By the summer of 1981, the Grateful Dead had settled into a lineup and a sound that many fans regard as one of the band's most underappreciated stretches. Brent Mydland, now three years into his tenure as keyboardist, had shed whatever awkwardness came with replacing Keith Godchaux and was playing with real authority — his Hammond B3 and synthesizers adding muscle and grit that the band hadn't had since Pigpen's heyday. Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart were a well-oiled machine at this point, moving through the early '80s with a kind of focused energy that gets overshadowed in hindsight by the more celebrated peaks of 1977 or Europe '72, but holds up beautifully on tape. The Dead were deep into their summer touring cycle, playing arenas and civic centers across the country, and the Midwest was a reliable stronghold of devoted, rowdy audiences. The St. Paul Civic Center was exactly that kind of room — a mid-sized arena in the heart of the Twin Cities, comfortable enough for the band to stretch out without losing the crowd, and home to some solid Dead performances over the years. St. Paul and Minneapolis had always been good Dead territory, the kind of city where the local heads showed up ready and the band seemed to feel it.
The Civic Center's acoustics weren't anything legendary, but in a good recording it sounds like a place where music could breathe. From the songs documented in our database, the presence of both Althea and Playing in the Band tells you something about the shape of this show. Althea, one of the finest songs from 1980's Go to Heaven, was a staple of early '80s setlists and a vehicle for Garcia at his most articulate — his guitar work on that song tends to be lyrical and searching, following the song's philosophical text into some genuinely moving places. Playing in the Band, meanwhile, is exactly the kind of open-ended sandbox where the whole band's interplay becomes the point. A stretched Playing is where you get to hear how the 1981 Dead communicated with each other — Brent and Garcia trading ideas, Phil underpinning everything with those searching bass runs, the drummers locked in tight. If a good source exists for this night, it's worth tracking down just to hear how the early '80s Dead sounded in full flight. Pull it up and let it run — you might be surprised how deep it goes.