07-02-1989
Sullivan Stadium
Foxboro, Massachusetts
To get it started on that sweltering evening, Jerry comes on stage and asks the crowd, “how y’all doin’?” sending them into pandemonium despite the heat. Another rarity comes next: a show-opening Playin’, short and trippy before it segues a little awkwardly into Crazy Fingers. A bouncy Wang Dang Doodle comes roaring out of the weightlessness of the previous tune before Brent takes the reins for a poetic, preachy, and utterly gorgeous We Can Run. A crispy Tennessee Jed takes it from there with Jerry crushing the vocals and solos. A song later, a rare To Lay Me Down thrills the Foxboro crowd. And, after Bobby comes back with Cassidy, the Dead close out the set with a rocking Don’t Ease Me In.
Friend of the Devil brings us back to the action, a bit up-tempo and unusually placed, the perfect accompaniment to the sun setting in the background. Truckin’ shoots out next, mighty as ever with a powerful crescendo before the transition fizzles. The crowd doesn’t pay it any mind, though, clapping and hooting along as soon as the band finds He’s Gone. The last several minutes of the tune becomes a spacey, meditative romp with some steely, purposeful noodling, magical percussion, and serious vamping before the boys just sparkle into Eyes. The Eyes itself is captivating, sending us off on a billowy trip through the countryside, eventually ceding the controls to Mickey and Billy. And after some powerful beats, they enter into a percussive spaciness into which the rest of the band slowly returns. The boys finally claw back from the distant reaches in order to soar off on a fluffy Wheel. Dear Mr. Fantasy gathers from the ashes of The Wheel, building into a raging cauldron that rolls right over into Hey Jude, which is itself bursting with tremendous vamping that is just off the charts. From there, the drummers pound it into Sugar Mags for a joyous end to the set. A fun, sing-along Quinn encore caps off a tremendous night of music with Rich Stadium and the rest of the East Coast summer swing beckoning.
Video of this show:
Today’s Dead of the Day:
Other July 2nd Shows and Recordings:
- 1971 – FIllmore West – San Francisco, California
- 1981 – The Summit – Houston, Texas
- 1985 – Pittsburgh Civic Center – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- 1986 – Rubber Bowl, University of Akron – Akron, Ohio
- 1987 – Silver Stadium – Rochester, New York
- 1988 – Oxford Plains Speedway – Oxford, Maine
- 1994 – Shoreline Amphitheatre – Mountain View, California
- 1995 – Deer Creek Amphitheater – Noblesville, Indiana

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