I'm gonna tell this right here: The day of this show I went to a pre-show party at my friend Dave Barton's house about 5 minutes away from the Coliseum (I lived about that far away from it then also). A friend of his from out of town was there, and the night's show was to be his 100th Grateful Dead concert. His FIRST GD concert was the one they had LAST played Box of Rain before it rested for 13 years. Dave said to me 3 or 4 times "Box of Rain tonight" to which I gave major doubt... "They don't play that song anymore". But he and his friend were POSITIVE they would play it because... well, it would be just exactly perfect.

Fast forward to the show. End of set 1, and there it was. I'm a 6'-1" large guy, and a dude next to me picked me up in a bear hug. We howled approval at each classic line: "Inch your way through Dead dreams to another land". "For this is all a dream we dreamed ONE AFTERNOON long ago" Or just a few hours ago in our case.

After the concert we were back at Dave's for the rest of the party. The Box of Rain Guy was walking on Splintered Sunlight... you could not pop the dude's bubble. I don't know him, can't recall his name, but what a 100th show gift from the Dead.

Box of Rain gets 1,000,000 starts. I wish they had left the sound of the crowd after Box of Rain running for another 20 minutes...as that was how long the roar lasted! WOW! Nothing like a Grateful Dead breakout to blow the roof off...and this was the Mother of them all...I saw plenty, Dark Star NYE '81, Stephen MSG '83, Lovelight At the Moscone in '82, Dark Star at the Greek in '84, take the energy from all of those and roll it into one...

Too bad the rest of this show was frighteningly bad...

After the 1st night we could truly feel that something special was happening in Hampton. That Jerry completely flubbed one of my all time faves- Althea- during this show was especially laughable after NAILING EVERY LAST LYRIC of Visions of Johanna the night before. Yes, as was previously mentioned, the sound in the hall was muddy, but the vibe was there. I still get shivers just thinking about this 'Box;' I can still see the smiles and feel the hugs of the set break, laughingly predicting an Unbroken Chain for the next set. And hen 'Roadrunner' the next night, something Garcia had played before, but never with the Dead. 3 Nights, three Breakouts.

One of my best friends was at this show. I remember him calling me, choking on his words, tellingm me that the Dead had played Box of Rain. When I listen to this audience tape I hear him crying. Ahh, the Grateful Dead.

The previous writer tells a great story and right on man, but this show has extremely poor sound and even if the sound ws there from a loudness perspectvie, since it is somewhat distant as is, the crowd is sooo loud. It's one of those recordings that's a recording of a crowd and a show in the faint background instead of vis versa.

Great review by the previous writer just not a download worth getting or listening to for any reason.

This show features the return of Box of rain since 1973 and the excitement of the crowd is the only good thing about this show: a rare break out at the time and this being a collectors item is the only reason why this gets a very liberal 2 stars. It would be a zero for sound and a 1 for rareness but I need to offer a higher review than that just by the fact the bootleg exists.

All this being said, I put the Box of rain in my "phillers" folder.

They say third times a charm...'86 marked third year I caught start of spring tour in Hampton. This was no guaruntee of a good show, but those of us on eastern time were usually jonesin' for a show come spring, and we had to get a dose. The first night (3/19) was pretty good..I got an ego stroke when someone asked me name of song that debuted (Visions of Johana)and I knew it thanks to my being big Dylan fan, but on this night I would have the highest moment ever at my 100+ Dead shows.
The first set this night was mediocre, if there's such a thing, but I'm afraid there is/was such, especially Althea. I think Jerry must have been wondering if he was due for an oil change in his BMW or something, because flub'd the lyrics was an understatement. Maybe this was intentional, because once Althea ended, Bobby announces "now we'll show why practice makes perfect" Huh? Ok, so here's the beginning of a song, couldn't make it out, and I was very good at this. Actually if there was a G.D. version of Name that Tune I'd have cleaned up, but it wasn't until Phil steps to the mic and sings "Look out of any window....." I seriously cannot imagine any crowd ever, in unison, having the same collective reaction of pure, unadulterated joy. Box of Rain...this was just too much. I wished I had a picture of the crowd right at this very moment. I was so oblivious, just jumping and singing along. I've been to shows, like Greek 6/16/85, when there had been rumors they'd do Comes a Time and Cryptical, and they did, but the rumors took something away. On this night I'd heard not heard one reference made to Box of Rain, so after almost 13 years they pull it out. It still gets me a little choked up when I hear this, because this was what going to shows was all about for me, when they'd open their treasure chest and dust off one of their rare gems to share with us. If any member of the Dead should ever read this...thanks so much for this memory, you made the 18 drive to Hampton worth it just for one song.
The second set was so enhanced by Box of Rain, and since Uncle Cid had joined us for the night, I danced like a mad fool from start to finish once the second set started. Iko, Estimated>Eyes into drums...you couldn't have stopped me for nothing. Anyway, that's how it was for the rest of the show, and out love for the Dead was bigger than the whole Cadillac factory!
Anyway, this was a night shared with some of the luckiest people I've ever been with. Thank you for a real good time....