By the winter of 1981, the Grateful Dead were deep into what longtime fans sometimes call the "ๆ ธ" of their early-eighties chapter โ a leaner, harder-driving band finding its footing after the transitional years of the late seventies. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart were all locked in, and the recent addition of Brent Mydland โ who had come aboard in 1979 following Keith Godchaux's departure โ was by now fully integrated into the ensemble. Brent brought a muscular, gospel-inflected Hammond organ presence that thickened the band's texture considerably, and by early 1981 you can hear the confidence of a group that has metabolized its new member. The Dead were touring steadily through the winter and spring of this year, and shows from this period tend to reward close listening for exactly that reason: they're not the exploratory magic of '72 or the crystalline perfection of '77, but they have a focused, no-nonsense drive that can be absolutely thrilling when the band locks in. The Uptown Theater in Chicago is a storied room โ a grand old movie palace that once seated thousands for vaudeville and film, later repurposed as a concert venue. Playing a place like the Uptown carries a certain weight; the acoustics of those old ornate theaters can be either glorious or unpredictable, and the Dead seemed to relish the character of such rooms. Chicago itself has always been strong Dead territory, and a late-February crowd in the Midwest tends to carry the particular enthusiasm of people who came out despite the cold โ which is to say, true believers.
From this show, we have the Drums segment and a rollicking "Around and Around" โ Chuck Berry's chestnut that the Dead had been covering since the early days and never really put down. By 1981, "Around and Around" was a reliable second-set crowd-pleaser, the kind of number that lets Weir cut loose and the whole band stretch into a celebratory chug. It's not a subtle song, and that's exactly the point โ it's pure release, the kind of moment where a room full of people remembers why rock and roll exists. The Drums passage that precedes it here gives you a window into the Hart and Kreutzmann conversation, the rhythmic core of the band doing what they do best before the songs come roaring back. The recording in our database is worth your time โ queue it up, let Drums build its momentum, and ride straight into the Chuck Berry stomp that follows. Sometimes the joy is in the straightforward stuff.