Fifteen Years In, the Dead Closed Out Their Anniversary Run with a Three-Set Marathon
Fifteen years deserved a proper send-off, and the Grateful Dead gave it one. This Halloween night at Radio City Music Hall closed out a historic 15th-anniversary run of 25 shows: fifteen nights at San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre, two at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans, and eight at Radio City.
Every night of the run followed a three-set format the Dead rarely used before or after: an acoustic set followed by two full electric sets. The run’s recordings became two landmark live albums, the all-acoustic Reckoning and the all-electric Dead Set. Footage from the last two Radio City nights, October 30 and 31, became the concert film Dead Ahead.
Franken & Davis Take Over the Set Breaks
The Halloween show went out live on the radio and by closed-circuit feed to movie theaters around the country. Saturday Night Live writers Al Franken and Tom Davis hosted, filling the set breaks with absurd, drug-culture-skewering sketches they had taped in advance at the Warfield.
Highlights included Franken as “Henry Kissinger,” busted by Davis for secretly taping the shows; a “Jerry’s Kids” telethon parody; and a trip backstage where Bob Weir got ribbed about his hair dryers. It gave the whole broadcast a strange, loose energy that matched the night.
One acoustic set, two electric sets, and the closing night of the Grateful Dead’s 15th-anniversary celebration.
Happy Halloween from Don’s Pick
That wraps our five-week Halloween Special.
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