Here are 90 minutes of unreleased October 1983 Grateful Dead in well-mixed soundboard recordings.
There are three official, whole-show releases from 1983, all from the Fall – 9/2, 10/14, and 10/21. This mixtape mines a SBD sweet spot in between those two October shows, from back-to-back, single-show, two-state stops: Lake Placid, NY and Portland, ME.
Each of these soundboards suffers from bad mixing in a lot of places (mostly quiet Weir guitar), but the good sound and good performances align in enough places to produce a sturdy little 2-LP mix with punch. Thick Lesh throughout.
90-minute mp3 mix zipped up here
Disc 1: 10/17/83 Lake Placid, NY (55 minutes)
- Sugaree
- Bird Song
- Hell in a Bucket
- Deal
- To Lay Me Down
Disc 2: 10/18/83 Portland, ME (48 minutes)
- They Love Each Other
- Dupree’s Diamond Blues
- China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider
- Supplication
- Jam >
- Not Fade Away
Notes:
- The 10/17 “Sugaree” was the show opener. Weir’s guitar gets too loud for a stretch, but it’s otherwise quite epic (16:22), so I resisted editing the weird passage out.
- Healy or whoever often seems to have suppressed Weir’s guitar during verses/choruses, but he chimes brightly in most places on each of these songs.
- If you’re wondering about the second set of 10/17, it’s a good performance, but the mix is shrill, compared to the first set. Only “To Lay Me Down” made it through my filter.