1984-10-05 | Grateful Dead

2:38:12
Rating:
7.67 / 6 ratings
Transferrer:
Jamie Waddell
SHNID:
gd1984-10-05.nak300.holtz.gems.87757.sbeok.flac16
Source:
Nakamichi CM-300 Microphones with CP-4 Shotgun capsules>Sony WM-D6 cassette tape deck.
Taper Notes:
View Notes2007 recollection:

This is gonna be a long-winded story, so proceed at your own peril....

Charlotte 10/5/84 was the first show of the Fall East Coast Tour that year.  I am not sure if it was the first time that GDTS offered it, but we bought via mail order two "tour books" of tickets...two tickets for each of the 11 shows on the tour.  There had not been an "official" taper section yet, so "taper tickets" had not yet been issued as such.  In any event, we got mostly
FOB seats for the whole tour, and some shows were general admission.

Charlotte was stop number one.....we drove down from Indiana with a fully loaded car packing every provision we would need to do the tour.  We had with us my buddy Danny's Nakamichi CM-300 mics with the CP-4 shotgun capsules, and a couple of Sony D-6 tape decks. One of them was pretty much brand new, purchased in LA right before the Ventura shows, and one had seen most of the shows on the '84 summer tour.  

In Charlotte, it seemed that the security at the door was a bit tight, so we snuck in the gear.  We had a pair of crutches with us, and my buddy Mike Rice (RIP) walked in using those, and he had the mics and shotguns taped to his leg. My buddy Tony and I carried in the decks, tapes, batteries, etc.  We had somehow forgotten to bring a microphone stand on tour, so we took the two crutches, attached them bottom to bottom, to create a 9 or 10 foot tall inverted crutch.  We had a couple of gooseneck mic holders, so we duct taped them to the top of the crutch rig and hoisted it up.  It was quite a sight.  So folks started to come up to us asking for patches into the rig.  One of those guys was in a wheelchair.  Well, we needed a way to stabilize our improvised mic stand, so we duct taped the crutch rig to this guy's wheelchair, and it worked great.  We proceeded to patch in about 9 decks in all, every single one of them Sony D-6 tape decks.  I recall that as we were checking all the connections, we discovered a problem with deck number two in the chain, it was not passing a good signal down the line, so that deck was relegated to the back of the line. That was the brand new deck.  Ends up it had a cracked circuit board that was damaged unbeknownst to us at a Roger Waters show we taped in Chicago on the way home from Ventura....that is a story unto itself.  

Back to Charlotte... I recall that this was a general admission show, no seats on the floor. Throughout the area where tapers were setting up, there were several nice old lady ushers walking around with six foot tall poles, and they were asking all the tapers to hoist their rigs no more than 6 feet up.  Well, this nice woman came to our rig and we had to explain to her that there was no way to adjust the height of our crutches.  So I shouted back to Healy asking him if our rig was OK, and he gave the thumbs up, so the nice lady walked on.  We all busted up laughing at that.  Anyway, we were set up about half-way between the stage and the soundboard, in a very advantageous
spot, a bit right of center.   The house lights went down, we fired up all the decks, and we were off to the races.  

Bertha opened the set at a very good clip, and we were on our way. There were some PA crackles near the beginning of the show, but nothing too distracting.  The sound in that Coliseum was just awesome.  The Bertha opener was great, Promised Land delivered with its inclusion of the "Stopped in Charlotte" line for the hometown crowd, and the set was off to a great start. Listen for a loud searing metal noise near the beginning of West L.A. Fadeaway, it'll make you cringe....and some haunting Hammond Organ lines from Brent.  Without giving you a blow by blow account of the set, this first set was noteworty in every respect, with a great song selection (Duprees, Stranger in the middle of the set, Brown-Eyed Women, etc.), and incredible musicianship...hell, it is safe to say that the entire evening was simply fabulous.

China/Rider opened the second set, and it was a real piece of work.  Just as good as it gets.....and the Estimated, well, just give it a listen.  I do not recall being at a show where this one was played with such wild sounds. Listen to the Brent/Jerry combo sounds in that middle
crescendo...Majestic...completely wiggin out.  The Eyes dissolved out of that cohesiveness into an entirely new direction.  Drums was a gas, Space was all about and into the Other One, Black Peter was plaintive.  Then, listen to jerry noodling a fast intro to Sugar Mag....Bob proceeded to bring it down and re-start it with his preferred slower tempo.  Hilarious.  No Sunshine Daydream as Jerry fired right into Johnny B. Goode.  Chuck Berry woulda been proud.  In the end, Bably Blue was simply beautiful.  

This show blew our minds, and we were sufficiently zapped,  wondering how we were gonna survive 10 more shows.  Never had such a good time.....

Oh yeah, we bought a microphone stand in Richmond before the next show.

Anyway, this recording, Charlotte, North Carolina, October 5, 1984, was mastered on the lead deck in our chain that night. Enjoy.

Greg Holtz
Bloomington, Indiana
October 16, 2007