Small, homey stadium. Went here like 3 years in a row (?) to see them. Burnt out from Kingswood a night or two earlier and hassled at the border (full car search) but glad we got here. Always rains in Roch.. The band really had a jump during this Summer and I was lucky to catch a few. Two things stand out about this one for me: I absolutely MELTED during He's Gone and as usual it rained during LLR. This could have been my favorite show of all time. They played tight.

This was the very first show and after this I was ADDICTED. The show was amazing, the band was right on . Jerry was incredibly strong in his playing and singing. Yeah, yeah you say Jerry was off on some shows on this tour and I agree but this show is a must for a show collector.

I was at this show and it was a great one. The band was playing tight and they put together a nice setlist. What you can't hear on this recording (clean as it is) is how great their sound was in this venue and how crazy in to the show the crowd was. One thing to note is that they were letting folks in at the gate real slow. I recall that it was one ticket-taker, one person frisking at the gate I was at. The band started their set and the crowd got anxious and started pushing towards the gate. We were getting crushed in the middle and our feet were off the ground. Very scary loss of any control. With a lot of heavy shouting everybody cooled down and stepped back, then the riot police pushed through on their horses separating the crowd and nearly caused a problem themselves. One good thing that came out of it all is that one of the riot cops seeing that there was one ticket taker hollered at the morons behind the gate to take more than one ticket at a time.

Of the three shows I saw on this tour, this one was my least favorite. It's a solid show, and the GDTRFB>Watchtower>Stella Blue is very well done indeed. Nice long (for this period) first set, too. Everything was well played with few mistakes. It's just that they weren't really taking many chances here. It didn't have the fire that other shows I'd seen that summer had. Having said that, no one would be sorry to have this one in their collection, but it's not essential, either. Best of tour? I disagree. They played it safe on this show.

This was my first REAL dead show and I will never forget it for as long as I live. I had gone to a couple of shows in '86 in hartford but this was the first time I traveled to see the boys. My friend Amanda had been out in Colorado for the Santana show the week before and had just driven back to the east coast. She decided she was sick of driving so she bought us two plain tickets to rochester from White plains NY. She could not continue the tour so she flew home leaving me to fend for myself. I had no ride, no hotel, fifty bucks, a few j's and a ticket for each of the next four shows. I slept under an alcove on the steps of a near by church with a bunch of heads as it poured all night long. I woke up with a blanket and tarp over me, that some kind soul just hooked me up with while I slept. The show was just so amazing. You could just boogie right up to the front of the stage and check out the band up close. It was like everyone was fully keyed in. The rain started during LLR as Jerry created the rain sounds with guitar. You can hear it, gives me chills. Bob says "fuck" and the skies just opened up.

Brothers and sisters were so kind to me. I found a ride to Foxboro, which by contrast was total chaos. Took to many shrooms, lost my shoes, but that's another story.

This was one of those shows that is burned into my memory. Sure we were all high as can be, but with good reason. It was the start of the East Coast Tour. We had waited outside of Tower Records in the village for a full night for our pack of tickets and all of us were fresh, fresh, fresh. I remember running late and getting caught up at the turnstiles when they busted into Hell and we rushed, very East Coast style, the gates and the cops or security hit the crowd with mace. Luckily we were too wasted or adrenalized to be fazed and hit the show running. China/Rider was unreal and I woke up in Foxboro.

First, what a great show! Loved the whole thing, even in the rain! I grew up ~ 10 miles from Silver (Pittsford) and had ~ 15 friends camping out at the house which made for a great before and after party! Silver Stadium was an interesting old ball park, kept up pretty well, but facilities were limited. I remember going to use the men's room and being in and out in like 2 minutes, but the women's line was forever. I took two of the girls in our group into the men's room and by the time we left, others were doing the same thing. No one seemed to mind! Also remember watching the show from the pitcher's mound. It was a bit back but the sound was great and you could see over everyone else. The Boys didn't make it to Rochacha much but when they did, it was a good time. It was actually cool to see "Touch Heads" at the shows that summer because you could watch many of them board the bus (as I did in Boulder on 12-9-81)!
JM

For East Coast Deadheads, Rochester's Silver Stadium was a truly magical place. A minor league baseball stadium, the place gave a new meaning to the word "dump". This place was a real shithole, but oh, what a place to see the Dead. General admission,if I recall, all the time, and the place held probably 20,000 less people than the other summer venues. It was intimate, with a crowd that never pushed, plenty of room to dance, and, is it me, or was it always raining? Gennesee beer was stacked up by the vendors, warm cans of great rock gut brew, and yet none of the drunken assholitry of the later years. The front of the stadium was taken up entirely by rows and rows of motorcycles. The band clearly took to the scene, and both this and the next year's show rank among my favorites. Great Dire Wolf, Essau, and He's Gone. Very nice recording, but it just can't capture the magic, which perhaps no recording can, but Silver Stadium was a place worth traveling to.

We headed up, I just remember the first set being INCREDIBLY long, tickets were $10 or less, I had to leave after a few songs to pick up a friend from the airport and STILL made it back in time for the last two songs.....this show was good but the Roanokes were better....

...can't forget on the tape Phil's BOOMING voice on Tons of Steel...loved it!

Ah! The good ol' pant's crapper I was in his presence a time or two. Never did meet him but I dry barfed on his behalf. Skia213 you see peeing your pants thats really high. Just before you enter the show you guzzle down a six pack or so which triggers a mushroom melt down that disables your ability to feel if something is wet or not. The other, it's elementary and if your O.K. with it your institutional.

Overall: this was a "meat and potatoes" late 80s show. Very solid playing. Good song selection. Some really nice moments. But nothing spectacular. This recording, however, is top notch.

The scene: hometown show after seeing Kingswood Theater, and before heading off to JFK for the Dead/Dylan show the following week. It was like a mini high school event with all the people from Pittsford Sutherland. I made sure to park myself just behind my high school crush (Heather H., who was also featured in the Touch video) for the beginning of the show. Then I later wondered for open dancing space and such. Typical Rochacha weather - cloudy with rain on and off, but it wasn't cold, so it wasn't too horrible. I think this was the year my buddy's older brother pooped himself, he was so high.

The music: as I state above, solid playing from everyone. Bobby songs seem to be pretty good at this show. The Cassidy, LLR, and Watchtower all have great moments. But, in general, if you weren't there, this is nothing to write home about. Just a good solid late 80s upstate show with the boys.

I saw this show with my Dad, who was always a much bigger deadhead than I ever was. Going in they virtually strip searched me, but waived him, a balding respectable looking guy in a sport coat, in with a "come right in sir." In addition to a great show, my fondest memory is him telling some stoned heads that he was a reporter for Rolling Stone.

He's gone now, but he would have loved this archive. Its easy to picture him sitting back, listening, and smiling as the music washes over.

Great amazing show, loved every minute of it!!
I think its funny that after all these years people are still talking about "Touch Heads" and how lame they were as if they're not part of the "in crowd" and these newbies don't count. Give me a break. You had a first Grateful Dead show too once.
I recall having short hair at a Dead show and being treated by certain heads like I was a DEA agent...can you say, short sighted and predictable?! whatever.

This China Rider, for me, is a religous experience. Was at this show, and the 88 show - the energy is similar but the playing was much more 'intricate' (or 'tighter', or 'on') here, in '87. Overall, a classic late-eighties, high energy, tightly played show.

Again, this China Rider could be top ten of all-time, in my opinion. So 5 stars.

recall this show fondly. silver stadium was hershey park 85 all over again---including the rain! band was loose. felt really good. after alpine and toronto which felt more crowded than in past visits---and were--silver stadium was a relief. the remainder of the tour until roanoke became more difficult and the energy poorer. i see the touch-heads-rule chap has offered his ass-essment here. they were impossible to ignore in the late 8o's but we can ignore them now. peace.

sick sick sick show...finally hearing a decent tape of this entire show.

This sounds fine. A slight bit tinny in the highs but nothing even worth mentioning. It's also the only source I've found. If 2001 comes across a better one, by all means get it out there.

Is anyone else noticing that this sound quality sucks. good show? Yes! Bad Mix

This was as close as I ever got to the stage at a GD show. My buddies and I camped overnight in thte parking lot the night before and one of the first few people onto the field. I remember Paul Simon's entire "Graceland" album being played over the PA in thte hours before the show, which I really enjoyed. Exectptionally LONG first set - 12 or 13 songs, which was great. The lasting visual impression I have of this show, is Jerry's beaming smile just as he started "China Cat." The neighborhood was fine and fun - no need to post racial stuff in these reviews. Especially from a Deadhead. Shame on you.

Crowd was psyched for this first Eastcoast Tower, Great time despite stadium being in serious VFW (very few whites)land. Old ballpark wasn't bad for a show, much smaller than the football dives.Too bad this recording isn't a little better.After the show it took hours to find our van, we were so wasted.Still had Canadian brews from previous stop.Saw one nieghborhood bro striding down the sidewalk pissed and muttering about what he was going to do to his ho.Funny!

on the verge of feeding back...too much audience mic in the composite good playing....just better stuff out there...

If I recall I was able to get tix at my local box office a couple days before. Me and my brother drove though blinding rain that day to get there. Walked in as Bertha shifted into Walkin' Blues and I have never been the same since. What a place to see a summer show, a small minor league ballpark, gen ad. with the band playing in the outfield. A very good,
long first set. New stuff in the middle, I remember the Dire wolf like it was yesterday...Second set rolled on like a runaway train. During Looks Like Rain drops started to fall out of the sky and i remember walking back through the crowd listining and watching all the smiling faces and looking back at home plate as Bobby SCREAMED "no more fucking rain today" and knowing then I was hooked...What a day. The Drum/space is awesome and the Stella With Brent doing "Choir Angels" in the background and A rocking Sugar Mags complete with fireworks. As the last strains of Muddy River faded i turned to my brother and said "see ya' in Foxboro". The bus came by and I got on for sure. The Genesee was flowing freely and no hassles anywhere. A great show. I would probably, normally give it 4.0 points but it gets an extra for changing my life, hard to put an experience like that on a numerical scale. Worth the download, one of the best that summer.

this show stands out brilliantly if you look at the summer tour as a whole that year. the only show on the east coast without dylan and a small baseball stadium yo boot. it was weird hanging out in the neighborhoods around the stadium. it's hard to remember anything but the dudes standing on top of the genesee beer trucks dancing under overcast skies.i think this was also the first east coast watchtower! i'm about to download another piece of history. maybe some memories will come flooding back in like they always do.hello all you freaks out there i haven't seen you in years.god blessjer!