When David Lemieux says a Grateful Dead show was special, you would do well to pay attention.

Lemieux, the Bergen County native archivist and legacy manager for the iconic jam band, says the Dead's June 17, 1991, performance at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford belongs in the same upper echelon as legendary gigs like Aug. 27, 1972, in Veneta, Oregon, and May 8, 1977, at Cornell University in Ithica, New York.

"I'm as guilty of hyperbole when it comes to the Dead as anyone who loves this band, but this really is a remarkable show," said Lemieux.

Fans around the world will get to experience the show when it screens via Trafalgar Releasing for the ninth annual "Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies" Thursday, Aug. 1, at select cinemas. (For tickets and a list of participating theaters, visit www.meetupatthemovies.com.)

Thursday marks the first time that a Grateful Dead show featuring keyboardists Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnick will be shown on the big screen; the musicians joined the band in late 1990 following the death of keyboardist and singer Brent Mydland that summer.

With a relatively new roster, 1991 found a fresh, invigorated incarnation of the band on the road, Lemieux said.

"You've got these seven guys on stage and they're playing distinctly as seven incredible musicians and they're all heading in the same direction, but it's those moments when they all come together and they play as one, and that's what I always look for in Grateful Dead music," he said. "And I don't even know if it's so much a sound as it is a feel, and when it happens — and it happens virtually every moment of this show, where they're just constantly playing as one — it is incredible."

That blissful artisitc synergy is apparent from the show's opener, "Eyes of the World." According to Lemieux, Giants Stadium marked the first time the band opened a show with that number, introduced into its repertoire nearly 20 years earlier. The "Meet-Up at the Movies" performance features particularly playful, inventive interplay between Hornsby and singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia.

"You hear how inspired (they are), and I think another good word for it is engaged. They were present," said Lemieux. "And that's something that I think when you're touring and you've played by this point 2,000 shows together the level engagement might not be what it is every night. But on this night you hear it.

"And you can see it in the interaction, the eye contact interaction, but also the musical interaction where they give each other enough space to breathe. ... It's a jazz song and it's a perfect jazz band at this moment."

Lemieux, who spent his early years in Ridgewood and Ho-Ho-Kus before his family moved to Canada, said the Dead has a long legacy of powerful area performances.

Starting with 1969's storied Fillmore East performances, the band logged stage time at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, the former Brendan Byrne Arena and Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, and New York's Madison Square Garden, Academy of Music and Nassau Coliseum.

"I think they were given a bit of a license to step out a little bit," Lemieux said. "And I think that was the New York City area audiences. ... The Dead as much, or possibly more than, any other band I've ever known, certainly responds to what the crowd is giving back. And no crowd gave back like a New York, New Jersey, Long Island crowd."

The Giants Stadium show hitting the big screen this week was recorded on 48-track analog tape and was mixed by Jeffrey Norman over a five-month period in surround sound with a multi-camera live video edit. Lemieux said this could be just the first of several trips back to 1991.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we dig a little deeper and try to get some of that Bruce and Vince version of the Grateful Dead out because it is really good, it's unique," he said. "It's a dense sound, some of the tapes sound very dense — this one in particular sounds incredibly clean because it was mixed from the multi-tracks — but I think we (will) have more of this stuff out sooner or later."

Here's the set list from Giants Stadium, June 17, 1991, according to Dead.net:

Set One:

Eyes of the World

Walkin' Blues

Brown Eyed Women

When I Paint My Masterpiece

Loose Lucy

Cassidy

Might as Well

Set Two:

Saint of Circumstance

Ship of Fools

Truckin'

New Speedway Boogie

Uncle John's Band

Drums

Space

China Doll

Playin' in the Band (reprise)

Sugar Magnolia

Encore:

The Weight

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