Dead of the Day: 08-02-1976

Colt Park

Hartford, Connecticut

There is only one other extant show from this day in Dead history, a tasty little nugget from 1969 at the Great Highway. But our Dead of the Day comes from 1976 at Colt Park in Hartford. Promised Land busts out of the gate with so much energy, putting the show on a solid footing from the very beginning. The Mississippi Half Step that comes next keeps it going with Jerry’s pregnant guitar licks set off by Phil’s bass and the excellent work from the drummers. A quick Mama Tried and a solid Deal roll out before the band hits the first notes of Cassidy, sending a couple people in the audience into a frenzy. The song turns out to be quite good, but the howling from those people in the crowd make it particularly memorable. Jerry lights up the Tennessee Jed that rolls out afterwards, making some beautifully ungodly sounds with his guitar. The rest of the first set continues to blister with the boys laying it on perfectly. For instance, just listen to Jerry and Bobby roaring away on Minglewood.

Recording info
Use alternative player
Identifier:
gd1976-08-02.fob.singer.motb-1.81971.sbeok.flac24
Source:
FOB (mics ??? either Senn441s or AKG ???) Uher CR-134 > Maxell UD-XL1 C90min.
Notes:
Patch source: Lineage: AUD (Sony tc-152 cassette> DAT> CD) Taper: K. Gatto gd76-08-02.gatto.aj.245.sbeok.shnf K. Gatto’s AUD (Sony tc-152 cassette> DAT> CD); seed via J. Wise, T. OConnell et al; EAC, shn, upload by A. Jerugim Set 1 – Tape has been paused between most tracks, crossfades put in to smooth. – Reversed fadeout on crowd at end of Loser and crossfaded with Lazy Lightning. – Cleaned up several other artifacts. Set 2 – s2t01 patch at 1:38-1:40, eq’d to more or less match the main source. – Reversed fade out at the end of crowd on s2t02 and crossfaded with crowd before start of s2t03. – s2t04 repaired problem at 7:42-7:44. by copying a section from within the same track and adjusting it slightly. – s2t05 problem at 0:37, sub-second patch put in. – s2t06 there was a sub-second section that shouldn’t have been there, I forgot to keep a note of where it occured.. I removed it and smoothed the join. – s2t08 removed a problem, i.e I cut out a segment about 1:31 in length. It seems to have been due to a tape problem, it doesn’t affect the flow! Again I forgot to make a note of where it was. – s2t09 3 small patches between 6:22-6:24. – Cleaned up several other artifacts. General: – No need to patch as the “flips” had over-lapping material. – Slight wind noise from time to time. – Small amount of hiss removal with Adobe Audition proprietary tool. – Polished with iZotope Ozone and BBE Sonic Maximiser. * All reference sources refer to this as Drums but to my way of thinking it should correctly be called “Jam”.
Description:
Set 1 The Promised Land Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo Mama Tried Deal Cassidy Tennessee Jed Big River Brown Eyed Women New Minglewood Blues They Love Each Other Looks Like Rain Loser Lazy Lightnin’ Supplication Set 2 Might As Well Samson And Delilah Candyman Playing In The Band Wharf Rat Drums Goin’ Down The Road Feeling Bad Playing In The Band Reprise Around And Around Encore U.S. Blues Sugar Magnolia
Lineage:
MAC > Nak DR-1 > Apogee Rosetta 200 > Firewire > Apple G5 > Bias Peak (24/96 WAV)
Transferrer:
D. McCabe and SirMick
Play
Pause
Back
Forw.
Volume
00:00
1
Promised Land
04:23
2
Mississippi Half Step Toodleoo
10:48
3
Mama Tried
02:44
4
Deal
05:14
5
Cassidy
04:33
6
Tennessee Jed
08:59
7
Big River
06:25
8
Brown Eyed Women
05:12
9
New Minglewood Blues
04:27
10
They Love Each Other
07:33
11
Looks Like Rain
07:55
12
Loser
08:14
13
Lazy Lightning >
02:58
14
Supplication
06:01
15
Might As Well
09:52
16
Samson & Delilah
07:50
17
Candyman
07:24
18
Playin’ In The Band->
16:35
19
Whart Rat >
11:58
20
Jam * >
06:22
21
Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad >
08:48
22
Playin’ In The Band >]
11:12
23
Around & Around
08:06
Choose recording

As good as the first is, the second set is really where the fireworks are, starting with the Might As Well that brings us out of the break. The boys start hammering a rocking jam about halfway through the tune and just continue the rest of the way out and into Samson. The Samson keeps the relentless intensity as the Dead powerfully blast through the song. Things finally slow up a bit with the Candyman, but the boys do not slack up at all on the playing. After Candyman, a heady Playin’ In The Band comes forth. It quickly heads off into spacey territory as the boys go off searching for the sound, arriving, more than once, at some incredible moments. But eventually, the boys slide into a luscious Wharf Rat, which moves grandly through the verses before setting off on its own jam deep into the heart of the Wharf Rat theme. But the band transitions into another jam after about ten minutes, which is just as tasty. Before long, it becomes clear that Phil and Bobby seem to be driving it towards some distant point of light while Jerry just noodles away in sparkling fashion. That point they were heading for turns out to be Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad, which becomes a joyous upwelling of more righteous jamming before arriving right back where it all began, Playin’ In The Band. The Playin’ continues the exploration and then sends it into a rocking Around And Around to close out the set.

At the back of the venue, there were two rows of wooden fencing with security – Hell’s Angels – beating up anyone who tried to hop them. Eventually, the Heads trying to bust into the show got enough of getting their noodles busted and set parts of the fence on fire. As the show ended, the Hartford Fire Department was roaring onto the field and the police cut the power to the stage. The next year, the Dead would return to Hartford, but they would play the rest of their 18 shows in the city at the Hartford Civic Center.

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Comments

6 responses to “08-02-1976”

  1. TDub Avatar
    TDub

    The review of the 8/2/76 Colt Park and the set list do not include the US Blues encore. The Dead took a long break after finishing the second set with Round and Round. Someone threw the house lights on and everybody headed for the exits. Suddenly the lights went down and the band came back for US Blues. A lot of people were already outside the gates and when they tried to reenter all hell broke loose. The Angels refused to let people back in and the disgruntled fans pummeled the gates with rocks, bottles, sticks and anything they could throw. The ones who tried to climb over the fence got beaten badly by the Angels security. After the US Blues encore we decided to avoid the gates where a full blown riot was going on and climb over the back fence to escape. Just as we came over the top the 11 o’clock news showed up and filmed us. When we watched the footage the news people said we were climbing the fence to get into the show. Hence the story became Deadheads tried to get in free by climbing the fences and a riot happened. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. The Angels were the problem right from the get go as they practically strip searched people on the way in. I happened to sneak a peek inside the security tent where the Angels were grinning from ear to ear with all their plundered drugs and alcohol. Started the whole show off with a bad vibe. My next show was Cornell where it was all peace love and dope!

  2. Corinne Avatar
    Corinne

    I was there but I don’t remember a lot except it was a beautiful day and there were fires when we were leaving and camera crews.

  3. Chinamatt Avatar
    Chinamatt

    This was my first Dead show. Great memories, despite the violence at the end. We managed to avoid the chaos and the cameras. Not on the recording were the TWO separate encores. As TDub points out, they played U.S. Blues and left the stage, but some of us didn’t leave the park. The band obliged by returning to play a terrific Sugar Magnolia! Quite a day…

  4. John Avatar
    John

    Who’d have thought that having the Hells Angels as security might not be awesome? Lol.

  5. John Avatar
    John

    I like the “in the crowd” audio on this one for a change 🙂

  6. August West Avatar
    August West

    Was there on my B-day.

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