Early in Brent's tenure he's locked in for the 1st part of a long, flowing instrumental mid-section. Jer doesn't disappoint either. Underrated version

Very strong entry w/no lyrical mistakes & Jerry in fine voice, esp. for the year. Crystal clean sound from '90 spring box set shows how good this is!

This melts like a dream from a weirdly underrated Dark Star & is sung beautifully by Jerry & played sweetly by all. Give a listen!

Ok technically it's Help>Slipknot>Fire but c'mon that's pretty cool & even w/out the novelty of the change-up it's a sweet version

Phil: "Remember, if you step up too close We'll HAVE TO STOP PLAYING. Weir: I would remind you all that Halloween is not a legal holiday"

^^^backing up what mattiace said here about Phil monsterizing the opening stanza--not just Rider but the Cat too--thick, whomping, out-front-in-your-phace-Phil to get this excellent and somewhat overlooked version chugging hard out of the gate....then it's a cool, nuanced, almost laid back Garcia jazz-rock fusion clinic to follow. The Rider is as others have said super tight & focused. Very good entry here.

Slow, slinky, syrupy Jerry licks in between the verses. Billy just spot-on with every punctuation. They give Keith space to shine in the quiet parts of the main chorus, too. This song in general seems to get overlooked except for those who really love it and seek out great versions--if you're in that grouping get your ears on this one,

Gave this one a spin based on the reviews & the fact that another '85 from just about a week earlier (6/15/85 from Greek Theater) is also among the overlooked cohort of 1985 ChinaRiders --it smokes--as does this one. I'm not a big fan of this year in general--as too many tunes are played choppily and Jerry's voice is usually in frog-croak range, but not so on this combo of tunes and this one really delivers the goods--a confident, everyone in sync bridge jam into Rider, which charges headlong to a great crescendo and deserves more ears. (and if you do like this version check out the Greek as well--a bit mellower but spot-on tightness and a lot of flavorful licks along the way).

Just as good as the higher rated version from the following night. Both contain spectacular outro jams--excellence at both ends of the Rainbow room run.

it does indeed. Big drums in this version too