These were the shows right before the Hampton/Warlock shows; a run at the Dead's base. Almost everybody made the pilgrimage to Shoreline at least once (Graham's purpose-built venue). When new it was clean, great-sounding, with good traffic flow, and the local community wasn't all tensed up about stupid shite, which had become a constant problem. This first-night show is known for the return of Death Don't Have No Mercy – the first since 21Mar70 [or possibly one of the missing 4/70 shows]. Fall '89 has a drop in show quality overall compared to months before and after, except for a few above average nights here and there. But on returning to this show, I find it better than I remembered (that there's more to it than the Death Don't). Garcia broke out Wolf, with a Roland GK-2 driver taped on, and a divided synth p-up mounted between humbucker and bridge. Some have called it a piezo or a MIDI controller, but it's actually 6 magnetic p-ups that send a signal in 13-pin PCM (not MIDI) to a Roland GR-50 rackmount – cutting edge tech of the era. Listen for it in Bird Song @3:45 & @6:05; in Playin' @6mins; a couple times in Terrapin and of course Space. Bobby is playing his Modulus Pepto that he got for Dylan. This was the first year in which we had two runs at Shoreline, and there was talk that they were going to come off the road again and just play here in the near future. These Head cogitations were brooded upon; a possible change in the scene being met with an indeterminate unease.

First Set. The first couple are warm-ups but Stranger gets good [the next time it's played, it's back to being coupled to Help>Slip, permanently]. Wang Dang is where the set starts to really shine, and Jack-A-Roe is a frosting-topped version. The next couple are quite solid; then some hit/some miss in Bird Song and a middling Promised Land.

Second Set. China Cat has a laid back assurance that might not sound like much at first, but by the time you reach Rider the horizon expands (check the second solo; good gods!). Brent wrote Blow Away in F so it would be something different than all the key of A stuff, but here they lose Jer's guitar so it's a wash. Brent finally calls a full stop and Bobby plays a Teddy Bears Picnic until Billy says, "Bobby tell us a story". Instead Bobby leaves the stage, but it takes awhile to get Jer's backup gear ready (with Brent meanwhile playing Dixie). Playing has good verses and an excellent jam. Terrapin goes flat, then messy, with a seemingly befuddled Jer. The busting-out of Death Don't is an exciting moment. Not just historical, it's a great version, especially the new arrangement – check out the vox tradeoff and the solo [there are 3 mixes: SBD, VID or OFF]. They took it out again at Hampton & Philly, but then played it only once in '90. By Sugar Mag they're getting flubby and Bobby is down to croaky monotone.

1st Set:  B-
2nd Set: C+
Overall = 3¼ stars

Highlights:
Wang Dang Doodle – shiny
Jack-A-Roe – frosting-topped
I Know You Rider – and remember to check Phil
Playing in the Band – good verses then excellent jam
Death Don't Have No Mercy – seems they had woodshedded this surprise

SOURCES: The braverman_7282 SBD has better separation but is missing 2 minutes of Terrapin (@9:06) and the end of Mighty Quinn. Those are complete on the upgrade, 151621_sbd, which has punchier drums. All of these sources are a bit fast, needing -1% pitch correction for the 1st set, except -2% for Jack-A-Roe; and needing -1% (averaged) for the second set. The show is usually up on YouTube, with a 4min cut in Sugar Mag. So Many Roads has Death Don't, needing -1% pitch and the channels switched.

When one sees the GD lots and lots, the moments are too many and too different to make a list. But of all the shows I saw, this one had the hardest hitting solo. The one that had the most powerful impact. A solo that circled around those many people, bouncing off human flesh and inanimate walls and smack into my being. So much seemingly pent up emotion (it had been a long while since that solo felt the dark of night) that it's almost difficult to fathom, even when listening now.


The legendary versions of that song from the late 60s, with Garcia singing and playing the solo, to many, were a pinnacle of sorts, in terms of raw emotion and blood. When it became clear that Garcia was going to share the verses as Weir took the second one, many of us at Shoreline let escape a small cry of shock--you hear it. But after Weir's verse, that place got THAT solo. That immense, scorching monster of a solo. It has different sections that wrap around each other like snakes in quicksand. The intensity that comes out of that guitar, with the flurries of notes bubbling against one another increasing in weight and urgency as each passing millisecond falls into history was something to see. It stands as the last truly epic solo of Garcia's life, at least to my ears. And with the shared verses that initially were met with despair, I remember feeling as if this is the modern day Grateful Dead kicking ass, with Weir and Brent showing their teeth.


The half-second that solo ended, as many of our organs were splayed open, lying there in those aisles beating their final beats, Brent started signing the third verse, spitting out the words 'death..........will leave you standing and crying in this land' in that voice of his. Jesus fucking jesus mother of god christ, I thought I was going to die right there...I flashed my mom's facial reaction at hearing the news from my sister and her crying.

When Brent finished it off echoing 'no mercy...no mercy..." and both he and Garcia started that forth and final verse together, I thought everything was going to disappear. When Garcia started singing that last verse with the same 1969 'Death Don't' urgency in only the way he can... about 'coming to your house not taking long, waking up in the morning and finding your family gone'...well, after everything that had happened before that, it was like some kind of audience time warp/worm hole was beginning to open up and everyone and everything was going to catapult down it together. Maybe not the whole audience but a good 5th of us.

It was just a song. But that 7 or so minutes felt like a journey that was a show in and of itself. At the same time, it felt like a fraction of a moment that was over before you could start to process it.


I have to imagine that this stuff sounds pretty stupid to those who never really got into this when it was happening, as if we're a bunch of burnt out people living in the past talking about this stuff as if it's such a big deal, but those moments were the last group genius I saw from that band. There were plenty of other moments of genius, all the way up to the last one, which for me was the Visions breakout at Utah in '95, but that Death Don't Have No Mercy at Shoreline in the fall of 1989 stands as the last truly great Grateful Dead moment I witnessed.

I felt lucky in that moment to make it out alive no matter how absurd and silly that sounds.

Others who were there might have had a totally different experience but that was mine.

Whoa, where to start, perhaps with the miracle ticket I received right before showtime,I gave the sweet girl a kiss on her cheek jumped up and down a bit and went in, then as I walked thru the front entrance the checkers missed me, I offered my ticket no takers, so I glanced up at security who just shrugged it off and I was in, then I went to the left and passed that miracle ticket out the slatted fence to one of the happiest unseen fingers of a fellow Deadhead-2 in on that miracle!!! It paid to remain as the single very last person of the miracle-seekers at the pack where you went into the rope line.Out of 35 shows this Fri. was one of the few nites I did not have tickets and I scored a double-miracle. Jerry used the Force to make sure the ticketcheckers missed me and got one more Happy Camper into the WHOLE SHOW GLOW, yes I said it, the whole show glow- this was the the heart of 89-90 being born before our eyes, Of this world it was born,Dead Ahead into the seas of glory the ship began to sail, it appeared, Brent was holding back just a bit on his singing this night to really let the Captain Trips shine. Needless to say our Shining Star was on this night, everywhere people were sensing a Dead air ascending to envelope all in its cryptical night of knights. After the just exactly perfect 1st set to warm our positrons, 2nd set walked out and sublimely overtook us, it was more, that even a Deadhead could have been anticipated! Suddenly parralel multiverses and universes and some more multiverses appeared, slowly a tractor beam arose, it began to shift, to align, to allow all intrepid travelors of space time,to stand, to begin moving their feet, we really had to dance. I felt something brush my shoulder... as throngs of thrusting, wildly flying bats even done come in for sum!! After a set break China Cat started us off ebbing and flowing, the Golden Tones drawing us in then into a smoking Rider, listen to Jerry wailing on with, I wish I was a headlight, around the 2:50 mark then after a good Blow Away only the 3rd song of 2nd set, The Grateful Dead went into another break, hmmmm whats going on? Whats up? Baby, who's to say, it coulda been different now that it's done. Baby who's to sayyyy at the end of Blow Away Brent yells out hold it! After 5:20 minutes-Playing in the band erupted!! (One of my earliest fave songs of the Dead) Those perma smiles were glowing now as Jerry melted the leads off his fretboard upon us! Hey Now! Even our fuzzy little batheads were dancing and scurrying about!Then as Playing flowed into time immortal into the opening strains of, of, of, could it be, could it be, yes! TERRAPIN!!! Looking around the glow glew and grew and grew. I wondered how I would ever remember this night for posterity of Deadheads to follow. As Terrapin poured into drums bodies began flying about, up and down, around, into the air, it was all we could do to keep our feet floating back down to terra firma at times, I pulled back the sleeve of my tye-died shirt to pop out a can of spinach and snorted it instantly to fuel the pulsing surging twisting dance muscles enough to sustain Blastoff. Space your face! 970 feet tall image-atron screens were bandied about filling our eyes and souls, shining Jerrys mountainous face forth, peering at each of us at once, in space the sounds of Jerrys mighty midi trumpet filled our heads with trumpetering solos, amazing zing zing, then no way I need a miracle! Furthur PROOF JERRYPOWER was definately why I had received that magical Double Miracle Ticket, yet the highlight of all time hit- let me quote another Deadheads words for the Death Don't Have No Mercy that we were about to experience(-Jerry's solo is one of the great moments not only in Dead history, but in all of rock. No disrespect intended to JG's own great talents, but he is playing in Hendrix territory here.), pardon me for quoting but so many in attendance testify that the Death Don't was the best ever, by the best ever. The opening 3 notes of Death Don't have remained with me forever, on guitar, on the low E string its open-2-3 Jerry "got" us all that night fer sure. A dancing hopping Sugar Magnolia capped the 2nd set there was a completeness felt, Jerry encored a nice Quinn, and nobody walked to the Lot we all just floated along to VW-villa now with these words I tell my tail my best ever for the best ever, for you.

Is so over-rated.

Reviewer jammin hit the nail on the 'head'! I've been trying to campaign on behalf of this here solo in Death Don't Have No Mercy ever since I recorded the Grateful Dead hour where Gans plays it. Un-ferigging-real!!! Quite possibly the shrediest shredding ever known! Just give it a listen!!

Really begins with the Miracle, my jaw dropped the first time I heard this combo, and pretty much every one of the dozens of times I've heard it since. Sorry but I cannot assign any stars to this one because that lead by Garcia on Death Don't sends the listener to places where the laws of physics break down, where the ether teems with the truth behind all of the secrets of this universe, where nothing makes sense, where ratings are not applicable! Where nothing exists right alongside the infinite and dances with a fractal on the head of a pin...

Man..sounds just like it was yesterday!

This was my first show as well. The good times just kept on rolling *~<|;+)

this was my first show.

This show will always stand out to me for the Death Dont Havr no Mercy Always in love with the older Grateful Dead this song was one of the reason why I loved going to shows. I arrived early to Shoreline one of the days and went inside about an hour early? and hanged out on the hill. We were listing to the baseball game A's vs. Gaints and all of suuden the game went off and out walks Jerry with Axe in hand I get up and run down to the seats there was no more then maybe 50 people in the whole place I sit down hoping no one was gonna come over and ask me to leave.Jerry was still on stage tuning up and then he launches into this jam playing his new midi Equipment the brown guitar, he goes through a bunch of sounds and defferent effects and starts really jamming.It was Space like you never heard before.Jerry played maybe 45min? then waved at us and left the stage. It was my greatest Jerry moment..

Wow! I drove with my roomate from Colorado to catch this run of shows. I remember hearing the first notes of Death Don't and running down the grass hill. Jerry's solo has to be one the best moments in GD history. The rest of the show has some inspired playing throughout. Download just for the Death Don't.