By June of 1980, the Grateful Dead were deep into one of the more underappreciated stretches of their career. The lineup that had carried them through the late seventies — Garcia, Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann, Mickey Hart (who had returned to the drum kit in 1975 after a few years away), and the husband-and-wife team of Keith and Donna Godchaux — had just undergone a significant shift. Keith and Donna departed earlier that year, and Brent Mydland, the Hammond-organ-playing youngster from Walnut Creek, was now firmly embedded as a full member of the band. By the summer of 1980, Brent had shed the new-guy awkwardness and was starting to push the band in interesting ways, his bluesy, gospel-inflected playing adding a harder edge that contrasted beautifully with Garcia's melodic drift. The band was also in an active recording period, with Go to Heaven having arrived in April — their first studio album of the decade — bringing with it the radio-friendly sheen of "Alabama Getaway" and "Feel Like a Stranger," both of which were finding their way into setlists across the country. Folsom Field, the open-air football stadium on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, is the kind of outdoor venue that suits the Dead's sprawling sound. Nestled against the backdrop of the Front Range, with the Flatirons looming to the west, it's a setting that seems to invite the band to stretch out and breathe.
The altitude and the Rocky Mountain air have a way of energizing both the crowd and the performers, and Dead shows in Colorado — whether at Red Rocks or here at Boulder — have a reputation for a particular kind of communal electricity. From what survives in the database, we know that "Jack Straw" was on the menu, and that alone is reason to pay attention. The Weir-Barlow opener is a song that separates great shows from merely good ones — a tight, crackling "Jack Straw" signals that the band came to play. When Garcia and Weir are locked in on those trading vocal lines and the rhythm section is driving it with urgency, it can be one of the most exhilarating two-for-the-road moments in any Dead set. A loose or perfunctory version tells you one thing; a muscular, focused one tells you something else entirely. Audience recordings from this era and this region vary considerably in quality, so your experience may depend on which source you find — but even a mid-grade tape of a good 1980 Colorado show is worth your time. Press play and let the mountains in.