Sometimes the groove on fire is so good I get chills. This is one like that. You can hear how much the band is enjoying it.

WOW. After two straight play-throughs I have found the words to describe my experience with this show. First, I love the balance they find in Set 2. Beginning somewhere inside of Franklin’s Tower — they unleash some kind of perfect rhythm that just E X P L O D E S. Which is not to say that Set 1 has unlimited power. Reaching heights during “It’s All Over Now.” These matrixes are so much fun to listen along with, because you get these characters jeering for all types of requests. Sugaree, St. Stephen…I’m glad the boys (and Donna) played whatever they wanted. That was the puzzle of the Dead, in my opinion. You got what they wanted. That’s what makes them the best. Following along during the 1977 Spring Tour, the set lists tend to replicate. But, they find ways to make things sound so fresh and Alive. This is a great show. Possibly top 10 from the year. Blows a hole through some of the Summer shows. Call me crazy, but that’s just my opinion. Nothing can touch 1977-06-08/9…so far…

Peace ~ Nick.

Will the culturally "momentary" reference to cokehead Billy Mays be unrecognizable, or impossible to recall by any of us... Not Soon Enough!
And love this show, but the boys are fighting it a bit!

This is such a great show! I saw a negative comment about Keith's playing on Row Jimmy but man, it's some of my favorite stuff. Keith is on point all the way through and Donna kills it!

New heights of intensity keep getting reached! Jerry's playing through Slipknot! is some of the most interesting I've ever heard (especially as that song can bore me at times).

My, my, my.

Can you review reviews? If so, hughmcq gets five star blue ribbon...Jerry fighting with only a six string...!! lol...had this many moons ago on Maxell XLII -- so many good shows (and great sounding shows..thanks Betty amongst others) from 77....this one just adds to the year. Scarlet Fire...just about melted my face off as I was warned it would...

Awesome show for the mid/late 70's Dead. The version of Sugaree and Bertha are hands down some of the best versions I have ever heard. Definitely worth a listen!

When ya get home from the salt mine tonight give 4/23/77 a listen. Stellar show. First set starts off with a nearly 14 minute "Sugaree" and ya think, "Welp, it's nothin' but down hill from here". But au contaire mon frère! That's just them lighting the candle for a liftoff to worlds uncharted! The 1st set culminates with a "Scarlet/Fire" that will just melt your face off like ya just opened the ark of the covenant. However, ( pause for dramatic effect) in the immortal words of the illustrious TV info-mercial Coke head Billy Mays, "BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!" and kids, there certainly is more. Because the second set starts off with everyone's favorite game, "Take a step back". Which in hind sight is good advice from Bobby because that's when this show enters the stratosphere and never looks back. We open with an "Estimated Prophet" that'd knock your aunt Connie's socks off. After that Capt'n trips and the boys rip into a "Bertha" for the ages and just when ya think this can't get any better a "Music Never Stopped" is thrown in the mix for a Blues For Allah exacta that includes a "Help/Slipknot/Franklin" that is proof that Jerry Garcia is from a galaxy far far away and merely visiting this planet to do battle against brain siphoning aliens with nothing more than his trusty six string and his trusty side kicks, The Grateful Dead 💀🌹. At this point, aside from a little lyrical flub by Captain Trips the intergalactic alien slayer everyone is "on eleven". The show really peaks here into a cacophony of kaleidoscopic sensory biscuits for your ears 👂🏻. And there's still four more songs left in this set! Really a show for the ages. Even by 1977 standards, this is a stellar standout! In case ya haven't figured it out, I HIGHLY recommend. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Far be it from me to be an outlier, giving this baby four-plus stars in a plethora of fives. But I don't consider this a blow-out show which a five should represent. It's solid with a nice Sugaree opener, and the second is a lot of fun. But I'm more appreciative of the really good work Mr. Seamons put in that ups this into max category. And Steve Hopkins has to be commended for his audience tape, allowing the crowd ambiance to be fully realized. Both Hunter and Steve's sensitivities tipped the scales.

The critical aspect to this evening's entertainment is a beautifully soft and well balanced board, which is the linchpin to an outstanding matrix. And Hunter mixes the AUD perfectly to give the marriage a wonderful blend. I regularly add reverb to every matrix, further softening the vocals; and this is no exception - happily adding a lot less that normal. But you have to have an outstanding base for additional fudging to do any good. Hunter also did a professional job cleaning up an unfortunate reel flip during Franklin's.

One other reason I'm willing to up this to five stars is that I was able drop R&R and fade in GDTRFB cleanly from an eased-out Franklin's Tower. And OMSN as an oncore (that I also dropped) did not interfere with the nice NFA ending. The fact I was able to to do a straight Franklin's > GDTRFB > NFA as the finale, satiated my ever-insatiable GD jones.

A bunch of us came down from Boston for this show on a Saturday night. We had tickets and waited for a few hours outside. Then Albert saw security guards inside the building coming to some closed doors where no one was waiting, and we rushed up and were among the first to get in. We opted for a block of seats together at about the blueline and a few rows up, and then experienced the best show I ever attended. Incredible energy all night, and the place exploded with Scarlet Begonias. The Goin' Down the Road was one for the ages, especially the way Jerry went into the bass note run out of Round and Round. I'll never forget this one, and the recording does it justice.

I was at this show, and it still remains the favorite of the 70 shows I saw between 1973 -1995. Was only the second night of the tour, general admission, on a rainy cool day. Civic Center was way smaller than most of the other Northeastern 'hockey rink' venues, so it always felt more intimate and with better sound .Attended the show with at least 10 of my friends we grabbed a bunch of seats just off the floor, not too far back on the side. Nice Sugaree to start (they did not open many shows with this!) quite appropriate as we 'had to stand out in the pouring RAIN!)In these 'earlier' years I noticed that the band would feed off the energy of the crowd, and it was clear from the start that this crowd was pumping out lots of energy! Nice Cassidy rocked next, it was clear this was going to be a rocking set. On my copy you can clearly hear someone say "stand up" during Cassidy, to one of the newbies that perhaps thought the crowd would stay seated during the concert! Loser and Ramble on Rose with great vocal intensity from Jerry, being not far from NYC, the 'just like New York City' line gets a big response. Keith's work on the organ is smooth, especially on Row Jimmy. Bobby rocks out again on All Over Now, a new cover song that most of us have not heard the band do. Then out of NOWHERE comes a quick 1-2-3 drum beat, and SCARLET BEGONIAS !! Often I think one can judge the quality of a show not just by the songs that are played, and how well they are played, but WHEN the songs are played! A rousing Scarlet into the first (for many of us) Fire on the Mountain to end the first set- set this crowd 'on fire' and we were pumped up for a great second set.
Which led off with another new song, Estimated, we knew this song would be a 'keeper!' Then we kicked up the tempo again with Bertha (which in my mind became the 'theme' song for this special spring tour), nice vocal harmonies from Donna & Bobby. This up beat tempo 'never stopped' throughout this entire second set, which I never would find duplicated at any other show! Listen to this set and you will agree!! The Music Never Stopped kicked up the energy level again, and the crowd kept the tempo going with energetic clapping, and the band kept it going with Help / Slip/ Franklin's, and even though we did not think we could be any more pumped up, this Franklins Tower totally put us up into a frenzied level that only the GD at their best could do!! Not to be outdone Bobby picked another rocker, Around & Around, followed by GDTRFB, WHICH KICKED OUR BUTTS EVEN MORE and Not Fade Away. A slow Jerry encore? No way, it being Sat. night we rocked out of town with OMSN. Over they years to follow I would see many great shows, but never did I hear the band sustain such energy over the entire evening, especially during the second set.
every spring around this date I play my cassette copy of this in my car, nuthin left to do but smile smile smile.........! Listened to it yesterday to feel the "fire".

Well, I'm definitely not going to spoil the 5-star party here - yep, this thing is the '77 goods. Jerry has some trouble throughout the show remembering the words, but nothing too drastic - the band sounds great and everything's delivered in that colossal-gold sound they perfected about a month or so after this show. This matrix is my preferred source of all those on the archive, despite a bit too much tuning space at times - that NFA clocks in at 11 minutes, not 20 :) :) :)

Dragon w/ matches, indeed! By the end of Franklin's Tower no less than a whole pail of water is called for. Listening with earbuds on my cell phone. What a glorious mix!

This recording is awesome. The only thing I don't understand is at around 8:35 on Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad you can hear the beginning of Cold Rain and Snow and there is pretty significant pause before Not Fade Away starts. Was this just a teaser or was Cold Rain and Snow cut out of the recording? I know Jerry used to tease songs like Dark Star, but I don't know if he did the same thing with this one.

Beautiful sounding matrix. If I could pick a setlist from this era, this is about as close to what I would have handpicked. Great show

my first show

pierpont, umass, green blotter, so fun.

thank you for the mix and memories Hunter.

cook mark

A pleasure to listen to, just the right AUD mixd in for that bit of "live: atmosphere. Thank you. Gman

Pure sugar& spice all of it, ditto to all other posts.Folks it goes sick outrageous at 2/3 thr round
A must hear! we should highlight these amazing songs of the show!!!!!

Rode the rail in front of Jerry :>

and one of my favorite shows.

Oh yeah!

absolutely splendid, inspiring, and deep... lets'go

Starts at amazing, then takes it up a notch. Not just a remarkable performance, but also a tour through highlights of the Dead's songbook. Naughty and nice, tough and sensitive, primal and sophisticated all at the same time; this is the Dead in top form.

It didn't take very long for me to realize the abounding joy I was feeling... life was, and is, beautiful. I realize it fully. I awaken. The true self lives, though does not breathe nor sleep. But I am alive to be a witness to all beauty. So I will write of what I hear... this Grateful Dead concert, and the many ways they convey the beautiful sentiments in each song. Sugaree, quickly enough, brings all those sentiments, and through each song they roll along with all the beautiful meaning. It has brought them 12 years, moving in such way, that their music manifests a single constant which is change. As all the songs beautifully rise out of the years, we all know what is to come without a name for it. So here is 1977, and the very near beginning of another such great year. I can already hear, and feel it, within the bouncing rhythms reaching through my speakers

drums are deff. calling this show

I admit to being a bit of a "soundboard snob" in the past. Only the very highest quality of audience recordings could keep my interest and matrix recordings were just a strange idea. I have since repented of that way of thinking and embraced the matrix thing in a big way. And nobody does the matrix better than Hunter Seamons. As someone else suggested, Hunter Seamons is to the matrix recording what Charlie Miller is to the soundboard. Very high praise indeed! I am on a quest to listen to - and collect - all the matrix jobs that Mr. Seamons has produced. This guy is a true artist and a crack technician.
OK, as you may already know, this is an outrageously great show from a year of proven vintage. The playing quality is off the charts. These April shows have just a little different feel than the June shows of this year, and I'm not sure I am the wordsmith to articulate just HOW it is different. How about this: April is not quite as slick and polished as June, and April's vibe is just a little more laid back and "fun". If you are not yet convinced about the whole matrix thing, just listen to this show, give it a chance. A close listen may just make you a true believer in the whole matrix idea. Many thanks to Hunter Seamons. You, sir, are a genius!

Wow, they all should be like this. I can see it, smell it, practically taste it.

Incredible performance. not necessarily the best of '77 (after all, it was one of the Dead's best years) but certainly one of the best to listen to if you consider mix. GREAT Matrix, really puts you there. Also Keith who was fading out at this stage of his career sounds fantastic, which is refreshing.

Performance: 5
Mix: 5
Overall: 5

This is a must listen for all fans

Another 77 gem. Fantastic versions of the 77 classics performed to perfection. Great sound to boot.

WOW this is beyond amazing sounding! I cannot believe it, truly puts you there! Part of that IS the spatial aspect provided by the AUD source, but just a hint or it is distracting. I had preferred Charlie Miller soundboards to jam to with my electric guitar, but this show may have sold me on the Matrix. Best Ive heard ()which isnt many)

The best projects are done out of love rather than for money...and that is well exemplified here. GOD LOVE YOU!

The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it!

As incredible as this set list looks on paper...
The playing and sound deliver THE GOODS!!!
Truly a miraculous from start to finish.
Bravo Hunter!! Thank you Al Gore.

Trying to go back and fill in the pieces, things I havn't given a real good listen to. This one I don't think I have ever listened to.

High energy. Some songs I think were never as good as some of these 77 versions could be. Cassidy, music, Bertha all were so tight during this year.

Lots of jamming during this show, very creative, Keith is in fine form.

Jerry Flubs lyrics during help on the way but still amazing stuff.

Oh man, this is nuts. Yet another Spring '77 barnstormer. I love(d) it when Jerry would get so excited that it would actually discombobulate his guitar playing (Scarlet -> Fire ... on fire!). THIS is the mix people should be downloading a zillion times, not the other one (okay, so how about both)! One year and about 5 months after this show I would become a freshman at U.Mass. and hitchike down I-91 to Springfield for Dead and Little Feat concerts, and they'd be playing at our Spring Fling Concert with Patty Smith as the opener! If only I'd graduated from high school a year earlier ...

This is an incredible specimen. It's exactly how a matrix should sound. Just enough crowd from the audience source to relive the show scene while complementing a beautiful soundboard. Keith is on fire, just listen to him kick start Estimated with a slide down the keys. Thanks Hunter!

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/4315/gd770423front.jpg

Seamons has done it yet again. Sound on this is fan-freakin-tastic. Perfect balance and clarity. And the show more than lives up to the sound quality. Great, great performances of "standards" as well as some surprises. The Slipknot may be one of my favorites, with Keith doing some really neat stuff on the synth. And the Frank's just blows up, taking the crowd along for a ride into a whirlpool of crazed joy. Oh, yeah, and the NFA is just way too silly. This is some excellent stuff here brought to you in a stunning Matrix. Once again we are in your debt for producing such quality work.