September 1973 finds the Grateful Dead in one of the most creatively fertile stretches of their entire career. The band had emerged from the quiet of 1972 with a new lineup — Keith Godchaux had come aboard on keys the previous fall, and his wife Donna Jean had joined as a vocalist shortly after, filling out a sound that was simultaneously more polished and more adventurous than the Pigpen years. Garcia, Weir, Lesh, and the drummers were locked in, and the Dead were touring behind *Wake of the Flood*, their first release on Grateful Dead Records, which would hit shelves just weeks after this show in October. There's an electricity in the fall '73 dates that's hard to fully articulate — the band knew they had something special, and audiences felt it. The Civic Arena in Pittsburgh is a room with some history behind it. The arena's distinctive retractable dome made it a unique architectural landmark in western Pennsylvania, and the Dead played it on a handful of occasions across different eras. Pittsburgh crowds had a reputation for enthusiasm, and the working-class steel city energy translated to some animated evenings with the band. The song we have logged from this night is "Let It Grow," which alone tells you something important about what kind of show this could be.
Introduced in 1973 and appearing on *Wake of the Flood*, "Let It Grow" was brand new at this point — the Dead were still finding its shape, stretching it out, discovering just how high it could climb. The song builds from a gentle, almost pastoral beginning into something genuinely towering, with Weir's rhythm guitar locking into Lesh's bass in ways that could make the room levitate. Early versions carry a freshness and exploratory energy that later performances sometimes traded for polish. Hearing this song in the fall of '73 is like catching a band playing something they're still falling in love with. Whether this recording circulates as a soundboard or audience tape will shape how you experience it — the fall '73 SBDs, when they exist, tend to be warm and present in a way that really captures the ensemble interplay, while audience sources can deliver the room ambience that reminds you this was a living, breathing event. Either way, any fall '73 show with a fresh "Let It Grow" in the database deserves a listen. Press play and hear the band in their prime, delivering new music to a city ready to receive it.