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Set 1:
Help On The Way
Slipknot!
Franklin's Tower
Cassidy
Brown-Eyed Women
Mexicali Blues
Tennessee Jed
Big River
Peggy-O
Sunrise
The Music Never Stopped

Set 2:
Bertha
Good Lovin'
Ship Of Fools
Estimated Prophet
The Other One
Drums
Not Fade Away
Comes A Time
Sugar Magnolia

Encore:
Uncle John's Band

Download/Listen to this Show at Archive.org

Comments:

THE NIGHT BEFORE MAY BE THE MOST AMAZING CONCERT, BUT THIS ONE HAS SOME AMAZING MOMENTS AS WELL. PHIL RIPS IT UP RIGHT FROM THE GET-GO WITH SOME BOMBS THAT ARE REMINICIENT OF SCARLET-->FIRE THE NIGHT BEFORE. THE HIGHLIGHT FOR ME IS COMES A TIME. JERRY'S FINGERS ARE GOING AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT AND IT FLOWS SEAMLESSLY INTO SUGAR MAG. AWESOME!!
-

this is my favourite 'bertha' ever. donna sounds real good
-

Thank you for putting this show out there!!!!!!!!!!
This is without question one of the best shows ever preformed. My personal fav as well.
Thank again for the great music.
Robert
-

When it seems like they're at their peek they impress me again! holy hell! rip it up boys...peace
-Bingongie

Tight show the whole way through. Best Help > Slipknot > Franklin's I have ever heard. This show is a real jem and deserves much more praise. It would be tough for any show this good that follows Cornell to get the credit it deserves, but it's well worth the listen.
-grateful farmer

Another awesome 77! This at the moment is my favorite show. Every song is played well and with tons of confidence. Help>Slipknot!>Franklin's is insane. Phil’s drops some serous bombs. I can't get enough of this show. Peace
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LISTEN TO THIS SHOW!!!! and if you still think 5-8, as a whole show, is better....than LISTEN TO THIS SHOW AGAIN!!!....the H>S>F notwithstanding, this may be the sickest 1st set ever...it takes no time to get going @ all and stays that way the entire show...CASSIDY, BE WOMEN, BIG RIVER, PEGGY-O & MUSIC are all best-ever candidates...set 2 is summed up best this way: COMES A TIME....anyone who plays guitar can fan out chords (a la 5-8-77 DEW) but to play a solo so emotive yet ballsy is just, just...crap, LISTEN TO THIS SHOW!!!
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Bertha is much slower and has an 73 jazz feel to it. Keith's playing is similar to raindrops falling in all the right places.
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No reason to put this show behind the night before. It is just as inspired as is the night before that. The three show run of 5/7, 5/8, 5/9/77 are all great.
-Andy

One of the best Help>Slip>Franklin's...retired in Normal OK for six years.
-Brianmerrilyn (10/17/2007)

the auds goin down! crazy to think all of the dead memories there
- (11/27/2008)

this ship of fools is absolutly amazing
-anonymous (12/22/2008)

I had a cassette tape of this show years ago; I always felt it was the best bootleg I ever had. Years later, I downloaded it (B4 the Nat'l Archive removed the soundboards) and I still think this show is amazing. All the Donna-bashers are gonna crucify me, but I love the "Sunrise" in set 1. The show as a whole is very tight, musically. Check it out!
- (03/28/2009)

Sunrise was donna's best g.d. Track it was always played well by papa bear which was a sure sign he dug a tune
-Stagger lee (07/08/2009)

Just listening this on SIRIUS driving down the freeway.....anything from Spring 77 is a keeper.....but check out the Franklin's on this one.....fuckin' STELLAR!!!!!!!
-Anonymous (10/25/2009)

I think to be fair you have to look at 5/7, 5/8, and 5/9 as shows that are equally wonderful, with each one offering some truly amazing music. The Dead were in the zone in May 77 and these three shows are off the charts. The Help>Slipknot>Franklin's to open is played to perfection and the NFA seems to be pick right up where Barton Hall's leaves off. A great show!
-Doug (11/02/2010)

I can't believe noone has commented on what I believe is the best "Comes A Time" ever! Is there one better? The solo is of such wrenching emotional complexity as to leave the listener spellbound. It is without a doubt the penultimate version!!
- (08/22/2011)

Penultimate means second best. I'm just sayin'.
-Anonymous (10/24/2011)

Was there. Only wish I appreciated it for what it was. Unfortunately you don't always know what's what when.


- (02/26/2012)

Penultimate means second-to-last. Just sayin'.
- (07/15/2012)

now this is more like it for me personally, I'm not drinking the 5/8/77 koolaid I'm drinking the /5/9/77, just sends more chills down my spine than the night before
- (02/21/2013)

first mexicali in 3 years
-Tbone (11/04/2013)

One of the pictures included in the Betty Boards article in Relix shows the Barton & Buffalo (the better night) reel boxes in a stack. Hey Dave, bring on the box set!

-Mike Nomad (03/20/2014)

Very first Dead Show...and blown away...good/bad that it was such a great show, as I guess I expected that every time I was in attendance...LOL...and would be disappointed if not as good! My roommate went to the show the night before...but not me! D'oh! I recall he said they were BOTH great shows!
- (05/08/2014)

My first show, it was great of course. Went with several friends from college.
Didn't have the best seats but had a great time.It was fun to download and listen to show after so many years. PEACE
- (08/06/2015)

Comes a Time is a religious experience.
-Albert (03/10/2016)

Official Release: May 1977 Get Shown the Light
-Anonymous (02/20/2017)

My favorite show from my favorite year, it surpasses even 5/8 for me. Garcia's playing on Comes A Time is the most beautiful and emotional guitar work I have ever heard.
- (11/19/2018)

Me and a couple of friends had been following the band on this tour since the Spectrum shows in Philadelphia. Barton Hall way basically a glorified gymnasium. About the size of an indoor basketball court. No seating. After the show we went back to the rear entrance and waited for them to come out. A light snowfall was swirling around, big billowing flakes blazed like white fireflies as they caught the parking lot lights. Two black stretch limos were idling by the door. There weren't any other fans around, just some crew and university officials.

The rear doors swung open and they all tumbled out. Each one of them was carrying a black attaché case. The band had been running their own label for awhile by now and we'd bought most of our tickets for this tour mail-order through the Grateful Dead office in San Francisco. These were not the custom made tickets that would be the norm about five years later. Scalping had already become a very real problem and Dead tickets were some of the earliest concerts targeted by those creeps. The band's initial response was to contract for blocks of tickets for each show they could get them for on a tour. My friends and I had all been on the Dead's mailing list for years at this point. Bulk ticket distributors seldom sold seats for the smaller, more obscure venues. The Dead office didn't mark up the prices either.
None of us were speaking up as they exited so I did:
“We've got first row for Buffalo tomorrow night!" I blurted out to none of them in particular as I held them up.
“Oh yeah? Lemme see them" Phil said.
I handed all four to him. Bill, Keith and Donna had gotten into one of the stretches and left.
Looking them over, he asked:
“Did you get these from our office?"
“Yeah, we did. Mail order" I responded.
Phil had handed a couple of them around to Jerry and Bob. Commenting to the others, Jerry remarked:
“Well at least something's working"
They all chuckled.
I told them what a great show this night was and, for some reason repeated that the tickets that they were holding are for the first row in Buffalo tomorrow night.
Bobby said:
“Let me see all those" and he gathered them up.
Jerry and Phil said goodbye and piled into the limo. Bobby slid in behind them, closed the door and they started to speed off, with our tickets! We ran after them yelling for them to stop. After a few yards, the limo stopped and the rear window dropped down as we caught up. We could hear them laughing riotously as Bobby's arm emerged holding the tickets, splayed out like a hand of cards.
“See you tomorrow" he said though his laughter.
When they took the next night at the War Memorial, Bobby and Jerry walked over to the lip of the stage, spotted us in our seats and waived. They kinda chuckled too cause we were doing balloons full of whippets. Bobby walked over to Phil and pointed us out. He looked over and down at us, smiled and waved too.
- (02/05/2019)

Get Shown the Light

Disc 1

Help On The Way 6:00
Slipknot! 7:03
Franklin's Tower 13:58
Cassidy 5:01
Brown-Eyed Women 5:51
Mexicali Blues 4:05
Tennessee Jed 8:49
Big River 7:27
Peggy-O 7:54
Sunrise 4:06
The Music Never Stopped 7:49

Disc 2

Bertha 7:26
Good Lovin' 6:22
Ship of Fools 7:49

Disc 3

Estimated Prophet 10:13
The Other One 6:16
Drums 3:32
Not Fade Away 10:13
Comes A Time 11:34
Sugar Magnolia 10:17
Uncle John's Band 9:30

-Bookkeeper (07/21/2019)

penultimate
Literally means "next to last". In street speak it takes on the meaning "second to none" or simply used to describe something utterly appeasing. It is easy to get away with using this word because of it's confusion with "ultimate" by those who don't know any better.
Yiee yiee, this be da penultimate shiee here
- (11/16/2019)

Being released on RSD. 5 record set
-Old School (03/05/2020)

I'm living in Buffalo- Delaware area and this show gets brought up every once in a while. outstanding Bertha, prob my top 3 IMO.

Truck On :)
- (09/25/2020)

Jerry and the drummers have some fun with the Estimated outro before Phil turns everyone towards the Other One. Great show but you already knew that.
-Just Exactly Perfect Band (02/12/2021)

This must have been a real cure for the Monday blues.


I just love that the one dude in the audience requests New Potato Caboose!
-Anonymous (05/09/2021)

... just heard Franklin's Tower last nite with Dead & Company ... if you get confused Listen to The Music Play >>> till the day I die....

iko iko ....
-Anonymous (09/06/2021)

Wrong setlist
-Mack (03/15/2022)

The best half step, ever. Also this half step is in the running for the best performance of a song, ever.
-Mannyv (11/18/2022)

oop, that was the boston show
-mannv (11/18/2022)

This was my very first show and I was only 17 years old and was just three weeks away from joining the US Navy, where I was promptly stationed in San Francisco much to my everlasting delight. But as regards to this show, I walked in not like the dead or respecting them very much and walked (stumbled) out four hours later and had seen the light and it was Jerry, Phil, Bobby Aanand those Rhythm Devils.
- (11/01/2023)

That Peggy-O was so beautiful. I try to stay away from which is the best version, which is the best show, etc., but this show is certainly one to savor.
-Peretz (01/12/2024)

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