Might As Well, Mama Tried, Tennessee Jed, Cassidy, Candyman, Big River, Scarlet Begonias-> Looks Like Rain, It Must Have Been The Roses, Lazy Lightning-> Supplication, Brown Eyed Women, Promised Land Saint Stephen-> Dancin' In The Streets-> The Music Never Stopped, Ship of Fools, Samson & Delilah, Sugaree, Sugar Magnolia-> Eyes Of The World-> Stella Blue-> Sunshine Daydream, E: Johnny B. Goode

MR>DAT>DAT Clone @ 44.1 kHz (Tascam DA20)>SBLive Platinum SPDIF In>WAV Edit (Sound Forge)>SHN (mkw audio compression tool)>CDR (HP 8200); via GDLive [Note: An sbe-fixed-by-set version also circulates]

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Reviewer: Dark Star 101 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 12, 2020

Subject: Happy 44th Anniversary Boston! I looked through all of the IA versions for the one with 100+ reviews, but there isn’t one. What gives? This show is phenomenal, both the playing and quality. What a laid back slippery gem. All I can say is WOW! - June 12, 2020Happy 44th Anniversary Boston!

Reviewer: MorningDew73 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 13, 2020

Subject: Stellar Stella Blue!!

Maybe the finest ever.

The entire show is great.

Stella, out of the incredible Eyes, is what it’s all about!! - February 13, 2020Stellar

Reviewer: clementinescaboose - favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 23, 2018

Subject: Scarlet and Eyes Two of the best versions of 1976 right here. Both have incredible jams. Scarlet may be the best version until the fall tour. Must hear material!



The show as a whole (including the St. Steve, Dancin, Sugaree, and Stella) is very fine, but not quite one of the best of June '76, hence 4 stars.



Edit 4/23/18: listening again, the Sugaree is superlative, maybe one of the best of the year as well. So let’s bump this up to a 4.5. - April 23, 2018Scarlet and Eyes

Reviewer: c-freedom - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 20, 2017

Subject: Going to flood you Big River! A really nice Big River pulled me in.

So far have really enjoyed the set lists for 76.

It seems like they are skipping some of the big 2nd set numbers like Truckin', He's Gone but I like the newer tunes and the revive on tracks like St. Stephen, Cosmic Charlie also good to hear the slower tempo takes on certain tunes.

My favorite thing about 76 so far is having Donna out their singing for the entire show. I think it gets her more into the flow of the show. She doesn't need to go as far out on a limb with some of the rockers yet that still leaves Weir with plenty o' room to showboat.

Digging on Donna in the SCARLET. Good jam from the band as well.

She is super sweet with Bobby on Looks Like Rain

Garcia so mellow with The Roses!

Lightning>Supplication-yummy..

I noticed Jerry doing a lot of noodling this show!

B.E Women-always welcomed..

Promised Land-Got the news about Chuck Berry yesterday. The Dead and especially Jerry very influenced by Berry's sound.

Stephen-> Dancin'-> Music, (Nice 3-some)

Ship of Fools,

Samson & Delilah- 6 minutes of Mighty COOL.

Sugaree,-Nice Placement Mid Second Set!

Sugar Mag-> Eyes-> Stella-> Sunshine D.(WOW!)

That is the highlight of the evening.

E: Johnny B. Goode --R.I.P Chuck Berry 3/18/17

A really good show with good sound.

Garcia more prominent in the mix.

a few minor cuts.

Band picking up steam! - March 20, 2017Going to flood you Big River!

Reviewer: mattiblue - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 11, 2013

Subject: enjoy dreamtime

a rainbow full of sounds over 23 themes , read the other " 5 star " reviewers , please .

Thanks so much for the " Concerts on this Day in History " , great show for song - & Donna - lovers ,a rainbow full of sounds over 23 themes , read the other " 5 star " reviewers , please .Thanks so much for the " Concerts on this Day in History " , archive.org and to all the providers and all the Dead - Heads past and present for these precious moments - June 11, 2013enjoy dreamtime

Reviewer: Nedhead3 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 9, 2010

Subject: Help downloading?? Great show...next night was awesome as well. I'm kinda new to archive and last time I tried to download a show I just ended up getting the stremline format and couldn't upload it onto my MP3 player. I swear I'm not that computer iliterate...how do I download whole shows and/or individual songs!?

Thanks!! - June 9, 2010Help downloading??

Reviewer: Loaf Loofler - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 12, 2009

Subject: A Singular Moment in the Band's Life Well shit, it's just all here, ain't it? Fresh. Ingenious. Bad Ass. And sometimes tight. I love this tour. Such an interesting moment for the Grateful Dead as they climbed back on the pony -- well, in their case the stallion. - June 12, 2009A Singular Moment in the Band's Life

Reviewer: scum beat - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 14, 2008

Subject: Wowow this show is amazingly good. I just started with St Stephen. My favorite so far, very mellow at first but they stick with it all the way through and back again. Dancin' is a perfect blend of command and lossness. Sugaree is so sweet. Each and every one of the band is THERE. That's as far as I've gotten so far. Loving it all the way. - November 14, 2008Wowow

Reviewer: cosmos_86 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 21, 2008

Subject: solis show I have always loved this show...watched dso play it 2 nights ago at the oriental in denver. solid show. a must have. - April 21, 2008solis show

Reviewer: adam_gaydosh - favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 10, 2007

Subject: lovin it this is a great show, love the songs and the sound is spot on. Really dig garcia's stripped down solos in the first set...sugaree is just smoking, and it only gets better from there. Donna gets a little yelping though, or I'd give it 5. - August 10, 2007lovin it

Reviewer: Sixtus - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 3, 2005

Subject: Five Plus After thousands of hours of Grateful Dead passing through my brain, from every era and every song arrangement and every band member composition, this has always been a sincere, personal favorite performance. I can honestly say that at no other time in their history did the Dead ever sound like the way they sounded during this Boston Music Hall run. Their first full blown tour after regrouping in '75, these Boston Music Hall shows illustrate a certain innocence to the music. You can really feel the loosely knit arrangements in many of the songs as they've once again incorporated Mickey into the lineup. The grooves are so incredibly fluid and drippy, and the realization that they aren't completely tight & straight as an arrow illustrate the adolescence of the song arrangements. And that is not a bad thing at all. In fact, it is this very attribute which makes this show so immense and gratifying. Every one of the great songs started somewhere, it had an adolescence before it hit it's peak. Several song performances in this particular show foreshadow the otherworldlyness that this band was able to achieve in the following year, 1977. Some of the best versions of songs ever played, in my opinion, are found here on this evening.



The Scarlet is rockin' and it's at this point the show begins to launch. It truly kicks in as we round the corner to St. Stephen. Here's a song that went away for several years, only to be brought back, slightly rearranged and slowed down. The intro here exemplifies this - Jerry only plays the notes he has to, sporadic yet meaningful and defining. The jam that follows drips and sways and makes you wonder where they are going, only to bring it back home to the refrain. 'Stephen jumps right into one of the finest Dancin's of '76. It feels tight but loose at the same time, if that's even possible. Jerry makes some jaw dropping runs during the jam and seems to never if rarely stop for a breath or pause. Dancin' straight into Music, albeit a very early Music with an abbreviated jam at the end, but this is where it all began for this song folks, it has a special feel to it. Samson during this time period is a gem of a song. Very notably still in adolescence, Jerry's signature lines that define Samson in the later years have not yet to come to pass, and he finds himself hurling runs up and down at the listener while Mickey and Billy weave in and out of each others beats like in tapestry.



The true highlight for me however is the Sugar Mag -> Eyes. They may be my favorite versions ever of these songs. Sugar Mag jams happily & intensly, and nearly keels over it's moving at such a thunderous pace....and then just falls into Eyes of the World. The band layers the intro for a good 6 minutes before the first verse, and the far reaches of space almost appear in a few instances only to be pulled back by Phil's mad bassline. You can tell by the end of Eyes they are as 'on' as on can be, as the song crescendos into one last high point augmented by Keith's piano to lay the energy to rest into a lovely Stella Blue. Capping the second set off with the Sunshine Daydream bookmark seals the deal.



Many people seem to frown on '76 because it's not '77. The rationale that '77 is truly a wonderful year is justified, but realize the playing from '77 had to be born somewhere. It began in earnest during this run, and certainly this show exemplifies the best the Dead ever had to offer. - November 3, 2005Five Plus

Reviewer: BostonIndica - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 1, 2005

Subject: might as well give it 5 stars..... channels switched? so wait, that's why it's a 4 star show? Ohhh, gotcha. So yea, anyways...



great show.

great sound.

yet another reason why i love '76.

oh yea, boston rules too



-Ben - November 1, 2005might as well give it 5 stars.....

Reviewer: Liamfinnegan - favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 30, 2005

Subject: Phil's bass runs in the Scarlet Begonias In case you did not notice- the runs that Phil is playing at the beginning of Scarlet here are the same one's he would play later at Cornell in the ensuiing year that every one raves about- it is a just a bit lower in the mix here-This does seem to have been a practice run for the great 77 Sprin tour - October 30, 2005Phil's bass runs in the Scarlet Begonias

Reviewer: jimkrum - favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 18, 2005

Subject: great show what a beautiful sounding sweet sweet show! you will not be dissapointed to download this one right now. - September 18, 2005great show

Reviewer: VA slim - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 24, 2005

Subject: emotional best. just gotta drop my first five star review where i think it is deserved most...

this was my 1st bootleg, back 15 yrs ago, and its still my favorite.



sound here is good.



get it now!

what a beautiful piece of existence.

sorry if i'm biased.

weird how you never forget that 1st tape. - August 24, 2005emotional best.

Reviewer: philfan61 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 2, 2005

Subject: Thanks for the huge upgrade One of my favorite old wobbly. chipmunky, multi gen cassettes...thrilled with the replacement...thanks! - August 2, 2005Thanks for the huge upgrade

Reviewer: jbenash7 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 17, 2005

Subject: 76 groove Killer setlist + laid-back '76 groove = top-notch show. Pay particular attention to Phil--listen to the sick descending bass line he lays down at 1:15 into Samson, which will bring a smile to your face every time he repeats it. - March 17, 200576 groove

Reviewer: A.J.K. - favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 28, 2005

Subject: channels are switched The channels are switched, I first noticed it when I heard Mickey cowbell coming out of the left headphone... then I realized, the piano is on the left, Jerry is on the right, etc. - January 28, 2005channels are switched

Reviewer: capn doubledose - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 25, 2004

Subject: Nice Surprise The scarlet is ripping but the back end of this is really powerful from sugaree>sugar mag>eyes>sunshine daydream (cool)... really well played. Sound quality is 5. Dancin is one of the best ever... - December 25, 2004Nice Surprise

Reviewer: Jeffrey-O - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 15, 2004

Subject: Sound of the 70's Love this show & the Sound is incredible. It has to be a 'Betty Board'!! - December 15, 2004Sound of the 70's