After two full days at Wet Rocks, arriving early to get great seats up front and zooming along in the rain to those blow out, mystical shows, my buddy and I needed a break, so we slept in at the Chief Hosa campground and chilled/recovered throughout the day. Later we grabbed some booze, mixed it up and brought it into the show (you could easily do stuff like that back then). We relaxed in the upper bowl after two crazy nights down in the lower crucible. I remembered this show as pretty good and barely remembered the rain (but never forgot the pouring rain the night before) - I guess we were pretty burnt out by then! But listening now I am blown away by how good this show was. So many highlights, including FOTD, Stranger and a very sweet Crazy Fingers. What a great cap to an epic 3 day run. This was my first time at Red Rocks, a summer road trip that will live in infamy, back when we were young, carefree, and eager for adventure. I went back to Red Rocks in 1986, but unfortunately Jerry couldn’t make it so we went camping instead (but we did see Bob at the airport baggage claim!). Oh well, not sure anything could have topped that 1982 experience. When the time machine is perfected, I know just where I’ll go.

My friend and I stumbled into Red Rocks on 7/28 and got to see a few songs that night out of sheer stupidity - I was a very green Deadhead and didn't understand that Red Rocks is GD church. We stayed for the 7/29 show and scored great tickets at face value - thank you kind people.
By the time they played Might as Well I realized that I Never Had Such A Good Time In My Life Before. What a great thing to realize while it was happening.

Fast forward 8 years and I found myself blessed beyond belief to be working at GDTS. That was a long time ago but I am so happy to be able to listen to this show anytime I want. Thanks to Internet Archive and the folks who upload shows. Donate - keep them going. Make America Grateful Again

Julie Hellman

...i was at these shows and i barely remember any rain at all,hmmmm....musta been high ,hahahahah good times !!!

I did see all 3 shows and yes yes yes, but because of the surreal nature of the torrential rain continuing mixed with the music and the fog, this was my favorite night.

I have a question. How do you put this music onto a disc? Or isn't it possible. I've downloaded it into computer.

Thanks for any help

I went to these shows with my friend don,2 guys from philly looking for a little adventure.Boy did we have some.From getting stoped by denver's god all boys lawmen on the way to the show,to getting getting drenched for 3 nights in the rockies.I brought shower curtains expecting bad weather and they lasted longer than those cheap ponchos they were selling.the red rocks,wow what a venue.

this summer tour of 82 was one of the best, imho, and what a magical trifecta run at red rocks! such positive energy all around; the band, tour, heads, and the scene. red rocks was a tough ticket on the tour but we miraculously got in and so glad we did; these were some of the most fun shows ever. ditto on the starlight theater show a few days later on the 3rd.

Jerry is still hanging in there in late '82 and delivers a beautiful beautiful Crazy Fingers this night. Jerry nearly has every lyric. Transitioning into Miracle was creative. How often are you pleased with Bob's timing? Jerry was in good form seemingly contented.
Just do Loser, Cold Rain, Crazy Fingers and Miracle if you are looking for excerpts.
Crazy Fingers alone made the trip out, beautiful leads. Good thing they did not wait until '83 to break it out.
Beautiful audience here (*****), thank you for sharing this. It's got to be harder work in the rain.

These three nights were the height of musical power and shamanic potency this band can reach, any place, any era- these shows were for the ages.

I have listened to the 1st and 2nd nights many times in the years since, but have neglected this show- the reviews here remind me to listen again.
2nd "The Other One" in three nights. Who can say which of the two is hottest- go listen to 7/27/82 and explore!

This show is quality. Red Rocks... we all know that the Dead love this place, but then when you add the great high energy year of 1982 plus a groovy night for musical experimentation and quite a few rarities, you have an evening with the Dead at Rocks.

The recording, as some people have mentioned is not perfect. Usually I think Bobby is too low in the mix, but on the recording, his rhythm guitar is so overwhelming that the underwhelms Jerry. And this is Jerrys show, not Bobbys. Brent's vocals are a little low for my taste since he was doing AWSOME in this era. and a bunch of tripped out coloradans yelling sometimes can be heard... its more funny than anoying. But for an audience recording, this is MOST DEFIANTLY listenable.

First set is good. FOTD is the topper cuz I am a sucker for these early 80s slow-trip fest versions. Loser is sick as well. First set is perfectly acceptable, but second is where the magic starts.

Second set has a ripping Cold, Rain, Snow which is ended by Kretz/Hart when they decided it was time for a Sampson and Delilah hoe-down. This is where that unbeatable mountain enegry really begins. Jerry's licks in S&D are as solid as they ever will be. No chord or note tails off and everything counts.

Crazy Fingers is a rare bust out. Vocally Jerry does what he can (of course not equalling 76 version, are some of these people nuts?) but musically there is something to be said about this Fingers. Great Bobby/Jerry interweiving that makes it s specialty and heady.

Miracle makes Bobby sound shit-faced but we get some more high energy licks from Jerry, quality backup vocal acompaniment from Brent, and an usual outro Jam that takes 8 minutes to digress to Drums.

Drums is high energy with Kreutzman taking charge, Space is short as sweet. JUST HOW I LIKE IT!

The Other One has a four minute intro that is slow but still original. Sometimes it seems like Bobby just wants to play the same chord over and over, but then Jerry lays down comand. Other One itself is sweet (but again not the best, HAVE YOU PEOPLE EVER HEARD THREE FROM THE VAULT. Capitol Theatre 02/71??)

GDTRFB is average for this time period as is Wharf Rat and R&R.

Good Lovin gives everyone in the first row a Gallagher experience with Bobby's spittle.

Encore Brokedown is inspired. The boys had fun these nites, for sure. Proud to be a Coloradan when i heard this show.

Only four for sound, show is a five.

This is one of the great 3 show sets of the brent era. The dead @ "Wet Rocks".
Extended rain storms are rare in Colorado this time of year, and it seemed that the rain arrived with the Dead, and departed with them as well. These shows certainly seemed to be a case of Mother Nature conspiring with "The Boys" to give us a truly spiritual experience and demonstrate that indeed "there is nothing like a Dead show"!
The rain kept falling all three shows, it started in the 2nd set night 1, in the middle of the 1st set night 2 and all day for the third show. By the time the shows were over we had heard every single rain song in the repertoire. These shows were all very good.
They had been selling orange ponchos at each show and it rained throughout the whole show, so it was nearly impossible to find friends in the sea of orange. The first set was very strong, but the second set was the stuff that dreams are made of. Red Rocks was engulfed in a rain cloud. The mist was so thick, I could not even make out the stage for most of the second set (we were halfway up the slope). All you could see was the colored spotlights piercing through the fog. I'll never forget the sound of Jerry's guitar slicing through the fog during one of the great Crazy Fingers into a 10 minute Need A Miracle. The whole second set is awesome, with a truly epic Other One after drums, and a powerful Wharf Rat. This is a great show to Download and listen to. Everyone was soaked and it did nothing to dampen our spirits. 10,000 orange blobs bopping through the misty clouds. This show is a must for anyone who loves the early 80's. I give it a 5 star rating for music and sound, and a 10 star for the eeriest, trippiest atmosphere I ever experienced at any Dead Show, Red Rocks definitely lived up to its spiritual/mystical potential for three rain soaked nights in July 1982, In my opinion the best set of shows ever in Colorado.... The Dead rocked at Wet Rocks!!!!

I've had a tape of the 2nd set of the night of the 27th for years. That show has the best version of The Other One I've ever heard; a perfect Phil ramp up into the initial crescendo and they shredded the tune to bits and then stitched it back together. But upon downloading and listening to this show I think it's overall quality is better. I can't wait to listen to the show of the 29th. These were the best shows I ever attended. I'll always be grateful to have been there. Soundboards would be nice, as the sound was clean and clear, well-balanced about 1/3 way up the amphitheatre where I was dancing and shivering. So the show gets a 5 star, but the recording keeps my overall rating lower.

This recording is like being 'embedded' at a show surrounded by goofy Heads. The calling out of the songs is classic. This was probably the best time to be part of the scene, before it got too overcrowded.

The recording has too much chatting and whooping to be a 5-star, IMHO.

I'm a huge fan of '82. But because only Auds existed of the Red Rocks shows and there are such good SBD's of everything in August I sort of neglected these shows.

This is an incredible sounding audience recording, as I've come to expect with almost any recording that has Jim Wise's name on it. So don't just stream Minglewood for the first 20 seconds and judge the sound quality based on that. Jerry's guitar doesn't kick in until about half way through this song. And it's interesting to hear the banter between guys standing next to the mics. I wonder if that is Wise? Someone there keeps calling the wrong songs before they start playing them during the first set. And it sounds like the same guy, who at the beginning of the 7/28 show before Shakedown is yelling, "Don't touch my f**kin levels, maaan!".

Besides just the sound quality, the show quality may have just become my favorite of summer '82. ANd with so many gems it's very hard beat. Starting with FOTD, they really get into a slower, spacier grove which I think was influenced by the rain until BANG - Bobby breaks out Stranger in the middle of the first set - and it's a great version that still has the trippiness in the rain feel that the previous songs had. I can't remember another show when Stranger was in the middle of the first set. But after Loser, things slowing down a little too much, Stranger was the perfect choice to bring things back up to speed. And the whole time I'm listening I'm thinking to myself that all the rain coming down must have really energized the band and the crowd. You always find that people do great things under crazy cirumstances (like quarterbacks playing great football when they have the flu - or Jerry playing a great show at the Spectrum in '85 when he had broncitis) and this show is perfect evidence of that theory. You think, "oh crap it's pouring out, the band won't want to play and the crowd doesn't want to deal with the rain" but then they play one hell of a show where everyone has a great time.

I love 2nd set openers that are rockin and the opener here may take the cake. I had this on my mp3 player as I was joggin up a huge hill and the Cold Rain>Samson powered me up the whole thing without slowing down. I LOVE IT when the drummers start Samson before the previous song has even finished. And then, what must have still been a surprise (without the internet) was the Crazy Fingers, third time played since '76. It's the best version yet and the perfect counterpoint to the Cold Rain>Samson.

To me this show is definitley one of the best of the best in '82.

Does anybody remember Grateful Dead Comix????
I've been looking for these shows ever since
I read one of the comix that followed a head
attending these shows in the rain. I haven't
finished downloading yet, but the story goes
that there was an Other One in the rain that
was legendary. Thank you!!!

nice job, great sound.

deep bass for the 421's.

robert

The best of the early Crazy Fingers ! I saw them all, west of this piont ! The rest is energetic too !