Jerry Garcia
- electric guitar (lead), vocals
Bob Weir
- electric guitar (rhythm), vocals
Phil Lesh
- electric bass, vocals
Bill Kreutzmann
- drums, perc
Mickey Hart
- drums, perc
Brent Mydland
- keyboards, vocals
Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast: Season 4: Infrared Roses - extended discussion and show stories about the Dark Star
The following show stories/reviews were all on the Archive page for shnid 18664, which was removed from the site for unknown reasons and recovered via the Wayback Machine thanks to Jesse Jarnow. Each is prefixed with the Archive username of the commenter.
Joe Shlobotnick: I was at this show and it was extremely edgy. We watched many a pastel colored yuppie suck down frozen mixed drinks, oblivious to the seriousness of the first set. By the time Drums was hitting us, these poor folks were literally crawling up the aisles, covered in their own sick, trying to get out of the cauldron. A bizarre sight, but I am sure if had been partaking of anything psychoactive that night, I would have been right down there with them.
Gives new meaning to the phrase "killer show"!
doo_dah_man: I was dosed outta my mind but to hear this 2nd set was a grateful treat. At the tail end of a killer Fall Tour this was the icing on the cake so to speak, this 2nd set was a monster, the Estimated to kick things off was a real surprise and the Dark Star was really DARK and scary!!!! this is an evil GD playing evil music which they were capable of doing from time to time. All I know is I wound up in Key West the next day still tripping my balls off and swimming with dolphins..ahhh those were the days!
roadweiry: This is off the hook. This is Dark powerful freak the dogs out slap your grandma kinda powerful music. The dark star is off the hook. Anyone who wants HARDCORE Grateful Dead look no further.
bonk: THIS WAS THE SCARIEST SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN THE DEAD PLAY. Every song in the first set is about death and destruction. Aside form the opener, "foolish",the Death theme was there. You could feel the boys sucking you in. You had no choice. I remember people franticly leaving. The dead were freaking people out. Even during the show when most people dont think too much about the set, I was well aware of what was going on.
mid-maine: can't agree more. there is an undertow here that could have pulled the faint of heart out to sea. don't know, wasn't there. but bonk is right. the first time i heard this tape, my sister was turning me on, and she said, "i like it, but it's kinda scary." well, i'm all about that, when done well. talk about a diamond in the rough!
spacin007: (I was) at this show...legend has it a bunch of pranksters were as well...
The goofy cage match parking lot was hectic.
The aids warnings about hookers scrawled on the sidewalk all over had me daydreaming about death anyway...then the show...
It was like watching aliens land in your backyard....
Joshua_me: The Only Show That Truly *Scared* Me...
I wasn't the same for days after THIS night...
It was more than just sid and good Dead... This show was terrifying. I can remember all my friends asking me if I was "alight" for hours after this show. Truth was, I wasn't...
Over 20 years later, and it might as well have been yesterday. The spirits the band conjured up this night defied definition.
Formless reflections, indeed....
NoOneButJerry28: When at the show, it was rumored to be their 2000th live performance for the band. It was another wild, south florida time near the arena. A crossover neighborhood, the lot was crazy and uncontained, bleeding into the show enough such that it was cops galore afterwards. But no bad reports, just lots of nitrous and closure for the pagan masses. Did anyone else go to the Rascal House once away from the show? Mmmm...matzoh ball soup at 1am was kryptonically satisfying.
brainbeat: I had to leave during space. I went to the bathroom to rinse my face in the sink and the water started crawling up the walls to the ceiling and back down to the floor. I knew a head who used to be a roadie for the dead and he pointed out Owsley to me - in crazy mask and with some mountain man type walking stick (he had on the 'owsley-dead-bronze' belt buckle that is infamous). There were quite a few costumes around it being near halloween.
Anyway this show was completely sick. This is what convinced me to tour as much as I could until I finally quit in Oct. '94.
Enlightened_deadhead: If you want to take a journey into your psyche and see what associations lie in wait - fear not for the whole world is in this one Dark Star...tv static, racquetball courts, time-machines, medieval torture, insect communication, funeral horns of new orleans, buddhist scripture, worldbeat, witches incantations, ice-ages, wars, raga, muzak, volcanoes, black holes, peruvian indigenous sounds, crawling, creeping, gliding, seething ends, beginnings, and tight rope walking over some huge abyss.
YukonCorneilius: This was my first show! When my buddy & I arrived, they were charging to park in the lot so we pulled the white '71 camaro over to the railroad tracks. Some of the locals were trying to charge 5 bucks to park there but we weren't buying it. For some reason, we thought the rails weren't still used. Feeling crafty for parking for free, we headed for the drum circle under the banion tree. A couple doses later we were jamming away when we hear a really loud train whistle. About 30 seconds goes by & we hear it again but this time the engineer held it for a long time. This time people start cheering & looking towards the train. Then it hit me...THE CAR! I ran so fast & sure enough, the camaro was blocking the tracks & the engineer was going slow enough that he saw it & stopped. When I got there he had a big grin on his face & made some joke about scrap metal...This all happened on the first day. We showed up with no tix but had a little cash for 1 show each. At one point we were hanging around the box office when someone in the crowd mentioned they had a few surprise tix for sale(They were sold out if I remember correctly). We rushed up to the window & scored two tix for the next night...7th row on the floor!!! So the next night comes & I don't know what to expect seeing that I only knew two songs...Truckin & Fire. It was the craziest 3 hours of my life! My head is still whirling around that Dark Star! At one point, Micky & Billy were striking the ground with there sticks & It sounded like stars were exploding! I'm still trying to figure it out! After the show we went back home where I quit my job & have been on the road every since. I LOVE MY CRAZY LIFE!!! Thanks for the inspiration Jerry,Bobby,Phil,Brent,Billy,&Micky;! & thanks Allen for turning me on to the madness!!!
Flyerguy: I stayed at my friend Dean's house in West Palm and for his hospitality I got him and his girl tickets to the second show and he and his girl didn't know what to think.........I, on the other hand, was excited from the opening Foolish Heart.....this show was absolute mastery........the Dark Star was beyond belief......I still remember the palm trees as I staggered out of the Miami Arena still stunned from the performance......
rhedda: 1 finger bag of psylisibin taken in first moments of show - shitty seats in the back - moved with my friend and fellow tripee to balcony (rail) - just as drums began for solo into "Space". mushroom started deepest peak - just then SHE, I DIDN'T KNOW WHO, PUT A FIRM AND READY LEFT HAND ON MY SHOULDER AS DID SHE ON THE RIGHT UPON MY FELLOW TRIPEE'S SHOULDER AND WITH A LOUD AND EXCITED YELL DECLARED: "YEAH, YEAH, I GOT IT, I GOT IT", AS THIS AVERAGE SIZED DEAD HEAD DAMSEL TO OUR SHOCK AND WONDERMENT LEAPED AND CLEARED OVER US AND THIS BREAST-HIGH RAIL INTO THE SMOKEFILLED ABYSS OF THE MIAMI ARENA 'SPACE' - PLUMMETING 40 FEET ONTO THE ABSTRACT BLOBBULAR UNDULATION {the crowd) BELOW (by the way, she survived with only a broken leg) - Now I understand well the jealous envy of some long time dead heads who had never seen a lift off into space in such psycadelic sensual clarity as this shit went down- especially after finding out that this GD MIAMI 89, 2000th SHOW @ THE MIAMI ARENA was the first Dead show I had ever been to - I DO understand because immediately after her big leap, this very hairy obvious deadvotee (who was apparantly positioned directly in back of miss jumper), ran forward an d grabbed us both in a big bear huddle hug and began franticly declaring : "DID YOU SEE THAT, I'VE BEEN TO ONE HUNDRED AND --- SHOWS AND I AINT NEVER SEEN ANYONE JUMP.... - somehow I detected gratification - it was not a moment of great jubilation for this novice though - needless to say, this dude became our automatic brother and friend for the rest of the evening via phenominal occurrence -
that was a night I will remember, so remember if you ever feel like you've "got it", make sure you are on ground level and have a nice day!