Live in 1988: Hell in a Bucket and Beyond, A Summer Tour to Remember

Deadhead Cannabis Show

"Deadhead Adventures: From Minneapolis to Alpine Valley"

Larry Mishkin delves into a nostalgic recount of a Grateful Dead concert he attended on June 17, 1988, in Minneapolis, part of their Midwest Summer Tour. He reminisces about attending the show with friends Mikey and JT, detailing their travel adventures and the concert's setlist, which included memorable performances of "Hell in a Bucket" and "Far From Me."

Larry also shares personal anecdotes about his experiences following the Grateful Dead, including the challenges of balancing concert trips with his professional life and the thrill of attending multiple shows in a short span. He transitions into discussing the significance of the song "Hell in a Bucket," its debut, and its frequent performance as a show opener. He explains the concept of "Mondegreens," humorous misheard lyrics, using an example from a Grateful Dead song review.

The show revisits a story about a Phish fan who was initially banned from all Madison Square Garden Entertainment venues for smoking a bong at the Sphere. MSG later rescinded the ban, citing an internal error. Larry expresses surprise and amusement at the quick reversal and discusses the implications for fans.

Finally, Larry discusses the resale of Dead & Company tickets for their Las Vegas Sphere shows, noting that many are being sold at face value or below on cashertrade.org. He expresses mixed feelings about fans having to sell tickets at a loss but appreciates the platform's role in preventing scalping.

Grateful Dead

June 17, 2024 (36 years ago)

Met Center

Minneapolis, MN

Grateful Dead Live at Metropolitan Sports Center on 1988-06-17 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Audience Tape

First show of the 1988 Midwest Summer Tour

With my good buddies Mikey and JT – weekend in Minny, Friday night show but had to stay until Sunday to fly home because if you stayed over a Saturday night, round trip airfare was much less expensive. Got home on Sunday and headed straight for Alpine Valley for the first of four shows S, M, W, Th. Each night headed home, slept for 4 hours, got up for work, left work at 3 p.m., ride the El to the middle of the Kennedy Expressway at Addison, hop in a car and drive straight up. Fight the crazy post show traffic in that horridlbe parking lot (unless you have one-armed Lary as your driver). Hardcore. My law firm didn’t know what to make of it. I got in four shows at home with no vacation days taken!

INTRO: Hell In A Bucket

Track #2

0:00 – 1:34

[From David Dowd]: The Bob Weir / John Barlow / Brent Mydland song “Hell in a Bucket” directly references the biker scene, and I’m sure that somehow Barlow just wanted to put that element into the band’s repertoire somehow. After all, there are plenty of outlaw elements sprinkled through the band’s songs.

“Bucket” debuted on May 13, 1983, at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. Alice Kahn wrote a review of the show, in which she promulgated one of the best-ever Mondegreens, referring to the song as “Police on a Joy Ride.” The song frequently featured as the show opener over the course of the next two-plus decades, although it wasn’t used in that role until about a year after its first performance. It was performed by the Dead for the final time on June 30, 1995, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“Hell in a Bucket” appeared on In the Dark, released in July 1987 (aka Touch of Grey album).

Played: 217 times

First: May 13, 1983 at William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA, USA

Last: June 30, 1995, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

SHOW No. 1: Far From Me

Track #6

3:18 – 4:45

Brent Mydland

Go To Heaven (April 28, 1980)

Strong Brent tune. I saw them open the second set with it a my second show ever (also with my buddy Mikey) in the Carrier Dome on September 24, 1982, the night I got on the bus forever.

Played: 74 times

First: March 30, 1980 at Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, USA

Last: July 22, 1990 at World Music Theatre, Tinley Park, IL, USA (the night before Brent’s last show). It died with him.

MUSIC NEWS:

1. MSG ENERTRAINMENT REDACTS INDEFINITE VENUE RESTRICTION FOLLOWING PHISH FAN BONG/SPHERE CONTROVERSY

2. Dead & Company Sphere Tickets Listed for Face Value or Below on CashorTrade! Dead & Company announced 24 dates at the Las Vegas Sphere, and many fans eagerly bought tickets. Now, some can't attend and are selling their tickets at face value or less on CashorTrade.org. Built by fellow Deadheads in 2009 to protect fans from scalped tickets,

3. Roger Daltrey Shares Thoughts on Sharing Setlists Online and More, Ahead of The Voice of The Who Tour - Touching on his feeling toward revealing the contents of a performance online, Daltrey asserted, “I’m not gonna talk about songs.” Providing reasoning, he added, “Too many people reveal songs. There’s no surprises left with concerts these days, ’cause everybody wants to see the setlist. I’m f–king sick of it. The Internet’s ruined the live shows for me. Who wants to know what’s coming next? People forget about surprises. I can’t stand it. Here’s an idea for Roger – don’t play the exact same show every night! Mix up your songs and then set lists can only give you probabilities of what might get played. See the Grateful Dead, Phish and every other jam band ever.

4. As promised last week, here are the deets on Trey playing with Billy Joel in MSG last week: Madison Square Garden residencies have long been a career-defining staple of the New York City live entertainment location, with names like Billy Joel and Phish dominating multi-night show cycles, making the venue a known place to catch a memorable Big Apple performance. However, last night’s performance was a truly unique event, a planned convergence for the two title-holders, Joel and Phish’s Trey Anastasio. They teamed up on select songs, including “Sleeping With the Television On,” a cover of Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla” and night closing “You Might Be Right,” featuring a Led Zeppelin “Rock and Roll” insert, sung by Mike DelGuidice.

SHOW No. 2: Victim Or The Crime (First time played)

Track #9

0:00 – 2:13 (long clip but it’s the first time played so I had to run with it)

Written by Bob Weir and Gerrit Graham

Garcia – “It's one of Weir's stunningly odd compositions, but it's also very adventurous. It's uncompromising; it's what it is, and the challenge of coming up with stuff to play that sounds intelligent in the context has been incredible, but also appropriately gnarly. I really wanted that part of it to work.I think we did a nice job on the record with it. It works. Whatever it is, it works. I'm real happy with it because it was one of those things that was like, "What are we going to do with this?" It's like having a monster brother that you lock in the attic. It's like a relative that you -- "God, I hope nobody comes over when he's eating...." But that's one of the things that makes the Grateful Dead fun.”

“The text of it -- I don't believe I've ever actually listened to all the words to it. Ever. I have the gist of it; by now I probably could recite it if I really had to, but the text of it is more of the same in a way, it doesn't have a whole lot of light in it. It's very dense, and it's angst-ridden to boot.”

Played 96 times, “Victim” debuted on June 17, 1988, at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota THIS SHOW. It remained in the rotation thereafter, and was played for the final time on July 2, 1995 at Deer Creek Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana.

SHOW No. 3: All Along The Watchtower

Track #19

1:22 – 3:22 (another long one but could not break up the jam)

"All Along the Watchtower" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan from his eighth studio album, John Wesley Harding (1967). The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston.

Covered by numerous artists, "All Along the Watchtower" is strongly identified with the interpretation Jimi Hendrix recorded with the Jimi Hendrix Experience for their third studio album, Electric Ladyland (1968). The Hendrix version, released six months after Dylan's original recording, became a Top 20 single in 1968, received a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 2001, and was ranked 48th in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004 (40th in the 2021 version). Dylan first played the song live in concert on the Bob Dylan and the Band 1974 Tour, his first tour since 1966. His live performances have been influenced by Hendrix's cover, to the extent that they have been called covers of a cover. The singer has performed the song live more than any of his other ones, with over 2,250 recitals.

I always loved the Dead’s cover of this tune. As you heard in the clip, it is a rocking tune and Jerry would really jam hard on it. Great snappy second set tune that would always get the crowd moving in the next gear.

Played: 118 times

First: June 20, 1987 at William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre, Berkeley, CA, USA

Last: June 22, 1995 at Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY, USA

MJ NEWS

1. Biden Admin Is ‘Mischaracterizing’ Marijuana Rescheduling Impact As Big Pharma Is ‘Waiting In The Wings,’ Former Massachusetts Regulator Says (Marijuana Moment)

2. GOP Congressman Says ‘Millions Of Marijuana Users’ Own Guns And Shouldn’t Face Prosecution Like Hunter Biden Did

3. Marijuana Rolling Paper Company Will Pay $4.20 To Volunteers To ‘Smoke Joints For Science’

SHOW No. 4: Black Peter

Track #20

1:36 – 3:11

Garcia/Hunter tune released on Workingman’s Dead in 1970.

Robert Hunter was not afraid of death; he experienced it a thousand times over. The American musician composed the lyrics to many of The Grateful Dead’s most successful songs and played an essential role in curating the band’s mythos, one that saw the psychedelic rock outfit earn hordes of dedicated fans, or ‘deadheads’. One such song was ‘Black Peter’ – written for the band’s 1970 album Workingman’s Dead.

By 1969, The Dead were practically synonymous with the liberal drug culture of the hippie era. In the June of that year, Robert Hunter and the gang were given a glass of apple juice laced with “probably a full gram of crystal LSD … worth perhaps $50,000.” The intense trip that followed would completely reinvigorate Hunter’s understanding of death and influence his subsequent lyrics for ‘Black Peter’. Bassist Phil Lesh would later recall tasting the LSD in the juice after a single sip: “I wish you could be where I am right now—it’s so beautiful,” he told drummer Mickey Hart, “but I couldn’t possibly play music now. I don’t even know what music is.” Still, there was a job to do, so the band played anyway.

In the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, one of Jerry’s rotating post-drums second set ballads along with Morning Dew, Wharf Rat and Stella Blue. This version was one of the highlights of this show. Jerry’s voice is strong if not a bit “ragged” around the edges just the way Deadheads liked it, with just enough emotion to really convey the song’s meaning and its statement about the end of life.

Played: 351 times

First: December 4, 1969 at Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, USA

Last: June 22, 1995 at Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, NY

OUTRO: Black Muddy River

Track #23

4:09 – 5:55

Played: 66 times

First: December 15, 1986 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA, USA

Last: July 9, 1995 at Soldier Field, Chicago, Il – looked like it was going to the last song of the show (encore) and the last song of the difficult summer tour. Turns out, it could have been the last song ever played in concert by the Dead, until Phil stepped in to leave everyone with a smile on their face and no bad taste in their mouths with a great second encore Box of Rain which then became the last song ever played by the Dead in concert.

By contrast, this version is outstanding with strong playing and singing by Jerry. And, with the show practically on the banks of the Mississippi, it was a geographically appropriate song for the venue.

Mikey, JT and I rolled off into the night, a crazy weekend in Minny, and then the next four shows on the tour at Alpine. Ah, to have the kind of energy again, even if just for a night. Thank you psychedelics!!

Enjoy the Summer Solstice and the beginning of summer.

.Produced by PodConx

Deadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-show

Larry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkin

Rob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-hunt

Jay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesberg

Sound Designed by Jamie Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-humiston-91718b1b3/

Recorded on Squadcast