bust out
Overall: 7/10

This was my second show, and I went with my brother, his first show. This one definitely punched our bus tickets and we didn't get off until over a 100 shows later.

I didn't quite "get" my first show at LB 12/13/80, but during the eight months that followed I started slowly collecting GD records and by this show I was ready. The day before this show, on 8/26, "Dead Set" came out in record stores. Dead Set seems pretty lackluster now, compared to the 100s of great boots I've listened to over the years, but at the time I was mesmerized by the music, the artwork on that album, the strange world I was about to enter for a good decade.

I remember Alabama roaring out gate, blowing me away, and the show getting better and better from there. Wow, this crowd never sits down, never stops dancing, the entire show! It seems so normal now... Bird Song has a stellar jam. Passenger rocks, and Cumberland was a joy (even though I had no idea what a "breakout" was at the time!). Fire is indeed on Fire.

The recording is wonderfully clear. Too bad about Don't Ease being cut off, I recommend editing the song and trimming out the noise.

Great show!

I love the relaxed, jazzy jam in Bird Song. Are those hints of The Other One around 8:30 to 8:45?

This is a notable show as it precedes one of the all time greats (played the next night) but it has it moments too.

Firstly Garcia is playing beautifully throughout but achieves liftoff during a majestic Fire on the Mountain. Wow! The play out of this one has some unique moments. The Scarlet is mighty fine too. Esto is all right but the post song jam lacks the ooomph and exloration I dig. The Eyes is played at my least favourite tempo for the song (breakneck) but the playout into drums is sensational. Garcia superb sense of rythym shines throughout.

The return of the mighty Cumberland is somewhat tentative but nice to hear. Garcia forgoes the first solo for the second verse which disappoints but makes up for it later. A mere few days later at Compton Terrace they will burn the venue down with an incendiary version (a must have for any Cumberland lover).

pretty good recording i love the scarlet>fire and estimated

This was my wife Cindy's 1st show; I was fortunate to get 2nd row in front of J.G.. A happy, energized crowd, as were the boys. As I recall (?) this was the 1st "Cumberland" since '74. The New Yorkers (Big Al, Cuda, Big Mike, etc.) sitting behind us went freakin' nuts. Oh what fun!!

This was also my first (and sad to say only) Dead show. I was 15 at the time and it wasn't for a lack of love of the music that this was my only show, and especially not a reflection on this show.
Anyway, my dad dropped me off and picked me up and all i can say is that this was musically and emotionally THE most life-changing concert ever for me. There are lots of little special memories i have from it, which i will spare here. One thing i remember was that the crowd energy was almost supernaturally powerful. There was a group of about 5 to 10 people in the front row who were over the top....it was great!
As far as reviewing the sound quality, i won't really attempt it, not being an expert other than to say that the i've downloaded the *.shn's, burned to audio and i get the most rewarding quality on earphones from my PC. On the DVD player it's not terrific....vocals somewhat muddy, but it doesn't suck.
For me it's an ideal setlist, and for me this is THE concert i will never forget and am totally jazzed that i once again can hear it! Hat's off to all who contributed this and to archive.org. 5 very biased stars.


Later

this recording rocks! btw, thanks you guys! amid the sea of the great unwashed, tie-died hippy chicks, and the murky depths of the long beach arena, i took in my first deadshow with ripe aplomb. only familiar with a few tunes from skeletons from the closet, i had no idea about the jamming, the jamming, and by the way, the jamming...i wasnt sure whether i liked it or not, but i had a great time. i already knew i had stumbled onto something not so ordinary...i remember knowing the alabama getaway opener-from the radio! i remember friend of the devil-boy it sounded different than the version on skeletons-and i remember the fire on the mountain after hearing it on my sister's 8-track(she had shakedown)..musically, thats all i remember-i recall on the way home we stopped at a restaurant whose maitre'd took one look at us and said " i dont think you boys are too interested in going inside" so we stopped at Denny's and we were so giddy we spilled our drinks and got kicked out-o youth-wasted on the young!

This is the most incredible Scarlet>Fire I have ever heard. This is the kind of Fire you dream about. They really get that locomotive (sp?) sound going. I like the recording very much.

This was my 1st show ever (100shows total) My buddy in the last hours calls me up and says he has tickets to the show and that we should go check out these guys....(I was in punk rock at the time)... anyway we got to the Long beach arena and parked our car... within 10 mins a guy was selling us some liquid on comic strip pieces of newspaper (I though we got ripped off at 1st :) .....but within 30 mins of going inside the arena we were on our way big time :)!!! we found our way to our left side of the stage lodge seats RAILING!! Perfect view of the whole stage and everything going on on the floor...so perfect! The lights go out!!! and Alabama getway is my very 1st Dead song yippee!!!!!!!!......Then... I don't know exact when...I think it was Friend of the Devil....but I started to have a bad trip....A Bad, bad trip......(My only badtrip ever I still remember it like yesterday....) I had thought I was Dead (Grateful Dead??) Whoooo Oh my god that was a very, very strange trip indeed...During Sampson ....the words "If I had my way.....over and over again drilling into my haed...I thought they were saying if I had my way again.....:) which added to my bad trip....I really thought I was dead...(LOL...now... but not then)....anyway...I did ride it out til the break and then they turned on the lights ...this was really the end for me....when all the faces and happy people ..and colors and, and....it really was too much...really...it was like a million people talking at once and you could understand no one at all...(LOL) ...I had to get out of there and fast.....I left out a side exit into the fresh night air only to see a Large Black limo parked directly by the side of the Arena...I thought it was a big black car for dead people!!.....Totaly insane!!! I made it back to our car and sat it out totaly freaking out on all that happened.....when my buddys got back I told them all that happened and we laughed it off (Me not totally....).........The next night I was back at the 2nd show ......This time I was hooked for life.....LOL ¨My last show was in Boston Garden 1993 so the Dead took me coast to coast! and loved every show!

I assisted, ie. it wasn't my equipment, with a fellow from Atlanta, Jim Chicle (spelling ?) in a recording from one of the first two years; but to be honest I haven't seen him in a long time, and I can't remember which day it was, since obviously the next show from this year, has a well circulated soundboard ! I'm revising what I said, since I'm getting the feeling perhaps what I remember was actually the second day from the previous year, ie. 80-12-14 ?
If it really was this one, we had 4 microphones. AKG's & ? on a high pole FOB into a mixer into a D5M. I do remember that for sure !
Like I've wrote concerning numerous other shows here of late; my tapes have been in storage, so I have heard them in a while. But I used to listen to this on a revolving basis, like the rest. As I've also stated elsewhere, in general the shows in Long Beach were usually pretty darn good, with the earlier years being the best !
I've always been partial to the previous year's virtual identical second set, with, (yes I know there are many others, and you'll rightly have your personal favorites), a Scalet>Fire in '80, overlooking a lyric flub, that remains everytime I listen to it, a total mind blower. The '80 first set's To Lay Me Down is also outstanding. Furthermore since the day after this one is so phenomenol, this isn't quite that good. Nevertheless this is still up to par and sure beats the later years in Long Beach. I always liked the first set.