7-2-87 Silver Stadium, Rochester, N.Y.

1987 found the band rolling into Silver Stadium with a new found sense of vigor. Jerry Garcia had pretty much recovered from his diabetic coma the year before and the band had begun performing again after a 6 month break the previous December. The band had pulled out two new songs in December as well as working on a new record and several video projects. the band's first studio album in seven years would be released four days later (which would become the band's first "hit" album as well as also touring with Dylan that summer.



The band hits the stage in high gear with a high energy Hell In A Bucket->Bertha. The recently revived blues number Walkin' Blues comes next carrying the same energy of the first two songs. Dire Wolf is done surprisingly well considering that it wasn't really played all that much during this time. The next three songs, My Brother Esau, When Push Comes to Shove and Tons Of Steel are all songs on the forthcoming In The Dark album. The cowboy medley of Me And My Uncle->Mexicali Blues comes next and is better than alot of the versions from this era. Brown-Eyed Women continues the country sway with some blistering licks all around. Cassidy has a great out there jam while Deal finds the band ending the first set in high energy.

After the intermission, the band comes out and tunes up to the Mexican Hat Dance before giving way to a grooving China Cat Sunflower->I Know You Rider->Samson And Delilah. After so many rocking tunes in the heat, it's quite a relief to get the cool ballad Looks Like Rain which flows beautifully into a mellow He's Gone. The Drums->Space is quite memorable and gives way to another rocking Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad into the second live version of All Along The Watchtower. Stella Blue returns us to the mellow mood set earlier in Looks Like Rain->He's Gone. The show comes to an end with the often played and oh so right for Summer Sugar Magnoia. the band comes back out and ends the show sweetly with the then fairly new Black Muddy River.