The Grateful Dead
September 22, 2016 • Martyrs', Chicago, IL
“Some may remember May 8, 1977, as a helluva party. Some may remember it as the time a riot almost broke out on Cornell University’s campus. The world will remember it as the night the Grateful Dead played one of the greatest rock shows of all time.”
So begins a 2015 article in The Ithaca Journal celebrating the legendary night that the best jam band in the world performed for an eager and passionate crowd only to have the music and the energy documented for all time by one of the earliest high-fidelity soundboard recordings made.
Typically, when Great Moments in Vinyl takes the stage, we aim to rekindle the memories of specific studio albums. But for this concert, the band will instead be playing tribute to a bootleg recording hallowed in the Dead canon as one of their best. It's the show reverently referred to by fans as simply “Cornell ’77.”
It was a memorable set, one that showcased music from throughout The Dead’s first decade, from their debut album to their as yet unreleased forthcoming record, Terrapin Station. And as always, as Great Moments in Vinyl brings back the music, the performance will be accompanied by stories about the songs and the legendary musicians who created them.