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Set 1:
Bertha
Playin' In The Band
Mr. Charlie
Sugaree
El Paso
Big Boss Man
Big Railroad Blues
Hard To Handle
Beat It On Down The Line
Loser
Sugar Magnolia
Empty Pages
Good Lovin'
Casey Jones

Set 2:
Me And My Uncle
China Cat Sunflower
I Know You Rider
Deal
Cumberland Blues
Truckin'
Drums
The Other One
Next Time You See Me
Me And Bobby McGee
Uncle John's Band
St. Stephen
Not Fade Away
Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad
Not Fade Away

Download/Listen to this Show at Archive.org

Comments:

This was the first time I saw the dead outdoors (I'm a real New York City boy), but Gaelic Park is a misnomer, and it was at the very northern tip of Manhattan, not in the Bronx. Gaelic Park was just a big square of lawn, surrounded by a chain link fence, fronting directly onto Broadway. It was also slightly uphill to the stage - kind of a reverse amphitheater effect. The band was in their wall of sound phase, and the tie-dyed speakers were piled 30 feet high from one side of the lot to the other. It was on a late Thurs aft after work, and we were jammed in together to full capacity (at least everyone got to sit tho). The band was good, but the venue was awful. No wonder they never played there again.
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Re: 8-26-71 Gaelic Park - The music was good But the vibe was strange! The place reminded me of a concentration camp!Barbed-wire fence,armed guards (police)patroling around,trains bringing the dissidents (Deadheads) to the holding area.Not the ideal setting for a good time/trip!
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reg the veg,

the wall of sound did not come into play for the dead until 73'.
-Anonymous

Gaelic Park is NOT in Manhattan, but in the NE section of the Bronx. The field is shared by Manhattan College. I thought the Wall of sound started in late 73 and was in full force only in 74?
Anyway, I feel the Sugar Magnolia rocks with an intensity unknown as well as the last Empty Pages. This show marks the beginning of the end of the Pigpen era. Considering it was in an Irish sports field, I can only imagine how much whiskey Ron quafed during/afterward. Jerry plays so fast on teh songs that I say this is the 2nd best show of 71, behind 4.29.71.

The field is still in use for Gealic football and hurling.

Slainte!

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Mr. Anonymous: The speakers were piled at least 20ft. high, covered in tie-dye and stretched fully from one side of the stage to the other. If you don't want to call it "the wall of sound", that's fine. But the Dead were always experimenting (especially when they came to NYC - I saw some pretty odd shows in odd places with odd audiences), so maybe it was an early iteration of the wall before it got the groovy name.

Mr. Perrin: The name "Gaelic Park" has been recycled to a new location. The location I speak of - the olde "Gaelic Parke" where this show took place - now has a building on it.

Best wishes to all my fellow DeadHeads - whoever you are and wherever you may be.
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Gaelic Park is in da boogie down Bronx, not Manhattan.
-Saint and Scholar (12/19/2007)

the comments on this show are very interesting but i have one question was this show at night or during the day because the guy with the British accent says that the lights are not bright enough. Also, Pigpen, Phil says is sick at home and the keyboardist is a new guy from California name Keith(we all know who...)Godcheaux...i wish i was there, no matter where it was or how high the elevation-it is a grate show...am i listening to the right recording?
- (03/25/2008)

Hampton87. Pigpen peformed in the first set, as the tape indicates and sang Next Time You See Me but may have left afterward which would make sense, this was his last show before he went into the hospital for his liver.
-Perrinswolf (04/17/2008)

WIKI says...

Gaelic Park is the principal Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in New York City, located in the Bronx. It is home to the New York GAA's hurling and Gaelic football teams.

Located just west of Broadway, on the north side of 240th street, near Manhattan College, Gaelic Park was purchased in 1926 by the Gaelic Athletic Association of Greater New York. It has been given a few different names over time including Innisfail Park, but since the 1950s it has gone by its current name, Gaelic Park, a reflection of the park’s decidedly Irish flavor. The park includes a playing field and dance hall. In addition to hurling and football matches, a number of other sporting events take place at Gaelic Park. There are also concerts and dances that feature Irish music both old and new. In the early 1970s, rock concerts were also held there, including the Grateful Dead and Deep Purple.

The GAA ran the park for about 10 years until it was forced into bankruptcy, after which the city took over the land. The property was then leased again in 1941 to John "Kerry" O’Donnell, who with the help of his family and friends ran the park, dance hall, and tavern.

The park was taken over by Manhattan College in 1991, and currently goes under the official name of The Gaelic Park Sports Center. The college has kept up the traditions of Gaelic Park, as well as doing some significant renovations, and now also uses it for home games of lacrosse, soccer, and softball.

In early 2007, Field Turf was laid out to replace the natural pitch. In addition, better facilities for softball were put in place. Also installed were floodlights, now making night games possible.

There is also a Gaelic Park near Chicago in Oak Forest, Il. It is a banquet hall that hosts many Irish activities, including Irish dancing and live bands.

-Bossgobbler (02/10/2009)

http://www.psilo.com/dead/showshow.php?sid=80
-Bossgobbler (02/10/2009)

my base playing was of the charts in China cat.
Phil
-mr lesh (03/03/2009)

This was my first Dead show. My boyfriend (now husband) and I were very close to the front of the line and were almost crushed when the crowd surged forward to rush inside. This show was phenomenal! Yes, there were tie-dyed speakers 30 feet high on either side of the stage and all the way across. Probably 100 individual speakers in all. It was an evening show and Pig Pen was definitely on keyboards, not Keith!! They played for at least 5 hours, maybe 6 and if they took a break I sure don't remember it!

Just saw Further at the Bill Graham Civic last night...Lesh and Weir kicked ass and wish I had tickets for tonight!
- (12/31/2009)

One of the good things about Gaelic Park was if you did not have tickets you could hear the show in the streets surrounding the park.The streets were mobbed with people dancing and just having a good time.The following summer the Allmans played here .Duane was dead,Jerry,Bob and Phil showed up to jam.There are traders who have the show it was great .Dickey Betts and Jerry trading licks.It was a great location for a show you had bus service and the subway.ALSO A WHITE CASTLE A WALK AWAY AFTER THE SHOW.
- (09/01/2010)

This was my 1st Dead show, and it got me hooked. It was the last "Fillmore Era" Dead show in the NY area. Gaelic Parl is DEFINATELY in (the Riverdale section of) The Bronx. Not Manhattan. And there is only 1 Gaelic Park. I stopped by there just a couple of months ago and (I can't believe it) it still looks the same. Even the Gaelic Park sign is the same.
I remember it was a very hot humid afternoon. The Dead started about 6:30 because of the threat of rain that evening. It never did rain, and they played untill about 11:30PM. It was not the best show I've ever seen, but they were young with alot of energy, and it got me hooked on these guys.
- (01/12/2011)

......and by the way, it's true they had a stack of amps and speakers behind them, but it was a far cry from the "Wall Of Sound" that would follow 2 1/2 years later.
- (01/12/2011)

Well, a few things. Never having seen the Boys West of Lake Erie, take it as Gospel that Gaelic Park was by far the worst venue to see a good-time band. And regardless of whether Manhattan or the Bronx wish to claim it, it's a pain in the keister getting there - from anywhere! Saw the Airplane there as well and Grace spiced things up by going topless. The "Wall of Sound" in its completed form did not appear - in the East anyway - until the Summer of '74 in Boston although the band had been flirting with delay mikes and other components of the W-O-S since returning from Europe at larger, or outdoor, venues.
-DenMan (08/12/2012)

My wife and I were at the show and we had a great time. The band was terrific that night and the crowd was as mellow as you would imagine. We originally sat on a blanket on the grass, but after a while we went up to the front and just stood there leaning on the edge of the stage. Maybe that's why the subway trains didn't bother us at all.
- (03/23/2013)

A nice show in what is obviously one of the greatest stretches for the dead. I don't know what to think about this version of Good Lovin'. On the one hand, the tempo is slow and Jerry does not seem to be on the same page as everyone else. On the other, the page that Jerry is on is pretty remarkable. He plays with an intensity rarely seen in other versions of Good Lovin', or for that matter, other Pig jams of the time. Feedback appreciated!
-Zack (10/16/2013)

I was there with my boyfriend at the time. Don't remember much, was pretty stoned and making out most of the concert, lol
- (06/03/2014)

if i remember correctly ,at the jefferson airplne show,which was mostly in the rain, there was a stripper named sunshine who danced topless during the show,noy Grace Slick.
-pug bear trouble (06/09/2014)

You are indeed correct! There was some lithe little prancer dancing topless. Grace merely exposed her girls afterward; she did not dance as i faintly remember.
-DenMan (09/04/2014)

Pigpen's last show playing alone before his health caught up with him. End of an era.
- (02/07/2016)

I snuck up onto the stage of this concert and picked up a tambourine sitting on an amp between Pig Pen and Krutzman and played along on one song, saluted Bob and Jerry and left the stage.

- (07/25/2018)

I have now listened to all the shows from when Mickey left to when Keith joined. These shows are really interesting as they started in March trying to find the sound and really started to put something together by June that, IMO, was the absolute pinnacle for the Grateful Dead.

Too bad Pig Pen got sick. Maybe they could have avoided the disco era and what was to follow after.........Either way, this show is the end of the ride for me.

#71powerdeadrules
-Anonymous (04/05/2019)

Last show with the original 5 guys.
-Billy Le Strange. (05/08/2019)

Perhaps a top 30 show for 71. Not great. The end of my beloved saloon band. You made hells angels smile, hippy chicks shake their asses and you blew the minds of countless college nerds. Fare thee well.
-Anonymous (07/05/2019)

Jerry and Phil absolutely smoke on the Hard to Handle jam in a classic 1971 style. Good old Grateful Dead!
-Just Exactly Perfect Band (07/12/2019)

Last "true" Hard to Handle, shame they didn't play it on the Europe '72 tour, Pig and Jer always bring it
-Snow the Jam Man (10/24/2019)

Purple barrel were in at that time.... had a really good time...
-Ralph Herman (01/28/2020)

Was Keith actually at this show like a previous reviewer states?

My understanding is that he didn't play onstage with them until October.
-Amy Quinn Ryan (02/20/2022)

When World's Collide: This is when Ace Frehley met Jerry Garcia.

True Story
-Anonymous (08/25/2023)

The Wall of Sound was used - and good thing too! - at Watkins Glen, NY Summer '73. That was the first time we saw it in the East.

-Chickie Sweet (12/16/2023)

"KISS guitarist Ace Frehley on meeting Garcia
"I don't remember the exact details of my meeting with Jerry; instead I recall dreamlike bits and pieces of a trippy conversation. I can hear myself asking Jerry, 'How's it going, man?' And I can see him standing there, smiling through that beard.
'Good, man, good. We're taking it to the people tonight.'
I think I might have thrown a 'Right on, brother' back at him.
Jerry was exactly as advertised: a laid-back hippie who seemed less like a rock star than a guy you'd see strumming his guitar outside a subway station, case open, bumming for quarters. He was a god at the time, but you'd never have known it by watching him. Even onstage he was content to just stand there and jam, his demeanor no different in front of 10,000 fans (or 100,000) than it was when he played in Bay Area coffeehouses. You had to admire that about him. The guy was genuine."

Ace Frehley, "No Regrets: A Rock n' Roll Memoir" (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2011) 53-54."


-Bossgobbler (01/24/2024)

I first became interested in this show in 1983 when "Grateful Dead: The Official Book of the Dead Heads" was 1st published. There is a photo by Chuck Pullin on page 67 of the book. Looking at the photo and comparing it to a Google map of The Bronx, the photo looks reversed because it just doesn't seem right or the organizers of these concerts only used about half of the field with the stage on the western end of the field.
I only saw this show listed on a couple of tape trading lists. I never traded for it. Later when you could download a show from the internet, I did just that and was very pleased with it, because it was a high-quality board tape. While I was going through my CD-R downloaded shows the other day, this show just jumped out at me and "begged me to give it a listen." I did and it has that magic vibe to it. I don't know but I like it because I'm about 80 miles west of Gaelic Park in eastern Pennsylvania and I was 15 at the time of this show. I say there's magic in this show but I'm not too sure it should get an official release sometime in the future.
- (03/02/2024)

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