Search Grateful Dead Setlists:

Set 1:

Alabama Getaway
Greatest Story Ever Told
West LA Fadeaway
New Minglewood Blues
Friend Of The Devil
Hell In A Bucket
Don't Ease Me In

Set 2:
Feel Like A Stranger
China Cat Sunflower
I Know You Rider
He's Gone
Drums
Truckin'
Black Peter
Around And Around
Turn On Your Love Light

Encore:
Day Tripper

Download/Listen to this Show at Archive.org

Comments:

Isn't this commonly known as the worst show ever? I've never heard it, so if anyone didn't tape over it ;-) I'd love to get it "believe it or not" in a trade. Thanks...
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This show makes my butt itch.....
-Anonymous

just as the "donner party" was lost in the wilderness the dead also were totally lost at this show...a real piece of shit...fahgetabout this one!!
-

Dear Fellow Cynics,

Maybe the elevation above sea level fucked with their meyer-hybrid kwipment.

Warmest Regards,



St. Dilbert
-Col. Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle

Actually, I thought this show was kinda funny. You had to laugh at all the fuck ups that were going on. Everyone gotta bad day sometimes...
-Wahoo-Wahoo

This is a hard show to find. Fortunately, the Internet Archive folks have this, and many other shows, available for download:

http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php?collection=etree&cat=Grateful%20Dead
-djscott

My first time at Lake Tahoe. Beautiful place - worst show I've ever seen.The Dead were at their worst,the sound system sucked ( Bob kept kicking his amp - I read later he said " what would you do if there were demons in your amp? ")On top of that,the show drew a whole lot of rednecks who got drunk and puked everywhere.
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Day Tripper-5th of 5 times played. Lots of raspy voices in this here show folks.
-Perrinswolf

i remember we were bused in from the pkng. lot to the venue. Some cool cat gave me a giant fresh cubensis on the busride up. My fingers swelled like sausages. My wife threw a shrew-fit and disappeared with our 9 mo. old daughter, so when my college friends came by to see her for the 1st time, i could only shrug my shoulders and say "I duno where she is." The 1st set was a monumental technical disaster. I got pleasantly drunk back at the condo on the golf course when this forgettable show was over.
- (06/27/2007)

Drove from NYC with my best friend with this show as our destination . Wild night at a close by camp ground . When we got to the show we walked right in with no tickets needed . I remember people climbing the ski lift poles and wathing from there own hanging chairs . Good or bad show I recall alot of fun had by all !
- (11/19/2007)

There is no such town in this entire country called Donner's Summit.

First of all, it wouldn't even be Donner's with an apostrophe because the only place in America that has an apostrophe is the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.


-abigail (01/04/2008)

all i remember about this show was helping them set up a fence 4 hours before the show for a free ticket and phill cussing out bob and jerry as they broke into daytripper!it was a bad one for sure.
- (07/29/2008)

The night before the show this chick said she'd give me a free ticket if I drove her to the Ridge Tahoe. When I got there I found out it was her ex-boyfriend's ticket. Anyway when we got to the room I found out we were going with his 4 drunk, shit-kicker brothers who though I was her new boyfried and wanted to fight. Screw the ticket I got the hell out of there! They chased me down the hallway and I was yelling "I don't even like the bitch, I just wanted to see the Dead!" So I'm glad this show SUCKED!!!!!
-My Dog Terrapin (05/15/2010)

best before and after showtime, worst show! camped in our vehicle close by the night before, then extended tripping after the show with old & new friends in a makeshift campground. Melted my birkenstocks at the campfire...
- (05/30/2010)

I swear they played two concerts up there. The Saturday show had all kinds of sound problems in the 2nd set. They led off the Sunday (8/25/1985) show with "One More Saturday Night" as a way of paying up back for the missed encore the day before. I'm looking around at various set list sites, and none of them have a record of the Sunday show.

Am I trippin?
- (11/16/2010)

Funny that everyone calls this the worst show ever.. it was my first Dead show and by the second set I was ready to desert (I was in the Army at the time) and devote my life to following these guys!

Upon re-listening to the show, yeah, pretty messy. But I think that's one of the things that caught me. They weren't all perfect and pre-packaged with cool stage patter.
- (01/08/2011)

J-Dog, maybe you are thinking of Cal Expo in Sacramento '86? Phil said something like "Bobby's strings are broken, Jerry's amp is blown and my mind's blown! So we'll see you tomorrow." The next day they played One More Saturday Night, with Bobby saying they'll start with last night's encore. Just a guess.
-wharfratg (04/16/2012)

After Don't Ease, Bobby goes "we will be right back after we fix some stuff"
-Perrinswolf (05/15/2013)

still kicking myself for driving up early and missing Sting's awesome band with Branford at the Greek the night before. to top off the worst show i ever saw, the buses taking folks back to the parking lot were few and far between, and we stood around a long time. yep the setting was gorgeous...
- (06/04/2013)

Yes, it's true. This show was a disaster. Having to climb up hill to get the venue and then the only place to go once inside was up or down because of the venue configuration ... the equipment kept giving problems, enough for Jerry to uncharacteristically say at the end of the 1st set "we'll be back after we fix this fucked up equipment!", or something like that. Also the wind was blowing the whole time, also interfering with sound. My friends and I dosed a little to hard that day which didn't help either.
- (09/30/2013)

From an engineer's perspective, this show is screwed up because of what Col. Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle said, the High altitude fucked their equipment up. The same thing happens, not as severe, whenever they play Red Rocks.

Since the air is thinner at higher altitudes, there is less pressure to create sound waves. A low end wave has a longer Wave Length then a high end so the High end will disipate quicker, making it sound very strange and like you have wet rag on your ears. This combined with Heavy Psychedelic Use can lead to a very bad perception of events.

The whole show, musically sounds great. Except for day tripper the jams and transitions were pretty tight. the endings to jams coulds been better, but the majority of the playing was spot on. But the sound quality and the aformentioned drunken puking rednecks would have definitely gave this show a bad vibe to all who attended. All i can say is, there some shows i wish i coulda been there for, and others i'm glad i can only experience through a tape.

This show isn't as bad as all these guys are making it out to be, it just probably sucked major donkey dick to be AT this show. Too bad, some good moments throughout. Give it a try, can't hurt.
-Murphy (01/06/2014)

it's Donner Summit.
-Anonymous (05/26/2014)

I like this show. Bobs amp slowly dies throughout the 1st set but theres a funky west l.a. and a FOTD thats interesting. 2nd set starts off smoking then peters out at the end. I listen to this show. Maybe you should too.
- (12/14/2014)

I don't know if this is the worst show but it sure sounds like they were going through the motions. Even China Cat / Rider sounded like they were just trying to get it over.

In hindsight, this was not a good time for concerned about Jerry's health and he was less than a year from his diabetic coma. Explains his raspy voice but not the others.
- (03/19/2017)

Why did they suck? They woke up in Marin, flew to Tahoe/Truckee, did a ton of blow, and hit the stage.

That's my guess.


- (03/26/2021)

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