this show is phenomenal...audio is a 10!!! The Stella Blue alone is worth a listen!! I'm not a drums>space guy but this was interesting for sure. Do yourself a favour...don't look at the playlist and get lost in this amazing show

Late-July to mid-August '82 includes some of my favorite music from the band in any era. This show is my favorite from that stretch. The highlights are too numerous to mention - literally every tune is fantastic. I had forgotten how excellent this matrix sounds as well. Great recording + top notch show = 5 stars.

Great show on a beautiful night and the start of 3 in a row for us. We were a few minutes late to the show(it was an election night and no alcohol sales prior to 7 pm when the polls closed) We were walking fast after parking the car and the first notes of Mississippi Half Step started ringing out...just got better from there! Next night in St. Louis not nearly as good because the venue(Kiel Auditorium) was horrible for sound. Then on to Iowa city the following week for another great show! What a great summer it was!

Just a note to ChrisU...I live in the KC area (was living IN the city when this show took place, but missed it; Czech out the 9-3-85 Starlight show, though). But I digress...

Whatta great setlist! And Brent sounds great in the mix, especially 2nd set. This show flat out smokes, but it's in Kansas City...Missouri.

Kansas City, Kansas is a real place, o'course, and the Grateful Dead played several shows on the Kansas side of the state line here (check out shows in Bonner Springs, KS, which is another outdoor amphitheater, but not nearly as charming as Starlight. The venue there was then known as "Sandstone," but now has a corporate name that'll surely be something else by the time I hit publish on this comment.

KC concert goers have gotten used to aliens to Flyover Country not being able to keep it straight what side of the imaginary line they're on, though. But there ain't nothin' the matter with Kansas City.

Starlight is a phenomenal place to see a band like the Dead. The hippie girls in their long, tie dyed skirts whirled like dervishes in the aisles down both sides, making it feel like you were floating in the crowds at a Grateful Dead show there.

I'm Missourian by birth, but Kansan by choice. So, 'ad astra per aspera!' indeed. (beats the heck outta "Show Me").

...3/22/87 would like a word with you.
And I might as well touch on the other song people keep harping on - To lay me down is nice, but the rest of the band is not into it. They never sang it with the same fiery pleading vocals after the acoustic versions in 80.
This is a very good show in the big picture but it's not the 100% team effort needed to be a "best of brent era".

One of the more intense Cumberland Blues and that hangs almost entirely on Garcia playing up a storm.

The energy kinda ebbs and flows somewhat but when Jerry finds a riff, wow, do things get busy. Good example would be solo in Cassidy.
Just as a side note --would not the 1st set have been a much better place for Woman are Smarter.
I like the sound on this recording it captures the electricity of a show very nicely.
I had to bump this to a 5 after getting into the 2nd set.
Shakedown>Samson is not your everyday combo
( but one I really like.)
A very sweet TLMD and then Let it Grow--Wow-- that is a pretty nice 4 songs before drums indeed.
and continuing outside the box HE'S Gone out of space and then to pick up The Other One
Pretty easy to favorite this show

@Chris U

You are right man. And someday somebody is going to combine all these marginal recordings of this amazing show and give us a gem that stands with anything.

I appeciate everyone upping their versions. As great as they are, we are going to get some synergy going between them at some point.

3 *** for the fidelity; 4+ **** for the show

Apparently nothing if you are the Grateful Dead.

Ten years after their great '72 appearance, they lay down yet another gem in the "to the stars, through difficulties" state (yes that's the Kansas state motto).

Dive in with the Peggy-O and you'll find Jerry in total control. Completely solid backing on El Paso, just dealing with whatever Bobby is throwing at him. An unbelievably tight Cumberland.

An Althea for the ages. What?? Things start to stretch out towards the end of that piece you know it's only going to get stranger...

Possibly the best Cassidy since the inaugural version. A quintessential example of the "music playing the band" right up until the moment that someone in the band says "enough."

Unless I've missed something,this is the last totally a s s kicking To Lay Me Down. Holy. Muther. Fcking. Crp.

What a great show! This was the first we saw of a 5-gig stretch that ended in Alpine Valley...just an all-around great Midwest show, crowd and venue; these Midwest shows always seem to be under-appreciated in my opinion. This was definitely one of my favorite Dead concerts I ever attended - 7 Jerry songs in the first set - WOW - you just didn't see that kind of Jerry action back in the early 80's! He was really on this night as was the whole band and it shows in their playing and song selection. I think it might of had to do with this being Jerry's first concert after his 40th birthday...with that he just went out and jammed, jammed, jammed the night away! Man how I miss those days of touring with the boys - it was magical and unless you were there you just wouldn't understand - thank you and God Bless the Grateful Dead!

A real pity that the tracks are unlabeled & unnumbered.

this show rocks from start to finish, the let it grow is incredible, and props to bobby on jamming with the drummers for a bit there i really dug that

the opener was outstanding, love miss > frank such a cool transition when they hit that, the rest of the songs in the first set were good especially cumberland and big RR, love hearing althea and cassidy and might as well

shakedown was good, great tune, and i love the varying paces of the 2nd sets with lay me down and stella blue in there amidst some rockers, super show overall!

a very good year

John Bouffard commented below that 1982 "had to have been the best Summer/Fall in a lot of Heads' lives" and that it was the "best year for the Dead." I have to agree. Of course, that summer was my first full-fledged extended tour, and I think that always weighs heavily in people's discussions about "best" eras, etc. That said, there was a consistent crispness and fire to the band that year that I have yet to find in other eras. They'd become fully comfortable with the Brent-era lineup, but hadn't yet slipped into the flabby, drug-addled boredom of later years. I'd highly recommend extensive listening to shows from this year, which is often, sadly, overlooked when people discuss this sort of thing. This show, in particular, is stellar--I'd put it up agaisnt any of the usual nominees for best shows ever.

1982 best year for the Dead! This is not up for discussion! Not a bad night the whole year! Check out this LET IT GROW might be tops for 82?I think it is. Same said for Shakedown. This had to have been the best Summer/Fall in alot of Heads lifes? Me? I was still in Little League but my first show was getting closer as the days went bye! 4/3/86.........

Starlight is a wonderful venue. The night was electric with excitement (in many ways). I'd been looking forward to this concert for weeks. I wasn't disappointed. I still remember the dancers spinning down the aisles towards the stage. The band was really on that night. Truely an outstanding show. One of the best they ever did in Kansas City.

The sound? Sweetness . I so wish this one, as a previous reviewer said , was an AUD cause this is a thing of great and wonderous beauty. I however will gladly settle for the aud. Sounds conflicted?? Such is the life of a DeadHead never really satisfied but happy as hell for the joy that the Dead continues to fill my life with. Go and get the Aud with a wee tweak of the equalizer... its damn good

I have always loved this show. But after hearing this spectacular recording and feeling the full impact of the performance, I would say one of the alltime best Post '77 shows for sure. The band is lit up from the first to last notes and Jerry's playing is as close to flawless as one could ask. Many tunes are played at a top notch level. SHAKEDOWN is off the charts and the same can be said about many other selections.

As I write this I realize it is 12 years since the day the great one checked out.

.....nevermind....I just listened to the entire recording and now I see why people really got into this band.....they do jam don't they?...

Wow, I stumbled across this recording. I listened to it and I began to remember what a great night it was for the Show!
Clear not too hot. The band was tight, and the sound sweet. The boogie was groovin.
Jerry's birthday that night, though I am not so sure. The women were frisky and the boys randy.
I had front row and man was it awesome!!
The band was havin fun, and played a long time that night.

I really like this recording as it has a nice mix in stereo, and picks up the ambient live sound of the crowd. It picks up all the guitars, and keyboards nice and clean along with clear vocals. The drums are good, but not like live.

OWner needs to make this was available for download.

This is a great recording for the Dead and the live sound and fun night of dancin'!!

Family guy typed this right. Cumberland is freakin beautiful by the way.

This is simply one of the most realistic concert-experience recordings I have ever heard. And to top it off, the band smokes. Many of my favorite Jerry licks from the opener.

This show just smokes! Thanks Dr. and thanks Archive.org!

Not sure if anyone else reading this review remembers the rainbow like sky during Peggy-O. NO I WAS NOT ON ANY mind altering substance. This show just smokes from start to finsh. I give it 4 stars for the music and five for the selection and of course 5 BIG STARS for the theater itself. I would give the sound five stars but those five stars are having been there.

This Matrix is simply beautiful. I feel like I am in the crowd when listening to this hot show. The transition from 1/2 Step into Franklin's is my favorite of all time. Big Railroad just rips with the Midwestern crowd showing their approval with bursts of wah-hooo!!! throughout the song as it becomes quite clear that Garcia is "on". Too bad this show does not qualify as an audience so we all could download, burn and put on our stereos in order to get the full effect of the fine work done by Mr.Hogan. Take a listen. This show will make you dance the night away!