40 years ago today, the Magic Began. As fate would have it, my first show was a "miracle" ticket from the Band's road crew. I was working, as a busboy, at my cousin's restaurant (Gordon's Seafood) in Pikesville MD. The band was staying at their usual Pikesville Hilton. The road crew came in for dinner (May 3rd) and had dinner It was rather early in the evening so I was able to talk to them I was asked if I was going to the show the next day and I said no. One said I was now and to be at will call the next day at 6. I asked my dad if I should go (he was in the record business) and he said why not. A decision, me thinks, was later regretted.

The next day, I rode with Brian Weiss His dad drove us in a diesel Mercedes and Brian had black roses because, after all that is what you were supposed to bring. I had been listening to the Grateful Dead since 1974 as my best Adam friend's brother, Lee Caplan had them in his collection We regularly listened to Workingman's Dead, Live Dead and American Beauty. So when I go to the show, I had some working knowledge of their library

That concert led me to the one of the greatest life experiences of my existence I became the man I am today because of the values I learned and continue to learn from being part of that community. I had already had a sense of doing for others, instilled into me from being in Hebrew School and being taught by some "hippy" Jews. But it was solidified in the Dead community I became a justice warrior and a lawyer. So much more

I had always been moved by music. The Dead took me to another level. Jerry Garcia's ability to take an open coda jam so far out set the modicum for me He turned me onto some many different genres of music and I ate them up To this day, I live to see and hear jam band music Mickey heart turned me onto percussion and I become a percussionist, even studying with his mentor Babatunde Olatunji, of blessed memory. I am so moved my music it carries me

Most importantly, I got to make some of the best friends in the world. Many still in my life from those early days. I found recovery in my life and was able to experience it High on Music, first as Wharf Rat, and now in so many other groups, to this day I also founded one of the largest Grateful Dead and now other bands pages, on social media. WEIR HERE LISTENING PARTY The mission was very simple. Continuing a social engineering experiment that began on this day 40 year ago. Now bringing the community together in virtual reality

So thank you Big Steve Parish, Ramrod and crew for doing what you did. A simple twist of fate. Your act of kindness, so apropos for the scene, was so beyond

Thank you Bob Weir Jerry Garcia Brent Mydland Bill Kreutzmann Mickey Hart Phil Lesh Donna Jean Godchaux Keith Godchaux Vince Welnick Tom Constanten Bruce Hornsby Ron « Pigpen » McKernan for making the music that forever changed my life. I wanna thank you for a real good time

#40yearssofar #walstib

Love,

Miko (as in Iko Iko My name give to me by Jim Cunningham in the Fall of 1982 in a parking lot, at our college, doing what we did A morning gathering to listen to the good old Grateful Dead)

Sorry to be a contrarian, but this show is an example of Jerry not being on his game. There are many vocal flubs and not much fire coming from his guitar either. Maybe he was just not feeling well? Out of it? The Half step is decent, but downhill from there. He has a guitar problem during a weak Stranger, which they fixed before Althea, but the set never gels. Bobby's songs are fine. Jerry does pull it together finally for a kick- ass Black Peter though.

What would I call a killer 80 show? Spokane. Now that's a killer Jerry show! The audience recording of that one is just stellar.

downloaders beware of a tracking error....Franklins Tower d1t2 is Fire On the Mountain d2t2 (same exact track, not suppossed to be there)....basically there is no Franklin's Tower, just 2 Fire On the Mountain tracks...BEWARE...other than that, great recording!!!

Great show, but they skipped the "Ain't nothing wrong with the way she moves" verse in Scarlet.

this is my first post, many thanks for making these available, but, HOW COULD YOU LEAVE OFF THE LAST SECONDS OF THAT FANTASTIC Miss. 1/2 step? there's no finish, it's probably awesome.

A great listen, but I can't carry it with me, please correct soon, thanks, couple of other upload errors.

But the Dead are in great form here.

Love the 1980 shows. My first show was at Barton Hall on May 7, 1980...three days before graduating from Syracuse University. GOOD TIMES!!!

Outstanding performance and superb recording. We are all blessed to have access to the MOTB masters. For us audience-heads they are truly as good as it gets. Anyone critical of a minor slip in the track upload needs to chill. It is an easy mistake to make and I'm confident it will be fixed soon. It takes a lot of time and effort to upload these shows for all to enjoy, we should be grateful.

The band busts out two identical Fire on the Mountains in the second song slot of each set. even the crowd does the same thing. It must have felt like an extreme case of deja vu there.

What's up with all these folks making errors uploading their shows into Archive. What a waste of time and effort.

Hey, there, just wanted to drop a line to whoever put this up that the setlist needs to be changed. You're showing Franklin's Tower as the second song, when it is, in fact, Fire on the Mountain. Just an FYI. Good show, good taping, thanks for adding it onto the archive in this format.

Saw this show at the end of my senior year in high school. On the floor, 10th row.

Magical night!!! The boys were at their peak.

Yet another great show finally being given the treatment it deserves. Fantastic sound to go with a fantastic show. Big, big thumbs up on this one. Maybe not quite a 5 star show, but certainly better then a 4. Keep 'em coming gentlemen, your work is very much appreciated.