A great start to the Dead's Spring 1977

Article Contributed by Lee Rogers | Published on Saturday, April 22, 2017

I was at this show, and it still remains the favorite of the 70 shows I saw between 1973 -1995. Was only the second night of the tour, general admission, on a rainy cool day. Civic Center was way smaller than most of the other Northeastern 'hockey rink' venues, so it always felt more intimate and with better sound. I attended the show with at least 10 of my friends, we grabbed a bunch of seats just off the floor, not too far back on the side. A nice Sugaree to start (quite appropriate as we 'had to stand out in the pouring RAIN!). In these 'earlier' years I noticed that the band would feed off the energy of the crowd, and it was clear from the start that this crowd was pumping out lots of energy! Cassidy came firing out next, it was clear this was going to be a rocking set. Loser and Ramble on Rose with great vocal intensity from Jerry, being not far from NYC, the 'just like New York City' line gets a big response. Keith's work on the organ is smooth, especially on Row Jimmy. Bobby rocks out again on All Over Now, a new Bobby Womack cover song that most of us have not heard the band do. Then out of NOWHERE comes a quick 1-2-3 drum beat, and SCARLET BEGONIAS! Often, I think one can judge the quality of a show not just by the songs that are played, and how well they are played, but WHEN the songs are played! A rousing Scarlet into the first (for many of us) Fire on the Mountain to end the first set- set this crowd 'on fire' and we were psyched up for the second set.

Set two led off with another new song, Estimated Prophet, we knew right away this song would be a 'keeper!' Then we kicked up the tempo again with Bertha (which in my mind became the 'theme' song for this special spring tour), nice vocal harmonies from Donna & Bobby. This upbeat tempo 'never stopped' throughout this entire second set, which I never would find duplicated at any other show I attended. Listen to this set and you may agree! The Music Never Stopped kicked up the energy level even more, and the crowd kept the tempo going with energetic clapping and dancing.  The band kept it going with Help On The Way >Slipknot> Franklin's Tower.  This Franklin's totally put us up into a frenzied level that only the GD at their best could do! Not to be outdone Bobby picked another rocker, Around & Around, followed by a rollicking GDTRFB > Not Fade Away. A slow Jerry encore? No way, it being Saturday night we rocked out of town with OMSN. Over the years and seeing many great shows, I never did hear the band sustain such energy over the one evening, particularly set 2.