SUNDAY  

Weather: 

Showers of Light Snow, Rain, Light Rain, Fog, Light Blowing Snow 

40H /4L 

Set 1: Cold Rain And Snow, New Minglewood Blues, Dire Wolf, Me And My Uncle > Big River, They Love Each Other, Looks Like Rain, Brown Eyed Women, It’s All Over Now, Jack-A-Roe, Lazy Lightnin’ > Supplication

Set 2: I Need A Miracle > Bertha > Good Lovin’, Stagger Lee, Estimated Prophet > Eyes Of The World > Drums > Iko Iko > The Other One > Black Peter > Around And Around

Today marks the anniversary of one of the last Grateful Dead shows ever to take place in Utica. It comes at a time that’s the end of an era, so to speak, as Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux’s final shows with the band would take place the following month in February before keyboardist Brent Mydland’s tenure began soon after. It’s not a very widely circulated show by any means; the lone audio copy is far from pristine and, supposedly, technical issues plagued the concert that night. It’s the third of four shows that the Dead would play at Utica Memorial Auditorium and one of the final times that fans in New York, and the Northeast for that matter, would be able to see the Godchauxs on stage.

n a fitting nod to the locale and season, the Grateful Dead greet Utica Memorial Auditorium with “Cold Rain And Snow.” The rowdy auditorium crowd eats it up, whistling and clapping endlessly throughout. A couple of crisp runs from Jerry Garcia on guitar give way to some engaged harmonies by song’s end, starting the show off nicely. First set stalwart “New Minglewood Blues” follows with the Utica faithful still very much engaged, taking the collective whistling of approval to another level. “Dire Wolf” does little to temper the audible energy, with Garcia’s signature guitar solo showing plenty of pep in its step. Bob Weir then tags back in on lead vocals for a jazzy “Me And My Uncle” which flows seamlessly into a rather percussive “Big River,” a song pairing that started the previous year and would remain popular for the rest of the Grateful Dead’s career.

The breakneck speed of all the songs after the opener finally comes to a halt with “They Love Each Other,” played very much in its low tempo format, lending itself much better to Donna Jean’s vocal harmonies which are also prominently featured alongside Weir for the emotional “Looks Like Rain” that comes next. A top notch “Brown Eyed Women” with a few more remarkable runs by Garcia up and down the fretboard follows, although it’s marred a little by some audio difficulties on the recording. The first set then begins to wrap up with a cover Bobby Womack’s “It’s All Over Now,” perhaps foreshadowing the upcoming end of an era. It’s a spirited version though, with Garcia and Keith Godchaux on piano trading fills back and forth. After a run through the folksy “Jack-A-Roe,” a regular cover at future Garcia solo gigs, the set comes to a close with another legendary pairing of songs “Lazy Lightning” and “Supplication.” The jam connecting the two is very much energetic, heavily psychedelic and fueled with extensive work on the drums from the Rhythm Devils, a great sign for the second set to come.

After a set break to rehydrate and reenergize, the second part of the show begins with somewhat of a first set feel to it. “I Need A Miracle” has a slightly extended Garcia-driven jam neatly attached to it which builds the platform for a launch into a boisterous “Bertha.” The communal good vibes keep moving along into a customarily raucous cover of “Good Lovin'” with Weir taking his usual liberties with vocals before “Stagger Lee” mellows things out a tad.

Finally, for a show bereft of much deep end improvisation, the next few numbers do their best to make up for it. The composed section of “Estimated Prophet” is played to near perfection, minus some off kilter early Garcia vocals, before later devolving into near silence (with the exception of more whistlers) for a soaring, exploratory jam that literally builds itself from the ground up. As the pace reaches a crescendo, some familiar guitar chords begin to seep through and the Dead are off and running in Utica with a blisteringly quick “Eyes Of The World.” Garcia dazzles once more in the song’s first jam with a jaw-dropping flurry of notes that can’t seemingly be played any faster. The second one is dominated by the rhythm section of bassist Phil Lesh and the drummers so, naturally, this makes its way into the “Drums” portion of the evening, shining the spotlight on Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart for a while.

A rather choppy-starting “Iko Iko” slowly but surely emerges from “Drums” and it’s played at a much slower tempo than it would be in the years to follow, making for an interesting early version. At its conclusion, the familiar noodley opening jam of “The Other One” begins to develop before Lesh’s thunderous opening bass riff confirms it. It’s a short but sweet take that serves as the evening’s last true dip into psychedelia.

Oddly there would be no encore for this show. Instead it wraps up with the lead singers going back and forth one last time. First, Garcia leads the band through a soulful “Black Peter” before Weir does the same for a show-closing cover of Chuck Berry’s “Around And Around” that has both he and Donna Jean trading lyrics back and forth by song’s end.

rateful Dead – Utica Memorial Auditorium – Utica, NY 1/14/79

Set 1: Cold Rain And Snow, New Minglewood Blues, Dire Wolf, Me And My Uncle > Big River, They Love Each Other, Looks Like Rain, Brown Eyed Women, It’s All Over Now, Jack-A-Roe, Lazy Lightnin’ > Supplication

Set 2: I Need A Miracle > Bertha > Good Lovin’, Stagger Lee, Estimated Prophet > Eyes Of The World > Drums > Iko Iko > The Other One > Black Peter > Around And Around

 

Swingin from Bingo

A snowy weekend - we did Philly on Friday and Utica on Sunday - god rest the soul of Peter Cordisco - this was the beginning of his DeadHead trip that would take him to 'frisco - we had done MSG the weekend before - Utica was "intimate" and cozy inside - cold, rain, & snow outside - a wild ride back to binghamton thru the snow - first time I heard iko - no encore ! at this point in my 'head history (7 shows) the only encore I had heard was johnny b goode - wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world 

 

Utica 79 We drove up from Ossining. I remember it being a general admission show and there being a crush at the door, but a deadhead crush, not too harsh. We met a bunch of buddies scattered around upstate at different colleges. This was my second show, the first being a sunny day at Giants Stadium. Quite a change. My chemical makeup that night made it a great show for me. The ride home, with snow flying towards the car was fierce to say the least.

 

Cold Rain And Snow

Drove up that snowy day in a 68 ford van, with Ron Brain the bartnder from Brothers in Willy Park And his dog. we broke down on the thruway on the way home and Ron fixed the van with a paperclip and some duct tape. We Push started it in the snow that night, each of us taking turns hoding the dog to keep warm.The show was electric, i tripping my ass of on blotter. It was the highest I ever was for a show. Great Eyes of the world. Saw Dave goldy there...yea 

 

Cold Cold Cold

A snowy night in lovely Utica - what else needs to be said? The show was OK and my shrooms were better, but the ride home around the Sacandaga Reservior was miserable. No encore and they kicked Keith and Donna out of the band about a week later. They kinda mailed in this show, but who could blame them? The best part was seeing all our crew there........ 

 

This show had a strange vibe

This Sunday show was originally scheduled to be in November, and for me, it was the day before I had to register for second semester at Syracuse. The arena seemed to be empty... I recall walking right up to the stage and watching Jerry and Donna grinning at each other during Cold Rain And Snow... One side note: My friend (Steve Menzer) and I saw Phil Lesh in the back of his limo with the light on, heading to the arena perhaps an hour or so before the show started...On the way back, we saw our friend Steve Miller on the side of the road getting towed out. 

 

Cold Rain and Snow Hitchhiked to this show on one of the coldest days I can remember. Had friends drop me off on the highway the night before. Lost a tent pole, couldn't set up the tent in the woods, froze all night. Spent most of the show with my feel still numb. (But happy!) Big plaque in the foyer of the hall dedicated to Elvis, who died just eight days before he was scheduled to appear there. (Uh... a somewhat dubious honor for the town!) Glen

 

Cold Rain and Snow

Sunday afternoon, cold and rainywinter in New York State. The auditorium was small, one of those WPA hockey arenas that are in every city in the Northeast. It was warm and dry inside, and all my friends were there. We went in the Vegamatic, orange like rust going sixty. The show started slowly. The same songs, the same order. I've heard this before. A first set like all others. Then the warm-up over, they shifted gears picked up the pace and swept us off our feet dancing flying. Now it's time to leave. No more rain, just snow. half a foot and more. We had to push the Vega up a hill around a corner, ice and wind, with a cliff on the side. Just you behind the wheel, three young men, now all pushing fifty, pushing and slipping the wheels spinning time away.