06-24-1985
River Bend Music Center
Cincinnati, Ohio
Lighting out on a bright and sunny day, the Dead jump start the show with a fiery and aggressive – particularly in the latter half – Alabama Getaway. The GSET that comes next has all the same energy with some funky effects on Bobby’s vocals, which would continue in various forms all night. After a sprightly TLEO, a sick Minglewood comes forth, Jerry just firing with some tasty added fills by Brent and Bobby. The Jed, Esau, and Loser that follow are all solid, but the set culminates with an absolutely magical Let It Grow, packed with rapacious energy. Jerry’s guitar licks are radiant, and Mickey and Billy nail it down with an insatiable percussive groove. While the Dead played out that masterpiece, storm clouds billowed. And, once the boys left the stage, a torrential rain broke out, accompanied by cacophonous, cascading thunder.
As the band opened the second half with Aiko, cloud to ground lightning surrounded the amphitheater, but the crowd threw caution to the wind and boogied down. For their part, the boys cooked up a raging storm themselves, especially as they went off on a powerful Samson. As one person present explained on Archive, “it seemed as if they were egging on the storm, daring it to do its worst…when they sang ‘If I had my way, I would tear this whole building down,’ they meant it!” Then the boys turned to conjuring and cajoling the gods with a soulful He’s Gone, vamping with all the vocal effects that Healy could muster before transitioning absolutely seamlessly into Smokestack Lightning, Bobby taunting the powers that be with his delivery. Then the band turns to Cryptical, which had just been busted out eight days prior at the Greek, leading it into Drums and Space. The rhythm devils put the storm on its heels with their own brand of thunder, and the skies cleared as Jerry turned out a lovely Comes a Time, which had also just come off the shelf during the Greek run. At the end, they segue into a frantically joyous Other One before capping the suite sandwich with a short dip back into Cryptical. That latter Cryptical sets up a killer Wharf Rat before they send out the show with a rocking, celebratory Around and Around> Good Lovin’ and US Blues encore.
The music and the storms made for a memorable show in Cinci. And we are lucky to have such a righteous matrix to relive it. To make it, Hunter Seamons took a Charlie Miller soundboard and blended it with two different audience recordings (first and second set) to capture both the music and the experience of the crowd. That all makes for a crystalline sound that lets us hear the boys’ sonic sorcery and the audience’s raucous cheering after the Good Lovin’ and stoked appreciation for the Comes a Time and Cryptical. The matrix, like the show itself, is a joy to behold.
Today’s Dead of the Day:
Other June 24th Shows and Recordings:
- 1970 – Capitol Theater – Port Chester, New York
- 1973 – Portland Memorial Coliseum – Portland, Oregon
- 1976 – Tower Theater – Upper Darby, Pennsylvania
- 1983 – Dane County Coliseum – Madison, Wisconsin
- 1984 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center – Saratoga Springs, New York
- 1990 – Autzen Stadium, University of Oregon – Eugene, Oregon
- 1991 – Sandstone Amphitheatre – Bonner Springs, Kansas
- 1994 – Sam Boyd Silver Bowl, UNLV – Las Vegas, Nevada
- 1995 – Robert F. Kennedy Stadium – Washington, DC
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