Grateful Dead - Sam Boyd Silver Bowl Stadium, Las Vegas, NV, May 31, 1992
Yes, summer is officially over, but the Summer of Dead continues. We’re almost to the finish line! The Dead started playing the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl (shoulda been called the Dust Bowl) in Vegas on the regular in the 90s and it became a big Deadhead tradition for a little while. Hippies in the desert! This show is a pretty good one — the opening “Help > Slipknot > Franklin’s” is fab, with the band still finding groovy nooks and crannies in these old warhorses. Second set is hit and miss: I hereby nominate “Women Are Smarter” as the worst song to ever appear regularly in the Dead’s setlists. But there’s good stuff, too, like a wonderful “Attics of My Life.” The show closes out with some of ye olde classic rock: the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Kind of fun to hear, but I never want to hear them again. Oh and hey, Steve Miller sits in for a few tunes, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Choice cut: “The Other One” makes a welcome return here, and though it’s shorter than usual, it is pretty fierce. The sound guys put some wild effects on Weir’s vocals. I’m sure for anyone tripping in the crowd it just took it TO THE NEXT LEVEL, MANNNNN.
