Dead of the Day: 04-03-1970
University of Cincinnati Field House
Cincinnati, Ohio
The show gets off to a solid start with a clipped entry into Casey Jones. From there we get a standard, but oh so good China>Rider. Then Pigpen makes his first appearance and throws down on the Hard to Handle; it will not be his only highlight on this night. Bobby then calls for a “drummer’s choice,” which elicits a rocking Dancing in the Streets that devolves into a smoking jam, dominated by Mickey, Billy, and Jerry.
Casey Jones, China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider, Hard To Handle, Dancin’ In The Streets, Me & My Uncle
Set 2
Friend Of The Devil, Deep Elem Blues, Candyman, Wake Up Little Susie-> Black Peter, Uncle John’s Band, Katie Mae
Set 3
Good Lovin’-> Drums-> Good Lovin’-> Cryptical Envelopement-> Drums-> The Other One-> Cryptical Envelopement-> Cosmic Charlie, Not Fade Away-> Turn On Your Love Light-> We Bid You Good Night
Second Set acoustic
The second set is acoustic and all Jerry tunes, save Pig on Katie Mae. The early Friend of the Devil includes some alternate lyrics. Deep Elem, Candyman, and Uncle John’s are all tasty and clean little nuggets of Dead sweetness. Jerry’s voice is so resonant and touching throughout all of them. Then Pig gives us a solid Katie Mae to cap off the middle period.
The third set opens with a fine Good Lovin’. With Pig on vocals, the boys enter into a straight-up blues-rock jam in the middle of the tune that has the whole band playing as a single writing beast, culminating in some awesome vocal vamping to end the song. Next up is an Other One Suite that is the standout of the entire evening, especially the second Cryptical which arches outward and then thrashes about before heading off soaring again; it is a thing of beauty. A great Cosmic Charlie follows only to lead to a short, hard jammed Not Fade Away that sort of breaks into Lovelight. While Pig does not get into a full-on rap at the end of it, he still takes out all the stops and delivers a monumental effort. Unfortunately, the We Bid You Goodnight encore is not on the recording.
On this night, the Dead highlighted a bill that included the Lemon Pipers and Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. The Lemon Pipers were a psychedelic bubblegum pop band that had a number one hit that year with Green Tambourine. One can imagine that they played a fairly standard musical set. However, it is entirely unclear what the Merry Pranksters would have been doing for their act, short of handing out LSD.
Yesterday’s Dead of the Day:
Other April 3rd Shows and Recordings:
- 1968 – Winterland Arena – San Francisco, California
- 1982 – The Scope – Norfolk, Virginia
- 1985 – Providence Civic Center – Providence, Rhode Island
- 1986 – Hartford Civic Center – Hartford, Connecticut
- 1987 – The Centrum – Worcester, Massachusetts
- 1988 – Hartford Civic Center – Hartford, Connecticut
- 1989 – Civic Arena – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- 1990 – The Omni – Atlanta, Georgia
- 1991 – The Omni – Atlanta, Georgia

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