Funiculi Funicula Hell in a Bucket Sugaree El Paso Loser Little Red Rooster Brown Eyed Women Cassidy Don't Ease Me In Scarlet Begonias Fire on the Mountain Looks Like Rain Terrapin Station drums I Need a Miracle Stella Blue Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad Johnny B. Goode Baby Blue

We only have one extant show from this day in Dead history, so our Dead of the Day decision is made for us: January 29, 1987. This show from the San Francisco Civic Auditorium is not the best effort from the band, especially Bobby. The first set is forgettable, at least excepting Healy’s awful effects on Weir’s already rough vocals in Hell In A Bucket. The second set, however, has some pretty hot playing, and Jerry puts on quite a show, especially on Stella and the Baby Blue encore.That second set gets going with a really nice Scarlet> Fire. In the Scarlet, Jerry tears it up as Brent throws in some heady fills. The Looks Like Rain after the Fire takes a moment to get its feet, but once it does, it soars, mainly on the back of Brent’s incredible keys. Terrapin comes next, and it is a doozy, getting into some deep reaches, with Jerry’s guitar and the heavy percussion conjuring the firelight and darkness while Jerry spins the tale for the gathered listeners. Eventually, Terrapin subsumes itself completely within Drums, which itself hits a painful section of incessant cymbals. Though Miracle takes it from there, it is not until the Stella that the boys recapture the feel and power of the pre-Drums portion. Jerry is magical, and Brent provides so many lovely runs on the keys, making for a dramatic and emotional rendering. From there, the boys rock it out the rest of the way with a solid GDTRFB into the only really lackluster tune in the set, Johnny B. Goode. But all is forgiven when the stellar Baby Blue encore unfolds. The previous evening, the Dead had played quite well, though the vocals were not entirely up to snuff. Here, the vocals seem equally poor, plus Bobby is not in top form during most of the first set. Apparently, Bobby was mourning the loss of his beloved dog, Otis, who had passed away earlier that day. You may not have noticed it, but Jerry gives a shoutout to Otis, who must have been a young pup at the time, on the Ripple that made it onto Reckoning. In that case, the version came from the September 26, 1980 show at the Warfield. Otis had run on stage, given a glance around, and then took off backstage again.